Last week I spoke for a group of college students in a management course. Corresponding with a chapter of the text currently being studied in class, the subject of my remarks was,  “You Get Paid to Think.”  

As a contemporary template for encouraging the class to do exactly that, I challenged them to assume the position of the San Francisco 49’ers head football coach, team CEO, and NFL commissioner at the precise moment in the 2016 season when the team’s quarterback, Colin Kaepernick first chose to sit rather than stand for the singing of the National Anthem. Despite a somewhat nervous look from the professor when I lit this candle, the students took the challenge in stride and put forth a variety of fairly thoughtful options ranging from talk, make that listen to the player (AFTER the game) to discussing with the team potentially more effective and less incendiary ways of making the point.

The most impressive part of their response was that no one argued for doing what the team, and subsequently the league have essentially done over the last year… nothing. As a result of this inaction, the demonstrations have spread to other teams, sports, venues, causes, a good portion of the league’s fan base is inflamed, @VP saw fit to fly 3200 miles round trip this past weekend purely to do his own demonstration, and you-know-who is practically wetting his pants.

Borrowing a lesson learned thirty years ago from FedEx founder, Fred Smith, we then discussed the fact that leaders don’t just get paid to think, we also get paid to decide, and we must bear in mind that the failure to decide is in itself a decision, and quite often the wrong one. All in, it was a great experience and, as usual, I probably learned more than the students did. (Thanks, Dr. T)

One thing I would ask you, our readers, many of whom hold pretty senior leadership positions to do is to encourage your teammates to thoughtfully react to episodes like this in a timely manner, pursue a reasonable decision process, and, in a work environment already too beset by fear, to pull the trigger, knowing that if they’ve done all those things, you will support them regardless of the outcome.