Jeff Lurie's Management Style

We all know that the pashas that own NFL teams fancy themselves as brilliant businessmen and organizational management experts. After all, how did they get rich enough to buy a NFL team in the first place. (Let's ignore for now the reality that buying a team is guaranteed way to make millions - literally millions - of dollars that requires absolutely no business acumen (I'm looking at you Jim Irsay).

So it is too with Eagles owner Jeff Lurie who, notwithstanding producing a few movies, more inherited his fortune than making it.

So it was funny to see Lurie's press conference trying to explain why he fired Chip Kelly and what he was looking for in a new head coach (someone with an "open heart" and is liked by Howie Roseman, apparently).

Lurie explained that Kelly was being judged on the totality of his three years as head coach. Left unexplained in Lurie's monologue was why after two years of watching Chip Kelly up close and personal he was so impressed by the Chipper that he promoted him to Head Coach AND GM. And yet, less than a year later from that promotion, Lurie sacked him. 

Contrary to the widely held belief, this is not how things are done in business and certainly not in high function organizations. So Lurie never counseled Chip over the course of the year about his aloofness? Never suggested he work on his interpersonal skills? You simply don't promote a high-ranking executive and then summarily fire him. I'm not sure Lurie is self-aware enough to understand how poorly this reflects on him and not Chipper. If he had issues with Kelly, and with two years left on his contract, why not require him to take some proactive steps (sensitivity training?) to address his deficiencies rather than severing him completely?

Coincidentally, Harvard Business Review has a new article out about "Letting Good People Go When It's Time." It's something Jeff Lurie should look at.