Michael Perlman sees a lot of similarities between being a football coach and a CEO.
“I’ve always assumed a head football coach would probably make a great CEO because you have to get everybody fighting together toward the same common goal,” says Perlman, president and CEO at BrandsMart USA, a $1 billion electronics retailer with 2,500 employees. “If they are fighting each other, you have a problem.”
In football, it’s common for a strong offensive team to blame a porous defense for not holding a lead or for a stellar defense to get frustrated with a futile offense that can’t score any points. In the business world, the ideas of teamwork and camaraderie are just as essential to success.
Your job is to remind everyone that it takes all their contributions to make the company succeed and then prove it to them. The challenge is in establishing that proof and selling them on their value to the company.
Perlman looks to his leaders to convey the knowledge he has provided them to their direct reports. The process then continues on down the line until everyone has received it.
“If you do that, you wind up with an organization where everybody thinks alike,” Perlman says. “An organization of like-minded people will always win.”
It’s similar to the way that a veteran player on a football team will take a young rookie under his wing and show him the ropes.
It’s not that you’re looking to create a group of clones that are similar to you in every way. The intent is to encourage ingenuity while moving forward together toward a common goal.
“Like-minded people believe in the same goals, but aren’t necessarily structured by the same methods of getting there,” Perlman says.
Here’s how Perlman has developed a group of employees that can put their own unique skills to use toward the common goal of helping BrandsMart USA serve its customers.
