Humility
During his time with the Colts, Irsay has had ample opportunity to learn not just from executives in the organization but from other owners around the league. But no matter what executives pick up as they travel up the corporate ladder, Irsay says there are certain innate qualities of leadership that can’t be learned.
“It’s something that you’re born with,” he says. “As we’re searching for a new commissioner now, these questions of what you look for do come up. Intelligence and experience, combined with humility, can equal wisdom. The key ingredient is humility. The greatest leaders are the ones that are vulnerable, the ones that are humble.”
Leaders must take their egos out of the equation.
“It’s amazing what you can accomplish when it doesn’t matter who gets the credit. Humility is not thinking less of oneself; it’s thinking about oneself less. People are very intuitive. They’re very tuned in to who the boss is more than you can possibly know. Whatever your true colors are, they’re going to come out.”
Irsay looks at it as a servant leadership approach. He cites outgoing NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue as an example.
“His interest was always in the interest of the game and of the owners and not his agenda,” Irsay says. “Leaders must remember that they are trusted servants.”
Many executives make the mistake of confusing leadership with domination.
“I don’t believe in that,” Irsay says. “You’re serving others with your skills and your leadership, and you can’t forget that.”
Part of that is remembering that employees are more than their jobs.
“I’m a very spiritual person, and that’s the most honorable aspect of human interaction,” Irsay says. “It’s important to me to know if someone’s father or mother is ill, or if there is an issue with the child of one of our children’s families or any of those things. It’s a family-type atmosphere that I like to have.
“This is a second-generation family business. It’s a company I own 100 percent of and is private. It’s very important to me that people feel that spirit of family in our organization.”
Besides succeeding on the field, the team that was valued at $227 million in 1998, a year after Irsay took over, was valued at $715 million last year, according to Forbes magazine.
As a child and a young man, Irsay learned his leadership lessons by watching and listening to others. Even now, he is still one of the younger owners in the league and is at a stage where he can provide a new generation of owners with some advice.
“Elder statesmen in the world of business and life are extremely important,” he says. “When you’re younger, you don’t understand that as much. You don’t realize what that experience means. You’re as smart — maybe smarter — you have a lot of energy, but you just don’t realize what the experience factor does mean.”
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