What's Remarkable about the Patriots Selecting Jerod Mayo to Follow Bill Belichick as Head Coach? So Much!!

In Jerod We Trust!

Here's to new beginnings and great potential!

As an executive search professional and a former employment lawyer focused primarily on discrimination and diversity issues - a few thoughts on the exciting news that the New England Patriots may already have their next head coach.

1. Congratulations to an extraordinary choice in Jerod Mayo to be the next Head Coach of the New England Patriots. One big winner here is succession planning. It was already in Mayo’s contract as a coach on the team’s large staff that he was in line for the big job when the time would come. What an extraordinary act of managerial competence to invest in talent, and then reap the benefits for your organization.?

2. That said, even when there is a very strong internal candidate for a leadership role it’s a best practice in many situations to conduct an objective and rigorous search. I’m not saying the Patriots should’ve done that. I’m really speaking to the organizations that most of us work at in the real world. The downside or the flipside of sticking with a succession plan is when you don’t get a chance to test the market and push your internal candidate to demonstrate how she or he competes. But of course the team might never have held onto the talented Mayo if it hadn’t given him the preferential terms that they did. No matter how you slice it – the result here if Mayo is indeed the new head coach is the seamless ascension to the top job by an outstanding talent.

3. The Rooney rule as we knew it, and as it is alluded to in the articles about this and other league hires - is dead.?The NFL’s famous personnel diversity policy essentially said that teams had to formally consider at least one person of color for each senior coaching vacancy. This came up today not because it was relevant to Mayo's getting serious consideration but because it wasn't. The NFL allows a team to bypass the Rooney rule if there is a formal succession plan in place, as there is with the Patriots and Mayo who was already on their coaching staff as a linebackers specialist.

Named for the Pittsburgh team’s owner, a key architect of this Rooney rule concept is my colleague and friend Cyrus Mehri . And he will be the first to say it was a great step forward and it did not achieve the diversity in the ranks of NFL coaches that was imagined. That’s what social scientists who’ve studied it found far beyond football as this buzzy and tangible practice became a favorite, and failed. Unless there are two serious candidates of color or at least candidates who are not white men, researchers found, there is no measurable improvement in the diversity of the hiring that happens. Lots of business leaders have moved on to champion “double Rooney” and it's already anecdotally clear that it makes a difference. I don't know if it has been studied yet. Regardless, there are many other factors that remain unaddressed in "diverse recruiting" that stand in the way of achieving a coaching community that mirrors the diversity of players and fans - or in our more ordinary organizations the diversity of employees and customers - it's hard to point to any one factor. What is not dead is the brilliance of the spirit behind the Rooney Rule which is that in a world of massive, layered, nuanced and intractable barriers for emerging leaders of color, there have to be intentional, informed, intelligent methods of creating equity in the advancement process. Without intentional effort, there is nothing but more of the unacceptable same. Lots of work to be done.

4. In a region marked for its history of racism, Mayo’s hiring as head coach of the Patriots is a big deal. It’s worth noting that in the greater Boston men’s professional sports world, all three non-hockey head coaching roles are now to be held by men of color. If you think that is not a big deal and is sort of inevitable and unremarkable then wow that’s an even bigger victory because it is not historically “normal” around here and represents a major victory for the advocates like Mehri and Rooney rule endorsers, but also C-level and street level Black Lives Matter activists. The talent was always there. The investment in skills development, career advancement opportunities and chances to be considered was not.

5. Onboarding is a serious business and there are many ways to fail as a new hire that appear rapidly in the choices made by the bosses. The Patriots can achieve greatness again in the Mayo era and can get started on that path by setting their new locker room leader up for success. In the typical on-boarding scenario, we emphasize the importance of (1) giving the new leader a kitchen cabinet of support from the organization so there is a safe space to think through some of the initial challenges; (2) making thoughtful introductions of the new leader to key stakeholders; (3) Supporting the new leader with whatever coaching or professional development is appropriate for their continuing growth and (4) building trust by moving carefully and thoughtfully in the early days.

Good luck Patriots and Coach Mayo!

Andy Tarsy is a Managing Director with Koya Partners | Diversified Search Group and a Lecturer at Questrom School of Business, Boston University . His football experience is limited to one season at the Junior Pee Wee level (FB/CB) but he's a big fan.

.

?

?

?