Pete Carroll, the recently departed coach of the New England Patriots, was precisely in this situation as he took over as team Head Coach in 1997 from his predecessor, Bill Parcells. As an executive or manager coming into or inheriting an existing organization, you can learn from not repeating the grave leadership mistake that Carroll made as he took over the team.

By learning from Carroll and following some better leadership approaches, you could be saved declining team performance, as the Patriots experienced for three years, as well as the pain, disgrace and firing that Carroll went through.

Pete Carroll would have fared much better with his failed Patriot team coaching position if he understood the principles of "Situational Team Leadership," a simple and well-documented leadership theory.

As sports observers tell us, Carroll’s predecessor, Bill Parcells, is a highly "directive" (or autocratic) leader/coach. Parcells basically tell players that "it’s my way or the high way."

Situational Team Leadership explains that the right team leadership style needs to match the given team situation. According to this theory, Parcells’ directive style is a good way to lead when team members are less experienced (less self-managed), both individually and as a team — which they certainly were in the Parcells coaching years. Parcells understood that it’s important to get a young pro team in sync early, and he was good at doing that with his directive style.

When Parcells left the Patriots, Carroll came into this situation trying to be the "supportive" (or more democratic) leader (a.k.a., "nice guy coach"). This approach is at the other end of the spectrum of leadership styles. Situational Team Leadership states that one should not go directly from a directive to supportive style of leadership with the same team situation; otherwise there can be serious problems. This sudden "loosening of the reins" on players, before they are mentally ready to be more self-managed individuals and team players, wreaks havoc with the team — just as it did with the Patriots over Carroll’s reign as coach.

Carroll, it seems, made a false assumption that the individual Patriot players were all sufficiently capable team players; thus they only needed quiet ideas and suggestions, not strong challenges and direction, from him. Towards the end of his 3-year reign, Carroll tried to be tougher, but it’s hard to go back to a directive style after being supportive for so long. People (both players and media observers) start wondering where you are coming from; why you are now tightening the reigns when before they were loose in similar situations.

Carroll would have done better by coming into the 1997 Patriot situation, at the beginning of his head coaching career, and and taking a page out of Parcell’s leadership style playbook. Subsequently, as players came to respect his mental toughness and know that he meant business, Carol could have gradually reduced the need too be directive and simultaneously increased the amount of support he offered.

Situational Team Leadership suggests that as team members become more self-managing, both in individual positions and as a team, they gradually need less direction and more support from their leader. Loosening the leadership reigns gradually allows players to come into their own as they build teamwork competencies over time, otherwise they stay forever dependent upon the leader.

Thus, to help teams develop effectively, a team coach or leader must learn to meet their team where they are, providing a full range of leadership styles (from directive to supportive, and what’s in between) in order to help the team become fully capable and more self-reliant. Clearly, being only comfortable as the supportive leader, Pete Carroll came in standing on the wrong foot and then walked away three years later wondering what went wrong.

So as a company executive or manager, learning to be flexible in your leadership style, and applying the right style to the team situation you are faced with, is paramount in being a capable team, department or company leader. This bit of advice could save you from being forced out when your team doesn’t perform, and then personally wondering what happened and why.


Harvy Simkovits, CMC, President of Business Wisdom, works with owner managed companies to help them grow, prosper and continue on by offering innovative approaches to business development, company management, organization leadership and learning, and management education. He can be reached at 781-862-3983 or .