‘Tebowisms’ for Successful Business

Published on:
Monday, March 26, 2012
Written by:
Laurie Kulikowski

For many, NFL quarterback Tim Tebow can do no wrong. Even if he doesn’t connect on a pass, he does it with heart and business analysts are drawing parallels between Tebow’s leadership on the field and what makes companies successful. Three things that make Tebow a winning leader are his approachability, his ability to maintain poise even when challenged, and his willingness to remain accountable. These qualities make it easy for Tebow’s teammates and supervisors to trust him, and experts believe this is what every business owner should strive to establish with his or her employees and colleagues. For more on this continue reading the following article from TheStreet.

When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet all the way.

Tim Tebow isn’t officially a New York Jet as this goes online, due to some quirk in his contract that required the Denver Broncos to hold onto him until late Saturday afternoon. But it’s safe to say Tebowmania is coming to the Empire State.

It’s also safe to say the New York City media is going to have a field day with the rookie quarterback. Tebow will have to stick to his values if he is going to gain accolades from this town. But with so much talk of Tebow this year, are there lessons to be learned from Tebow’s time as the Broncos quarterback?

For the latest in our series on leadership, here are three lessons from Tebow:

1. Being approachable means being transparent.
Timothy Tolan, senior partner at Sanford Rose Associates says Tebow’s approachability, despite him being such a high-profile player, only means good things for him, for several reasons.

It means Tebow is open to learning approaches and strategies to make himself a better player. While so many other NFL players let their egos get in the way, “I get the sense that he is a guy that wants to learn and grow. He is very moldable,” Tolan says.

A good business leader should be open to ideas and methods that ultimately gets the business to its goal.

Secondly, employees need to understand the motivations of their leader. “It’s really important to be pretty transparent and let people know about the information — the good, the bad, the ugly,” Tolan says. “People really appreciate leaders that are transparent.”

2. Maintain poise and perseverance, even in the face of adversity.
Being a business owner means you must run your company and lead your employees in good times and bad. Losing your cool when a major issue arises will not instill confidence in your subordinates. If you keep your head on straight, you’re also less likely to make decisions based on emotions and more likely to think pragmatically.

“Sometimes you have to stick to your guns,” says Mike Starich, president of Orion International, the largest military recruiter in the U.S.

“Let’s say a leader comes up with a strategy and he has to sell it to the investors. He’s going to face some tough questions and so he has to be able to — especially coming out of this last recession, a lot of companies changed strategy to be able to handle that criticism of a company doing poorly — defend what your current strategy is. It takes a lot of perseverance and poise,” he says.

“In these press conferences, [Tebow is] always very upbeat, very poised, even in tough questions,” Starich says. “He’s eternally optimistic, even when things are looking down.”

3. Authenticity and accountability go a long way for a small firm.
Lesson No. 3 goes back to transparency, but it’s important for such people as leaders, owners and CEOs to take responsibility for their actions not only when the result is positive, but when a problem occurs.

There were countless times during the NFL season Tebow essentially screwed up. But he never pointed fingers, and he took responsibility for his actions. That’s commendable in any situation, says Craig Libis, CEO of Executive Recruiting Consultants.

“He always tries to deflect anything that is good coming to him. He’s works very hard to deflect that to his teammates. I think that is very worthy. It shows a certainly amount of humility. It’s very evident that he is a strong team player,” Libis says.

That authenticity is key in gaining trust, Libis says.

“I don’t know the inner workings of Tim Tebow and what he does outside football, but all the stories you hear, you truly believe this guy is authentic and there aren’t skeletons in his closet,” he says.

“As someone who is leading a group of people, any CEO or business leader can talk a good game, but how do you live it? We need to have more accountability in corporate America,” Libis adds. “If you’re leading here in the office, what are you doing outside the office” that can affect that?

Move over Linsanity, we’ve got Timsanity coming to town.

This article was republished from TheStreet.