If a self-serving leader walked into your organization, what types of things would he or she say? This person would be focused on their happiness, their agenda, and the price they are paying. And if a self-serving leader does not get their way, if they are not happy, and if they are not the focus of everyone’s attention, they will quit. They will take their ball and go home.
On Tuesday, April 9th Magic Johnson shocked the sports world by abruptly resigning as president of basketball operations of the Los Angeles Lakers. Magic dropped this bombshell through the media without notifying anyone in the Lakers organization including his boss and “sister”, team owner Jeanie Buss.
There is a way to resign a job and doing it through a pre-game impromptu press conference outside the locker room with no notice is not the way.
Here’s what bothered me the most – Magic Johnson quit on the night of Dirk Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade’s final home games of their illustrious career. He stole all their national spotlight. On a night we should have been honoring two all-time greats, all we could talk about was Magic. Magic could have just as easily resigned the following day but he didn’t. He cared about his agenda and happiness more than the good of the game.
This brings me to today. The Los Angeles Lakers were scheduled to announce their new head coach Frank Vogel this afternoon. However, Magic chose THIS day to go on ESPN’s First Take and explain his resignation and feelings towards the current Lakers organization. Obviously, the story was not the hiring of a new coach. The story was not the team’s new vision or direction. The story was not Vogel’s accomplishments. The story, once again, was Magic Johnson.
Once again, he put his agenda above the agenda of the Los Angeles Lakers. The following were some of the quotes from the interview:
- “I started hearing ‘Magic, you’re not working hard enough.”
- “I had to monitor the brothers, Joe and Jesse (Buss)… They felt they should have been in powerful positions.”
- “I don’t have the power I thought I had to make decisions.”
- “When it’s not fun for me, when I think I don’t have the decision-making power I thought I had, I’ve got to step aside.”
- “I wasn’t having fun coming to work anymore.”
- “I made that decision based on me and my happiness.”
- “I could have made the decision a different way but I made the decision my way.”
- “There’s only so much I’m gonna take and deal with.”
- “I gave up weekends with my wife. Sunday I couldn’t take her to the movies anymore.”
Do those comments sound like a leader? Do those comments sound like someone you want running a multi-billion dollar corporation? Do those comments like a leader who is bought-in and setting the example of everyone else in the organization? Do those comments sound like a servant leader or a self-serving leader focused on their own happiness? Do those comments sound like someone putting the good of the team above his own personal good.
Quite the contrary. Those comments sound like someone not willing to pay the price for success. Those comments sounds like someone who if they do not get their way or they are not having “fun”, they are going to quit on his “sister” and team. Those comments sound like they are coming from a leader who is solely focused on his own happiness and agenda. Those comments sound like someone not focused on the team.
Leaders are not self-centered. A leader knows it is not about their fun, or their happiness, or how they make decisions. Leadership is about others. Leadership is about everyone else. Leadership is about their agenda, not yours.
Sadly, this is a clinic on what poor leadership looks like.
Bill Simmons summed it up best with the following tweets:
Last summer after LeBron agreed and Paul George fell through — Magic signed Lance, Rondo, KCP and Javale, let Lopez and Randle go, then he went to Europe for FIVE WEEKS. Now he’s mad that Pelinka questioned his work ethic. I love this story so much.
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) May 20, 2019
It’s hard to believe that Magic, while running other businesses and being “in and out” of running the Lakers, couldn’t fend off the 4 other people who were lobbying the overmatched Lakers owner for more power.pic.twitter.com/zwOi4ZQLL7
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) May 20, 2019
Magic actually said on First Take that this Lakers job was a big commitment and he even gave up going to the movies on Sunday nights for it. This is incredible TV.
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) May 20, 2019
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