What Pro Football Can Teach Us About Succession Planning

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What’s pro football got to do with talent management?

• Where else can you watch office politics and ego play out in the public square? Every press conference and every locker room interview are another chance for your talent, ownership, or senior executive to stick their foot in their mouths.
• Where else can you so accurately quantify competency? You’ve got an automatic performance review in every Monday edition of the sports section.
• Where else do you get such radical transparency about comp and benefits?
• Where else can you watch how competency (past results) and potential (a collective best guess at future performance) mix to impact the war for talent?
• Where else is succession planning for key roles so critical? 

Consider this example: We got a big dose of all this magic when the Oakland Raiders (4-2) picked up a pseudo-retired Carson Palmer from the Cincinnati Bengals this week. Here’s the Cliff’s Notes version (or read the full story here):

1. Oakland Raiders’ quarterback, Jason Campbell injured his collarbone this past weekend.
2. The Raiders—at four wins, two losses, and desperate to win—didn’t like their succession options: Kyle Boller (who hasn’t started a game since 2009) or rookie Terrelle Pryor. Despite Boller’s $1.25 million annual salary and Pryor’s $375,000, Raiders coach Hue Jackson stated publicly, “If you’re a quarterback out there and want to come play for the Raiders, give us a call.” Ahem… very subtle, coach.
3. The Raiders decided to pursue Carson Palmer, the 2002 Heisman winner who at the time was AWOL from the Cincinnati Bengals. (Palmer had demanded a trade this past offseason, but the Bengals declined. Demonstrating questionable maturity, Palmer decided he’d just as soon not show up as play for the Bengals despite an ongoing, lucrative contract.)
4. The day of the trade deadline, the Bengals agreed to trade Palmer. In return for Palmer, the Raiders gave Cincinnati their 2012 first round pick AND their 2013 first or second round pick, contingent upon Palmer’s performance.

In other words, the Oakland Raiders paid a VERY hefty price tag for a semi-retired, former-standout with dubious performance over the past few years. Note that, prior to this trade, Oakland had already given away their 2012 second, third, and fourth round draft picks. (Yes, you read that right: The Raiders will not have ANY picks in the first four rounds of the 2012 draft.)

Why? A lack of planning.

In the NFL, is there any position as critical, or as injury-prone, as the quarterback? No. There was really no good excuse for going into, “If you’re a quarterback, call us…” mode the day after the Raiders’ quarterback went down. Every NFL team should have a quarterback successor waiting in the wings.

Granted, we cannot read the future. Maybe this will go down as the shrewdest move in sports history. But I doubt it. Even if the Raiders go on to win the Super Bowl (fat chance), they’ve mortgaged their future to do so.

What talent management lessons can we learn from this theater of the absurd?

• If you don’t have a succession plan in place for your key players, consider fixing that situation ASAP.
• If you choose to ignore succession planning, expect to overpay when your quarterback goes down.

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