Allow me to introduce myself. I am Mary Corrado, and for the last 12 years I have been president and CEO of the American Society of Employers or ASE. ASE is a membership organization with 850+ member firms (nearly all of them in Michigan, despite our name). We directly service Human Resource departments, but the ultimate focus of our work is people, or “talent” to use today’s term of choice. But not just the people who work in those HR departments; we are really about the people those HR departments serve. If we do our job well, HR departments do their job well; when they do their job well, the people they serve do their jobs well, and those firms thrive.

I’m also a sports fan. And as a lifelong Michigander it’s the local sports teams that own my loyalty (along with a fair percentage of my income in game tickets, team paraphernalia, etc., but that’s another blog post).

As a local sports fan I can’t watch the latest in the ongoing saga of our forlorn Detroit Lions without comparing it to the glorious seven-year (so far) run of the Michigan State Spartans under coach Mark Dantonio. And when I do, my thoughts turn to the issue of talent and how leaders have to coach it.

First of all--and you may disagree with me on this—I am firmly convinced that coaching professional athletes is no different from coaching amateur athletes, and for that matter no different from “coaching” workers in an organization. It is all the same. True, professional athletes work for individual contracts (and workers work for salaries) while amateur athletes, even at the highest levels, do not. But coaches in all three domains have the same job. Yes, they need to teach the x’s and o’s, but in the end they succeed only to the extent they can get each one of their charges to forget about themselves and commit to something greater than themselves instead.

You may argue that that job is easier for a coach like Dantonio because his athletes are unpaid (grant me that point for the sake of the argument, please!), but I would disagree with you on that one. Elite athletes have egos that can get pretty big even if they don’t get a paycheck; if they’re good enough to play at a place like Michigan State, it usually means they have been told from the day they scored their first touchdown in Pop Warner that they were stars. By the time they get to college they thoroughly believe it even if they never make it onto the field during an actual game.

The challenge for the coach of professional talent—on the football field or in the office or on the plant floor—is to get the individual to forget about the contract (or the salary) and focus on the team. Of course that is hugely challenging at the professional level; but, obviously, some coaches succeed at it while some do not (poor Jim Schwartz!). What the best ones seem to be able to do is to get through to their charges exactly what they expect and do not expect from them at all times in order to serve the needs of the team, and then, somehow, make it stick.

But they do not have to be “screamers” to make that happen; yes, Vince Lombardi and Mike Ditka from the old days were powerful personalities and legendary coaches, and so are Bill Parcells and Bill Cowher more recently. But I don’t buy it that you have to be a screamer; if you do, how do you account for the laconic Bill Belichick, the avuncular Tony Dungy, or now the stolid Mike Dantonio—all highly successful coaches with the championship rings to prove it?

As this post goes to press, the Lions’ front office has convinced Jim Caldwell, the former offensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens that he can, once and for all, turn around that dysfunctional, star-crossed franchise. Caldwell’s reputation suggests he is the quieter type, more like a Belichick or a Dantonio. But do not make the mistake of thinking he will succeed or not based on how loud or quiet he is; what he will have to accomplish will only show itself on the field, after he has accomplished it—or not.

And by the way—Go Blue!