Player-Coach Concept in Sports
Evan opened by discussing Pete Rose, who was the last player-coach in major American sports from 1984 to 1986 with the Cincinnati Reds. He noted that:
There have been no player-coaches in professional sports in the last 40 years
The last player-coach in the NBA was over 50 years ago
There has never been a player-coach in the modern era of football or hockey
Most player-coaches in professional sports were failures in terms of winning percentage
Virtually all player-coaches had sub-.500 records and short-lived dual careers
Evan explained several reasons why the dual role is problematic:
Knowing how to do something doesn't make you good at coaching it
It's nearly impossible to both play and coach simultaneously and be successful at either
People generally become mediocre at both roles at best
The issue is fundamentally about focus and priorities
The two skill sets don't mix well
Evan then connected this concept to business settings:
While professional sports has abandoned the player-coach model, the business world hasn't figured this out yet
Many job descriptions use terms like "hybrid role" or "hands-on manager" which are essentially player-coach positions
Companies often try to save money by having one person handle both technical and management responsibilities
Leadership often underestimates the difficulty of balancing technical work with management duties
Career progression often leads to this problem when technical experts are promoted to management but still expected to maintain their technical duties
Evan shared some concerning statistics:
Nearly 20 million employees leave companies each year due to having a "bad manager"
Conservative estimates put replacement costs for these employees at upwards of $500 billion annually
Evan offered several recommendations to address these issues:
Completely eliminate hybrid player-coach roles as they hurt both the manager's growth and the development of people working under them
Evaluate and determine effective managers through anonymous surveys and 360 reviews conducted by third-party organizations
Organize departments so dedicated managers have one job - managing people - rather than being "manager project managers" or "manager programmers"
Continuously solicit feedback and respond to it, creating an environment where employees feel they can be heard safely
Avoid protecting managers who "get stuff done" but destroy long-term culture, including bullies and micromanagers
Evan concluded by drawing a parallel to Pete Rose's gambling troubles during his player-coach tenure, suggesting that creating player-coach job descriptions is a gamble that rarely pays off and generally hurts organizations in ways they may not fully understand.
