Dan Gainor
2008-03-13 08:00:00.0
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BALTIMORE -

One of the wisest movie quotes ever. When tough-guy detective Harry Callahan says something, listen. That’s a lesson for everyone, but few of us apply it to our jobs.

Any doubts, ask Brian Billick. The unlamented former coach of our wonderful Ravens never lacked for ego in his stormy tenure. Though a superior motivator, Billick fell victim to some of those NFL peculiarities such as clock management and figuring out how to run an offense.

Weeks after having been sent to that great waiver wire in the sky, Billick still seems baffled why he lost his job. Hardly a football fan in America is confused, but Billick was “shocked” at the firing. “Don’t know why,” Billick reportedly said.

Before we go further, here’s a reminder. “We have been losing more than winning lately,” owner Steve Bisciotti said during the post-firing news conference. Duh.

Brian, read the Clint quote one more time. The rest of you, learn from his mistakes.

Take nothing away from the man. Billick wasn’t a bad coach. He did win a Super Bowl, and those big, shiny trophies are hard to come by. But he could have been a legend somewhere other than in his own mind. Brian Billick needed to recognize that he is not the best game coach around.

A good manager would have learned this sometime during the Super Bowl season. Even that year, there were signs of the coming offensive impotence. The Ravens couldn’t score touchdowns. Three losses in a row, they couldn’t get past six points.

A wise man might have learned from that and brought in a top offensive mind to balance the team’s epic defense. Billick never let anyone get the job done. And he papered over it like he was trying to hide an ugly paint job.

It’s the same in any business. Smart managers hire even smarter employees. Successful workers try to work with the best people, not be the lone achiever on a team of slackers.

That starts with a fair self-assessment. Take a piece of paper and write down your strengths. That should be easy. We all know what we are good at, don’t we? Be honest. If you are only OK, leave it off. If the list is short, you have some work to do.

Now the hard part, the weaknesses. Again, be honest. Stink at budgeting? Write it down. Gossip too much? Talk even more? Write those down as well. If you are struggling, ask people you trust. Get a fair assessment from your best employees or from your boss.

Next, do something about it. Don’t try to fix everything. Pick one or two off the list and add some tactics to them. Don’t know how to do something? Get a book on it. Screw something up? Be honest about it, apologize and figure out how to do better.

There isn’t a person reading (or writing) this column who can’t do the job better. The biggest limitation we have is admitting it.

Dan Gainor can be seen each week on Thursday afternoons on the new Fox Business Network. He is the T. Boone Pickens fellow at the Media Research Center’s Business & Media Institute, a career journalist and media commentator.

He can be reached at gainorcolumn@gmail.com