Q&A: NFL Personnel Boss Lake Dawson

I had to do this when I Ieft the Seattle Seahawks and took over as the director of pro personnel with the Tennessee Titans [in 2007]. I was coming into a situation in Tennessee where the cohesiveness between the player personnel department and the coaches was not as strong as what we had in Seattle. There wasn’t even a pro personnel department in place. So that afforded me the opportunity to come in and listen to what some of the past issues had been. And Tennessee had some success there. Let’s not forget that they went to the Super Bowl [in 2000]. But it had been a while since they’d had the same success on the field and also in the building in terms of camaraderie between the football operations side and the coaching side – and with the business side as well.

When Mike Reinfeldt [Former Tennessee Titans President] and I came, we sat down with several people from different departments and we talked about some of the past issues. This afforded me the opportunity to gather this information and put into place what was going to be pertinent and helpful to our coaches and everyone who was involved in football operations. We followed up with weekly meetings, with the department heads sitting down to discuss what the issues were in their respective departments (both current and long-term). We wanted to see how it could all mesh and share our ideas together. They were almost like think tanks.

They weren’t very long meetings. There were times when we’d just get together. But this helped me put into place what I wanted to put together in terms of our pro personnel department (and again it also helped that I had a vision). I had a chance to sit down, assess what the issues were, and get into the details. Then, I would sit down with the people who worked there before and figure out what needs were being met and what needs weren’t being met. [In doing so], I could come up with a [player] grading scale and an infrastructure – and I was able to determine the type of people we wanted to bring into the personnel department. It was a great experience for me to go through that. It wasn’t perfect, but it was all about trying to get together with everyone and find out how we could make that department better because we were literally building it from the ground up.

Let me say this too. Another way you show presence is that you have to be willing to be detailed and thorough with whatever you’re bringing to the table. Nobody likes surprises. Nobody likes gaps. When you’re presenting information to your bosses you must be sure the research has all been done. Secondly, you have to be able to paint a vision or picture. People do better when they can see something, the direction where you’re going. The last thing you need to do to sell or influence those people is show how it’ll affect your company – and what the positives and negatives will be.  That’s what I had to do also in terms of working with Mike Reinfeldt and Jeff Fisher [Former head coach of the Tennessee Titans and current head coach of the Los Angeles Rams]. They expected me to be detailed and show them exactly what the vision I had for the pro personnel department was – as well as how that would benefit our organization.

P&Q:  One person rarely makes a decision in the NFL. Take the draft, for example. Coaches share their priorities. Scouts lobby for their favorite players. And ownership is always looking at factors beyond football talent. After graduation, many MBAs head into similar situations, where they have ideas and expertise but not authority. In your experience as both leader and follower, what works in influencing decisions where you don’t have the final say?

LD: I don’t think anything has changed for me. I try to keep those same values of making sure that my work, number one, is taken care of. Like before, in terms of presenting my ideas, I painted a picture of what I really believed in and how I thought it would be beneficial to our organization. I think that you can do it in different ways. When you’re working with people and everyone has an agenda, it’s important to help people remember the big vision of what you’re trying to accomplish.

That becomes even more paramount in the National Football League when you’re losing. For example, look at the New York Giants and the year that they had (6-10 in 2015). But this is the same organization that won two Super Bowls in a five year period (2008 and 2012). We talked earlier about making sure the right people are in the right positions. The Giants organization has great leadership from the owners all the way down. They’re properly aligned with the vision that they want to accomplish. When you’re coming into situation where you’re a young MBA, you have to remind people of the vision and purpose of what you’re trying to accomplish. Sometimes, people can get distracted by the noise in terms of setbacks and losses and think everything should be blown up. In the corporate world, it can be the financials. But let’s remember what we’re trying to accomplish: The details behind it and why. And that can hopefully help you make a decision and have an influence on where the rest of the decision-makers are going to go.

I don’t think the decision-makers, at least the ones I’ve been around, are going to lean one way or another unless all the information is thorough, detailed, and complete. That is an area where you can have the most influence: Making sure your work is done in that fashion. And, like I said before, [influence comes from] painting that picture and getting back to the purpose and vision that the organization and the decision-makers have put into place.

P&Q: As a football executive, you’re squarely in the public eye. That means you get a fair share of criticism (even when your team wins). The NFL is a high pressure business, where one loss can mean the difference between the playoffs or pink slips. How are you able to avoid the doubt or frustration that comes with so-called experts questioning your decisions?

LD: I would be lying to you if I said that you aren’t affected by some of the things you hear or read. Words are very powerful – the power of the pen, basically – especially in this day-and-age where information is so accessible. With the push of a button in the palm of your hand, you can gather information from tweets, blogs and various articles.

I think that my ability to “ignore the noise” started way back when I was in college. That’s been part of the training ground for me in the sense that Lou Holtz [Former head football coach at Notre Dame] taught us early to not read our press clippings. That’s exactly what he’d say. He’d go, “You’re never as good as you think you are and you’re never as bad as you think you are. Somewhere in between, reality falls.” He told us that countless times. And I take that with me. When I’ve had successes and when I’ve had failures as an executive in the National Football League, it helps to surround yourself with the right type of people. Sometimes, there are going to be people even in your own building who don’t believe in the vision you have sometimes. But you have to bring in the right people who fit and will believe in your vision. And the only people who really matter are the people on your team and the people in that organization.

Look at all the great organizations that have played in the National Football League. You think of the San Francisco 49ers in the 80s with Coach Bill Walsh. You can think of Bill Belichick [Head coach of the New England Patriots] right now. Those guys really didn’t care what people thought about the organization other than the brand itself. They were focused on the culture they were creating and the message being pushed out about their organization. In terms of making decisions, the people who were important were the ones inside that team. It almost seemed to be an attitude of ‘us against them’ in my mind and that’s what I was taught.

Philosophically speaking with Coach Holtz, going back to when I was at Notre Dame [1990-1994], there were several times when we were the #1 team in the nation in terms of rankings or Top 5 and that’s what he talked about. He said, “Don’t read your press clippings. You’re never as good as you think you are. You’re never as bad as you think you are. Somewhere in between, reality falls.” To me, that is the best way to live. You’re right: You’re going to get criticized in every decision that you make. It can be a neighbor who’s a dentist who’s never put on a football helmet before or never had anything to do with football operations. Or, it can be someone who’s been in the league who’s being critical. What you have to do is put your vision and plan into place. Communicate that vision continuously throughout your organization. Get the right people into place and move forward and believe in those things because you will have doubters and you will have some setbacks along the way. If you listen to every ounce of noise that’s out there – articles, blogs, and tweets out there – you won’t have any confidence in yourself.