You don't have to be a hockey fan to take away some learning moments from the recent history of the Vancouver Canucks. While expensive leadership seminars often feature Olympic gold medallists and professional athletes who have reached the pinnacle of their sports either as an individual or as a team, there is even more to be learned from teams like the Canucks that have all of the ingredients for success but seem to put the whole package together.
While hockey is about skating, shots, saves and goals, teams are made up of individuals and the chemistry (or lack thereof) between players and coaches can separate great teams from good ones. Every manager of people, from the supervisor on the factory floor to the CEO in the high-rise corner office, knows that the talent and commitment of individual workers, combined with the culture of the workplace, largely defines the success or failure of the team.
From that perspective, the Vancouver Canucks are no different from any other business. Like the Canucks, businesses are measured quantitatively - revenues and profits, the wins and losses against opponents.
The sports networks have yet to figure out that retired players and well-spoken watchers aren't necessarily the best people to comment about how a team is faring. How refreshing would it be to tune in and hear from a workplace management and coaching expert on what's going on with a team like the Canucks.
It's not for lack of talent that the Canucks have failed to win a Stanley Cup in the last 10 or so years.
In the last seven seasons, the Canucks have had two of the league's scoring leaders in Henrik and Daniel Sedin, one of the best goaltenders in the league, a solid defensive corps and an admirable supporting cast, all led by an experienced award-winning coach in Alain Vigneault.
In the seven seasons before that, the Canucks also had two of the leagure's scoring leaders in Todd Bertuzzi and Markus Naslund, some decent if not spectacular goaltending, a strong group on defence and some nice support in the Sedin twins, all led by a proven winner in Stanley Cup champion Marc Crawford.
Crawford and Vigneault are the two longest-serving and winningest coaches in team history. Crawford lasted seven seasons and it's likely, barring some miraculous comeback against the San Jose Sharks this week, that Vigneault's tenure behind the Canucks bench will also end at seven seasons.
People who don't understand the delicate art of people management (and it is an art far more than a science) like using the cliche that "you can't fire the players so you fire the coach." There is a kernel of truth in that line but not much more. A professional coach, just like any workplace leader, is part babysitter, part psychologist, part cheerleader, part nag and part bully. Workers and athletes respond differently, depending on whether the boss is a hard-assed, take-no-prisoners micromanager or a calm and relaxed confidence booster.
In hockey, the coach largely creates the culture, with help from the general manager who chooses which players inhabit the dressing room. Under Crawford, it was all about offence and scoring goals. Under Vigneault, the Canucks have favoured a balanced attack with the mentality that a strong defence makes for a good offence.
But a coach can only give the same inspirational speech, the same calm and encouraging pep talk, can only kick the garbage can in frustration, can only humiliate and berate the star player, so many times before the message gets ignored.
Vigneault has "lost the room" as coach watchers like to say - the players hear him talking but they aren't listening because they've heard it all before.
That's why everybody does great when there's a new boss and a new coach in town for the first little while. It's the honeymoon period and there's a new culture and a new message. Everybody gets excited and gets on board.
But eventually the message gets old and, especially under the high-pressure microscope of professional sports, it's time to make a change, not because the coach or the general manager are bad at their jobs but because the team won't win for them anymore.
Vigneault has been a great coach for the Canucks -- getting the team to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final is a victory in itself -- but his time with this team is over, regardless of what happens tonight.
