Be a coach (Lasso), not a boss (Queeg)? Your choice … your risk

Editor’s note: Billy Warden is a writer, marketing exec and multimedia producer based in the Research Triangle, where he co-founded the p.r. agency GBW Strategies. He writes a column exclusively for WRAL TechWire. His posts appear on Mondays.

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RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – They are some of the skeeviest, most cringe-inducing villains in movies and television. Not the orcs of “Lord of the Rings” infamy. Not the cosmic creeps who slayed a good portion of The Avengers.

No, we’re talking here about bosses. managers. supervisors. The suits who tell us when to jump, how high and what jig to do next.

“You only have to go to Michael Scott (of “The Office”) to see how bosses are usually portrayed,” James Avery, CEO of software company Kevel, recently observed in a chat about his pop culture passions. “They’re either bumbling or tyrannical.”

Photo courtesy of Billy Warden

And their reign of terror isn’t limited to the office. Hollywood has unleashed all manner of bad bosses:

At sea – Captain Queeg clings obsessively to random rules in “The Caine Mutiny.”
In space – The Emperor gleefully manipulates impressionable Jedi knights in the Star Wars saga.
In Middle Earth – The wizard Saruman of the aforementioned “Lord of the Rings” condescends to underlings, then betrays them to get ahead. (Spoiler: things don’t end well for him).
Throughout cartoon land – Mr. Slate lords his status over Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble; Mr. Burns treats Homer Simpson the same while also plotting world domination.

Onscreen bosses embody our frustrations with dehumanizing hierarchies, Byzantine rule books and nattering office politics. They stand in for all the roadblocks we encounter en route to getting what we want and being who we want to be.

And yet, not all screen versions of authority figures are designed to gnaw our nerves. While we love to hate the common boss, we flat out adore … THE COACH.

What’s the difference? And how can you be more coach than boss? Of course, coaches are team oriented. That’s kind of a job requirement.

Here’s at least part of the deeper playbook:

Coaches are substantive

In Hollywood depictions, Avery observes, “coaches have to put together a ragtag group of people – each of which are talented in their own way – and get the job done.”

To do that, they dig deep into each player’s motivations, and then create a shared team culture. This is taxing work, far removed from the glib ‘do this/do that’ surface engagement of many movie bosses.

Coaches like Herman Boone of “Remember the Titans” aren’t transactional. They establish a relationship. They develop a view of their players’ lives, hopes, needs, dreams – not just how they allocate their time 9 to 5.

Coaches are present

And ‘substantive’ doesn’t always mean the big, dramatic stuff. One of the funniest and most revealing coach moments in movie-dom comes in “Bull Durham,” when Coach Hockett takes the field to check on a pitcher’s conference. After being brought up to speed on the ridiculous array of issues, he nods earnestly and offers advice on the final item: choosing a wedding gift. That done, the team gets back to work.

The coach is present. Though not able to address all the issues (one of which involves decapitating a rooster), he’s in the moment, not reading off a script of admonishments and deadlines.

Coaches share credit

Coaches don’t put the word “I’ in their vocabulary game plan much. They share credit because, heck, they really don’t have much of a choice. Everyone sees a player achieve.

Now, who knows what goes on between the coach and the staffers we don’t see much onscreen – like assistant coaches. Nonetheless, it’s a hallmark of sports movies that the coach – unlike a scheming boss – never steals the player’s thunder.

Coaches are straight-talking believers

As his all time champ pop culture coach, Avery picks Eric Taylor of “Friday Night Lights,” known for his motto, “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.”

These words become less of a catchphrase and more of a challenge in Taylor’s steely-eyed locker room talks with the team. He’s direct and uncompromising about the expectations the team should have of each other. Nothing like the often passive-aggressive song-and-dance for which movie and TV bosses are known.

Perhaps the most quotable encapsulation of the empathy and esprit de corps generated by a good coach comes from the sainted Ted Lasso: “If you care about someone and you’ve got a little love in your heart, there ain’t nothing you can’t get through together.”