Creating a culture of fear The Phoenix Suns' lesson on how NOT to lead
The context: This week the NBA suspended Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver for one year and fined him $10 million for conduct that "clearly violated workplace standards."
In June 2022, before the investigation was finalized, 15-year Suns employee, Melissa Fender Panagiotakopoulos, sent a resignation email to members of the team's ownership group.
Panagiotakopoulos alleged"she became the target of bullying and retaliation by superiors after raising concerns about gender equity and misconduct within the organization." (source: ESPN.com)
The team issued a statement to ESPN following Panagiotakopoulos' resignation, noting that "the Phoenix Suns are committed to creating a safe, respectful, and inclusive work environment free of discrimination and harassment."
What we can learn: A lack of psychological safety can be as bad - or arguably even worse - than a lack of physical safety at work.
Sarver's leadership style poisoned the entire organization, so much so that even people at the highest levels were scared to come forward despite knowing the extent of what was happening.
Pregnant women were humiliated, the N-word was used repeatedly and bullying ran rampant.
Even after Panagiotakopoulos to wrote her email leaders still tried to deflect the accusations while people continued to be harmed.
My take: None of this happens if Sarver makes the environment psychologically safe. Instead he lost $10 million and, if the pressure keeps mounting, is most likely out as owner.
The irony of all of this is that creating a psychologically safe culture would have cost Sarver close to nothing; now he might lose everything.
The Suns would have had bigger profits via less employee turnover, fewer lawsuits to content with and higher productivity.
The team issued a statement last week noting that "at the direction of senior leadership we have strengthened our culture" and are "focused on creating a workplace where everyone feels included and valued."
Sound familiar? A lot can change in three months; too bad it took 18 years to get here.
The BIG Takeaway: Don't wait for a crisis to focus on psychological safety
What will you do TODAY to help ensure all employees feel included and valued?
📢 Thingsyou can do with others:
Work withyour team or other colleagues to dig deeper into our topics using our simple conversation prompts. Instead of a book club I like to think of this as our "movie-or-TV club."
This week's prompts: 1. What can we learn from this situation with the Phoenix Suns? 2. What are the moral and ethical responsibilities of a leader? 3. How do we prevent this type of situation from happening in our company/on our team?
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