With more than 20 years as an executive in professional sports, Jacksonville Jaguars President Mark Lamping shared some of the leadership skills he has learned throughout his career Monday with Women Business Owners of North Florida.
“If you are going to try to bring about change, what you can’t do is forget about the 90 percent of people who aren’t going to be affected by it,” Lamping told about 60 members of the group at TRIO in the Tinseltown area.
“You may make some personnel changes. You may reorganize some things, which is what we have done at the Jaguars, but the most important thing is to be close with the people whose roles may be changing, maybe their responsibilities are changing. Transparency is really important,” he said.
Lamping was hired Feb. 13 as the first president of the Jaguars since the end of the 1996 season. His career has included positions as a marketing executive with Anheuser-Busch, commissioner of the Continental Basketball Association, 14 seasons as president of Major League Baseball’s St. Louis Cardinals and four years as CEO of New Meadowlands Stadium Co., where he managed MetLife Stadium.
He is one of the few sports executives to have received both Super Bowl (New York Giants, 2012) and World Series (Cardinals, 2006) rings.
He described an experience he had with the Cardinals when he made a statement without realizing how it would affect the organization.
“One of the biggest mistakes I made with the Cardinals, and it was met with rave reviews by the press and the fans — the Cardinals were struggling — and I made the comment saying, ‘I think a lot of complacency has made its way into the organization.’ The press said, ‘You know Mark, you nailed it,’” said Lamping.
“What I didn’t realize at the time is that I was basically sending a message to all of the employees saying, ‘You know what? You are really doing a bad job.’ Without saying that, I said that,” said Lamping.
Another key lesson Lamping has learned is maintaining the morale of the staff.
“For employees to be productive, they have to be happy,” said Lamping.
That doesn’t mean company happy hours every day, Lamping said.
“What it means is there has to be balance. I didn’t know this earlier in my career, but I know it now,” said Lamping.
He acknowledged spending a lot of hours at work earlier in his career and he was appreciative of the support he received from his family.
“Make sure that you take responsibility to create an environment where your employees can have balance,” said Lamping.
Lamping and his wife, Cheryl, have three children — Brian, Lauren and Timothy — and all played soccer when they were growing up.
“I didn’t miss a kid’s soccer game and I had a great boss that allowed me to do that. Balance is really important,” said Lamping.
“If you have employees who are happy, if you have employees that think and believe and know that you care about them as a person and not just as a producer, then you are going to probably have a much more successful business,” said Lamping.
He was asked by a member of WBO about the differences between working in baseball and football.
“Baseball is a slow, steady drumbeat. The highs aren’t too high and the lows aren’t too low because if you win or lose, you’ve probably got a game the next day to get your mind off of the last game,” said Lamping.
Football is different with a 17-game regular season schedule, Lamping said.
“Football is a lot more intense. Because you have a lot fewer games than baseball, losses seem to hang with you forever,” said Lamping.
Lamping is familiar with the New York Jets fan base as past CEO of New Meadowlands Stadium, which managed MetLife Stadium, the home of the Giants and Jets.
He said the Dec. 9 Jets versus Jaguars game is a hot ticket. The game brings Jets quarterback Tim Tebow to town.
Fans heavily but unsuccessfully lobbied the Jaguars to sign Tebow, the former QB at the University of Florida and before that Nease High School.
“It’s the most popular game right now as far as ticket sales go. I didn’t know there were so many Jets fans in Jacksonville,” joked Lamping.
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