A Woman in Man’s World - Talent Evaluation in the NFL
The NFL playoffs are here and the road to the Super Bowl has begun. On Tuesday at the Predictive Index’s Dream Teams Summit, I had the unique experience of sitting in on an interview with an NFL coach – Katie Sowers – talking about talent evaluation.
Sowers had been an offensive coach working with wide receivers with the San Francisco 49ers for the last four seasons, making news as the second female assistant coach in the NFL and the first female to coach in a Super Bowl.
When asked about talent evaluation of the players she coaches – all effectively world class athletes – she offered two insights that transcend fast dudes that can catch:
1. Be careful about pre-conceived biases from the draft, college careers, former teams, etc.
2. Spend time finding out who they are, how they fit the culture, their skill set, and how they interact with others to get a clear picture and accurate evaluation.
No doubt, the NFL is high stakes and missing on a player and/or the failure to develop a player can have tremendous consequence where everyone is elite and the margin for winning and losing is razor thin. As business leaders, you also know that your environment is high stakes and a lot more is riding on it than your fantasy league. It’s your livelihood and that of everyone you employ.
Almost 10 years ago, I set out on a path to figure out how to get better at talent evaluation, spurred on by a couple of recent high stakes misses. To that point, I’d prided myself in the ability to hire well. Today, even with all we’ve learned, I still see far too many organizations whose reliance is somewhere between tired/traditional processes and gut feel – and further, have not done the hard work of self-reflection to possible areas of bias. This adds fuel to why I love my work with talent optimization and tools like The Predictive Index. Yes, the stakes are high but winning is possible, even predictive for those with the right outlook, disciplines and tools.
In closing the interview, PI CEO Mike Zani asked Sowers what her vision was as she continues to blaze trails for women. Sowers replied that we get to a point that “When a female is hired, it’s not a headline” and kids aren’t asking, “Why is that a big deal?”
Sowers made news again last week, announcing she would not be back with the 49ers next season. In the interview, she had nothing but good things to say about the 49ers and head coach, Kyle Shanahan. We don’t know what’s next for her but the prevailing thought is that she will pursue an expanded coaching role with another team. Let’s hope there are other teams out there like the 49ers who value and practice the very insights Sowers shared this week.