A basic leadership model says you delegate and are hands off in Petermen's case because he's an experienced winning coach with an established culture.
That same model says you make sure to be at least consultative with Jimmy because he's a first time head coach and will need the support as he figures out 10,000 other things for the first tim.
The trouble is, Jen is equally not experienced in her position and is incapable of giving that kind of feedback or support to Jimmy.
"Hey Jen, I'm thinking of hiring JonDon what do you think?"
"Sounds like a great idea Jimmy! I'm behind you 100%!"
Sorry @Tequilla but you are way off base on this one and I've been a part of a number of corporate overhauls as a consultant. I get your point about executive level hiring but there's a massive gulf between hiring an outside experienced executive with a proven culture versus promoting someone within an Org as a first tim exec. One needs a cheerleader while the other needs a mentor. This is basic corporate leadership stuff.
I think my perspective is far more aligned with yours than you think … my comments have been twisted a bit here and I’ve probably been a little too focused on certain aspects
I’ve been vocal about the idea that Jen torpedoing the hire after it hit her desk … I think you’d agree that the frequency of that occurring at that level is very very low
You’re exactly right in that Jimmy could have used mentorship from Jen and good management is working through that on the front end and being a resource throughout the process … it’s what any responsible leader does and something that I 1000% endorse. It’s why you have regular meetings discussing all aspects of the organization … nothing should be a surprise
That said, and I will reiterate this, it is rare from my perspective to see an executive bring a hire to their boss and have it rejected. The implications for Jen doing that effectively undercuts her job. From an outside standpoint, I don’t think any of us want Jen (or any AD) making staffing hires for football … besides the fact they are often far from SMEs but it’s also an indication that you clearly have the wrong person in place
We can talk about all the errors that Jen has made as an AD and they are numerous … we can hypothesize the errors she made in shepherding Jimmy through the hiring process as a mentor … all of that is fair criticism. Once the hire gets to her desk though she’s fucked for sure politically if she blocks it … at least if it goes through she has a chance of it working out.
It’s also why these discussions are hard to have on a message board because the true back/forth nature required in this type of conversation really is hard to convey and things spiral
Jen’s a horrendous AD … we should all agree on that
Jen likely could have managed the JonDon hiring process better … can’t imagine too many disagree
The crux is should Jen have torpedoed there JonDon hire … maybe there are different opinions there … to me it’s bad business for her to do that and if she did that she should be torpedoing Jimmy right afterwards … the root cause of all of this isn’t JonDon