As a fan of the three major American sports (football, basketball, baseball) I find that I sincerely enjoy reading blogs and personal opinion about those sports. Whether I agree or disagree with the opinions that are presented within those pieces of writing, it always provides me with some entertainment and something to consider. For instance, on the Truehoop Network (ESPN.com site) they had an article about how bad the Lakers are in crunch time. Namely, how bad Kobe Bryant is during the ending moments of a game. It was a very interesting read, and something that I am sure will be debated around the internets.
My question is, should a GM be reading all of these things? Let’s take the Washington Wizards for instance. They have a very talented young man on their team named Andray Blatche. He is 6’10”, can shoot and pass, can run the floor, basically has all of the makings of a very good power forward. He does seem to have a bit of a reputation for underwhelming everyone who watches him play. He is constantly ridiculed on Twitter and various sporting blogs for being a knucklehead/player who will never make a good teammate or live up to his potential. (For example: last week, Andray Blatche tweeted ((paraphrase)) that his team didn’t win because he was not posting up/getting the ball in the post enough. The internet thoroughly ridiculed him, and he tried to smooth it over the next day)
If I was the GM of the Washington Wizards, should I be on the internet trolling for these things? Would I want to know that everyone thinks the player that I paid so much money for is a goofball? Would this adversely affect the way I interacted with this player and treated him? I am no sure. The GM will obviously get reports from coaches and other people within the organization about players, but those could be rose-colored as well, giving a different kind of false or biased opinion.
Personally, as an educator, I can definitely get pre-conceived notions about a student because of the stories I hear from other teachers. I do not let that student show their character to me, I think that I already know their character. In my experience, I am way nicer than a lot of other teachers, so I don’t think kids are as bad) An opinion that is formed from an outside perspective is almost never totally right, and it can have a bad effect on the classroom, or in our case, the locker room.
I suppose that is the questions for you readers: As a person in a position of power, should you read outside perspectives on your employees, or should you form your own opinions based on what you hear from people inside the company?
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