Show Nobody loves TO 10 like like TO 10 loves TWO TO 1 I. I I 1 t t s e e n 11 11 II 1 y i- i ii i h e Sally Jenkins The Washington Post Terrell Owens is plainly a nar nar- He cant can't even apologize to the Philadelphia Eagles without talking about himself The Eagles dont don't buy his apology and have concluded that he should play football football football foot foot- ball somewhere else Better yet maybe he should be self- self employed r- r rd oye d i 1 A X ir I t J Mir Narcissism is not ot ott ota a crime If If that's Owens Owens' worst offense why are the Eagles dealing so harshly with him Owens and his agent Drew seem baffled that the Eagles are unforgiving They have filed a union grievance and protest that he has not been arrested he doesn't have a rap sheet nor has he broken any rules But that's how fed up the Eagles are with Owens Owens they'd they'd apparently sooner keep a felon Until Owens understands that narcissism is possibly possibly possibly pos pos- sibly as damaging to a team as criminal behavior hell he'll be a detriment detriment detriment detri detri- ment to any organization he plays for The Eagles are perfectly right to get rid of Owens as any expert in workplace dynamics knows Hes useless to them said Richard Boyatzis an author for the Harvard Business School Press and a former CEO who is professor sor of organizational behavior at Case Western Reserve University Its It's tempting to look at Owens' Owens receiving statistics and rippling physique at his talent energy and abilities and say that surely the 44 44 44 4 4 Eagles are better off with him than without him But that would be to underestimate the problem that is Terrell Owens Hes not really a great player Boyatzis said Hes technically proficient But great players can play with others Owens cant can't get along with anybody And while that may not be a contractual violation or a aI crime its it's intolerable Terms like chemistry and the saying There is no I T in team are idiotically vague bromides But Owens' Owens unbalanced ego has a very specific and diagnosable effect on ont others Narcissistic behavior in the workplace has been studied before and its it's often discussed in terms o of f malignancy for a good reason because it has a tendency to infect t entire buildings Management te t experts and prosecutors alike have havee e theorized that corporate narcissism m was at least partly responsible forthe for forthe r the abuses at Tyco an any andy and d l What happened between Owens s and the Eagles was so utterly predictable pre pre- said Prof David Carter executive director of USes USe's Sports l Business Institute What happens with a lot of athletes is they become the most profile high-profile employee in the organization and theres there's a sliding scale of tolerance where the coaches or the managers give those athletes just like star sales people just enough rope to hang themselves And by the time they've hung themselves they've really gone a long way to impacting impacting impacting impact impact- ing the morale of the rest of the organization and done a fine job of contaminating t m n ting the C c ip y- y rn the marketplace When is a team great Why do some product development teams come up with fantastic ideas while others bicker and waste millions of dollars Some nurse doctor-nurse teams work especially well in operating rooms and others dont What's the difference Research is very clear that great teams are a function of harmony Boyatzis discusses it in terms of resonance and dissonance An easy example is an orchestra The members have an overall positive tone a sense of efficacy and are attuned to each other This gives them not just resonance but resilience They have the ability to adapt and rebound Resonance isas is isas isas as much an atmosphere as anything anything anything any any- thing and it feeds on itself This degree of resonance happens at all different levels and the least degree is conscious Boyatzis said A lot of it is unconscious For instance it has been found that on really effective teams in an operating room doctors and nurses nurses nurses nurs nurs- es tend to fall into similar pulse rates But when you have a dissonant player They actually spread toxicity toxicity toxicity tox- tox Boyatzis said The most basic effect of that is discord and the more subtle effect is a loss of resiliency Organizations dont don't adapt or rebound but deteriorate If you think about it as a body when your stomach decides to go goon goon goon on holiday and act differently you feel ill and other parts of the body are set off Owens is not solely to blame for forthe forthe forthe the Eagles' Eagles deterioration from a Super Bowl team to there 4 are other factors such as injuries to quarterback Donovan McNabb But Owens certainly is responsible for a general malaise Owens doesn't seem to grasp the concept of resonance unless it hasto has to do with the sound of his own voice Nor has he shown he can sublimate himself to the team more than temporarily He was divisive in San Francisco where he undermined his coach Steve Mariucci and slurred his quarterback quarterback quarterback quarter quarter- back Jeff Garcia In just a year with the Eagles he has divided them too He has been malicious about McNabb carped about his lavish contract and reportedly engaged in a locker room fistfight Owens may mayor or may not have the full-blown full personality disorder known as narcissism but that's not the point You dont don't have to be a clinical case to inflict narcissistic behaviors on workers co-workers an unrealistic unrealistic unrealistic sense of self importance an insatiable need for admiration and anda a lack c of f regard 1 d fore the feelings feeling ort or needs heeds of of otlie others s A football team is intensely of its it's really more an organism than an organization Owens' Owens brand of narcissistic behavior is perhaps especially virulent virulent virulent vir vir- vir- vir in that framework According to Sam author of Malignant Self Love Love- Narcissism Revisited narcissists are disruptive on several levels They are unable to abide criticism they work autonomously refuse to succumb to guidelines And they provoke intense emotional reactions counter-reactions from colleagues They mentally monopolize he said No doubt that will sound familiar to the Eagles In opinion true narcissists narcissists narcissists narcis narcis- are basically unemployable able That's why many of them are self-employed self or work themselves into situations where they are sole decision You see a lot of them he remarks in politics But you see a lot of them in the and all pro leagues too more more the time The NFL is an increasingly increasingly increasingly narcissistic system constructed constructed constructed con con- for the entertainment of a narcissistic society in which notoriety notoriety noto noto- notoriety is preferable to obscurity What's interesting about Owens is that there may be more like him coming because he is what the thel l league ague is breeding After all all the Eagles signed him and paid him richly knowing how he behaved in San Francisco Another team will willbe be Sig although per per- perhaps haps not for quite as much money In In sports the scale of tolerance depends on how badly you need to fill fin a gap in the lineup Carter said The pity of it is that Owens hasso has hasso hasso so much potential potential he he has abundant abundant abundant dant ambition and dynamism if if only he could be cured of self- self absorption have learned to alter their behaviors over time according to Boyatzis but it requires willingness and a good human resources department And NFL teams are more focused on term short-term performance than long- long term personal improvement The problem is they're not really in the business of that kind of coaching coaching coaching coach coach- ing Boyatzis said The next NFL team that signs Owens should realize its it's going to have to invest more in him than just a paycheck |