I'll admit it--I've had one of those days that punctuate my motto--"Taking multiple pucks in the head is great training for this line of work." I'm an ex-goalie. I say that because, if you give me a quarter, I'll let you put your hand on my right knee, and when I straighten my leg, you can feel the bone scraping against bone--I have no cartilage left in my that knee.
In some ways, though, once you're a goalie, you never stop being one.
My last game involved dislocating my kneecap--twice--and then tearing the MCL and ACL, spraining my hamstring, and powdering the cartilage behind the kneecap. Undaunted, I waited until the swelling gave me enough "stability" to finish the game, changed into streetwear, walked up the stairs, drove home, and then announced to Chuq that I couldn't put weight on my knee.
That tells you a lot about how to deal with me....
Anyway, while I was decompressing, I remembered an article I use every time one of the professional HR types asks me what I'm like. The article is titled The Vision Trap, and even though it was written in 1992, it's just as good reading today. The author, Gerard H. Langeler, talks about how he worked Mentor Graphics to the top, and then "Visioned" the place into a everything for everybody corporation--which then failed rather dramatically.
One of the aspects he writes about is how he played goal for Cornell (which, produced Ken Dryden and Brian Hayward, which isn't too shabby), and how the goalie personality led him to some, let's say, less than optimal decisions.
There were two beliefs involved--that you have to play a shutout every game, and if you don't, you're a failure. Okay, so let's look at the NHL--if a goalie has ten shutouts
in a season, they're considered pretty exceptional. More than that, and they start whispering "Tony Esposito" and "modern day record". A first string goalie will play 60-70 games in a season.
So, if you're really, really good, you'll have one game in six that's a shutout. In addition, you'd be an first team all-star if you had a goals against average of 2.00. Do the math--that means that even though you have those ten shutouts, you'll also have a number of games where you'll have three goals scored on you--or more! Maybe your team will score more and you'll get the win, but it's not a shutout. And if you've bought into the "if it's not a shutout, I'm scum", you've just eaten away another layer of stomach lining.
Now add to that the "high need for stimulation" (as my cogsci prof would say), and you've got a nasty little dance of continually going for the bigger win, while taking every setback as a personal failure. As Chuq used to say about the close-ups of IHL and NHL goalies in action "are they grinning or grimacing?"--Both!
In addition, the stereotype of the goalie as a quiet loner is just that--your goalie is just as likely to be the most gregarious one on the bunch. But you are likely to find out that your goalie can out-stubborn a cat.
So, in Mentor Graphics' case, the inner goalie "visioned" the company for a ride that had immense highs (have to toast those neurons!), but couldn't be sustained.
Is the goalie personality always a bad thing? Heck no! If you're able to keep both behaviours off the ends of the bell curve you have someone who can keep you on the leading edge while taking personal responsibility seriously.
For the goalie themself? It's knowing where you are, and being aware of the direction you're headed.
Posted by lsefton at October 7, 2003 09:51 PM