What a debacle.
Of course, the whole situation becomes exaggerated when you add in multi-million dollar severance packages, and inflated celebrity egos. But when you look at the situation purely from a management perspective what is to be learned?
Here’s what we know:
- NBC didn’t want O’Brien to leave, so they made a deal with Leno to retain O’Brien
- NBC didn’t want to offend Leno to a point that he might shop his talent elsewhere
- As a result, they shuffled all the deck chairs, and when it was clear it wasn’t working, they again tried to split the difference and come out with a compromise that would placate all concerned. Wrong again.
What Jeff Zucker and the kids at NBC management failed to realize is that sometimes you don’t get to pick a good option. Sometimes, as managers, we are called upon to determine which option sucks the least.
Back in 1993, NBC had a similar management choice to make when replacing Johnny Carson. Their managerial decision making at the time caused them to lose David Letterman to CBS, which likely guided their decisions a decade later. In retrospect, say “no” to O’Brien, and potentially losing him, as they lost Letterman, may very well have been the option that sucked the least.
There are thousands of managers out there right now facing decisions where there may not be a best option. These decisions won’t make the news, and there probably won’t be a $45m severance expense, but making difficult decisions is a burden of leadership.
So do the right thing… if you can’t figure out an option that will work best, determine the one that will suck the least, and get on with it.
Either that, or follow the example of Jimmy Fallon, and just stay quiet and below the radar until the whole thing blows over.