We were watching the Arizona Cardinals play the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday afternoon, and it couldn’t escape us that the 49ers really beat themselves by a large number of personnel infractions against the Cardinals.
Do your employees beat themselves by making silly mistakes?
We’re as fond as anyone else of sports analogies, and we hope it’s not too much of a stretch, but Jim Harbaugh, the coach of the 49ers, really needed to discipline his players when they made stupid mistakes. It being football, yelling on the sidelines might not have been a bad idea, while the player’s sub is playing a few downs.
Harbaugh isn’t known for being a low-key guy, so we’re mystified why he didn’t exert more discipline on the players.
We’re also not sure that Bruce Ariens, the coach of the Cardinals, being a crafty old gent, might not have told his team before the meeting that the 49ers could be provoked into silly penalties.
There comes a point when stupid mistakes just can’t be tolerated, and the 49ers clearly went past that point.
So, the point for you employers out there is how many mistakes do you tolerate from your employees before you pull them aside for a bit of education? Let’s hope they’re more willing to accept education than some of the 49er players.