In the first post Urban Meyer, Trevor Lawrence, the Jaguars, and Resilience, Jaguars Head Coach Urban Meyer’s resilience was examined, but it wasn’t only his resilience. I also examined Jaguars Quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s and the Jaguars as an organization, led and personified by Owner Shad Khan. The backdrop for examining their resilience – the ability to respond triumphantly to adversity – was their winless season to that point (0-4) and if they would succeed in turning the team around. A very significant part of their success as defined by Urban Meyer, is his assertion that the Jaguars organizational culture must be changed as well. As stated, that is a significantly greater goal.
As some in the media and social media clearly wanted Urban Meyer fired for a host of reasons, it’s fair to say that no one anticipated the next shoe to drop. Meyer, the head coach and leader of the team, the culture changer, chose not to fly back to Jacksonville with the team after another tough loss in Cincinnati, and was filmed partying with a woman not his wife. He deeply hurt himself, his family, and the Jaguars organization. After the video was posted on social media for all the world to see, Meyer apologized. Even his apology, and the way he did it, was dissected and debated for days. In the aftermath, as the calls for his firing grew into an inferno, Shad Khan issued a statement that he was not going to fire Meyer, but that he had to earn back his and the Jaguars trust. To say that Urban Meyer handed his critics more ammunition to use against him and the Jaguars organization would be an understatement. They were given something more like a machinegun.
Although Coach Meyer’s personal, moral, and team failure doesn’t appear to be connected to the resilience examined in the first post, I believe it is. In that light the following observations are offered:
Personal conduct and resilience have a direct impact on organizational culture and resilience. It is often said, such as in the wake of a politician’s personal failure, that personal conduct has no impact on public performance. History, I believe, reveals otherwise. For example, U.S. presidents that had significant personal failings saw their administrations directly deteriorated. President Lincoln, on the other hand, was able to guide the nation through the catastrophe of the Civil War due to the strong personal resilience he gained through a lifetime of adversity.
Resilience is a learned behavior. Although personality probably has some role in it, a person’s resilience is also a learned behavior in response to adversity. It is learned from parents, grandparents, and other role models as the way to react to tough circumstances. It is no accident that “The Greatest Generation” that survived the Great Depression and World War II responded the way they did. The Great Depression well prepared that generation destined to fight the Second World War.
Personal resilience is greatly strengthened by the group’s resilience. Like observation #2, people can feed off the resilience they see in others around them. In interviews of those Londoners who survived The Blitz – the horrific Nazi Luftwaffe bombing campaign against the civilian population of London – it is reported that although every day Londoners were completely exhausted from digging out collapsed buildings looking for survivors buried alive, they didn’t stop digging simply because everyone they saw around them kept digging.
Regarding Urban Meyer, Trevor Lawrence, the Jaguars, and Resilience specifically, the linkage of a chosen moral failure to true adversity and resilience may be questioned. The two are linked in the sense that however the adversity arrives, Coach Meyer, Trevor Lawrence, and the Jaguars still have choices to make. There are different kinds of adversity. Urban Meyer apologized and chose not to resign. Trevor Lawrence, when asked by the media about Meyer, clearly supported him by stating ‘He’s still my Head Coach.’ The team didn’t quit on him. And, of course, Owner Shad Khan could’ve easily fired him but didn’t.
Ironically, in the aftermath of all the adversity and controversy they suffered through, Meyer, Lawrence, and the Jaguars won their first game of the season in London on a literally last-second field goal. Perhaps their common adversity and chosen resilience has produced the turnaround for which they have been desperately searching from the beginning?