Monday Musings

Ken Hitchcock was recently fired as the head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Last week, he was interviewed by Bob McCown of Prime Time Sports fame, and frankly it was a striking interview. First and foremost, Hitchcock did not speak negatively of the Blue Jackets. He spoke candidly and practically. He understood that his team was underperforming, and that he had to carry that responsibility in the form of losing his job. You could hear how much he cared about the organization. Not only from a coaching perspective - the incredible job that coaching is - helping individuals reach their greatest potential in the context of a team effort, but also that he had been a primary factor in developing this NHL expansion team from the beginning. His vested interest was great. He ended off the interview by suggesting that he would rather participate in this organization in a different capacity than move onto another coaching opportunity.

Having been fired once before myself, it got me to thinking about a few things. So I'll share couple thoughts with you:

1. Have much do you invest in what your job is today? If you cannot give your full passionate investment into what you do, either you are doing the wrong thing or you need a kick in the hiney.

2. No matter the situation, do you finish well? Whether you have been fired from a job (I have) or you are developing a project, whatever, do you finish as strong as you started. Do you move on with grace? Intergrity? Honesty?

3. If you have been fired, and whether or not the organization handled the situation poorly and as good as could be expceted, have you restored the relationship to the point that you could partner again in the future? In other words, do you live trapped by the experience or free from it? Traumatic experiences are the like the tentacles of an octupus. You free yourself of one and there are a bunch more arms sucking you in. Hence a lot of people go with the idea of "coping" (which is a pretty way of saying, "I am 2 seconds away from freaking out"). One by one you've got to work through those puppies to be free.

4. There has got to be a better name than the Columbus Blue Jackets. Like seriously. Alas, if you go back in their history you'll find out that pre-NHL they were call the Columbus Chill. But no, they wanted to change the name because, and I quote "the franchise will be the Blue Jackets, celebrating patriotism, pride and the rich Civil War history in the state of Ohio and, more specifically, the city of Columbus." Aka: we are super proud to have fought our fellow Americans. Gotta be honest, I would have stuck with "chill"

Here's the full Ken Hitchcock interview

And here's the full Columbus Blue Jacket history