damnedif

As most sports fan know by now, the NFL has suspended the Saints’ coaches. The NFL suspended the head coach, Sean Payton, for a year; Gregg Williams, indefinitely. The NFL has alleged that Williams instituted a scheme whereby players were paid a bounty for making big hits and hurting opposing players. The NFL has alleged that Payton failed to make sure that this was not occurring, after being instructed by the NFL to do so, and that Payton covered up the scheme.

Additionally, the NFL fined the Saints $500,000, and took away their second round draft picks for this year and next year. The actions of these coaches has dealt a great blow to an otherwise successful organization. Loss of leadership. Significant cash. Loss of future talent. Three things near and dear to NFL franchises.

You may think that the lessons do not apply to your business. If you are an accounting firm, for example, your C.P.A.’s are probably not spear-tackling a rival C.P.A. who is in the middle of a compliance audit (if they are, call me; you have other issues).

But I bet that your industry has rules. And although your business probably does not belong to a professional sports league with its own rule, I bet that your business has government watchdogs waiting for you to screw up (this is true for any employer regarding employee issues). The more successful you are, the more the government would love to make an example of you. One rogue employee can get your company in a lot of trouble. I’ve seen it happen time and again to good businesses. You are usually responsible for the actions of your employees, so it’s your job to make sure that they are playing by the rules. Don’t turn a blind eye just because you are getting a small competitive advantage.

And when you find out that your rogue employee is not playing by the rules, don’t cover it up as Peyton allegedly did. As I’ve said before on this blog, cover-ups are almost always worse than the crime. If you have the intestinal fortitude to self-report the wrongdoing of an employee, discipline the employee, and fix the situation, the government zealots will come down a lot less hard on you (this must be done carefully, with legal advice). If you cover up the wrongdoing, they will come down twice as hard, and they will not believe any of your explanations.