Category Archives: Leadership

Don’t Let the Fools Drag You Down

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I took the title of this post from Detective Harry Bosch in Michael Connolly’s, The Burning Room.

Bosch, one of my favorite fictional detectives, was encouraging his young partner to stay true to her potential and excel despite the pressures she will encounter from other detectives who excel at the “conform, comply, mediocre–don’t rock the boat” culture. Bosch might not be around to support her because he had just been suspended by the bureaucrats who don’t care about people: they care about statistics and going along to get along and they just can’t stand Bosch–I love the guy.

Each of us has fools in our lives determined to drag us down to their particular level of mediocrity. Then they won’t feel uncomfortable seeing in us what they don’t see in themselves because they choose ordinariness over excellence. Bosch spoke in the work context so I will limit my thoughts to my work experience.

I worked at the Star Tribune newspaper in Minneapolis and had many management jobs. The first fool I encountered was the smarmy union steward who, on my first day, taught me how to cheat on my expense account and warned me to not make other union members look bad. I didn’t pay any attention to him and set out to excel. So they sent the President of The Newspaper Guild to talk to me. I ignored him too.

Management had an equal share of fools. There was one exception: I worked for a wise, kind and good man named Charles Freeman. Those seven years were the most creative and productive of my career. Chuck modeled how great leaders become great people first. Chuck died unexpectedly and my life at work changed for the worse.

I worked for a vice president. There was nothing special about him. He didn’t initiate things; he didn’t finish things. He didn’t work hard: He came in late and left early. He nodded and smiled and did what he was told, even if what he was told was stupid. He could be cold and abusive to those below him. But he didn’t realize those things about himself. When he acted, he usually created a problem or blundered, and we cleaned up after him. Like so many executives, he excelled at maneuvering and survival, and I threatened his survival. I had a few unhappy and anxious years before I resigned. I didn’t quit the Star Tribune; I quit my boss and some foolish decisions from the top of the company. When I left, the CEO said my leadership had changed the company forever. Go figure.

I went on to work on my own for 13 years as a consultant. I felt most called to educate leaders about how to lead organizational transformation but I took any jobs that involved people. I met many fools in my work around the country. I met leaders who sabotaged their own managers, who abused employees to preserve their own sick selves, and many who had no concept of what leadership is.

Bad leadership left a vacuum that the disengaged workers of the organizations were happy to fill. The least involved sabotaged company strategies and were often enabled by the silence of good people who felt intimidated.

Those good people were not fools but lacked the courage to stand up to the fools they had as managers, coworkers and union leaders.

Harry Bosch doesn’t allow fools to deter him from his mission to solve murders for those murdered. He thinks for himself. The case drives his actions—not the fools around him who care only about politics, position and posturing.

Aristotle teaches us that being a good person is not mainly about learning moral rules and following them. It is about performing social roles well: being a good parent or teacher or lawyer or friend (New York Times Columnist David Brooks in Why Elders Smile).

Good employee’s value excellence and strive for it regardless of the fools around them and good people stand up to the fools in their lives who try to tear them down.

Losing Our Way

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If our nation is to be changed for the better, ordinary citizens will have to intervene aggressively in their own fate. The tremendous power in the hands of the moneyed interests will not be relinquished voluntarily. Bob Herbert in Losing Our Way

 

I just read Herbert’s painful book about the reality of life in America and her decline. This readable book examines crumbling infrastructure, the willful destruction of the middle class, the corporatization of public education, failed wars in which America met evil with evil and shamed our nation, and the disastrous national and political leadership of incompetence and malfeasance by those trusted to lead our nation. The system has become rigged against everyone but the wealthy.

The stories of real people told in raw detail hurt emotionally and demand that we examine our souls; the factual presentation asks us to think and turn our backs on ignorance.

The two sentences I quoted above tell us what citizens must do if we want to renew our nation and our democracy and restore our values and the American Dream for future generations. If we cannot find the energy to intervene in our own destinies, then we will continue the slow and painful decline and will lose our democracy to those who care only about power and money.

The power of the masses lies in demonstration and voting. As people create a movement for equality leaders will emerge. For leaders, we need heart-felt populists like Elizabeth Warren. People who care about everyday people and the involvement and engagement of all in our collective lives.

These leaders can imagine and can articulate a positive and value-driven vision for the future (not just oppose what is wrong) and have the courage to fight for their vision because those who profit from the status-quo will fight without mercy and they will fight dirty to keep what they have even against national interest.

The economic game is rigged against everyday people. Leaders who want to compromise with extremists (always a lose/win negotiation) and avoid conflict, no matter how decent and well-intentioned they are, are not the right people to lead an economic war. Our leaders need to be spiritual warriors who lead from their hearts and values and can also hold people accountable and balance a budget.

Transformative leaders strive to shape the future and mold our collective destiny in a symbiotic relationship with followers. They do not fight to return to a romanticized past that never really existed.

Robert Greenleaf author of Servant Leadership wrote that the problems in the world are not the evil, immature, neurotic, and the irresponsible. They have always been with us and always will be. The problem, Greenleaf wrote, is not them but the good people—people like you and me—who have fallen asleep.

Anthropologist Margaret Mead wrote: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Historian Howard Zinn: “If there is going to be change, real change, it will have to work its way from the bottom up, from the people themselves. That’s how change happens.”

We are responsible. God will not save us.

A Voice in the Wilderness

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I’d consulted with a major Midwestern power company for a while, when a leader in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (I.B.E.W.) said to me, “You are a voice in the wilderness.”

At the time, I didn’t think of myself as a voice in the wilderness or an advocate for some obscure theory. I focused my work—based on my real-life experiences–and attention on transformation and the leadership necessary to bring forth such difficult change in organizations. There was dire need for such renewal: few organizations achieved excellence and fewer yet could sustain distinction once realized.

I was fresh from my 18 year career at the Star Tribune newspaper where, in my last position, I had led a successful transformational change effort in a large business unit. When we began, I thought of how much I would be able to change the enterprise. But I was probably changed the most. My eyes were opened to the vast untapped human potential available to those who learned to think differently about leading groups of people. I left the company to complete a Ph.D. in leadership and organizational change and to share what I’d learned with leaders.

I tried to teach the leaders of the power company how to free their employee’s potential by inviting workers to get involved and to create conditions where each person could feel valued, involved, and informed—alien ideas in a mechanistic system. I wanted leaders to embrace tough love, lead from their values and humanize the huge enterprise. I believed the leaders would leap at the chance to improve the bottom line in dramatic fashion and reduce the time, energy and vast expense of constant conflict and litigation with the union represented employees.

I was mistaken.

The personal growth the leaders must make to lead such change felt too scary for them. I found the same in other organizations. Leaders wanted change; they didn’t want to do the hard work of change. My personal goal changed from “change the world” to “do what I can.”

I made each job an effort to plant the seeds of organizational enlightenment: those moments of metanoia that changed the inner person. Over 13 years I met a handful of leaders who understood and embraced the insights. But most could not summon or sustain the courage and commitment to undertake their own transformations and to confront angry and painful resistant to deep change.

After 13 years, tired and in need of renewal myself, I retired.

I never thought that calling on people to embrace the humanity of others would be a voice in the wilderness. The wily veteran of the I.B.E.W. was right.

We need many voices with moral courage to call out in the humanistic wastelands of our organizations and institutions.

More so today than ever before.

Moral Courage

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A man wrote me:

The seduction of the hiring process convinced me I had arrived in an organization that would embrace my methods. A place I thought my heart and talents could finally grow and flourish. I offered too much of myself unprotected and was “wacked” into reality.

I watched as the president of the company berated, humiliated, and then fired a good and stable sales representative. He did this in front of all the employees of the company. I sat and squirmed in my seat, metaphorically visualizing the owner shooting a hostage in the head to instill fear and ultimate control over the rest of us. The president noticed my discomfort. He asked, in a threatening manner, if I wanted to stay with the company. I felt compelled to quit on the spot, which I did. I managed to speak my mind a little as I left. I am now home, unemployed and recovering. (I wrote this man’s story in an essay entitled, Bearing Witness).

This story exemplifies moral courage: doing what you believe is right in the face of loss, criticism, rejection, or retaliation.

Over 18 years in many leadership and change agent roles at the Star Tribune newspaper and 13 years as a consultant to leaders of dysfunctional organizations, people tested my commitment to my values many times. The decision to stand up for my values was sometimes painful, and I wrestled with self-doubt at times. But I had vowed to live a value driven life, and I believed in value driven leadership. The values my parents had taught me were deepened and solidified as a young Secret Service agent where I experienced the might of ethics, excellence, and purpose and as a lost soul in a tough alcohol treatment center where I came to believe that my life depended on a value driven life.

I abhor rankism, dishonesty, disrespect, unfairness, mediocrity, and irresponsibility. I value respect, justice, fairness, integrity, excellence, and responsibility. I never thought of myself as having moral courage: I tried to be a good person and leader and fought through my anxiety and fears to do what I believed was right the best way I knew how.

Acting from our values often comes at a cost. I know well the fear of losing a job, and the loss of status and relationships along with humiliation and marginalization. It takes courage to stand alone in danger, to defy the unwritten rules, to illuminate the dark side, and to go against the cultural grain.

Why take the risks of moral courage at all? I do it to support values and to live an honest and authentic life and to do what I can to make the world  healthier and more ethical. And to stand up for those with less power and to go against the villains of our world. I do it so I can like myself. Aristotle said we become brave by doing brave acts. Think of moral courage as a muscle that grows stronger with use.

Robert Greenleaf, author of Servant Leadership, wrote that the problem in the world is not the evil, lazy, crazy, immature, disrespectful, and irresponsible people. They have been with us forever. The problem is the good people who have gone to sleep. We live surrounded by the need for moral courage to stand up to abuse, injustice, dishonesty, willful ignorance, the ism’s of the world, and the lack of compassion.

Moral courage may be the most needed courage in the 21st century and the mark of personal maturity and true leadership.

 

 

 

Abuse: A Symptom of How We Raise Boys

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The Adrian Peterson switching case led to a broad discussion of corporal punishment in America. The Ray Rice case led to greater awareness of domestic abuse. The recent story of hazing and sexual abuse in the locker room of the Sayreville, NJ boy’s high school football team shocked a community and led to the cancellation of the remainder of the season.

A deeper common theme resides below the surface in each of these stories: How we raise boys in America.

Joe Ehrmann, minister and former Baltimore Colts football star wrote, “All these problems I’ve been trying to deal with, they’re not just problems, they’re also symptoms. They’re symptoms of the single biggest failure of our society: We simply don’t do a good enough job of teaching boys how to be men.”

I grew up in the 1950’s and 60’s, a typical middle class American boy: Sports mostly, school less so, buddies, and later girls. I learned from family,coaches, teachers, neighbors, and older boys the rules of masculinity and how to create the false and unhealthy facade Joe Ehrmann wrote about in his book, Inside Out Coaching: Strength, silence, stoicism, and emotional denial and disconnection—warmth withheld, hearts disconnected from heads, and failure not allowed. Terrence Real wrote in How Can I Get Through to You: “I have come to believe that violence is boyhood socialization. Disconnection is masculinity.” Boys who resist the rules of masculinity get belittled, bullied, and beat up.

I began to drink in college and the disease of alcoholism moved fast for me. My dad got me into a tough alcoholic treatment center and saved my life. The counselors broke down my defenses. Staff and patients gave me painful feedback all day, every day, for a month. I explored my values, thought about my purpose in life, and shared my personal inventory with a priest.

I began to learn to be emotionally self-aware, how to experience and understand my feelings, and how to connect with others. I felt the power of love and a sense of community in treatment that I’d never felt before. I wanted to live and to feel alive and left the treatment center scared and committed to a value-driven life. Treatment rescued me from a false self and the unhealthy rules of manhood, and I began the life-long journey to greater authenticity.

I’ve spent the past 40 years on a quest to learn and evolve not as a man but as a human being. On this journey, I’ve wrestled with the beliefs I was taught—mostly subtle and unconscious–about money, career, success, control, conformity, competition, masculinity, and relationships. I realized that most of what I had learned about masculinity and being a man is wrong. Moral courage, excellence, authenticity, human connection, and personal responsibility became important values I strive to live my life by—always imperfectly.

Ehrmann wrote that life is about relationships and purpose. He encourages boys to ask, “What is the core purpose of my life, why am I here?” and to think about the kind of son, brother, husband, father, friend, and neighbor they want to be.

American is in dire need of mature and healthy men who can put violence aside: Men who know what they feel and are able to express their emotions appropriately. We need men of strength—even ruthlessness in honesty and decision-making at times–who can also be caring and compassionate. We need kind and gentle men with empathy who can lead with tough-love  and hold others accountable. We need men of great moral courage who can tell the truth and stand up to the evil and dysfunction around them.

To raise boys differently, we must become aware of the unwritten rules of masculinity and change them and the ways we engage with young boys. Grown men who find the old rules insufficient for a meaningful life must embark on a journey of personal introspection and transformation. Personal evolution to become a more complete human being is difficult. Those who deny the journey as “touchy–feely” are saying, “This stuff scares me.”  Courage is required.

The goal isn’t to turn men into women but for men to become more alive and whole.

 

I recommend: Season of Life by Jeffrey Marx and Inside Out Coaching by Joe Ehrmann.   Visit: CoachforAmerica.com

Trouble in the Secret Service

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This post appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune Sunday Opinion Page on October 12, 2014

Drunken Secret Service operatives bring prostitutes to foreign hotels, fight with them over money, and pass out in the hallways. A man breaches many levels of security and gets into the White House while White House police officers stand by with dogs restrained and guns silent. A man with an automatic weapon fires on the White House. Bullets hit its exterior and supervisors tell officers to stand down because the shots were gangs fighting. An officer disagrees but remains silent, afraid of criticism. A maid discovers the bullet damage days later. Such behaviors and incompetence reflect a complacent and fearful group of agents and officers without leadership and moral courage and an agency in decline that puts the security of the President and others at risk.

I served as a Special Agent in the U.S. Secret Service in the late 1960’s. I felt proud to be an agent and believed in the work I did whether chasing counterfeiters in Chicago or protecting the president in the White House. I stayed in the Secret Service for three years and always felt grateful for the experience of working with proud people who served a noble purpose passionately.

I was young and inexperienced and my time too long ago for me to be able to contrast the Secret Service then with the agency of today.

But I can raise concerns and questions as an organizational and leadership consultant:

I wonder what effect the haphazard creation of the Homeland Security Department had on the identity of the Secret Service and its purpose to protect the president of the United States. Should the Secret Service return to the Treasury Department to regain its focus?

I like to say, “It’s always about leadership.” What went wrong with the leaders of this once revered agency? Once an organization slides into decline, which the Secret Service has, leaders have lost credibility. The director has resigned. The top echelon of the Secret Service also needs to go and those leaders at the Special Agent in Charge level need to be evaluated.

The agency has grown by thousands of employees. Has the quality of special agents and White House police officers declined? What has made them fearful to act? Agents and officers need to trust and have faith in their leaders in order to be bold and aggressive in their actions.

What role does politics play in these humiliating failures? Do political folks in the White House tell the Secret Service when to turn alarms off, leave doors unlocked, and not to release the dogs because an innocent person may be hurt? I led many organizations in my career that were in decline. In each of them, the tail wagged the dog and that had to be turned around before the organization could be renewed.

Does Congress provide quality oversight of Homeland Security and the Secret Service? Does the dysfunction of Congress infect the Secret Service and other agencies?

People in the Secret Service deserve strong, tough-love leadership. The new leader, hopefully from outside the agency, must renew the Secret Service by reinvigorating the noble purpose of the Secret Service, regaining the trust of the agents and officers, and clarifying roles and responsibilities of agents, officers, and White House political staff.

Pride, strong leadership, and moral courage must once again flow through the ranks.

The Short and Violent Life of the Child Eric Dean

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I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere.

Elie Wiesel,  Holocaust Survivor

 

Three-year-old Eric Dean was a quiet kid who craved attention and loved to be held and hugged. A special-education teacher described Eric as a kid who was loving, laughed easily, and wanted to please his teacher.

Eric’s stepmother was slowly killing him.

Eric routinely came to day care with bruises and bite marks on his face. At three, he was already a year behind in speech development. His stepmother grabbed him and yelled at him in front of child-care workers. She demanded that the teachers not show him affection because, she said, he didn’t deserve it. A teacher gave Eric new shoes to replace those so ragged they fell off his feet. Outraged, his stepmother said he couldn’t have them until he was a good boy. A special-education teacher began to work with Eric. When he began to speak, his teacher asked him how the injuries on his body happened and he responded, “Mommy bite.”

Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter Brandon Stahl reported in his stellar special report that by the time Eric died at age four, 15 reports of abuse had been filed on his behalf. Only one report was investigated and that one–of a broken arm–found, wrongly I believe, that no abuse had happened.  Minnesota law requires that abuse reports are given to the police; only one of 15 was.

On February 26, 2013, Eric’s stepmother, Amanda Peltier, “…slapped Eric across the face, bit him and threw him across a room.” Eric screamed and cried, then started to complain that his stomach hurt. He vomited throughout the day. The next day Peltier spanked Eric. His condition continued to deteriorate. He went into shock and became delirious. When he choked on his own vomit, his father finally called 911. He died the next day. A perforation in his small intestine leaked fluid into the space around his organs. Enzymes that digest food digested his body.

Robert Greenleaf, author of the seminal work, Servant Leadership, wrote that the evil, the insane, the irresponsible, and the immature have been with us forever. The real problem is the good people who go to sleep and do not stand up and bear witness for human suffering of every kind.

Eric was allegedly abused by his mother’s boyfriend. He went to live with his father and abusive stepmother.  Day-care workers saw the injuries and reported them to Pope County. One who made several reports gave up after the county discouraged her from making more reports. Pope County failed to notify police as required by law. At one point, the county, instead of finding out what happened, passed the family on to a voluntary program called family assessment. The program–intended to help people become better parents in low risk situations–is now used as a dumping ground for children so that counties don’t have to investigate. In Minnesota that program is now used in more than 70% of the cases.

No one cared enough for this helpless child to save his life. No one in our fragmented world took responsibility. It is not that someone couldn’t save him; no one would save Eric.

The greatest blame lies with Pope County. They are supposed to care: to be educated, informed, and experienced.  I was a trained, experienced, and successful investigator as an agent in the U.S. Secret Service, in the business world, and as a management consultant. I believe that enough evidence was available to find cause to remove this child from his abuser. But they didn’t investigate well or thoroughly. They just didn’t do their job; they shuffled paper. The bottom line: Eric Dean was being murdered on their watch and they should have taken right action and saved his life and they didn’t.

I understand people being scared to act for fear of making a mistake,  fear of someone being mad at them, maybe retaliating against them. I have felt the fear of losing my job for doing something that was right.

But here’s the deal:

Sometimes we have to just listen to our own voice, to take action that we know is right, to go against the grain, the culture, or the demands for conformity. Sometimes we need to find our courage and take bold action until our voice is heard.  If a daycare provider cannot get child protection to act, then join with colleagues and go to the police, the clergy, and to local and state political leaders. Don’t stop until someone with authority helps. If you work in a child protection department that doesn’t do its job become a whistleblower or quit your job and take action. A job with the county isn’t worth more than a child’s life.

Eric’s story cries out for accountability not just for Amanda Peltier who was found guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced to prison for life but also accountability for the Pope County, Minnesota government that systemically failed in its fundamental duty to protect a child.

I suspect there are many abuse cases throughout Minnesota and the United States that are being given the same fast shuffle and that Eric’s circumstances are only the tip of the iceberg of potential tragedies.

I call on Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, a caring man, and our state legislators to get involved, take action, and put an end to malfeasance  by those who are supposed to protect children.

I hope you will too.

 

 

 

 

 

Whining About the Minimum Wage

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I was listening to a bunch of babies cry about the increase in the minimum wage in Minnesota recently. Oh, how awful this little increase is for business owners, blah, blah, blah.

I am happy to pay a tiny bit more for my meal or whatever I buy to pay for the increase. I think the increase in the minimum wages is how all of us who spend money at places that have minimum wage employees help give those employees a little pay raise that people deserve and is sorely needed.

And to the restaurant owner who blasted the increase he had to give to his employees: How do you think those employees feel about you? Do you think they will go the extra mile for you? I don’t think so; I think the next time they see a problem they will look the other way because you insulted their dignity.

If I had a restaurant, I’d pay my employees more than the minimum wage and proclaim that fact to my customers and tell that I do it because I have great employees. And my employees would be great because I would be a good manager. Do you think those workers would go the extra mile for me? I think so and the added motivation they would feel would return more to me than the cost of the pay raise.

I’d like those cry babies to quit being stupid. Use your brain and think a little bit. It is wrong to take advantage of powerless people. Be a creative and value-driven leader and owner. Quit whining and move on. The sky is not falling. If you can’t figure out how to adapt, then you won’t be in business long anyway–minimum wage increase or not.

Centralize or Decentralize Education Reform?

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I read an essay that argued for decentralization of school transformation. Then I read another essay that said the first opinion piece had it all wrong: school reform had to be centralized.

What is needed to reinvent education in America?

A massive number of mature, visionary, enlightened, and tough-love leaders at all levels who can face-down and then engage with politicians, school boards, parent groups, bureaucracies,  powerful unions, ingrained cultures,  along with city, state, and national institutions without losing their vision, values, compassion, and a warrior’s dose of ruthlessness.

Anything less than that will fail to transform anything: efforts will simply recreate the school systems “leaders” say they want to change.

Get the leaders you need and the appropriate ways to organize will emerge.

Good luck with that: abandonment of the old models would be easier.

A time for Accountability in the Hoffner Case

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If people in positions of power can operate in anonymity, hide behind data privacy laws, and can get away with unethical behavior against a high-profile head football coach, then imagine what they get away with every day with everyday employees?

My letter to Minnesota State Senator Terri Bonoff:

May 3, 2014

Dear Senator Bonoff:

Now retired, I spent my career as a Secret Service agent, Star Tribune executive, and self-employed leadership consultant and writer about leadership and organizations. Therefore, I followed the Todd Hoffner case with great interest and deep concern from the beginning (below is a blog piece I published on July 12, 2013 entitled “A Grave Injustice”).

The judge dismissed the criminal charges. The arbitrator evaluated the evidence presented and ruled on Hoffner’s suspension and dismissal. The judge strongly criticized authorities and the arbitrator strongly criticized university decision makers.

You and Representative Pelowski asked for an independent review of the university and the Minnesota Colleges and University system.

The citizens of Minnesota do not need a rehash of the criminal charges or the suspension and discharge of Hoffner and the evidence utilized to justify those actions. Those issues have been decided. Nor is the primary issue the laws, processes, and procedures utilized by the university as stated by university President Davenport. My reaction to his letter requesting an investigation by the legislator is that he is seeking a fig leaf to cover the decisions and actions of people in positions of power and to avoid being responsible and accountable for those actions and decisions.

What is needed, and what I believe you asked for, is a thorough investigation of the thinking, motives, strategies, and decisions of everyone involved in the actions taken against Hoffner including Chancellor Rosenstone who I cannot imagine did not approve the actions taken by university President Davenport.

I wrote in my blog post:

It is never right to punish the victim of injustice for the embarrassment that injustice may cause a big institution.

I believed from the first report that the law enforcement people acted from hysteria. I believed that the university authorities acted from a desire to protect the university from unwanted attention this case brought to it. Instead of standing against the legal system’s hysterical reaction, they blamed the victim, something so common in our society. This was an awful thing to do.

Assigning Hoffner to a non-existent position and sticking him in a storage closet was designed to humiliate and scapegoat him so he would quit. I saw such sinister behavior often in the corporate world and always found it repugnant. When he didn’t quit, they threw everything they could come up with against him hoping it would add up to a defensible justification to fire him. Did this behavior model for students and the citizens of Minnesota the type of management and leadership we expect of highly paid administrators of our state institutions? Did it demonstrate the values of the university and the university system? The arbitrator nicely dissected each issue they came up with.

It is important to expose those involved and to hold them accountable because if people in positions of power can operate in anonymity, hide behind data privacy laws, and can get away with unethical behavior against a high-profile head football coach, then imagine what they get away with every day with everyday employees?

Please keep the focus of this investigation on the actions of people in leadership positions and hold them accountable for the missteps taken, not laws, processes, and procedures.

Sincerely,

Tom Heuerman, Ph.D.

 

Blog post of July 12, 2013:

Todd Hoffner was a good football coach. Only a month earlier, Minnesota State University, Mankato had awarded him a new 4-year contract with a raise of more than 15%.

But on August 17, 2012, his life changed:

Hoffner had turned a malfunctioning cell phone in to the University for repair. On the phone were two short videos of his three young children as they laughed, danced, frolicked, and played in the nude after baths. In post Jerry Sandusky hysteria, university employees turned the phone over to the police.

Hoffner was placed on investigative leave.  Did the University act precipitously or were they prudent to be cautious?

Then bad judgment: a few days later Hoffner was arrested on two felony counts of suspicion of producing and possessing child pornography. Has insanity become normalized, I wondered.

County human-services officials quickly determined that no sexual abuse or maltreatment of Hoffner’s children had occurred. Nothing suspicious was found on his laptop, in his home, or in extensive searches at his earlier places of employment. The County attorney refused to drop the charges.

Last November, Blue Earth County District Judge Krista Jass dismissed the charges against Hoffner for lack of probable cause. She rebuked County prosecutors and her strongly worded order made it clear that the videos were innocent hijinks, not porn.  Thank God for a brave and lucid judge.

Will the community hold the county attorney accountable for the actions that did great harm to a decent family? Remember citizens of Mankato, if you don’t stand up for the victims of power abused, who will stand up for you when you are the victim?

Did the University reinstatement Hoffner as expected?

No, administrators gave Hoffner a 20 day suspension apparently for using his university cell phone for personal use. The length of suspension appears excessive to this veteran of 18 years of labor relations experience.

Administrators then removed Hoffner from his position as coach and reassigned him to a non-job administrative position and stuck him away in a closet. Then they fired him without explanation.

What motivated the actions of University managers?

Did political enemies in the bureaucracy take advantage of the opportunity to get rid of Hoffner ─the successful coach who had just signed a 4-year contract with a big raise?

Or, did the culture of the institution drive decision-making?  Protecting the institution from whatever people or situations are perceived to be threats to the image of the institution often becomes paramount in crisis and doing what is right regardless of politics and institutional embarrassment get lost entirely. Did Hoffner have to go because he brought embarrassment to the University?

It is never right to punish the victim of injustice for the embarrassment that injustice may cause a big institution.

Or, did the University investigation that came about because of false accusations and an unjust arrest lead to the discovery of new information that on its own justified an immediate termination?

We don’t know the answers to these and many other questions because University officials acted in secret behind closed doors and have shared only cold and terse written announcements. No human face speaks for the University, only a lifeless and uncaring bureaucracy.

Hoffner will challenge his firing in arbitration later this summer. If the University comes up with a reason for his discharge aside from the false allegations of peddling porn, it better be a good one. Remember, this is the coach who had just signed a new 4-year contract with a big raise. Any known issues with Hoffner from before that contract was signed are moot after the new contract effectively endorsed Hoffner fully. Will any new issues be legitimate and rise to the level needed to justify his abrupt termination or will they be concocted efforts to justify earlier bad judgments, political assassination, or the dark side of corporate culture?

The community should watch with discerning eyes.