by Gael O’Brien
Today’s Super Bowl clash between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles will be the capstone of an exciting 2025 National Football League playoff series that was loaded with incredible talent, strategies and tactics.
One unexpected highlight of those playoffs was the performance of The Washington Commanders, a team that finished the season with twelve wins and five losses and came within a step of going to the Super Bowl themselves. That was a remarkable turnaround from their prior season. “It was a special season,” said Commander guard Nick Allegretti. “I appreciate the whole organization for what they put in to change this place.”
The owners of the Commanders, who bought the team in 2023, recognized how critically important organizational culture is to success in the NFL. Their successful path to cultural change has been well documented and offers important lessons for boards of directors and senior management of many big companies facing similar challenges.
Being ‘in it together’
Many CEOs have said they’ll focus on company culture in 2025. An informal Inc. magazine poll of 2,000 respondents indicated 52 percent of business leaders have company culture on the top of their list for 2025. The real impact will be if they are able to be visible, ongoing champions in the process.
Several years ago, the Senior Vice President at my then-company asked a colleague and me to work on improving the company’s culture. We involved outside experts as well as company departments, held employee meetings, listened, learned and asked employees to identify the values most needed. While several changes improved the culture, not having leaders’ involvement meant less progress. We weren’t all in it together.
Being “in it together” enables companies, and organizations like the Commanders, and others to flourish when there is a powerful culture commitment shared by leaders and employees. There is no “together” when organizations have decreasing engagement and increasing job detachment. Gallup’s recent research alerts us to these challenges.
Gallup’s findings on employee engagement
Gallup defines employee engagement as the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in their work and workplace. Engagement that’s been low is now lower: only 31percent of employees were engaged and 17 percent were actively disengaged. Gallup identified three most significant engagement elements that employees needed: knowing one’s work expectations, knowing someone cares, and knowing one’s growth is encouraged. Gallup found that:
- Only 46 percent of employees “clearly know what is expected of them at work’’ – down 10 points from 2020;
- Currently, 39 percent of employees feel strongly that someone at work cares about them – down 8 points from 2020; and
- Only 30 percent strongly agree that someone at work encourages their development – down 6 points from 2020.
The fact that these issues are not priorities in the culture drains engagement, especially for Gen Z employees. Managers, who should already have a key role in this are only 31 percent engaged themselves. While Gallup indicates that strong leaders and managers can work together to reverse low engagement, strengthening culture should be a priority as well. The reality is the culture employees experience and how they feel treated will likely decide their future choices.
Findings on employee detachment
Gallup indicated current employees are looking for new jobs at the highest rates since 2015; their satisfaction with their employers “returned to a record low.” From “broken performance management practices” to unmet expectations, and remote workers feeling less connected to the organization’s purpose or mission, many employees aren’t happy.
Gallop focused on two solutions that leaders could use to reengage with employees to “address the biggest vulnerabilities in this new era:”
1. Reinforcing the importance of knowing the “clarity of expectations at work” enables employees to feel more confident about what they are doing. Only about half of U.S. employees know what’s expected of them according to Gallup’s research. The question is: will managers be given the time and be able to make connections that encourage employee participation?
2. Only 30 percent of employees strongly agreed with the question, “The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.” The focus on connecting one’s job to the company’s mission and purpose, among other benefits, is that “mission and purpose bond people together.” It also can fuel wanting to make a difference which can bring human connection into work in meaningful ways.
Culture Changed The Washington Commanders
The Washington Commanders began as the Boston Braves in 1932. They moved to Washington D.C. with the controversial name of The Washington Redskins. In 1999 an entrepreneur named Dan Snyder bought the team and managed over 24 years to leave what ESPN called “a legacy of on-field futility and off-field scandal.” In 2022 the name was changed to The Washington Commanders and in July 2023 the team was sold to Josh Harris and an ownership group. Changing the previous Washington Commanders’ culture was one of Harris’ key objectives.
By February 2024, with the hiring of Head Coach Dan Quinn and General Manager Adam Peters, team management launched its focus on the culture they wanted to create. Months later, in an interview with Washington Post sportswriter Sally Jenkins, Dan Quinn said:
“The culture is what we do every day. How we do our business, the way we compete, the way we meet, the way we communicate to one another. But the players have to be the ones to breathe it and live it. It’s one thing for the coach to say it, but if we’re just saying it and they’re not living it, that ain’t a culture.”
The remaking of “a decaying NFL franchise” was advanced, among other things, by Quinn’s deeply valuing human capital: taking time with the new and veteran players, and valuing connection to help players be at their best with a culture defining them. He asked players to draw up their own code of team rules and hold each other accountable. The symbols he’s created motivate the team and recognizes what is being accomplished.
As USA Today’s columnist Nate Davis explained: “The dissolution of the long-toxic environment allowed for an entirely new culture to fill the vacuum, one built on positivity, brotherhood, accomplishing the task at hand, constant competition and compassion.”
The team has come to call this new team ethic the “Commander Standard.” “It’s a code we live by,” says longtime team leader Terry McLaurin, a two-time Pro Bowl receiver.
Companies and National Football League franchises have in common the ability to create purpose and strong cultures that motivate their organizations. It doesn’t always happen, but when it does it’s a reminder of what’s possible.
Photo by All-Pro Reels under a Creative Commons license via Wikimedia Commons.
Gael O’Brien is a catalyst in leaders leading with purpose and impact through clarity, presence and connection. She is an executive coach, culture coach, speech coach and presenter. She publishes The Week in Ethics, is a Business Ethics Magazine columnist, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Hoffman Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University.
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