With the Titans changing executives again, I'd ask their longtime CEO about his own accountability, organizational culture, ownership and the business results.
By PAUL KUHARSKY
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Around 2 p.m. on Friday, I heard Burke Nihill might be doing a media tour.
I began prepping questions in case I would have a chance to speak with him.
Within 45 minutes, I'd learned the two reporters scheduled to interview him: Turron Davenport of ESPN and Core Curtis of WKRN News 2 in Nashville.
Good for them. I suspect Davenport's home office in Bristol, Conn., has little interest in the inner workings of the 0-5 Titans, so I am curious what sort of space he will get and how far he will have to extend on social media. I imagine he will extend it into social media. WKRN should give Curtis its entire newscast, depending on how much interview time he gets.
I wasn't among those selected. Nihill declined multiple requests for an interview after he fired three top executives and set another restructuring in motion. I've been critical of his leadership and don't imagine I'm high on his list of people he'd like to answer questions from.
But given time to prep and apply interview techniques I learned from John Sawatsky while I worked at ESPN and that I now teach at Belmont -- about working to make questions open, lean and neutral -- this would have been my outline for a conversation with Nihill.
(These are standards I don't always meet myself, obviously, and that are more easily applied in a one-on-one setting with more time and chances for follow-ups.)
Burke Nihill Interview
Leadership and Accountability
1. Organizational Restructuring
Walk me through the major organizational restructurings you've overseen during your tenure.
Follow-ups:
What has driven the need for repeated changes?
What was each restructuring intended to accomplish?
How do you measure whether those reorganizations have improved the business?
What have you learned from the changes that didn't produce the results you expected?
2. His Standards for Leadership
What standards should an organization use to determine whether a senior executive is succeeding?
Follow-ups:
How do you apply those standards to yourself?
How have you measured up against them over six years?
Where has your performance fallen short?
What does Amy Adams Strunk hold you accountable for?
How does she measure whether you're meeting those expectations?
3. Why the Same Standards Haven't Applied to Him
In conversations we've had previously, you've described evaluating fits, moving people into different roles and sometimes moving on from them as natural parts of running an organization. What standards do you apply when evaluating your own performance?
Follow-ups:
How have you measured up against those standards over six years?
What has made continuity in your position the right decision while so many other leadership positions have changed?
How do you account for the difference between your continuity and the turnover elsewhere in the organization?
4. Personal Responsibility
What decisions during your tenure do you most wish you could revisit?
Follow-ups:
What responsibility do you personally take for where the franchise stands today?
What have you publicly acknowledged getting wrong?
What did you change as a result of those mistakes?
How do you decide when the organization owes fans a public acknowledgment of a mistake?
5. His Overall Stewardship
How would you evaluate your stewardship of the Titans over the last six years?
Follow-ups:
What are the strongest measures of your success?
Where has your performance fallen short?
What would you point to as evidence that the franchise is better positioned today than when you assumed your current responsibilities?
Hiring and Workplace Culture
6. The Carthon and Callahan Hires
How do you assess the decisions to hire Ran Carthon and Brian Callahan?
Follow-ups:
What mistakes did the organization make in those decisions?
What responsibility do you take for those mistakes?
What did you learn that changed the processes used to hire Mike Borgonzi and Robert Saleh?
What evidence can you offer fans that those changes have produced better decisions?
How do you decide when the organization should publicly acknowledge that a major hiring decision was wrong?
7. Jeremy Walls and the Discrimination Lawsuit
What qualities are you looking for in the person who will fill the new CBO role?
Follow-ups:
What is Jeremy Walls' standing in that search?
How are you evaluating the discrimination allegations involving Jeremy Walls, which have been sent to arbitration?
How do you weigh the potential consequences of hiring someone facing those allegations against what he could bring to the organization?
What would make a candidate worth taking on that risk?
What would you say to employees who might have concerns about such a hire?
8. Organizational Culture
How would you describe the culture inside the organization right now?
Follow-ups:
What are you hearing from employees about their confidence in leadership?
Where do you see dissatisfaction inside the organization?
What responsibility do you take for that dissatisfaction?
What have you done to address it?
How do you measure whether the work environment is improving?
9. Internal Leaks and Employee Dissatisfaction
What do you make of employees sharing internal information with people outside the organization?
Follow-ups:
What do you think motivates people to do that?
What does it tell you about their relationship with leadership?
How do you distinguish between employees acting out of personal grievances and employees raising legitimate concerns?
What responsibility does leadership have for creating an environment in which people feel comfortable raising concerns internally?
Ownership and Public Answers
10. Amy Adams Strunk's Understanding of the Franchise
How does Amy Adams Strunk get an understanding of what fans are experiencing and feeling about the franchise?
Follow-ups:
What role do you play in shaping the information she receives?
How does criticism of the organization's leadership reach her?
How do you ensure she's hearing criticism that reflects poorly on you?
How does she get perspectives that differ from yours?
What do you believe she understands about the depth of fan dissatisfaction?
11. Speaking on Behalf of Ownership
How do you understand your responsibility to speak publicly on behalf of ownership?
Follow-ups:
What determines when you make yourself available to answer questions about the organization?
How do you decide which issues require a public explanation?
When neither you nor Amy Adams Strunk addresses difficult organizational questions, how do you expect fans to get answers?
What responsibility do you believe the organization has to explain its decisions when things are going badly?
The Titans' Business Results
12. Game-Day Operations
How do you evaluate the game-day experience the Titans are providing fans?
Follow-ups:
What are you hearing from fans about what's working and what isn't?
Where do you think the organization is falling short?
How do you measure fan satisfaction with game-day operations?
What changes are you making based on those measurements?
13. The Rebrand
How are you measuring the success of the Titans' rebrand?
Follow-ups:
What have merchandise sales told you?
How have those sales compared with your expectations?
What has the rebrand accomplished for the business that you can measure?
What specific sales figures can you share?
How does the response compare with previous merchandise launches or rebranding efforts?
14. New Stadium Sales
Where do things stand with sales at the new stadium?
Follow-ups:
Walk me through what remains available and what has already been committed.
How is sales performance comparing with the projections that informed the stadium's business plan?
What has been more difficult to sell than you anticipated?
How has the team's on-field performance affected your sales efforts?
15. Closing: Accountability to the Fans
What do you believe Titans fans should hold you personally accountable for?
Follow-ups:
What have you delivered that should give them confidence in your leadership?
What haven't you delivered?
What would you tell a fan who believes the organization keeps changing people without changing the people responsible for those decisions?
What would have to happen for you to conclude that the franchise would be better served by someone else in your position?
Support independent Titans coverage
PaulKuharsky.com is independent Titans coverage supported by readers. Paul has covered this team since 1996 — longer than any active beat reporter.
Full access to every member story, film study, and podcast is $7.50/month or $81/year.
