Friendly Advice for Kyle Shanahan
I recently asked a panel of 49ers analysts who are women to give 49ers head coach friendly advice. Here's what they said.
Miriah 49FaithfulLee: "Don't let your ego ruin your career. It's OK to admit when you're wrong, and you need to admit when you're wrong in order to grow and make things right. Maybe that's something you can learn from Jed York."
Crystal Peachy: "You have an offensive coordinator -- utilize him. You are the head coach of the 49ers. You do not just coach the offense. You have an offensive coordinator to do that. Try to spend more time being head coach of the entire team and let your coordinator do his job, along with the other coaches."
Sybilla Bakzaza: "Kyle Shanahan can learn from another Bay Area legend, Barry Bonds. He was a really quiet guy who never engaged with the media. So when he finally needed to, they eviscerated him. They destroyed him. Shanahan is not really good at connecting with media. And if you don't tell people what to say, they will say whatever they want. If he gave you a little bit more and had less of an edge, it would be a give-and-take type of thing. His comment, 'I'm going to let you write whatever you want,' that's not helpful. So that's the first thing. The media is his biggest ally. We're not there to roast him -- we're there to ask. And if he gives us information and we see there's progress and a plan, that's fine.
"The second thing is just the leadership side of things. One of the things about his style, I know he's a very strong-minded individual, with all of the injuries happening lately, his public indifference that he shows sometimes is not a strength. That's a definite weakness. Because we know Jimmie Ward watches this show. We know George Kittle watches it. What else do injured guys have to do right now? Watch tape, recover and watch this show. And they're listening to what he says. So he needs to acknowledge mistakes, lay out a public plan, because he's not just talking to us, he's talking to his players. And they deserve more paternity from him. The greatest leaders will acknowledge they have mistakes, and followers love to see that. And right now, if I were an athlete on that team, like Nick Bosa, I'd be in Florida.
"As a model, I go through classes where they teach us about representing the networks and franchises we model for. Shanahan is way above what I'm doing -- he's the face of the franchise. So it comes with the territory. If you don't want to be a leader, that means that you don't want to talk to your fans. But if you're going to be a head coach, guess what? You're a public figure. You don't belong to yourself anymore. You belong to the city, to the Bay.
"Leadership means it's always your fault. You're protecting your guys. You're taking the blows. That's the beauty of leadership. Like when I was in the Navy, I would go into the commanding officer's office when you screwed up, but I'm not going to give him your name. I'm going to say it's on me. And I'm going to take the hit. That's the No. 1 thing I want to see change with Shanahan."
