Leadership, vitriol and Comic Sans
Slightly offtopic for this blog's usual content, but as a general sports fan I couldn't resist. Most of the free world now knows about LeBron's decision to take his talents to Miami next season. Needless to say there's a lot of anguish and pain in the general Cleveland vicinity. The epicenter of this pain appears to be directly at Dan Gilbert's desk, who ripped LeBron in a scathing letter posted on the Cavaliers' home page.
Yikes.
After reading the letter, I couple of things went through my head. First, was this: "Comic Sans? That's the font you went with on this? Comic Sans?" Many people wouldn't notice or care, but anyone who knows a scant amount about typography knows this was unintentionally ironic and somewhat indicative of the overly emotional response by Gilbert. Gilbert didn't intend it this way, but in content and in form, it's almost literally like reading a 7th grader's cathartic letter to his now ex-girlfriend who broke up with him to date Paul, the cool kid in class.
There aren't too many hard and fast rules in font selection, but one of them is that you should never use Comic Sans if you want to be taken seriously. It's called Comic Sans for a reason. Actually, a lot of people would actually leave off the "if you want to be taken seriously" part of that previous sentence. Sort of like the Fight Club rules, many typographers would say that the first rule of Comic Sans is that you never use Comic Sans. The second rule of Comic Sans is that you never use Comic Sans.
Comic Sans aside, just on the basic leadership front, breakup letters like Gilbert's are always a bad idea. There's just too much emotion. There's not enough clarity of though. You're just caught up in the moment. In times like these, leaders and adults are best served to just take a step back. Take a deep breath. Relax. This didn't happen with Gilbert. As a result, I think it's partially backfired on him and the Cavaliers. Magically, after reading Gilbert's letter, I started to think LeBron may have made the right decision. If I were LeBron, is this the guy I'd want leading my franchise? Could I really get behind a guy like this?
Henry Abbott at ESPN seemed to read it the same way.
You know that TV show with Cesar Millan, the dog trainer? I heard him say once that humans are the only animal that will follow an unstable leader. He says this when talking to humans, training them how to act as leaders to dogs. Basically, he's saying to take a deep breath, to be cool, to act with poise if you expect dogs to respect you. I think the same goes with most people. You want your leader to make sense, and offer comfort and inspiration. Nothing much was called for here. Gilbert could have been silent. Could have wished James well. Could have said he's heartbroken. Instead, he went on the attack, talked some trash, called James names. This is a terrible night for Cleveland fans. Not only did they lose the best player in the NBA, but they also are now attempting to rebuild with a green GM and an owner who just served notice that if push comes to shove, he'll bail publicly, and profoundly, on his players, no matter how well they've performed.
Exactly my thoughts.
Even still, if one day you are compelled to post a diatribe on the net, at least use Times New Roman. It just looks more official.
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