Name: Hannah Gordon
Position: 49ers General Counsel
Where I'm from: Oakland
Focusing on right now: Welcoming in new and familiar faces. Sports is a small business so I'm excited to meet new people like our GM JOHN LYNCH and reconnect with people I've known a long time like my UCLA classmate and our new VP/Player Personnel, ADAM PETERS.
Best advice: “Come with a solution, not a problem” -- NFL Senior VP & Chief Litigation Officer ANASTASIA DANIAS SCHMIDT.
A must for a new hire: I learned from working for PETER RUOCCO, Senior VP/Labor Relations at the NFL, that the three essential qualities a new hire must have are: intelligence, work ethic, and integrity. No matter how high a candidate is in one or two of those virtues, they must possess all three.
Exec I admire: SHONDA RHIMES. She has built an empire and still makes time for herself and her family and has the courage to tell her employees to turn their phones off on the weekend. One quote from her that I had to write down that applies in many areas of society: “Power is useless unless you know you have it.”
Best book I've read: “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” by JOHN C. MAXWELL. The concepts are simple but are good reminders and are well-illustrated. One quote that stuck with me: “Such a big part of good leadership is having no unresolved relational conflict with other people. Service others who follow you really purifies your motives and helps you gain perspective.”
Talking tech: I refuse wearables: I am already too tethered to my phone. We have instituted a no-phone rule in our leadership meetings. Removing phones makes everyone in the meeting more engaged and the meetings are more efficient.
Must-have music: J. COLE’s new album “4 Your Eyez Only.”
Food for thought: I love trying regional foods when we are on the road. Last season I had the best Carolina BBQ in my life at Midwood Smokehouse in Charlotte.
How I unwind: Dancing. Boxing. Yoga.
Day in the life: On a typical Monday, I get up at 6:00am, I’m at the gym from 6:45am-7:45am, then get ready and go to work (that hurts if you got back from an East Coast game the night before!). I eat breakfast at work where our cafeteria makes made-to-order scrambles and omelets. I have one-on-one meetings with everyone on my team to catch up on what they are working on, what questions we may have for each other, and to check in about life in general. We also have our leadership meeting and depending who needs what, other meetings. Early in the week tends to be more meeting-heavy but I love interacting with people, so I enjoy that. Late in the day is when I tend to get down to more solo work like reading or drafting contracts ... and catching up on email. My goal when I go home each night is for my inbox to be under 100 emails.
