CAA Sports co-Head Howie Nuchow acknowledged he has “never had to follow more things” during what he admitted has been the greatest challenge of his career. Nuchow, speaking yesterday during the CAA World Congress Comes To You, said, “You’re literally looking at everything from college football to all professional leagues on anything from when will people come back to play to how people are entering the buildings.” Each morning, Nuchow, CAA Sports President Paul Danforth and co-Head Mike Levine join a call with the leaders of the rest of the agency’s divisions to review the past 24 hours. Nuchow explained, “All of this information has never been more important to us than at this moment, so we can go ahead and start sharing it with the rest of our division, which gives us the ability to provide the best information so we’re still able to monetize and advise the clients and properties that we represent.” Nuchow touted CAA's efforts around the NFL Draft and other upcoming sports happenings. He said, “They just concentrated on what they could do to recruit. We had six number one draft picks. We have an NBA and NHL Draft coming up and both of those divisions are going to have amongst the best classes they’ve ever had. We have a stadium operations group that some of their projects have been deemed ‘essential businesses,’ so we can continue to work on Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and the Seattle arena.” Nuchow: "The balancing act has just been truly inspiring, what I’ve seen our people do.”
LEADERSHIP AMID UNCERTAINTY: Nuchow stressed the importance of critically evaluating leadership amid times of crisis. He cited NBA Commissioner Adam Silver as an impressive example of leadership, saying Silver “showed by what he did -- shutting down until they learn more -- what it’s like to care, and he’s not chasing the money right now.” Nuchow added Silver’s decision tree is “very believable because you’ve seen it in his actions.” He also identified SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, saying Sankey leads “in a different way, where he’s so positive about trying to get a conference that lives and dies with their football motivated that there’s hope on the horizon.”
STARTS AT THE TOP: Nuchow also spoke more generally of leadership concepts: "People will always tell you who they are. You just have to listen." By observing leaders in an organization, employees can assess, "One, are you working in a place where you could be proud of, whether it's the ethics or how people are approaching problems? Are they running away from problems? Are they being as innovative as they possibly can? Are they communicating? How are they delivering bad news? It's very easy to be good to people during the good times. This is a time when you learn a lot about the people standing to the left and the right of you." Nuchow added he has seen some "incredible things that have gone on in leadership" during the crisis.
