About Richard Sherman. . .and Context

Certainly it would be a bad thing if I  were the only person on planet Earth who didn't write about Richard Sherman's post-game interview with Erin Andrews.  In case you missed it,  the Seattle Seahawk had a fairly explosive monologue regarding himself and an opposing team member.  (Also let me point it,  he completely avoided using an expletive - and in that regard was way more classy than any of The Real Housewives.)

Not being silly enough to make a judgment call on Sherman's behavior, instead let me make an observation.   Whether falling into the category of "we're just so appalled he said that, " or "c'mon already, it was a realistic statement," most commentators had this common, they talked about the context of Sherman's comment.

Whether  referencing the game, Sherman's relationship with the opposing team's coach, something that had been said between Sherman and the opposing team member or the atmosphere of football in general. . .nearly everyone mentioned the value of considering context.

And that's what we should remember in the workplace:  it is always wise to remember context.


First of all, realize that you don't know everything:     when things come out of the blue, I have learned (through bitter experience) it is so much better to limit the reaction, find out the context of the situation and then constructively react with a plan of action.

And then there is the stuff that you don't know, that you really have no business asking about:   often when someone responds to us brusquely it may have nothing to do with us personally, but instead is rooted in that individual's personal life.    You don't know,  and you don't need to know about personal information  that may impact an individual's response:   relationship troubles, financial challenges, family matters are all context to the person who was rude to you - and, unfortunately, that context shaded their remark to you.

Realize that not everybody knows what you know:  your reaction to a situation, without context, may be deemed strange or reactionary.   Be very aware that you often know more information than others, so you need to modulate your reaction in front of others.

Put things back into context for your team:   there have been many times I had to counsel team members regarding someone's reaction, and to constructively do that, I had to use context.  "I know he sounded impatient to you  and I'm sorry about that - but you were just recently assigned this project and what you don't know is that he had been asking for this information from your predecessor and was not getting a satisfactory answer."

Context is something very important to remember - it allows you to react to and understand situations with intelligence - and that, in turn, passes intelligence to your team.

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Brent Frerichs is the author of "Courageous Questions, Confident Leaders" available for e-readers, tablets and PCs from Amazon Kindle.