Stand Up to People With Power

George Ellis was the sports information director at North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota for 30 years. The school was moving from a lower athletic division to Division 1 status--big time competition. They decided that Mr. Ellis wasn't the person they wanted for the role of sports information director and fired him, citing poor job performance. Mr. Ellis sued for age discrimination and this week won his suit against the powerful North Dakota institution.

I am appalled at what athletic department executives did to Mr. Ellis. You simply do not fire an employee of 30 years unless that employee did something incredibly egregious, which Mr. Ellis did not do.

I’ve spent the past 30 years as a Secret Service Agent, an executive at the Star Tribune Newspaper, a Ph.D. student of leadership, and, for the past 13 years, a consultant to leaders. I am a prolific writer about leadership and will talk about leadership to anyone who will listen at any time. In my career I put people in prison, fired many people, and feel most organizations are in dire need of greater accountability; however, I believe that what they did to Mr. Ellis was wrong.

The corporate and institutional worlds are filled with George Ellis’s: the ordinary and everyday people who invest their lives in their schools or companies only to be tossed aside by men and women hungry for fame, money, victory, and the next step up the occupational ladder. I’ve felt the anguish of men and women whose careers were ended and their life’s work marginalized by “leaders” who lack empathy for other human beings. I only wish the leaders of the North Dakota State Athletic Department who testified in this case could feel for themselves 10% of the pain, anxiety, and disillusionment that Mr. Ellis and his family must have felt.

Who will be held accountable at NDSU? Why didn’t they offer Mr. Ellis a decent early retirement or another position until he retired out of respect for his age and 30 years of service and avoid looking like big bullies? Athletic Director Gene Taylor’s testimony was deemed “not credible” by the judge. Did he lie under oath? Women’s Athletic Director Lynn Dorn made comments about Ellis being too old to do the job if NDSU went to Division 1, which, the judge wrote, showed evidence of age discrimination. Her incredibly poor judgment in saying what she said cost NDSU hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs. Her mistake was immeasurably larger than anything they fired Mr. Ellis for.

NDSU says it will appeal this case. I urge NDSU to pay the settlement and move on. You have lost me as a ticket-buying fan, and I am sure you have lost others. Don’t make a bad situation worse for yourselves. The leaders of the athletic department who appear to be so full of themselves should remember that while they may think of themselves as ‘big fish,” they are still swimming in a tiny pond. Some humility is in order.

Congratulations to Mr. Ellis. It took courage for him to stand up to a large and powerful institution. His victory gives hope and inspiration to victims throughout our society and community who are abused by those with power.