"What happens in a situation when an employee causes harm to the organization? How do you handle that?"
Almost two years ago now, WSL frontman Erik Logan, “a world-class media executive with a profound personal connection to the sport of surfing” was disappeared by the WSL mid-event at the Vivo Rio Pro.
No reason given, only a curtly worded press release that neither thanked nor exalted their high-profile CEO.
“Today, the World Surf League (WSL) announced that CEO Erik Logan has departed the company, effective immediately.”
Four days before the Soviet-sesque disappearance of its once exalted CEO, Logan was in Brazil and having a hell of a time.
He vigorously posted videos on his Instagram account and even wrote a passionate “love letter” to the same Brazilian surf fans who threatened death following several unfavourable judging decisions at the Surf Ranch Pro although he did write, prophetically, “Stay tuned for some exhilarating action.”
In the silence that followed, Chas Smith asked around and hit a wall of NDAs.
The lack of any information, whatsoever, from the World Surf League in the aftermath, alongside the “flabbergasting” lack of knowledge by those close to the levers of power, suggested an absolutely ruthless NDA.
A championship tour surfer had told me, directly, that Logan had made certain surfers “feel uncomfortable” with his behavior and by asking them to one-on-one dinners or drinks. He also, it was said, became “erratic” when he drank. The assertion of both troublesome requests and over-indulgent drinking was corroborated by at least two others, both with direct experience.
He was getting away with it for a while,” another with first hand experience told me. “Lots of reports the last few events that he’s been drunk and making inappropriate comments to the women.”
Putting pieces together, it suggests the sort of firing that would deliver no praise and require an ironclad NDA. One almost certainly concerning personal conduct and needing the head of human resources and the head of legal to take over at a moment’s notice.
One that forced him to “fly home immediately,” according to one source, directly following his ouster.
Or as the great Jen See said, “clean up on aisle five.”
Erik Logan has since re-invented himself as a motivational speaker and writer for Forbes. He self-describes as “an award-winning executive producer, the intersection of leadership, content, and culture is my passion.”
Given the mystery surrounding this disappearance by the WSL, today’s post on his Instagram page is staggeringly bold.
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“I wanted to jump on and touch on one topic that has generated a lot of emails and texts and some follow up on the social media platforms about what happens in a situation when an employee actually does something and causes harm to the organization,” says Erik Logan.
“How do you handle that? Let’s just go back to the Maya (Angelou) quote. ‘People won’t remember what you did, but they’ll remember how you feel.’
“You can terminate somebody and you have to obviously if they do something to cause harm to an organization even if they resign and they walk away they leave you in a lurch. I experienced this firsthand in my career when I was very young. I had a general manager at one time scream at me at the top of his lungs and threw a phone at me because I resigned from a job. I’ve never forgotten that. There’s a way you can handle all of those with dignity.
You can be, I’m very upset, I’m very angry, but I want to be clear about why we’re doing this. Thank you for your time and leave. You can handle it that way. Don’t project your anger onto the other person. People will forget what you’ve done for them, what you haven’t done for them, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel. It’s a great guiding principle from Maya Angelou.”
How did Erik Logan make you feel? Happy, sad or, if you’re Filipe Toledo, weird?
