Dear Mr. Cuban:

The Dallas Mavericks suffered a human resources crisis. Congratulations on hiring a leader from AT&T as your new CEO, but that is just the first step towards correcting the culture. I am sure new leadership will make a difference, but I would encourage you to look for the root cause of your organizational problem. Since there is no opportunity for you to appear on HR Shark Tank to be grilled about your decision-making, I thought I would write to you directly to offer my guidance as an HR professional who has worked for large employers as well as entrepreneurial firms.

I encourage you to consider the possibility that your great success as an entrepreneur may have contributed to the HR failure - put simply, you did not demand that your HR leadership operate as an honest business partner. I have worked for a number of entrepreneurs and found they all have similar blind spots because they are so confident in their business acumen that they are over-confident in basic corporate disciplines like HR. My fear for you (and those that try to benefit from your lessons learned) is that there will be too much focus on the quick leadership fix rather than what processes should have been in place long ago.

In a small organization, HR serves dual critical roles - being a business partner to leadership while at the same time being a key liaison to all employees in the organization. Here is what should have happened:

First, your HR leader should have been looking at every instance of turnover. Face it, working for the Mavericks rates as a really cool job - voluntary turnover should be rare. HR leadership should have been extremely approachable, available 24/7 to employees and should have known about the rumors (and the facts) of what was wrong within the organization. Not that a good HR pro recommends employment action based on unsubstantiated rumors, but if they are in tune with the pulse of the organization, they use what is heard around the coffee machine to guide investigations to determine if there is a real problem. Clearly this did not happen.

Second, your HR leader should have kept abreast of Human Resources best practices, particularly related to sexual harassment reporting and training. I was horrified to hear that you just now established a hotline for employees to call. I was with a small Company roughly 20 years ago and we established a hotline number. Easy reporting accessibility allows problems to be addressed, and it allows leadership to sleep well knowing that you have done everything possible to create a welcoming and safe work environment.

Finally, your HR leader should have been a business partner to you and your former CEO. Yes - that means that he should have had a tough conversation with your CEO about the reality or perceptions that existed (that he was acting inappropriately) - and the HR leader should have had a similar conversation with you if the behavior was not corrected.

I know you suspended or fired your former HR leader, but I am concerned that you may feel somewhat empathetic to the difficult position he was in because the CEO was the bad actor. Don't feel bad - and for heaven's sake, don't pay severance for failed performance. Being a human resources leader means you have an obligation to do the right thing when the impact on employees and the organization can be devastating. (Just ask HR for the now bankrupt Weinstein Company about the impact of their failure to act.) My guess is that you were not paying $50K a year for an HR generalist, but you were shelling out a significant salary and benefits package for who you thought was an HR leader who needed to have the courage to stand up!

What was the impact of poor HR leadership? An article in Sports Illustrated and the lead in multiple news reports damaging the brand of the Dallas Mavericks and hurting your personal brand. Sadly, it will be some time before the name Mark Cuban gets mentioned without the baggage. Yes, other individuals committed bad acts and HR failed you, but you failed to look at HR with the same level of accountability and responsibility as I suspect you view every member of the Mavericks coaching and training staff. That is the key to future success - demand excellence from HR!

The irony is that a good HR business partner operates like a good referee for a pickup game - providing technical expertise, allowing things to flow unless it is critical to stop the action, and having the courage to be unpopular when delivering the tough message that action must be taken. True HR professionals are part of the organization, but have an obligation to be "the adult in the room" who brings issues to leadership even at risk of their own longevity with the Company.

You definitely don't need my advice on how to start a business, innovate, or beat the competition. I hope you realize there is value in hiring individuals unlike yourself - those of us that are not even wantrepreneurs can be valuable business partners to help mitigate the inherent risks of running an organization. There is no draft for HR professionals, but I suggest that you and your new CEO need to put the draft-like effort into finding a grinder of an HR professional that will keep you out of the news for the wrong reasons.

If you are unable to get the kind of business support you need in an internal HR business partner, then at least seek the guidance of others on the outside . . . or feel free to give me a ring.

Best regards,

Jordan Resnick