On an early August evening in 2010, Steve Griggs’ commute was interrupted by a phone call.
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“I’m in the human capital business now. It’s about growing people,
and finding those next great leaders.”
STEVE GRIGGS CEO, Tampa Bay Lightning |
The then-42-year-old Griggs, on his way home from the Orlando Magic’s headquarters, pulled over at a rest stop along Interstate 4. Jeff Vinik, the Boston billionaire who had recently purchased the Tampa Bay Lightning, was on the line.
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“I’m in the human capital business now. It’s about growing people,
and finding those next great leaders.”
STEVE GRIGGS CEO, Tampa Bay Lightning |
It wasn’t Griggs’ first time speaking to Vinik, but it was their first one-on-one conversation. Vinik had already recruited Griggs’ former boss and longtime mentor Tod Leiweke to turn around his hockey team, and he wanted Griggs on board, too.
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“I’m in the human capital business now. It’s about growing people,
and finding those next great leaders.”
STEVE GRIGGS CEO, Tampa Bay Lightning |
“He talked about wanting to build a world-class organization, like the Green Bay Packers — why couldn’t we do that here in Tampa?” Griggs said.
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“I’m in the human capital business now. It’s about growing people,
and finding those next great leaders.”
STEVE GRIGGS CEO, Tampa Bay Lightning |
The Lightning was in bad shape, financially and on the ice, and Griggs knew it. He was an executive vice president for the Magic and had been watching the team’s downward spiral from 75 miles away.
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“I’m in the human capital business now. It’s about growing people,
and finding those next great leaders.”
STEVE GRIGGS CEO, Tampa Bay Lightning |
But Vinik’s pitch was convincing, and Griggs trusted Leiweke. On Aug. 30, the Lightning announced that Griggs had joined its front office as chief operating officer.
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“I’m in the human capital business now. It’s about growing people,
and finding those next great leaders.”
STEVE GRIGGS CEO, Tampa Bay Lightning |
Six years later, the Lightning has gone through a complete transformation, on and off the ice, as well as a leadership transition. Leiweke resigned in 2015 to become chief operating officer of the NFL; Griggs was named his immediate replacement.
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“I’m in the human capital business now. It’s about growing people,
and finding those next great leaders.”
STEVE GRIGGS CEO, Tampa Bay Lightning |
Leiweke, with a natural charisma, is a tough act to follow. Griggs, who’s friendly with a puckish sense of humor, takes a more understated approach. But those who work closely with Griggs say that the transition has been as seamless as possible, and that Griggs has become a leader in his own right. Headed into his second season as CEO, Griggs is faced with a charge almost as momentous as the initial turnaround: Continue to elevate every facet of the franchise while developing the talent that will become the next generation of sports executives.
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“I’m in the human capital business now. It’s about growing people,
and finding those next great leaders.”
STEVE GRIGGS CEO, Tampa Bay Lightning |
“I don’t think Steve was tapped to be the new Tod,” said Bob Rohrlack, CEO of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. “He accomplishes everything that his predecessor did, but he does it Steve’s way, not trying to be someone else. And that’s what’s made him successful.”
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“I’m in the human capital business now. It’s about growing people,
and finding those next great leaders.”
STEVE GRIGGS CEO, Tampa Bay Lightning |
Becoming cheerleader in chief
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“I’m in the human capital business now. It’s about growing people,
and finding those next great leaders.”
STEVE GRIGGS CEO, Tampa Bay Lightning |
Griggs doesn’t want to take credit for the Lightning’s success.
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“I’m in the human capital business now. It’s about growing people,
and finding those next great leaders.”
STEVE GRIGGS CEO, Tampa Bay Lightning |
Sitting in his office in Amalie Arena, he’s careful to answer questions with “we” and “this organization.”
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“I’m in the human capital business now. It’s about growing people,
and finding those next great leaders.”
STEVE GRIGGS CEO, Tampa Bay Lightning |
Pressed for specifics, though, he’ll admit: He was the architect of many of the initiatives that led the team to this point.
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“I’m in the human capital business now. It’s about growing people,
and finding those next great leaders.”
STEVE GRIGGS CEO, Tampa Bay Lightning |
“Be the Thunder,” one of the team’s biggest marketing campaigns since Vinik bought the team, was Griggs’ brainchild.
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“I’m in the human capital business now. It’s about growing people,
and finding those next great leaders.”
STEVE GRIGGS CEO, Tampa Bay Lightning |
“That really was a tribal call,” Griggs said. “It’s created tribalism. People want to be a part of the thunder.”
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“I’m in the human capital business now. It’s about growing people,
and finding those next great leaders.”
STEVE GRIGGS CEO, Tampa Bay Lightning |
Early on, Griggs set benchmarks for success, with a big focus on ticket sales. He created training and professional development programs for employees, knowing that happy workers would mean a better fan experience.
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“I’m in the human capital business now. It’s about growing people,
and finding those next great leaders.”
STEVE GRIGGS CEO, Tampa Bay Lightning |
“I think where I came in was organizational strategy,” Griggs said. “Tod was the pied piper, but I would put in all the systems.”
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
Since Leiweke’s departure, Griggs is fulfilling both roles, said Rohrlack, becoming the cheerleader in chief while maintaining his focus on accountability.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
“Tod really liked being out there doing things,” Rohrlack said, “and Steve’s comfortable doing it, but he’s very much about getting it done. And he’s blended those two styles.”
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
That’s the consensus inside Amalie Arena as well.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman sees a parallel between Leiweke’s mentorship of Griggs and his own relationships with leaders from the Detroit Red Wings, Jim Devellano and Ken Holland.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
“He is able to take a lot of Tod’s ideas and his own ideas and merge the two to come to the decisions he makes,” Yzerman said. “We’re influenced by the people we grew up with.”
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
The transition was also a smooth one to Griggs’ peers outside the arena.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
“I don’t feel like Steve really skipped a beat,” said Brian Auld, president of the Tampa Bay Rays. “He’s been a tremendous leader in the community for some time.”
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
Jac Sperling, an adviser to Vinik who represented him when he bought the Lightning, may be the least surprised of anyone by the Bolts’ success.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
Seated in Vinik’s private suite at Amalie Arena, Sperling calls Leiweke and Griggs a “rare pair.”
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
TOD LEIWEKE
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
“Each one has different talents,” Sperling says, “and they knew what the goal was and they both pursued it relentlessly.”
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
Sperling had watched a similar trajectory unfold several times over the last decade and a half. He was CEO of the Minnesota Wild when it launched as an expansion team in 1997. Leiweke was team president from 1999 to 2003; he hired Griggs as vice president of ticket sales in 2000.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
While Minnesota has a long-standing hockey tradition, the state’s only NHL franchise had moved to Dallas in 1993. But even as an expansion team, the Wild sold out its first 409 games, the third longest sellout streak in NHL history.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
Leiweke led the turnaround of the Seattle Seahawks between 2003 and 2010; Griggs boosted ticket sales at the Magic in his time there.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
“This has been a repetitive thing,” Sperling said. “There’s a common theme here of pleasing the fans, and giving the fans what they want — excellence.”
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
This year, the team has 14,600 season-ticket holders, between suites and full-season equivalents. The arena has a capacity of 19,092 for hockey games.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
Overall revenue is up 67 percent since Vinik bought the team, and Vinik said the team finished its last fiscal year at a “roughly break even” point.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
“I think the day that I left, the Lightning got a little better,” Leiweke says. “Steve got his due and his chance, and I think one of the proudest things for me is that they’ve clicked to a higher level since I left.”
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
Vinik’s pleased with the progress but expects Griggs to keep raising the bar.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
“There are always higher levels,” Vinik said. ”Our hockey team has to play better; our business can be better; we can serve the customers better.”
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
‘No one will outwork me’
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
Griggs, it’s safe to say, is up for the challenge.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
Vinik says he took to Griggs immediately, when Leiweke introduced them over dinner at the Loews Don CeSar, the resort on St. Pete Beach.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
“I just liked Steve right off the bat,” Vinik says. “He’s a normal, good guy, which is probably 80 percent of the battle when you’re hiring.”
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
But underneath the easygoing facade is a competitor who wants to win. Griggs can’t sit still when the Lightning plays; he’s usually pacing around the building.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
A passion for hockey is Griggs’ birthright. He grew up in Canada, playing the sport in college. He still skates; a foot injury sidelined him for awhile, but he’s back in the game, hitting the ice with Lightning employees before work.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
Entrepreneurship is also in his blood. His late father owned multiple businesses, including a doughnut shop that was sold to Tim Horton and became the first location of the Canadian coffee chain by the same name. Griggs spent summers as a teenager working in a factory, another of his dad’s businesses.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
“No one will outwork me,” he says. “That’s how I started, working in ticket sales. And I was relentless.”
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
For Griggs, the next relentless pursuit is his employees’ professional development. He instituted programs when he came to the Lightning but has made it a bigger focus since becoming CEO.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
The initiatives include a 10-week leadership program that Griggs started last year. Employees must apply to participate, and the group meets once a week to tackle a project — one of them was how to grow the Tampa Bay Storm, the arena football team that Vinik also owns. At the end, the group presents its plan to Griggs and Vinik.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
“I’m in the human capital business now,” Griggs says. “It’s about growing people, and finding those next great leaders for our organization.”
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
Griggs had that same focus at the Orlando Magic, said Alex Martins, team CEO.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
“Everybody that worked for him, I would say, would die on the sword for him,” Martins said, “because he was a great motivational leader and helped his employees grow.”
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
In one way, the Lightning is a victim of its own success. Employee turnover is low, which means it’s difficult to promote from within. Griggs recognizes some may eventually move on in order to move up.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
“If they do go, I want people to say they were Lightning made,” he said. “So they are strategic, analytical, accountable, high performing and at the end of the day, that they’re nice.”
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
Griggs says he’s a bit surprised by where the team is today. He’d thought success was possible but didn’t anticipate that it would be “as deep and as passionate” as it is.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
In some ways, he says, it all goes back to that phone call along I-4, when Vinik pitched him on the idea of building a “world-class” hockey organization in the heart of the Sunbelt.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
Did Griggs envision, on that evening in early August six years ago, a sold-out hockey arena, multiple playoff runs and a die-hard fan base?
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
“I guess I didn’t look that far out,” he says, grinning. “I was worried about if I was going to merge back onto I-4 without getting sideswiped.”
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
Ashley Gurbal Kritzer is senior reporter at the Tampa Bay Business Journal, an affiliated publication.
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| Griggs prepares to hand out a service award at the Puck Drop Rally this month for part-time employees at Amalie Arena. |
