Los Angeles Rams GM, Les Snead, Speaks with Turner Business

Los Angeles Rams general manager Les Snead was raised by a single mother, Pam Snead, in Eufaula, Alabama, who often had to work multiple jobs to make ends meet.  Seeing her rise from humble beginnings to becoming a pillar in the local community taught him many lessons about life, such as the value of hard work and developing grit, that helped him succeed in his journey as an All-State offensive lineman at Eufaula High School and as a reserve tight end on the 1993 Auburn University team that finished the season undefeated.  After a brief stint as a graduate assistant at Auburn University, Snead began his professional career, and his informal education in organizational leadership, in the NFL in 1995 as a talent scout with the Jacksonville Jaguars, an expansion franchise.  There, he worked for legendary coach Tom Coughlin, and over the first two years of Snead’s tenure in Jacksonville the team improved its regular season record from 4-12 to 9-7.  In that second season, the Jaguars went on to defeat the Buffalo Bills and Denver Broncos to reach the AFC Championship Game, which it lost to the New England Patriots.  In 1997, the Jaguars improved to 11-5 in the regular season, but fell to the Denver Broncos in the first round of the playoffs.

Snead then departed Jacksonville for a similar position with the Atlanta Falcons, a franchise that finished the 1998 season 14-2 and eventually earned an appearance in Super Bowl XXXIII.  There he worked for another legendary coach, Dan Reeves, and under the ownership of Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot. In 2009, Snead would rise to Director of Player Personnel.  At the end of his tenure with the Falcons, Snead was a key figure in the decision trade up in the NFL Draft in order to acquire the services of Julio Jones, a wide receiver from the University of Alabama.  In February of 2012, the St. Louis Rams hired Snead as the franchise’s general manager.  Among his first moves in St. Louis were the decision to draft kicker Greg Zuerlein, a future All-Pro, and to sign rookie free agent Johnny Hekker, a perennial All-Pro punter.  The Rams used a first-round pick in 2014 to select defensive lineman Aaron Donald, and in 2017 the Rams, now located in Los Angeles, acquired wide receiver Cooper Kupp.  After hiring current Rams head coach Sean McVay following the 2016 season, Snead orchestrated a blockbuster trade for star cornerback Jalen Ramsey in 2019.  More recently, Snead put together separate blockbuster trades whereby the Rams gained quarterback Matthew Stafford, defensive end Von Miller and wide receiver Odell Beckham, Jr.  All of these moves led to the roster than won Super Bowl LVI in 2022.

Snead recently spoke briefly with Turner Business about the importance of good organizational leadership.  We specifically queried Snead about business management and organizational leadership in his role as general manager of the Rams?  His answer is capsulized in the quotation below.

“It is hard.  Every day you have to exhaustively engineer collaboration – and we’re all collaborating to compete for something worth competing for.  We [here in the Rams organization] think leadership is about being influential [and] inspirational, [and] pulling instead of pushing or driving.” 

                                                                    Les Snead, General Manager, Los Angeles Rams

Snead’s views on leadership have been shaped by his personal and professional relationships with leaders in sports including Tom Coughlin, Dan Reeves, Terry Bowden, and Sean McVay, business moguls like Stan Kroenke and Arthur Blank, and writers/authors such as Ryan Holiday.  These relationships have facilitated his informal education in organizational leadership, which has supplemented his formal university education.  Readers of Turner Business who are interested in a formal education in organizational leadership can contact Student Services in the Turner College for information about its master’s degree program in organizational leadership.  The pages here at Turner Business demonstrate how Turner College graduates both form and, like Snead, benefit from a vast network of business professionals throughout the U.S. and beyond.  

Editor’s Note: Les Snead’s connection to the Turner College is an interesting one.  He is a lifelong friend of Turner College economist Frank Mixon, and Mixon’s brother, Paul, who works at TSYS in Columbus.