Sean Henry is the CEO, President and Alternate Governor of the National Hockey League’s Nashville Predators and Bridgestone Arena. He has been with the Predators since September 2010, as President and Alternate Governor, but assumed the role as CEO in December 2015. Previously, he served for 11 years as the Executive Vice President and COO of the Tampa Bay Lightning (the Lightning won their 1st Stanley Cup in 2004 while Sean was an executive), two years as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing with Unity Motion and 14 years with Volume Services Inc., where he worked with the Detroit Pistons, St. Louis Rams and the Washington Redskins. He serves on the boards of the Nashville Predators Foundation, YWCA of Nashville and Middle Tennessee, Nashville Downtown Partnership, Nashville Sports Council, Nashville Chamber of Commerce, the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, and The Sports Fund. He has been married to his wife for 31 years and they have 4 children.
1. Walk us through your morning routine.
I don’t sleep a lot – never have. I get up naturally around 4:30am – I don’t think I have ever set an alarm in my life. Once I’m up, I take the dogs out and feed deer in my backyard every morning. After that, I go inside, finish making coffee and read a couple of newspapers. I set up drafts for emails but I hate to send emails before 8am. I try to read a couple chapters of a book in the morning too. By the time I’m reading, my wife and daughter are getting up. I take my daughter to school a couple times each week. I try to get into the office between 8:30am – 9:30am. I despise breakfast meetings and will rarely take one. I’d rather be at home preparing for the day ahead, and having breakfast with my family before really diving into work.
2. Do you have an exercise routine?
I try to walk/run 3 miles a day – I do light workouts throughout the day. When I work from home, I take 15 minutes or so throughout the day to get in little bouts of exercise. I play tennis, pickle ball, and walk my dogs. My buddy and I played in a neighborhood pickle ball tournament, but I’m equally as bad at pickle ball as I am at tennis.
3. Do you follow a specific diet? Share a little about how you approach nutrition
I love food. I started my career in the food and beverage industry. Sunday dinner is a really big thing at our house. On Sunday nights we have a wide assortment of people over– neighbors, acquaintances, friends, family and others. From a pure nutrition standpoint, I love fruits and vegetables. I bring a bag radishes to work every day and people give me hard time for it. There are bowls of radishes all throughout the office — I love radishes. For breakfast I’ll have some fruit.
4. How many hours do you sleep each night?
On a game night I get home around 10:30pm to 10:45pm – if we lose, I rewatch the game twice and if we win I rewatch it once. When I rewatch the games on my TV, I look at how we are doing as a team and I’m also looking at the broadcast quality. I’ll normally fall asleep around 1am on a game night. I roughly get 4-5 hrs per night.
5. Do you have any life mottos or principles you follow?
Do the right thing – I often reference the MLK quote that says “it’s always the right time to do the right thing”. But I am not perfect at this and always strive to be better. If you approach every situation looking to do what is right, things will turn out much better.
I also believe in giving back and so does our organization. Every employee gives back 40 hours per year or more in various community service efforts.
Our GM, David Poile (the most successful GM in NHL history with the most number of wins) often shares a sentiment I strongly agree with too which is “protect the game” & “protect each other”.
6. How do you approach setting goals?
This is where I take a fork in the road – I am not the guy with 5 business books under my arm constantly reviewing my goals. My goals are 75,000 feet, high level, overarching goals. My goals are big items such as: compete and win the Stanley Cup while also being the best arena in the world. I believe in making GIANT and bold goals – if you say I want us to be the 10th best concert arena in the world, we’ll probably be 15th, but if I say we want to be #1 and work towards that goal, the outcomes will be much better.
In my personal life, I do not understand 5 year goals. In my opinion, personal goals are selfish. I often get some flack for saying this but I really just try to focus on being the best employee, colleague, friend, person I can be and everything else will follow. I’ve been promoted more times than I should have early in my career, and I wouldn’t be able to do that if I had created 5 year goals. Do your best now and good things will happen.
7. What is your favorite way to learn new things?
I read everything. I am inquisitive in everything I do– work, hobbies, etc.. Everything I study and learn, even if not “work related” almost always ties back into how I can make improvements at work. I am in the hospitality industry – I tell people on my team and in our industry that if you are not going to Disney or Las Vegas every year, you are failing. Whether you like those places or not, they are innovative and great sources of inspiration. Every time I go out to the grocery store, the gas station, etc. I am learning things that I can apply to our business. I believe you can learn just as much at a Motel 6 as you can at a $3 billion stadium. I am constantly learning from my environment.
8. Is there a particular game that is most memorable to you?
There are a bunch, but a few stand out over the course of my life.
1. I got to work and service Yankee Stadium (I am huge Yankee fan!) during the 1996 World Series. I was standing on a fork lift behind the outfield fence and got to watch the last out. It was a pretty special moment – Dave Winfield picked me up and started hugging me like a rag doll. This was my first experience of merging work with being a fan.
2. When I was with Tampa Bay and we won the Stanley Cup, that was awesome. I was sitting with my family – my brother, wife, kids, etc.. I got to experience the pinnacle of sports achievements with my family around!
3. The first standing ovation at Bridgestone Arena– there is a tradition that at the last timeout when our team needs a pump up, the fans go crazy (even if there isn’t a goal or anything to celebrate) and it is really cool. The first time I saw it the Predators were down by 2 goals with 40 seconds left in the game. The fans went crazy and we tied it up to take the game to overtime.
9. If you could leave one piece of advice for someone younger, what would you share?
Be more patient. Patience truly is a virtue. I mean that in everything. Your career is like golf – you are only chasing yourself. It is harder today because on social media you see people getting fancy cars, titles, etc. Worry about yourself and take inventory of your own life. If you are happy, great! If you aren’t then figure out what needs to change.
Stop chasing money. It is important but not everything. If you do something great the money will follow.
Bring your family along for everything – whatever opportunities you have, include your family. Having my family involved in so much of my career has made it that much more rewarding and memorable.
10. Is there anything that you haven’t done that you still want to do?
I want to coach and support my grandkids in every sport they want to play (except hockey!). I am expecting my first granddaughter and I want to support whatever she wants to do — sports, music, art or anything she is passionate about.
I would also like to bring at least 1 Stanley Cup to Nashville – the city deserves it, the fans deserve it and it definitely something I would like to happen.