Tonight, we’re taking our team out to the ballpark!
It has become an annual rite of spring to see our AA Minor League Birmingham Barons play.
Last year, they won the Southern League Championship, and from a historical perspective, the Barons were the team basketball legend Michael Jordan played with in 1994.
I enjoy our Barons outings, especially when considering the unique challenges faced by a baseball manager throughout a season: players get hurt, players go into slumps, some get called up to a higher level, while others move down. Every day, every game, it’s more than just the split-second decision to hit away or bunt with the winning runner on third—it’s the grinding challenge of roster management, and above all, instilling a winning clubhouse culture.
As a business owner, the challenges are similar and plentiful. Like unexpectedly losing a key employee. While it’s not the first or last time it will happen, you need to have both the mindset and the plan in place to keep everything moving in the right direction. For you as a leader, and for every active team member, the workday never begins with a goal of achieving mediocre results. The top-to-bottom plan is for building and maintaining competitive excellence within a culture of excellence.
The skills of an exceptional employee are cut from the same cloth as a world-class athlete. Yes, there will be bad days in the office—some the equivalent of throwing an interception, even a Pick 6. Yet, the great ones have the motivation to push through obstacles and get back on track. Winning is not easy. Losing is even harder. But it is those losses that condition the drive to be ready to win.
Team reality: key player out. Team challenge: next player up. Team strength: a deep pool of team members coached, encouraged, and prepared to step up when a higher-performance role presents itself. While we deeply appreciate the employee who is leaving, we look forward to who is next up. The plan is already in motion.
The pursuit of competitive excellence is relentless and practiced only by a select few. Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi stated it best: “It’s not the will to win that matters—everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”
Be prepared. It happens!