Championing the Cause of Leadership

Ted Meyer

Description

Whether you are a baseball fan or not, reading Championing the Cause of Leadership will deepen your skillset as a leader and could dramatically improve the future of your team.

If your organization is not performing at its best, this book is for you. It puts you right into the shoes of the leaders of the great baseball dynasties and demonstrates how they overcame challenges common to those in our own teams and groups. Topics include managing and motivating highly talented but dysfunctional individuals, turning around careers that have stalled late in life, better understanding the practical benefits of diversity and inclusion, and inspiring individuals to find their best within the context of their teams.

Meyer combines his over thirty years representing some of the world’s top companies with his deep knowledge of baseball history and looks at leadership from a brand-new perspective. Learn the value of encouraging leadership from all levels in your organization. Discover the critical importance of leaders coming to terms with their own internal demons before they can reach their full potential. Unlock the secrets of how to out-perform the competition in times of intense pressure and how to find opportunity in times of crisis.

The stories of the greatest teams of our greatest game are wildly entertaining and provide unique insight into our own success. Whether you are a baseball fan or not, reading Championing the Cause of Leadership will deepen your skillset as a leader and could dramatically improve the future of your team.

Sujets

• Gestion et management
• motivation
• Assertiveness
• Economics
• Business
• Leadership

Informations

• Publié par: Business Expert Press
• Date de parution: 24 février 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 4
• EAN13: 9781637421994
• Langue: English

Extrait

Championing the Cause of Leadership
Championing the Cause of Leadership
A Look at the Baseball Dynasties
Ted Meyer
Championing the Cause of Leadership: A Look at the Baseball Dynasties
Copyright © Business Expert Press, LLC, 2022.
Cover design by Isabelle Zimmerman
Interior design by Exeter Premedia Services Private Ltd., Chennai, India
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations, not to exceed 400 words, without the prior permission of the publisher.
First published in 2022 by
Business Expert Press, LLC
222 East 46th Street, New York, NY 10017
www.businessexpertpress.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-63742-198-7 (paperback)
ISBN-13: 978-1-63742-199-4 (e-book)
Business Expert Press Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior Collection
Collection ISSN: 1946-5637 (print)
Collection ISSN: 1946-5645 (electronic)
First edition: 2022
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my late grandfather Francis Richard Everds for teaching me to love the game of baseball and respect the men in it.
Description
If your group, team, or organization is not performing at its best, this book is for you. It puts you right into the shoes of the leaders of the great baseball dynasties and demonstrates how they overcame challenges very similar to those we face in business today such as how to reign in highly talented but dysfunctional members of your team, turning around careers that have stalled late in life, how to plan for the future during down cycles in your business, helping your team truly understand the practical benefits of diversity and inclusion, and many more.
Meyer combines his 30 years of representing some of the world’s top companies with his deep knowledge of baseball history and looks at leadership from a brand-new perspective—that of the small group of professional baseball teams that became dynasties in one of the most competitive environments of all—the major leagues. This book provides guidance and best practices for encouraging and embracing leadership from all levels in your organization. It addresses the relevance of leaders coming to terms with their own internal struggles and conflicts before they, and as a result their team, can reach their full potential. It teaches how to build a professional and winning culture, the importance of balance, and achieving radical innovation. And it provides example after example of very talented individuals finding their best selves within the context of their teams.
The stories of greatest teams of our greatest game are wildly entertaining, and given the American origin of baseball, they are very applicable to success of any group or team. Whether you are a baseball fan or not, reading Championing the Cause of Leadership is a great way to deepen your skillset as a leader and put your team over the top.
Keywords
culture; leadership; crisis management; diversity and inclusion; turnaround; bad behavior; long-term planning; innovation; teamwork; sustained success
Contents
Preface
Chapter 1 Greatness in the Moment
Chapter 2 Dynasty in Technicolor
Chapter 3 Competition, Survival, and the Emergence of More Powerful Forces
Chapter 4 The First Dynasty
Chapter 5 As One of Nine Men
Chapter 6 The Forgotten Elephants
Chapter 7 Balancing Act
Chapter 8 Too Many Wrong Mistakes
Chapter 9 Chaos
Chapter 10 Moments of Impact
Chapter 11 Smartest Guy in the Room
Afterword: A Life Well Lived
About the Author
References
Acknowledgments
Index
Preface
This book is the culmination of over 30 years of devotion to two passions. The first passion is serving clients. As a management-side labor and employment lawyer, I have worked closely with clients, large and small, on leadership and organizational success. I help them plan. I help them solve problems. I represent them in disputes and work with them on how to avoid them. I have learned a great deal about why some clients succeed in business and why others don’t. My second passion is learning the history of baseball. I am fascinated with the game primarily because it mirrors so much of who we are as people and as a society. For a long time, I viewed the former as a job and the latter as a hobby. But at some point, the line between the two blurred, and I began to understand the specific ways the two intersect. In so doing, I have discovered many parallels—and have come to believe that we can learn a great deal about how to find excellence in our organizations, teams, and groups from studying the game of baseball.
The sport of baseball came into being in the early 1800s. It has no single point of origin but rather evolved from a combination of several other games, including cricket, rounders, and town ball. Its rules, metrics, and distances also developed as the game took hold. Part of the reason I believe it became popular was that it is a game that could be played by anyone, anywhere. Men and women of all ages played the game. Teams and leagues were established for everyone who wanted to play. Soldiers on each side of the Civil War played baseball. Both amateurs and professionals played in parks and school grounds. There have been leagues of all kinds, including schools, churches, synagogues, prisons, towns, companies, and industries. Baseball’s broad appeal has resulted in the experiences and memories of the game being passed on from generation to generation. The sounds and rhythms of baseball are familiar to and ingrained in all of us.
The language of the game has permeated all segments of society. Succeeding at a client presentation is “hitting a home run.” Perceived perfection is “batting a thousand.” Being close to an agreement means that you are “in the ballpark.” When we work carefully to prepare, we are “covering all the bases.” An unusual or unexpected idea is “out of left field.” These phrases are commonly used, widely understood, and don’t require an explanation. This language is second nature and is, I believe, used not only to communicate a concept but also to allow the speaker to connect at a deeper level with the listener. And it is a reminder of how much more alike we are than different. Baseball connects us in ways that very few other things do.
To best illustrate the concepts in this book, I decided to focus on the most outstanding teams—the dynasties. Doing this created challenges as there are probably some 25 or more great teams who might qualify as dynasties and who have been labeled as such by the historians of the game. As a result, I needed to establish guidelines for which teams would qualify. Webster defines a dynasty as a powerful group or family that maintains its position for a considerable time. In sports, this definition has taken on a requirement of winning multiple championships in a short period, including doing one of the most challenging things to do in competitive sports—repeat as champions after winning one the year before. Winning many games in one season isn’t enough. Winning one title isn’t enough. Winning a championship every other year isn’t enough. So, I settled on the teams who met the following four-pronged test:

1. Winning championships in at least two successive years.
2. Being a dominant team for at least four years.
3. Being the best team of their era.
4. Being generally regarded by historians as a dynasty team.
The difference between those who are and are not on the list is razor-thin, but that is the point. Part of championship success is knowing how to navigate those key pressure moments that do not present themselves often but that the champions (in sports and life) learn to handle, and in some cases, even learn to embrace. How teams successfully dealt with these moments—which can be as short as one day, one inning, or one pitch in the last inning of the last game of a seven-game series following a seven-month season—is particularly important, and just as critical in life.
There were other challenges in identifying the dynasty teams such as comparing teams before and after free agency, changes in the rules over time, and changes in the number of teams eligible for the postseason. Before 1969, only two teams made the postseason—the winners of the National and American Leagues. As of 2020, ten teams made the postseason, and the ultimate champion had to win two or three rounds of playoffs and then win the World Series. When I started this project, I was concerned that I would have to make explanations and assumptions to address these issues. But after studying the dynasty teams, players, coaches, and front-office leaders on those teams, I learned that the greatest teams would always find a way to win and that the cream always rose to the top.
By far, the biggest challenge in identifying the greatest dynasties stemmed from the fact that for nearly half of the 20th century, our so-called American pastime systematically excluded men of color. While this robbed those players of the opportunity to compete in the major leagues, it also deprived fans of all races from seeing the highest level of competition the game could offer. Having separate leagues divided solely by race was bad for everyone. But after studying the Negro League players and teams, I am more convinced than ever that they would have been very competitive in the major leagues and that the elite among them would have ranked among the dynasty teams. As such, I have included teams from the Negro Leagues in this study.
I also realized that the impact of the integration of baseball on American society could not be overstated. After Jackie Robinson opened the door in 1947, other great players followed, including Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, and Roberto Clemente. While progress was slow at first, their efforts and the efforts of other minority players allowed for multiple generations of Americans to see players of dif