Derek Jeter and Winning Teams
SteveLast week Sports Illustrated named New York Yankee captain Derek Jeter as its 'Sportsman of the Year', an annual designation given to the person or team that best exemplifies success, integrity, and class.
For those not familiar with Jeter, he has been the Yankee shortstop for 14 seasons, and has helped the team win 5 World Series championships during that time, including the 2009 season that was recently concluded.
Jeter, while individually an outstanding player, is more revered for his reputation as a 'winning' player, one whose contributions to team success are actually greater than what can be found be simply reviewing his statistical performance. In the Sports Illustrated piece, Jeter shared what be felt were the five barriers to team success, and while they were described in a sports context, I think there are many lessons for business and personal success that can be drawn.
1. Individuals who don't care about winning
In sports, there is success, and there is winning championships. Some players (and teams) are satisifed with having 'good' years. Decent results, perhaps winning a few more games that they lose, but not really competing seriously for championships.
2. Self-promoters
Players that care more about themselves than the team, and make it a point to constantly draw attention to themselves can be a detriment to team success. Can we say 'personal branding' anyone? I am starting to think the incredible increase in focus on employee's personal brands could start to inhibit team performance and success. If your team of five folks has four that are obsessing over their personal brands, I think you are going to have a hard time winning.
3. Looking only at statistics
Baseball is a complex game, and while seemingly every activity is recorded, tracked, and analyzed statistically, there are still many nuances of the game, critical to winning, that are not measured quantitatively. In organizations the primary measurement of employees is an annual performance review score. But in many organizations these reviews are done poorly, don't necessarily reflect all the contributions people make to team success, and can actually be biased and misleading. Perhaps more effort should be exerted in companies to uncover these 'hidden' contributions, one way is by using Social Network Analysis.
4. Injury talk
To Jeter, no one cares if you are injured. "You either play, or you don't play. No one wants to know what's bothering you. Sometimes it's a built-in excuse for failure." In the organization there are always going to be constraints and limitations. Competitors will have bigger budgets, regulators will impose ridiculous rules, your technology will be inferior, or people will get sick or go on vacation at the worst possible time. You know what? No one cares. Either you can get the job done, or you can't.
5. Negativity
When Jeter had gone though an 32 at bats (about 8 games) without a hit early in his career, he refused to admit that he was in a batting slump. Focusing on the negative in situations becomes a habit, and it gets too easy to constantly approach situations with why you can't do something instead of how you will get it done. I was on a major system implementation once, on a team of about 30 people that was beset with this kind of negativity. Finally we declared a new policy, no more 'problems' could be logged on the official 'issues list' without first solving one of the open issues. We started to focus more on solving problems in a positive manner instead of just battling each other to uncover more problems, and perpetuate the negativity.
I am a New York Mets fan, so it is not easy to write a post about a Yankeee, but Jeter has been such a winner that it is impossible not to respect what he has accomplished.
I'll close with an example of a 'winning play' that would never appear in the box score from the 2001 playoffs.
Reader Comments (10)
Ok, I can't pass up commenting on this because I am a big Jeter fan. I like how you show us that what can make someone successful (or not) as part of a sports team applies to the business world. I would also add that one thing I like about Derek Jeter is his sense of humor. He appears occasionally on Saturday Night Live and while certainly an unlikely comedian, he always nails it and can laugh at himself. I think that too is a good quality that business pros need to have. Know when to laugh with your colleagues or your team. Love the post Steve. The only thing I would have wanted was a big picture of Derek :-)
Hi Steve
Great post, great analogies, and not just because I am a lifelong Yankee fan (who manages to watch the games in England only thanks to mlb.com).
What will non-baseball afficiandos not see in the Clip? Jeter was not even supposed to be in that play. The throw from right field missed the 'cutoff man'. Jeter took initiative, had vision to see what might happen if that happened and turned a sure losing situation into a win. And, all without looking for or asking for any special recognition.
Steve,
Great post - I like the parallels between sports and biz and even as a Red Sox fan - I agree that this guy is a winner, and a great leader as well.
Your second point regarding 'personal branding' is particularly interesting - I don't think we should be necessarily encouraging people to not build out a strong personal brand, but as you said, that can't be the sole focus - people need to be talking about what those individual brand contributions bring to the team as a whole and as a result, what is the collective brand of the team that can make them all successful. Good stuff here Steve.
@Trish - Thanks - putting up a glamour shot of Jeter is exactly the wrong move, he is about the team :)
@Alan - Thanks and you are 100% right. That play took foresight, adaptability, as well as skill. Totally a 'team' move, but only one that a great individual player could make
@Jason - I appreciate the comments, the 'personal branding' issue to me still has a long way to play out. As more and more people develop their own 'brands' organizational management, support, and leverage of these brands will be more in the forefront in 2010.
You find it difficult to write such a post about Jeter because you are Mets fan. How do you think I feel as a Phillies fan!?
@Perry - As a Phillies fan you have to be feeling a bit tired of hearing how fantastic Jeter is I imagine!
Actually, Steve, Jeter is probably the one Yankee I like! And Sabathia, because anyone who can be that good and physically make me look athletic is sure ok in my book.
Perry
@Perry - Great point, Sabathia gives all of us 'not quite in perfect shape' guys some hope!
You had a phrase in this post called Social Media Analysis, what do you mean by that? Thanks.
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