“Keep your eye everlastingly on the ball while it is in play. It is more vital to know just where the ball fell, or a thrown ball finished up, than whether or not a runner missed a base.”

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In business, do we keep our eye on the ball - our goals and our mission statement - or is our attention elsewhere? What is the most important part of our business?  Our customers? Our people? Our Profit? In a baseball game, the most important thing is the ball.  Can you imagine if an umpire tried to call a pitch with his eyes closed? Or a batter tried to hit or catch a ball without looking at it? We need to keep the main thing the main thing, whatever that is in your business.  Identifying what the ball is and keeping your focus on it is vital to your success in business. 

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“A most important rule for umpires is always BE IN POSITION TO SEE EVERY PLAY. Even though your decision may be 100 percent right, players still question it if they feel you were not in a spot to see the play clearly and definitely.”

 

Where do you lead from? Are you leading from your office behind closed doors? Or constantly typing on your computer or smart phone? Or are you out on the floor or in the field where you can see what is happening on a day to day basis? An umpire must always strive to have the right angle to see a play and not become “blocked out” in order to rule correctly. If they are not fully able to see the whole play, the chances lessen a correct ruling will be rendered. When critical decisions need to be made in our business, do we have the correct perspective on the issue? Have we gathered the data with our own eyes? It can make for a difficult choice if we don’t have the right angle.

 

“You no doubt are going to make mistakes, but never attempt to even up after having made one. Make all decisions as you see them and forget which is the home or visiting club.”

 

Nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes. The question is, how do we respond to our mistakes? When MLB Veteran Umpire Jim Joyce missed a call that cost Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game, he immediately went to the locker room to apologize. He took every interview and admitted his mistake to the world. He didn’t make excuses or blame someone else. He accepted the responsibility and held himself accountable. And he LEARNED from it. Soon after, he was voted by the MLB players as the Best Umpire in the Major Leagues. How do we handle mistakes that are made by ourselves or others in our organization? Do we blame others or do we take ownership and learn from them?

 

“You are the only official representative of baseball on the ball field. It is often a trying position which requires the exercise of much patience and good judgment, but do not forget that the first essential in working out of a bad situation is to keep your own temper and self-control. When you enter a ball park your sole duty is to umpire a ball game as the representative of baseball.”

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As a leader in your organization, you are a representative of that company 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Over the years, we’ve all heard of employees being fired for things they do or say while they are not at work. Social media posts, domestic issues, or issues with behavior that are caught on tape have all lead to dismissals. Most of your friends and family (and adversaries) know who employs you and as such, you should be aware that your actions outside of the office reflect on your company just as much as they do inside the office. We are often hired for our competencies (what we can do), but fired for our character (absenteeism, behavior, work ethic). In other words, what we bring to the table is important to getting a job, but our character is imperative to keeping the job.

Using patience and good judgment in a bad situation is not always easy. It requires us to RESPOND vs. REACT. There is a big difference between these words. Think back to arguments you’ve had in the past. Did your volume rise? Did you say things you wish you hadn’t? A measuring stick I use on the field is this: “When my volume increases, my IQ decreases.” When we REACT to situations, we often start yelling and don’t think about what we are saying. But when we RESPOND, we stop, we think, we breathe, we listen, and then we start to work out a solution.

 

“Take full charge of, and be responsible for, the proper conduct of the game”

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Have you ever noticed that before every baseball game the umpires conduct a short meeting at the plate? Line-ups are exchanged and ground rules are discussed. At that point, the umpires are officially in charge of the game. They are charged with holding players and coaches to a certain standard. What standards do we hold our managers and employees to? Do we hold them accountable? Do we expect them to play hard but be respectful of others? Umpires lead by example. They often times “set the tone” for the way the game is going to be played. How do we as leaders in our organizations, set the tone for the way our company is going to be run? My philosophy tends to follow the three F’s. Be Fair, Be Firm, and Be Friendly.

 

Lots of folks ask me about umpiring and officiating in general. They ask what the most difficult sport to officiate is and I always reply baseball. The reasoning behind it is that in baseball, umpires always have to make a call. It’s either a strike or a ball, it’s either fair or foul, or it’s either safe or out. In other sports, officials have the opportunity to decide NOT to make a call. They can pass on a holding penalty if it didn’t affect a play, or “play on” if an advantage wasn’t gained, and in some cases where they have off-setting penalties, they replay the down.

 

Unfortunately, in business we rarely get the opportunity for a do-over. We must be clear about our goals and make our best decisions by putting ourselves in position to see things clearly, admitting when we make mistakes and learning from them, and by holding ourselves and our colleagues to a higher standard. So the next time you decide to watch a game, I urge you to focus on the umpires for a few innings. Watch how they run the game, deal with players and coaches, and put themselves in position to see every play. You just might learn something helpful.  PLAY BALL!