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October 17, 2006
My favorite month is October. Baseball playoffs are in full swing, college football is well underway, there is a crispness in the autumn air, and college hoops start practice this weekend. Read an article from Joe Torre, the manager of the NY Yankees on winning. Now, I'll freely admit I am not one of the diehard Yankee fans and I am very pleased to see the Tigers do as well as they have this year, but I have always been impressed with Mr. Torre's ability to work effectively with a high profile boss, within the glare of the NY media, and with a bunch of highly paid talent. The August 21, 2006 issue of Business Week had an interview from Joe on winning.
I found a couple of comments in the interview useful for me, I kept the article just for this time of year. Hope you find the quotes useful as well.
"The great UCLA basketball coach John Wooden told me once that you can be prepared and have the best talent there is, but you can't necessarily control the outcome."
"...even with all the talent and resources we have here, having heart is what really makes a difference. As manager, or if you're running a company, you want to know that you can ask somebody to do something and that they are going to find a way to get the job done. That's the essence of a competitor."...."A winner is someone who goes out there every day and exhausts himself trying to get something accomplished. Being able to get the most out of their ability. That's what characterizes a winner."
Posted by chitch at October 17, 2006 3:45 PM
Comments
Chris,
Daryll Powell was famous in PEP for his insistence on the need for "passion" for the principalship. He regarded this quality as a great leveler, giving those with it the capacity to overcome holes in their technical skills, and making those without it, however technically proficient, as people we comply with, but we don't "follow" them. Now stuff does indeed happen, as the NY Yankees will attest, and there are many events well outside our control tha will influence our decisions and our destiny(think about John Bunting), but leaders who are resilient and persistent and committed to their principles will, more often than not, find the winning formula. Technology and technique matter, but without passion, what should matter most doesn't matter as much to lots of followers.
Ken
Posted by: Ken Jenkins at October 23, 2006 10:34 AM