It’s the top of the eighth inning. The Phillies have just come from way back and lead the first-place Marlins, 7-5. Tom (Flash) Gordon, veteran Phils’ relief pitcher, is charged with holding the lead.
Watch for the great baseball moment coming — one that Inquirer baseball writer Jim Salisbury reported could easily be missed. It’s an even better leadership moment: Watch what can happen when a colleague — instead of the boss — challenges a fellow worker’s performance.
Watch for the great baseball moment coming — one that Inquirer baseball writer Jim Salisbury reported could easily be missed. It’s an even better leadership moment: Watch what can happen when a colleague — instead of the boss — challenges a fellow worker’s performance.
(I know this is another sports story, but it works.)
The inning starts badly. Gordon walks the first batter. The crowd begins to grouse.
Next batter up: Ball 1. (I hear boos.) Next pitch: Ball 2. (The boos are congealing.)
Suddenly Gordon is interrupted by movement over his right shoulder. Shortstop Jimmy Rollins, the only Phillie on the field wearing his uniform pants high enough to reveal his bright-red stockings, is jogging toward the mound. His gait is determined, his visit brief. What did Rollins say, I wonder. Something reassuring? Something more direct?
I say to my wife: “Maybe he told him, ‘Start throwing strikes or I’ll throw your street clothes in the shower.’ “
When the game resumes, the change in Gordon is immediate — three straight outs. And riding home in the car, I again wonder to my wife if Rollins hadn’t made a huge difference in the Phils’ victory.
Here’s how Gordon and Rollins recalled that moment on the mound.
“He got on my ass,” Gordon said in the locker room. “He said, ‘What the heck are you doing? Throw strikes. Babe Ruth’s dead.’ “
(Later, Gordon admitted he made up the Babe Ruth line. But as Salisbury wrote, it was a cool quote.)
What did Rollins really say to his teammate?
“I don’t know what I said, but it made sense to him,” Rollins said. “It was an important inning. I told him if he didn’t get out of it, I was going to talk about him. I just challenged him a little bit. We have respect for each other, and I knew there was a chance I could strike a chord with him.”
“After he talked to me, I just tried to be as nasty as I can,” Gordon said.
So think about what we’ve just witnessed. Normally in a game situation like this, one of Gordon’s bosses –- the pitching coach or the manager -– might visit him on the mound to “challenge him a bit.” But this was Rollins delivering the tough message -– Rollins the peer, Rollins the younger player, Rollins with the same number of stripes on his sleeve as his struggling teammate.
Could this have happened in your newsroom? Do members of your staff feel comfortable challenging each other –- not in a mean-spirited way, but in a spirit of shared concern for the organization’s success?
Or do people keep their concerns to themselves, leaving it to management to challenge those who are struggling or performing below expectations?
Rollins, I’d suggest, exhibited real leadership by stepping into what could have been a very uncomfortable situation and taking a risk. And reading back over his quotes, I think he revealed the reason he was able to take that risk and succeed.
“We have respect for each other,” Rollins said, “and I knew there was a chance I could strike a chord with him.”
In other words, the relationship these players already had established helped ensure that Rollins’ intervention would succeed. It’s very hard to create a culture of constructive criticism in the midst of a crisis. It’s much easier to create such a culture through our behavior at daily meetings, and in all of the other routine interactions we have each day.
Untimately, the responsibility for creating that culture lies with the organization’s leader. Rollins’ boss, Charlie Manuel, has issued some very clear, closed-door challenges to his players — but he’s also let them know that they can challenge each other without his intervention.
Think, leaders, of the opportunities you have to demonstrate to your staff that you want such a culture in your newsroom. For instance:
The inning starts badly. Gordon walks the first batter. The crowd begins to grouse.
Next batter up: Ball 1. (I hear boos.) Next pitch: Ball 2. (The boos are congealing.)
Suddenly Gordon is interrupted by movement over his right shoulder. Shortstop Jimmy Rollins, the only Phillie on the field wearing his uniform pants high enough to reveal his bright-red stockings, is jogging toward the mound. His gait is determined, his visit brief. What did Rollins say, I wonder. Something reassuring? Something more direct?
I say to my wife: “Maybe he told him, ‘Start throwing strikes or I’ll throw your street clothes in the shower.’ “
When the game resumes, the change in Gordon is immediate — three straight outs. And riding home in the car, I again wonder to my wife if Rollins hadn’t made a huge difference in the Phils’ victory.
Here’s how Gordon and Rollins recalled that moment on the mound.
“He got on my ass,” Gordon said in the locker room. “He said, ‘What the heck are you doing? Throw strikes. Babe Ruth’s dead.’ “
(Later, Gordon admitted he made up the Babe Ruth line. But as Salisbury wrote, it was a cool quote.)
What did Rollins really say to his teammate?
“I don’t know what I said, but it made sense to him,” Rollins said. “It was an important inning. I told him if he didn’t get out of it, I was going to talk about him. I just challenged him a little bit. We have respect for each other, and I knew there was a chance I could strike a chord with him.”
“After he talked to me, I just tried to be as nasty as I can,” Gordon said.
So think about what we’ve just witnessed. Normally in a game situation like this, one of Gordon’s bosses –- the pitching coach or the manager -– might visit him on the mound to “challenge him a bit.” But this was Rollins delivering the tough message -– Rollins the peer, Rollins the younger player, Rollins with the same number of stripes on his sleeve as his struggling teammate.
Could this have happened in your newsroom? Do members of your staff feel comfortable challenging each other –- not in a mean-spirited way, but in a spirit of shared concern for the organization’s success?
Or do people keep their concerns to themselves, leaving it to management to challenge those who are struggling or performing below expectations?
Rollins, I’d suggest, exhibited real leadership by stepping into what could have been a very uncomfortable situation and taking a risk. And reading back over his quotes, I think he revealed the reason he was able to take that risk and succeed.
“We have respect for each other,” Rollins said, “and I knew there was a chance I could strike a chord with him.”
In other words, the relationship these players already had established helped ensure that Rollins’ intervention would succeed. It’s very hard to create a culture of constructive criticism in the midst of a crisis. It’s much easier to create such a culture through our behavior at daily meetings, and in all of the other routine interactions we have each day.
Untimately, the responsibility for creating that culture lies with the organization’s leader. Rollins’ boss, Charlie Manuel, has issued some very clear, closed-door challenges to his players — but he’s also let them know that they can challenge each other without his intervention.
Think, leaders, of the opportunities you have to demonstrate to your staff that you want such a culture in your newsroom. For instance:
- Ask your staff for feedback on your own performance, and demonstrate by your reaction how safe it is to “challenge” someone in your newsroom. If it’s okay to challenge you and receive a full hearing, others will feel safer to challenge each other.
- Invite feedback from the public and demonstrate that you want your staff to consider criticism on its merits, not circle the wagons.
- Discourage mean-spiritedness among staffers, and support good-faith efforts to raise questions about each other’s work.
- Make it clear during meetings that you welcome the opinions of everyone in the room –- no matter where they fall in the newsroom hierarchy –- as long as they offered their ideas and observations in good faith.
Remember, leader: As a staffer, I am watching and listening to you, deciding what you value.
If you respond defensively to feedback, second-guess your staff’s decisions and manage by directive, I will learn those rules well and play it safe. I will accept only as much responsibility for my colleagues’ performance as my job description requires.
But if you show me, day after day, that you welcome my ideas, value my expertise and support my best efforts to make sound decisions, I may well take a few risks. I might even challenge my colleagues without invoking your name.
It’s every leader’s choice: Build an organization that values stripes on the sleeve, or one that values shared responsibility and mutual respect.
One is a great recipe for loneliness. One is a team game.
Which do you choose?
