Terry Francona On Leadership

I’m an avid student of leadership and a huge fan of the Red Sox, so I was drawn to an interview of Terry Francona (manager of the Red Sox) in the Washington Post. In this video interview, Steve Pearlstein asks Francona a number of questions about his leadership style.

Here are some insights from the interview:

Alignment through vision: Francona says that he tries to create an atmosphere where good players want to do the right thing; they show up on time and play the game the right way. To do that, he tries to get everyone going the same direction without a ton of meetings. His view of daily meetings: players “will get deaf with you.”

• My take: Leaders need to paint a clear vision that aligns the actions of their entire organization.  

Unofficial leaders: There are many leaders in the Red Sox clubhouse; Francona mentions Jason Varitek, Dustin Pedroia, and Jason Bay. He says that they lead by example. Other players respect it when they see you grind through injuries, slumps, and successes.

• My take: Identify and enlist the “unofficial” leaders throughout your organization.
  

ROI of fun: Francona thinks it’s important for the players to have a lot of fun and enjoy what they’re doing.

• My take: People will work harder and better if they enjoy what they do. So make to invest (time and money) on making things enjoyable. Think of it this way: There’s significant ROI from enjoyability.
  

Power of culture: The clubhouse belongs to the players; Francona thinks they should police things on their own.

• My take: Create a culture where people are committed to your mission and they expect the same from others.
  

Honesty matters: You need to be honest with players; even if it’s not what they want to hear. In the long-run, they’ll respect you for doing that.

• My take: This goes along with a quote that I love from Jack Welch: “Deal with the world as it is, not how you’d like it to be.”
  

Keep talking: Francona felt that the most critical interaction with players is after “butting heads” with them when things have gone wrong; you need to talk about how to fix things. It makes for stronger relationships.

• My take: Always keep the lines of communications open; especially when it’s seemingly the hardest.

The bottom line: I’m rooting for a lot of success from Francona’s leadership!

Leadership Advice From An MLB Umpire

The Red Sox loss last night was painful, but I think (sadly) that the better team won. Tampa Bay has a great crop of young, exciting players.

Rather than using this post to drown in my baseball sorrow, I decided to highlight an interesting article in USA Today that has a Q&A with Randy Marsh, one of the best umpires in major league baseball. I really liked a call-out with the following “Words of Wisdom” from Marsh:

• Close calls are not as difficult as unexpected calls.
• Preparation is the backbone of quick decisions.
• When it’s not covered by the rules, use fair play and common sense.
• Go with your gut. When you can, ask your crew.
• Be consistent and approachable. Stay professional when others get angry.
• Some errors are correctable. Live with those that are not.

The bottom line: Business execs can definitely learn from an MLB umpire.

Off Topic: Another Opening Day At Fenway Park

Today is the Red Sox home opener at Fenway Park. For those of you who are not in or from the Boston area, then you might not understanding the significance: This is a local holiday. It’s up there with Thanksgiving, 4th of July, Memorial Day, and our own Patriots Day (which has nothing to do with our football team). This year it will be an even bigger deal than normal; they’re handing out the World Series Championship rings.

I went to my first Red Sox opening day game last year, it was a great experience. But I was sadly unable to get tickets for this year’s event.

Given all of the hoopla, it’s a good time to ask: Why is Fenway Park so popular?

There are actually a lot of good reasons to stay away from Fenway Park:

• It’s not cheap. The average cost for a family of 4 to go to Fenway Park is $320.71. It’s the most expensive park across Major League baseball and is nearly $130 above the national average of $191.75. 
• Tickets aren’t easy to get. Thousands/millions of avid fans turn on their computers on the morning of the designated days that Red Sox tickets go on sale. We sit in front of our computers all day waiting in the ”virtual waiting room” (VWR). Even after spending an entire day in the VWR, many people don’t get awarded the honor of buying tickets.
• The seats aren’t comfortable. In just about every area of the park you are treated to seats that were designed for very little people. The seats are narrow and the rows are right on top of each other. Don’t even think about putting down your soda or beer.
• The stadium is crowded. Many of the passageways at Fenway are narrow and can’t handle the foot traffic. Trying to go from the infield to the outfield on the first base side of the field is like trying to navigate through rush hour traffic on a Friday night. 
• The views aren’t great. The park is full of seats that have some sort of obstructed view; from the poles in the grandstand to the walkway traffic that bothers the first few rows in the expensive Loge boxes. But maybe my favorite obstruction is in the right field box seats. All of those seats are angled towards center field (not the batter), so you need to turn your head and look over thousands of people to see the game.

All of these issues turn out to be completely irrelevant. Fenway Park is not about comfort or convenience; it’s about leaving the real world behind and entering into a fantasy world where the only thing that matters is a Red Sox victory. All of the problems or distractions in your life seem to magically disappear when you walk into Fenway and are immediately engulfed in the rich tradition of Yaz, Ted Williams, and David Ortiz. I still feel like a little kid everytime I walk into the park and get a glimpse of the Green Monster (maybe that’s why the seats are so small).

I’ll miss opening day, but I’ll be there Friday night rooting against the Yankees. I was one of the lucky ones in the VWR. Go Sox!

The bottom line: Fenway Park is more like a magical Disney experience than it is a wonderful baseball stadium.

Mashup: Halloween + Red Sox + CxP

If you’ve been reading my blog, you probably know that I am really passionate about customer experience (CxP) and the Red Sox. This post combines those topics with the topic of the day: Halloween — it’s a real mashup.

I’ll start with the end of the story; this picture of a 2007 World Series ticket signed by Jason Varitek: 

Now for the rest of the story, starting from the beginning…

I went trick-or-treating with my daughter (who was dressed as Betty Rizzo from Grease – very cute!) and a couple of her friends. As we circled around our normal Halloween route in the neighborhood, we heard from one of our friends that Jason Varitek and Mike Lowell had been to their house trick-or-treating with their kids. [Note: Jason Varitek lives in our neighborhood during the baseball season -- but we don't often see him]. 

Well, that got the neighborhood buzzing. Everyone was on the lookout for Jason who was dressed up in a bright orange jump suit and Mike Lowell who had some mask on.  We didn’t see them during our route and when we went to the Varitek house to trick-or-treat, they had run out of treats (that’s not surprising, since it seemed that every kid within a 2 mile radius had come by their house). But there was no sightings of any Red Sox players.

We continued on our route and came back by the Varitek house on our way home. There was a huge commotion and we found Jason sitting on a wall in front of his house signing autographs. He was great with the kids, signing everything that they put in front of him — from baseballs to foreheads. He signed my daughter’s pink jacket and signed one of her friend’s blue jeans.

So I called my son who was home giving away candy who came rushing over to the Varitek house. We were lucky enough to experience the first game of the World Series at Fenway Park, so my son brought his ticket. Jason was nice enough to sign it. That’s the story of the signed ticket above.

Now to bring in the customer experience piece of the story. It’s all about ”Tek.” He’s already loved by Red Sox Nation because of his great play on the field and his leadership in the club house. So he did not need to spend a couple of hours giving out signatures on his front walk. But he did. And he did it graciously. That’s great customer experience!

The bottom line: What an awesome treat for Halloween!

Red Sox Nation Takes Over The World (Series)

 If I could represent euphoria with words, then I’d write more. But all I can say is congratulations to the 2007 World Champion Boston Red Sox…

(from the Boston Globe)

The bottom line: It’s a great day in Red Sox Nation!

Happy Birthday: Red Sox Are American League Champs!

I’ll start with a little piece of personal information: yesterday was my birthday. And I could not have imagined a better present than having the Red Sox advance to the World Series. So, thank you Red Sox!

The Rockies have been a very exciting team to watch and I know that Kevin Kahn will do a great job welcoming fans to Coors Field (see my post: The Colorado Rockies Embraces Its Guests), but I am looking forward to the second half of my birthday present: The World Series Trophy.

(from bostondirtdogs.com)

The bottom line: Go Red Sox!

Boston Red Sox: 2007 AL East Champs!

While I could probably find some way to link the Red Sox American League East Division Championship to the customer experience themes of this blog, I won’t even try. As an avid fan, I just want to savor the moment. This picture on the Boston Dirt Dogs website says it all (I believe that Jonathan Pabelbon is the guy with the Bud Light case on his head) …

The bottom line: Hip, hip, hooray for Red Sox Nation