The Managerial Secret of Tony LaRussa

“He’s on a whole different level. He thinks about stuff nobody else is thinking about. I played for him, I know how he is. He’s one of a kind.” 

--Darren Oliver, Texas Rangers pitcher, discussing St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa.   

Tony La Russa has been a major league manager for 33 seasons.  In the opening game of the 2011 World Series on Wednesday night against the Rangers, La Russa pulled the right levers with his bullpen, making five changes. Each move went his way, and the Cardinals won the first games of the series.  3-2 in front of 46,406 at St. Louis’ Busch Stadium.

LaRussa emphasizes caring as a key component of this managerial style. 

“There’s a lot of smart baseball people around,” La Russa said. “Nowadays, with all the distractions, you better get kids that care for your message. And how do you get them to care? You care for them as people.”

It is not easy and it takes time. 

“Our staff, we believe in being very personal, up-close with our players,” La Russa said. 

“It’s not a line drawn and you rarely step over it. We really believe in a lot of intermingling and making each other personally accountable to each other. In other words, you care for your players. Actually, it’s a harder way to lead, because you spend a lot of time as a staff thinking about each and every guy, every day.”

Excerpts from the NYTimes.com (10/19/2011).

San Francisco 49ers' Fast Start

“I think a lot of you think it’s a cliché that we’re really just focused on getting better. Being better tomorrow than we were today. Being better today than we were yesterday. That’s how we’re judging success, so we didn’t put any limitations on ourselves or any things like that. We’ll just keep moving on with that plan, improving. Not changing but improving.” “Thought it was a great win for our team, great thrill of winning. We take the next step. It was a step. I feel like our team performed well, competed hard.”

--Jim Harbaugh, first-year head coach of the NFL San Francisco 49ers, responding to questions from the media about the team’s 4-1 start in the 2011 regular season and the quick turnaround by his team.

Coaches’ Mindset Extends to the Team

"You act like your coaches," said 49ers tight end Delanie Walker, whose 26-yard scoring reception got the 49ers rolling in their latest victory over Tampa Bay. "We are going to keep our heads, keep our cool and make smart decisions. When other teams make bad decisions, we capitalize on that." "I love the fact that he motivates us and has us ready to win every game," wide receiver Michael Crabtree said of Harbaugh. "It's like the will to win. It's not just focusing on one person. Everyone has the same goal in mind."

‘‘You can just tell the attitude difference. Everybody has a plan, a direction of what they want to do. Those guys played hard for [former coach Mike] Singletary, but they certainly play hard for Harbaugh. They certainly show a sense of urgency to go out and win this year. And it’s no different from what you would get any time you get a new coach. Harbaugh has done a wonderful job with these guys, and we look forward to going out there and having a good game.’’

--Raheem Morris, head coach of the Tampa Bay Bucanneeers, before his team played the 49ers.

Team Not Surprised by Fast Start

"It might be surprising to the outside," left tackle Joe Staley said, "but it's part of the culture that Harbaugh is instilling. We don't care about what anyone says on the outside. If they respect us. If they like the way we play, if they don't like the way we play. It's all about the guys in this locker room and believing in one another. That's what we're doing."



QB Alex Smith: Staying Loose and Focused

 "Alex is a strong-minded individual," tight end Vernon Davis said. "He's struggled in the past but he's headed for success. He's taking advantage of his opportunities. He knows there's a possibility he'll get hit from all sides and he still wants to make the play." "He has the ability to stay loose and focused at the same time," Harbaugh said. "He plays with a calm demeanor." "He studies the game plan and the opponents' structure," Harbaugh said. "He's smart, talented and doesn't rattle easily. He makes good quality decisions."




Team Confident about the Future

"It's about getting into rhythm and staying together as one," tight end Vernon Davis said. "What I saw last week I had never seen before. I saw that this team has what it takes to go all the way." "Just top to bottom, collectively," quarterback Alex Smith said. "It's a completely different mindset, a different attitude."



Taking It One Day and One Game at a Time

“Across the board,” Harbaugh said after the victory over the Bucanneers, “I thought it was an outstanding day by our team.”

49er running back Frank Gore called his team’s winning performance as, “another step.”

It’s the first time he’s been 4-1 as a professional athlete, and Gore wasn’t getting ahead of himself, either.

“It takes steps,” Gore added. “It takes the right steps and we’re just going to keep getting better and better. “The longer we keep taking the right steps, and that’s taking steps forward, we’re going to keep getting better.”



Excerpts from ESPN.com, AJC.com, SanFranciscoChronicle.com, modbee.com, 49ersblog.com and sports illustrated.cnn.com (October 7, 9, 10, and 11, 2011).

Eli Manning: Maturity, Preparation and Focus Equals Success

“He’s tough, he’s hard-nosed, he hangs in there. He believes in himself and his teammates. This is something that we’ve worked on and directed an awful lot of attention towards from the neck up with our team, and the last two weeks it’s paid off.” --Tom Coughlin, the New York Giants’ head coach, discussing quarterback Eli Manning mindset and maturity.

Eli Manning has been on fire during the past two weeks. In a victory over the Philadelphia Eagles, the Giants trailed, 16-14, but won, 29-16, after Manning threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes. Last Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals, Manning threw two more touchdown passes — this time only 58 seconds apart — as the Giants came back from a 10-point deficit late to win, 31-27. Manning is 29 of 38 for 353 yards in the fourth quarter this season, with four touchdowns, no interceptions and a passer rating of 139.5 — best in the N.F.L. and nearly 34 points higher than his 105.6 rating over all.

Manning Inspires Others to Prepare

“You study so you can react without hesitating. The only way we’ll all be on the same page is if we have seen it before.”
--Kareem McKenzie, Giants’ lineman, who understands the importance of preparation and practice.

An Appreciation of a Team Approach

Manning was quick to deflect the attention when asked about the Giants’ successes in the fourth quarter, saying, “It is not just one person, it is everybody doing their job.” The team understand Manning’s importance to their success.

“We follow his lead.” --Giants’ tight end, Jake Ballard.

Excerpts from NewYorkTimes.com (October 6, 2011)

Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

The "Dream Team" Has Yet To Wake Up

Atlanta Braves' Collapse Due to Poor Mental Conditioning

Mental Conditioning Is the Secret Sauce

Whichever companies gets this mental conditioning thing right will be in the proverbial catbird seat.  Did you hear that right?  Yes, that is correct, whichever companies get this mental conditioning thing right will be in the catbird seat.

Why?  There are only so many new business strategies out there.  There are only so many that can work.  There are only so many re-engineering and process improvements that can be made.  There are only some many people that can be laid off.  There are only so many cost-cutting measures that can be done.  There are only so many "work smarter with less" speeches that can be made.   There are only so many fire drills that can be performed.  There are only so many acquisitions and mergers that can be integrated.  There are only so many people you can hire.   

At the end of the day, we have to realize that the only frontier left to be conquered is the human mind and its capacity for innovation, creativity, problem solving and decision making.  Yet, we have only begun to accept the current state of organizations or be open in the expanses of human potential through mental conditioning.

Boards, executives, managers, and employees alike are fighting like cats and dogs to find the silver bullet in management.  They blame each other and look for anything they can find to keep themselves afloat.  Everyone continues to look externally to find the right process--the right formula for increased productivity.

What we fail to look at is the immediate loss in productivity that starts the day you hire each and every employee or the day you put them in a new role.  Like a new car that we drive off the lot, in most organizations the new employee begins to lose his full value the first day he arrives on your doorstep.  If it is like most, your company starts to set up its employees for frustration and failure on day one.  How does that happen?

First of all, if we do not design training to help people to learn from our mistakes and if we do not talk realistically to them immediately about the challenges facing our organization right now, we are training them for failure.  If we don't begin the process of developing our employees before they are deployed, they will not be successful.  We don't put them in a position to be successful, much less talk about the psychology of performance.

Instead, we prepare our employees to incorporate our dysfunctional organizational behavior from the very beginning.  We fail to take into account how our culture and how our method for orientation and training begin to demotivate our new recruit on day one.  Instead of giving him or her all the tools and resources that they need to be successful, we begin to tie their hands by telling them how we do business (even through how we do business is exactly how we got to this place to begin with).  We indoctrinate them into our system of mediocrity and status quo.  We don't teach new people how to learn in our organization or the future.  We train them about the past.

Because most companies are much less than what they could be and have considerable lengths to go before they could be considered functional (particularly in this challenging economy), we begin to teach our new people how to ineffectively attack problems with the tools that have been designed poorly or have only been designed to tackle old problems, not the problems of the future.

To change this, what do businesses need to do?  To begin with, we need to understand that we talk about business and we look at organizations in antiquated ways.  We use phrases like "lean and mean" but fail to understand what that actually involves in the most fundamental of ways.   It sounds impressive to be "lean and mean," but it has no practical application.  We only know that it will be hard and uncomfortable (and usually be of undetermined time frame, unattainable and untethered to any success).  Specifics are hard to come by in this "lean and mean" model. 

Secondly, we plan based on what we would like to have happen without realistic planning or taking into account what realities are really out there.  Because, if we did, we fear that the work involved would be too difficult and we couldn't get anyone to do it.  We fool ourselves and our colleagues into believing that "all you have to do is....." and hope that we will magically achieve our goals.  So, our plans do not include all the things that we know are like to intrude on our plans.

Thirdly and most importantly, we rely on the current state of our employees mental conditioning and  personal psychological make-up.  Our companies rarely give our employees the things that they need to navitigate the turbulence that is our organization and our economy.  We don't teach our employees to solve the problems of our future or our customers' futures.

Lastly, we assume that we have hired the right person for now.  So, we do not need to ensure that they have what it takes to be emotionally resilient and to innoculate them from the toxic and stressful internal and external environments that they will encounter (even if we know the realities of those environments) in the future.  Rather, we wonder how and why our latest hire has floundered so quickly.  We wonder how we could be so disappointed so soon.

So, what about this mental conditioning stuff? 

By and large, mental conditioning has only successfully caught hold in two disciplines, the elite so-called Black OPS teams of the military; and world-class athletes and teams.  Even the best in class companies have been found to incorporate only small aspects of what we know about mental conditioning.  Most organizations whether they aspire to greatness and growth or not, have done nothing to solve the riddle of the human mind.  Most organizations simply ebb and flow without regard to the mental aspects of success and achievement.

Imagine what kind of productivity gains and efficiencies (not to mention personal and team satsifaction) could be affected by significant uses of mental conditioning in the work place.  Our ability to improve focus, foster clarity of thinking, reduce frustration and time wasters is critical to success.  Through improvements in how we prepare and plan emotionally and mentally for the stress and pressure of important events and challenges, our companies could be radically changed by quickly altering in how we orient and train our employees with effective mental conditioning techniques.

These mental conditioning techniques focus on the future and focus on how we learn.

Business plans and process improvements, along with new product rollouts could be greatly benefitted by equal time committed to mental conditioning and engaged in emotional preparation activities associated with mental conditioning techniques and stress innoculation programs.      

 



     

Atlanta Dream Move On to WNBA Finals

Atlanta Braves' Free Fall

WNBA Atlanta Dream's Castro Marques Steps Up

Dallas Cowboy Comes of Age

Minnesota Lynx Have Leaders To Take Them Far

New York Yankees Play The Right Way

Excerpt from the New York Times, September 25, 2011.

Shut-Down NFL Cornerback Is Confident

Cam Newton: Still Learning?

Atlanta Dream Moves on to the WNBA Conference Finals

The Wimbledon Diary: Novak Djokovic, A Peak Performance Case Study

"When my streak ended in Paris it was kind of a relief as well, because it's been a very successful five, six months, but it's also been long and exhausting. I needed some time to relax and I'm happy to see that I'm playing well again and I'm mentally really fresh to have more success."

--Novak Djokovic, whose streak of 43 matches won recently came to an end.

Over the past year, Djokovic has been playing his best tennis:  in addition to "The Streak," three consecutive wins over Roger Federer, a Grand Slam win at the Australian Open, a first-ever win for Serbia in the Davis Cup, and back-to-back wins over Nadal and Federer to win the BNP Paribas Open.  


Is Novak Djokovic positioned to win at Wimbledon?  Let's look at various aspects of a winning mentality.   




Realistic Confidence

"Rafa [Nadal] and Roger [Federer] are the two biggest favourites," he said, "because they've been so dominant the last couple years, especially on grass. They are the only two players who have been winning this tournament for quite some time. Obviously, there is Andy Murray, who is home favourite. He's playing really well on grass courts and Wimbledon last couple years.

"It's true there is a different approach to this year's Wimbledon from my side because I'm playing, I think, the best tennis of my life in the last six months. That's why I believe in myself much more on the court and I know I can perform well, equally well, on this surface as I do on the other ones."

Maturity and Perspective

""We grew up in the worst time for our country (war-torn Serbia).  But it made us stronger, made us fight for what we want to achieve, made us people who appreciate life more.  We have been through difficult things in our career, and we appreciate success much more, even though we are still young."

"This is a difficult sport. It just depends where you grow up. It's a matter of luck in the end, but that's life. But probably this hunger for the success which we all have and still have, you can see it in the girls like [Maria] Sharapova and the Williams sisters and the girls and guys from Serbia.
"You see how much they appreciate to be in that position and how much energy and emotions they put on the court. It's quite amazing. I know for myself I play with a lot of emotions, positive emotions, negative emotions. But this is how I feel and how I am. I'm a guy with alot of temperment, becuase I know how much it means to me to be in that position."



--Novak Djokovic, discussing the new wave of young players whose desire to succeed is born of economic hardship and cultural upheaval, particularly in Eastern Europe.



Focus:  Competition, Learning and a Continuous Improvement Mentality


When discussing his toughest competition, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, Djokovic says that they help him focus and develop.


"They're always lifting the limits.  In each event--literally each event you're playing--you have to play at least semifinals or finals. It's ridiculous how successful and how consistent they are, how mentally strong.  It's a big challenge, something that makes you grow up.


"When I step on the court, especially with Federer and Nadal, I believe I can win against them.  That's what's different about me.  Before I was just trying to play my best tennis, but now I want to win."


Mindset


Djokovic has been more emotionally balanced this year.  In the past, his performance was a source of frustration.


"He was more up-and-down, and physically, he wan't ready--he'd get more aggravated.  Emotionally , he's settled down," says his coach of the last five years, Marian Vajda.

"Think positive.  LIfe is too short to think otherwise" says Djokovic.


From a mental standpoint, it appears Djokovic could go deep into the Wimbledon draw, perhaps come out with the title.  He seems mentally prepared.


Are you mentally prepared for the challenge, unknowns, turbulence and competition of the future?  






Excerpts from the New York Times 1/29/08, Tennis magazine (June 2011) and Reuters (June 21, 2011).

Where Did You Get Your MBA? At the 2011 NBA Finals?

I was speaking this week to a CEO about his business.  When we were through, he asked me what I thought about the NBA Finals.  I gave him my take on it, but later I thought that my answers to his questions about business were no different from my take aways from the playoff series.  Success happens when you do things the right way, whether in sports or in business.  

Here are my business lessons:

Vision 


Dallas was on a mission of vindication and pride, but also established a strong following (outside of Miami) with those who wanted to see Miami lose because of what the Heat stood for and represented.

• A clear team mission that is bigger than oneself is more important than individual missions. 

Leadership

• Leadership is more important than talent.
• Leadership is earned not taken. 

From Mark Cuban to Rick Carlisle to Dirk Nowitzki, the Dallas Mavericks displayed more leadership than their opponents.  Humility, community, character and culture are more important than individuality, swagger and arrogance.   

Teamwork 

• Teamwork trumps talent.
• Team chemistry is critical.  Chemistry takes time.
• Role players are as important as stars.

Execution

Both offensively and defensively, the Mavericks had a plan and stuck with their plan to the end.  Crisp passing and hitting the open man overcame LeBron James and Dwyane Wade taking turns in one-on-one isolation.   

• Teamwork is about workflow:  creating clear communication and roles; and making smooth passes, handoffs, transitions, and spacing.  Workflow is key.  Systems and process issues can hide problems.  Workflow fixes will illuminate talent and competency problems.  
• Execution wins championship.
• Winning is about closing the deal and finishing strong.

Mindset

Dallas had the confidence, focus, perseverance, tenacity and mental toughness to prevail.  When the games were on the line, they did not choke.  They did not overthink things, because they had a plan.  When they meet adversity, the Heat responded with a lack of confidence and resolve.  

Patience

Miami set themselves up last summer for the expectation that they had to win now. They created pressure and impatience. When they faltered, they panicked.  It was a recipe for failure. Dallas had been building the team in steps and were ready to win now.

• Championships take time.
• Continuous improvement bests talent.  
• Learning from mistakes is crucial.
• There are few overnight fixes.
• Success and excellence come in stages.    
• Organization continuity will trump an quick influx of talent.

Flexibility  

Dallas made adjustments to whatever their opponents through at them, Miami never adjusted their style of play.  In the playoffs, the Mavericks played and beat a young and hungry team, a former championship team, and a team of superstars in succession. They adapted and won.  

LeBron Is Not Shrinking From the Stage, He's Thinking Too Much

“You’re at a point where you’re just not in a good rhythm.  You start aiming shots, you start thinking about plays too much. You start thinking about the game too much and instead of going out and reading and react and playing the game.”

--LeBron James, Miami Heat, after the Heat lost another close playoff game in the fourth quarter.

I have heard many people; friends and colleagues talk about LeBron James' struggles in these 2011 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks.  Many say he is shrinking from the spotlight.  Others say he can't handle the pressure.  Still others say he is unable to play well with his other star teammates in the spotlight: that, he is taking a backseat to his teammates.  But, is it really that he is choking?    


But how does a two-time NBA MVP, Olympic gold medal winner choke?  How has a player who has been in the zone so often in the past, lose it?  How can an 8-year veteran of the NBA seem so lost?    


Right now, LeBron is aiming his shots and telegraphing his passes.  So, he misses shots badly and makes sloppy passes that are easily intercepted.  Offensively, he looks lost; as if he has forgotten how to play.  Then when he transitions to defense, he is still thinking about being lost on offense and so he does not react quickly enough on the defensive end of the court.  


He doesn't look like he is having fun.  He often talks about the Miami Heat playing better under pressure and when desperate.  That may be true because if you are desperate, you aren't thinking.  Your instincts take over.  Choking is about thinking too much.  


Is LeBron choking?  


I point you toward the definition of choking as discussed by Malcolm Gladwell and several others in recent years.    


He says that from an intuitive standpoint, choking makes little sense. Experience seems to count for little in times of choking. Choking occurs when we lose our focus, our ability to be "in the zone". Choking occurs when we are too focused on what to do.

Choking is the paradoxical failure of working too hard and in too focused a manner. The more we try, the more we choke. When we choke we revert to the mode of explicit learning. We return to slow, methodical non-fluid movements. We go back to the mechanical, conscious method of re-learning. We get away for intuitive, quick processing and revert to the methodical.


Does LeBron look mechanical?  Indeed, he does.


Is he panicking?  Is he folding under pressure?  No, I don't think so.  Panicking involves a losing of one's bearings and orientation.  It is about losing one's head and perspective.  But it isn't choking.  Choking is forgetting.  Panicking is excessively getting caught up in the importance of the moment.  It is emotional. Panicking is fear.  Choking is excessive thinking.      

This choke vs. panic distinction is useful if we look at the importance of learning and rehearsal. Getting in the zone is about using explicit learning and making the learning implicit. Staying in the zone is about ensuring that the learning remains implicit.

A structured learning approach to peak performance and installing some type of a stress-and-anxiety management system provides the vehicle that improves our ability to use learning to get in the zone and stay in the zone. We become immune from panic and choking.


In reality, choking is a very particular form of failure. When we learn, we learn sequences or patterns of activity, movement, and behaviors. As we rehearse these movements we get faster and smoother. This early learning is called "explicit learning", or learning that is done within one's awareness. Later, that learning, through repetition becomes automatic. Explicit learning becomes "implicit learning", or learning outside of our awareness. Explicit learning is deliberate and mechanical, while implicit learning is what takes over when we can behave in an automatic, fluid fashion, without thinking. In sports and athletics, for example, this implicit learning involves the development of "touch" and accuracy in a throw or a swing.

Under extreme stress and pressure, the explicit learning system can take over. This is the process of choking. In these instances of choking, athletes lose their touch, their fluidity; they are out of the zone. The athlete begins to be excessively deliberate and mechanical again, as they would if they were beginners. They revert to the explicit learning system.


How do you get out of that process?  You just play and relax.  You have fun.  Feel the joy of the moment; as you did as a young player growing up.  LeBron, I know that your every move is evaluated.  So what?  


LeBron:  Quit thinking and just play.


Excerpts from the New York Times.com (June 8, 2011) and Failure:  The Peak Performance Field Guide #2.    

A Very Focused and Grounded Rafael Nadal Wins 6th French Open

"A big personal satisfaction, especially when you started [the tournament] without playing your best.  Finally, I was able to play my best when I needed my best.

"[The French Open] always is the tournament where I feel that I have more chances to win. This is my biggest chance of the year [to win a Grand Slam]. I know if I win this tournament, my season is fantastic. I then can play with more confidence and less pressure." 

--Rafael Nadal, after winning the 2011 French Open over Roger Federer.  

Nadal beat Federer without playing his best tennis throughout the tournament.  So, he had to deal with it and accept his less than stellar playing.   

"The real Rafa is both the Rafa who wins and the Rafa who plays well, and the Rafa who suffers and doesn't play that well," Nadal said. "You have to face this situation."

Typically, Nadal is exceptional at Roland Garros in Paris -- 45-1 for his career, and the same number of titles there as Bjorn Borg -- but the Spaniard already also has shown that he is much more than the King of Clay. And Sunday's victory only will raise more questions about whether Federer truly deserves to be called the Greatest of All Time if he is not even the Greatest of Right Now.

Nadal leads their head-to-head series 17-8. That includes a 6-2 advantage in Grand Slam finals and a 5-0 edge at the French Open (in the 2005 semifinals, and the 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2011 finals).

Nevertheless, this is not what drives him.  

"When you talk about these statistics, when you try and make these comparisons, really it's not very interesting to me," continued Nadal, who would have ceded the No. 1 ranking to Novak Djokovic with a loss Sunday. "I'm very happy with what I have, with who I am. I'm not the best player in the history of tennis. I think I'm among the best. That's true. That's enough for me."

But, does Nadal have Federer's number?  Toni Nadal, Rafael's uncle and coach, spoke plainly after Sunday's match.

"The game of Rafael is not too good for Roger," Toni said, adding that Federer's "mentality against Rafael is not the best."

On Sunday, Federer raced to a 5-2 at the outset, but blew a set point by missing a drop shot that landed barely wide.  That seemed to unnerve Federer and open the door for Nadal. 

Nadal then won seven games in a row. Later, when Nadal went up a break in the third and led 4-2, the match appeared over, until Federer charged back to force a fourth set.

But Nadal once more assumed control, winning the last five games, then dropping to his knees and leaning forward with his hands covering his eyes.

"I was able to play my best when I needed my best," Nadal repeated. "For that reason, today I am here with the trophy." 

Excerpts from ESPN.com (June 5 & 6, 2011).