As executive leader business coaches, VIM Executive Coaching is usually not prone to talking about sports, but we certainly enjoy watching sports and following teams. Several years ago, we became fascinated with Minor League Baseball (MiLB) for several reasons: the teams represent a smaller town, American feel; they are affordable (ever go to a $1 hot dog night?); the uniforms and team names are incredible and sometimes, funny and finally (here’s where we circle around to coaching) they represent training and development.
Another 2020 Heartache
During the craziness, social distancing and dismal sports attendance in 2020, MiLB was all but shut down. There were no Lansing Lugnuts, Corpus Christi Hooks or Iowa Cubs. No one celebrated the victories of the El Paso Chihuahuas, or the agonies of defeat of the Jersey Shore Blueclaws. We are thrilled to see that normalcy has returned for the 2021 season. We will again cheer for the Modesto Bees and the Buffalo Bison’s.
We are not being flippant here, rather pointing out a truth as relevant in baseball as in the financial services or pharmaceutical industry: executive leaders are developed and nurtured. They are not automatically born into those positions.
A major league first baseman does not skyrocket from freshman year at “Central High School” to play first base for the New York Yankees, any more than a promising second year medical student is named chief surgeon at Massachusetts General.
Yet, as executive business coaches we must admit to sometimes encountering inexperienced or even more experienced executives who are “miffed” when being told they are not ready for more responsibility, or who receive negative feedback on their people skills, or those who react unkindly to peers who refuse to support them due to entitled attitudes.
Of baseball, we cannot comment on hitches in swings or poor pitching mechanics. As Denver-based business coaches we do know a thing or two about reaction to situations rather than response; those who believe they are entitled rather than are mindful of what it takes to improve and certainly, those who are contentious and impossible to please, rather than authentic and compassionate.
Humility
While we admit that television interviews can be misleading (such as when an athlete projects false modesty or says the right things) for the most part, the effective, compassionate and authentic executive understands humility.
Those who expect reward without having earned it; those who lack compassion and authenticity rather than authenticity, even those react, belittle or disregard are often representative of a cult of entitlement which has become a major workplace problem.
As the ancients noted so long ago, it is impossible to fill a full vessel. Without introspection and mindfulness leading to a sense of humility, some executive leaders never develop.
The growth of an executive leader requires work. We are not necessarily speaking of “credentials.” Surely, great and incredible leaders have had modest education – at best. So, we are not seen as trivializing essential credentials, we are hardly suggesting a lack of credentialing and learning to bypass the growth process. What we do stress at VIM Executive Coaching is mindfulness in every important decision, authenticity in those decisions and compassion to understand the implications of those decisions.
Humility is borne of authenticity and mindfulness. Compassion arises from an empathy that every decision carries weight in its response. On the road to creating baseball players, nuclear engineers or the Dean of Nursing, if mindfulness isn’t in play, it may certainly come to impact a career on or off our fields of endeavor.