“Age is a case of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.”
~Satchel Paige
As casual baseball fans, we at VIM Executive Coaching have always admired Satchel Paige. You can look it up if you’d like, but the Hall of Fame baseball player appeared in his last baseball game at age 59. No, it was not old-timers’ day, but an actual game. There are a million debates about his abilities, but he is recognized as one of the greatest pitchers of all-time. Yes, it is too bad he had to play segregated baseball for much of his career, for in those earlier years he was Dominant (the capital “D” is intentional). He would have burned-up the major leagues.
When he took to the mound in those later years, people would always ask him how old he was and he became a master at deflecting the answer as in the quote above.
The question of why?
No matter how the older executive is viewed in today’s digitized, computerized eta, they will always be the targets of snipey little comments: “Old school,” “Old Feller,” “Fossil,” “Past-it,” “Dried-up,” “Dinosaur,” and on and on.
Sometimes the comments are mean, sometimes funny and usually hurtful. Perhaps, Satchel Paige felt all those stinging comments. His revenge was in the statistics. You don’t have to know much about baseball to appreciate his long, lifetime of pitching gave him an astounding ERA of 2.73. In short, he was exceptional. He was famous for saying, “Don’t look back.”
For he was a forward-looking man, not only as an athlete but as a person, promoter and executive.
Why did he endure?
To be sure, Satchel Page had his share of heartache and challenge. But we maintain, he never stopped being mindful. He was in the moment. No matter what he was called, he performed. He trained, he kept up his conditioning, he negotiated new contracts, he traveled, he saw opportunities in the moment.
Responding to the climate
We have helped many older clients whose first mindset was “I’m over it, my time is over.”
We are business coaches, not psychologists, but when an executive feels their time is done, we are always interested in knowing if they are reacting to the situation or responding?
What is the difference? A reactive older executive might say, “I’m tired of this! I’m walking away!” And, we understand. There are certain work place attitudes that are tough to take.
We are sure that when, let’s say, a 48-year-old Satchel Paige faced a 21-year-old (full of himself) batter, there must have been plenty of cat-calls from the opposing dug-out.
He usually responded by getting the other player out. Results matter.
The responsive executive understands that they are experienced, have good people skills, know the industry (or a parallel industry), has knowledge of the problems and in a crisis knows what to do. In other words, they are mindful.
The mindful executive understands and responds. The reactive executive walks away either literally or figuratively.
Satchel Paige understood that while there were seasons to the game, the business of the game did not stop.
The mindful executive may need more training, better inter-personal skills, additional technology or assistance or coaching however, the perceptions of others are irrelevant to the mission.
There is an executive season of mindfulness over matter. All the reaction in the world usually makes situations worse, no matter the age or credentials of the executive. Mindfulness sees a problem, addresses it with a response and works to solve it.