We are all leaders of our own lives…
Therefore, it’s worth exploring what constitutes a great leader and then figure out what we can do to put ourselves in the best position to succeed.
Over the years, the greatest leaders I have been privileged to study or spend time around have all shared one common trait:
The ability to DELEGATE POWER.
I get it, many of us Go Hards are possessive control freaks that feel like we need to have a hand or say in just about everything that we feel will directly or indirectly affect our lives…
It’s OK to want to have control over your life’s happening’s; it’s only natural… Yet, every time we over engage in an arena that is not our expertise, we are doing a disservice to ourselves and even worse, our entire team.
The time and energy that we spend micro managing various situations almost always
proves detrimental… Not only are we less qualified in the bullshit we try to meddle in, but we are taking ourselves away from our own strengths… And oh yea, most likely pissing off whoever’s job we are trying to hawk eye. 👁
The very best leaders are the people who put individuals in the very best position to succeed based on quantifiable data and a gut instinct feel to the specific circumstances…
Bruce Bochy, the LEGENDARY SF Giants manager who brought 3 World Series titles to the Bay Area in a 5 year period, is known for being a big time military chain of command manager. Bochy delegates power to his coaches possibly better than any other manager in baseball. He lets them run the offense, defense and pitching strategies while also dealing with an analytics team in the front office who are constantly providing statistical data meant to influence lineup and in game decisions…
Meanwhile, Boch oversees the entire operation, and his job is to make sure all of the different moving parts cohesively work together and ultimately lead to one thing… WINNING baseball games…
Yet with the great power Bruce Bochy gives his staff also comes great responsibility… Bochy, who is known as a Giant Teddy Bear and is one of the nicest dudes I have ever come across in the game, is notoriously HARD on his coaches…
In essence, Boch is a LEADER of MEN, but instead of trying to lead all men at all times in a micromanaged egocentric control nutjob way, he stays out of the fray and is comfortable letting his staff do their jobs. Yet, deservedly so, he demands the ABSOLUTE BEST EFFORT and has extremely high expectations.
As the leader, Boch knows his job is to identify the problem and find the best answers for the solution while making sure his staff and players are held accountable for their actions… The EXACT same way he is.
As Bruce Bochy winds down his Hall of Fame managerial career in his final season, the Giants most likely won’t win the World Series or even get to the playoffs… Yet, I will guarantee you that the Captain of the ship will continue to make sure everybody on board works diligently till his ship is safely docked on shore…
Bottom line.: Bruce Bochy has been one of the most successful managers in Major League Baseball history in LARGE part because of his ability to DELEGATE power and let his staff and his team DO THEIR JOB. In short, this dude has been the beautiful epitome of what I would consider a DELEGATION SENSATION…
-EB