Episode 50 – Leadership Lessons from the St. Louis Cardinals

[00:00:07] Speaker A: Welcome to the Leadership Window podcast with Patrick Jinx. Each week, through a social sector lens, Patrick interviews leaders and experts and puts us in touch with trends and tips for leading effectively. Patrick is an LSI certified leadership coach, a member of the Forbes Coaches Council, bestselling author, award winning photographer, and professional speaker. And now here's Patrick. [00:00:35] Speaker B: Hello everyone. Welcome to episode 50 of the Leadership Window. [00:00:40] Speaker C: It's a milestone week, 50 episodes. [00:00:44] Speaker B: It's been a blast. It continues to be a blast. This is a solo episode today. I don't know how long it's going to be. I'm going to take some time to tell you about an amazing trip I just took, and of course I'm going to tell it to you through the lens of leadership. This is a leadership podcast, so I can't just tell you a great story about something that's important to me. I have to somehow relate it to leadership, make it worth it to you. Before we do, let me let you hear from the folks at Leadership systems Incorporated. Great sponsor of this program, great partner for the Jinx perspective. [00:01:25] Speaker C: I am a certified adjunct leadership coach. [00:01:28] Speaker B: With Leadership systems Incorporated and Dr. Jim. [00:01:32] Speaker C: Smith and Mike Wallace and Taylor hints. [00:01:34] Speaker B: And the folks at LSI are just incredible partners and it's an incredible leadership development firm that's been around since the early 1990s. Dr. Smith is a 30 year coach and trainer at the center for Creative Leadership. He is an author and speaker and trainer and extraordinary coach. [00:01:59] Speaker C: If you are looking to sharpen your coaching skills as a manager or leader. [00:02:04] Speaker B: In your organization, LSI is the place. [00:02:07] Speaker C: To turn and they are offering exclusive discounts for listeners of this podcast. [00:02:16] Speaker B: Listen to Mike Wallace tell you a. [00:02:18] Speaker C: Little bit about it. [00:02:19] Speaker D: Hey, this is Michael Wallace with Leadership Systems Incorporated. And on behalf of LSI, I want to say thanks for supporting our friend Patrick Jinx and the Leadership Window podcast. We've been partnering with Patrick for many years and we are so proud to have him represent us as an LSI certified executive coach. As a mutual friend, we'd like to offer you exclusive rates on some of the same training that Patrick has received over the years, as well as some new experiences that we've been developing. Head over to Leadershipsystems.com Slash Jinx to see the upcoming training events on our calendar and register today to keep learning and growing again. That's leadershipsystems.com Slash Jinx, J I N K S for exclusive pricing on LSI's virtual and in person training events. Thanks a lot. [00:03:01] Speaker B: Thank you Michael and all the folks at LSI again for sponsoring this program and for offering these great discounts for listeners of the leadership window. Okay. I recently took a trip that I've been wanting to take for a long, long time. And I'm sorry, I've got to just tell you the story. I hope it doesn't bore you to death. If you're not a sports fan or a baseball fan or whatever, trust me, there are some leadership implications that I. [00:03:30] Speaker C: Want to share with you, and I'll. [00:03:31] Speaker B: Try to make it as interesting as possible. [00:03:33] Speaker C: When I was about 13 years old, we lived out in the middle of. [00:03:38] Speaker B: Nowhere, out in the country, in north Louisiana. And we're talking 1979 when we moved there. And I walked outside one night with an AM radio, and I'm flipping through the channels, and I hear, as I'm turning the tuner, I hear somebody say. [00:03:57] Speaker C: Kmox in St. Louis, Missouri. [00:04:00] Speaker B: And I zipped it back, and I wanted to make sure that I heard. [00:04:04] Speaker C: What I thought I heard. And sure enough, I picked up this station in St. Louis, Missouri, called KMOX. [00:04:12] Speaker B: Kind of an iconic station if you're into radio around the country. But I was blown away. I mean, I didn't know anything about this. We lived out in the country, and our television reception was due to some big antenna on top of our house that our dad had to get up and know if we wanted to get certain stations. So the radio was no different. I was blown away. [00:04:34] Speaker C: I run inside and I say, dad, I'm picking up a radio station in St. Louis, Missouri. [00:04:40] Speaker B: And he goes, yeah, at night, you can pick up some frequencies that you can pick up stations from all over the country. [00:04:49] Speaker C: And I just thought that was just amazing. So I go back outside, I see if I can find it again. It's at 1120 on the dial. [00:04:55] Speaker B: I remembered seeing that was somewhere in there. [00:04:58] Speaker C: And sure enough, there it is again. Kmox, St. Louis, Missouri. [00:05:01] Speaker B: And I start to listen, and of. [00:05:02] Speaker C: Course, they're in the middle of a baseball broadcast for the St. Louis Cardinals. Now, the St. Louis Cardinals are an iconic baseball team. [00:05:14] Speaker B: Probably. There's possibly one team that has more of an iconic presence than the St. Louis Cardinals, and that would be the New York Yankees. [00:05:26] Speaker C: So the St. Louis Cardinals very prestigious, historic, storied baseball franchise. [00:05:35] Speaker B: And I didn't know this at the. [00:05:36] Speaker C: Time, although I'd heard the term St. Louis Cardinals. But I start listening to the baseball games, and Mike Shannon, who's a former third base player for the Cardinals, is now in the broadcast booth, and he's broadcasting the games. [00:05:50] Speaker B: And boy, I just loved his voice. [00:05:53] Speaker C: And he's describing what's happening on the field. And I knew a little bit about baseball. [00:05:57] Speaker B: I had seen some little league games. [00:05:59] Speaker C: Watched some of my friends play in. [00:06:00] Speaker B: The 6th and 7th grade, but I didn't know a whole lot. And so I just went out every. [00:06:07] Speaker C: Night to listen to the games. [00:06:09] Speaker B: And just because it was St. Louis. [00:06:11] Speaker C: Missouri, and I was enamored by it, and it's how I learned baseball. [00:06:16] Speaker B: And this was back. [00:06:18] Speaker C: Lou Brock was ending his career. Ozzy Smith, the wizard was coming on. [00:06:24] Speaker B: I mean, there were lots of, in the 1980s, the St. Louis Cardinals were really big. [00:06:31] Speaker C: And I'm listening to them for years. [00:06:34] Speaker B: From that time that I first tuned into the station. [00:06:38] Speaker C: And I kind of got this favorite. [00:06:41] Speaker B: Player that I loved to hear about and root for. [00:06:45] Speaker C: And his name was Ted Simmons. He was the catcher for the Cardinals at the time. [00:06:50] Speaker B: And I just came to, I don't know how, I really have no idea. [00:06:54] Speaker C: How he became my favorite position player, but he did. [00:06:58] Speaker B: And I'm listening. And any chance I got when the. [00:07:01] Speaker C: Cardinals happened to be playing on tv, I would watch them on tv as well. [00:07:06] Speaker B: And so then I could actually put faces to the names that I was hearing on the radio and I could start to visualize what I'd been hearing. [00:07:14] Speaker C: And anyway, this is how I became a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan. I'd never been to a game. I'm not from St. Louis. I had no other reason to be a St. Louis Cardinals fan. The years go by. I took a little time off in. [00:07:31] Speaker B: The 90s from the Cardinals. I just got busy doing other things. [00:07:35] Speaker C: And then in the kind of picked him back up again. And I tune into KMOX. Only now you can tune into KMOX over the Internet. And guess who's calling the games? Mike Shannon, the former third baseman and. [00:07:50] Speaker B: Cardinal hall of Famer. And it turns out now he's in. [00:07:53] Speaker C: His 50th year of calling games in the broadcast booth. This happens to be his final year. [00:08:01] Speaker B: Calling games, but he's still calling them. [00:08:04] Speaker C: And when I hear his voice, my memory just goes back to that 13. [00:08:08] Speaker B: Year old kid out in the middle. [00:08:10] Speaker C: Of the country, listening to the radio every night in the dark, out in the country. I had never been to a cardinal game. And I kept saying, one of these. [00:08:21] Speaker B: Days I need to go to St. [00:08:22] Speaker C: Louis and go see the Cardinals. And I finally, last year, or year before last, actually, I started making plans to go and make a real trip out of it. [00:08:33] Speaker B: And by real trip, I meant several games. [00:08:37] Speaker C: Let's go to the Cardinals hall of. [00:08:39] Speaker B: Fame and the museum. Let's get the Hilton hotel executive suite overlooking the stadium. Let's do the whole thing. And by then, I had started riding a motorcycle. [00:08:53] Speaker C: I thought, oh, let's make it a motorcycle trip across the country, and we'll visit some family along the way and we'll go see the Cardinals. Finally. And as we all know, this global pandemic hit and everything got canceled. [00:09:07] Speaker B: And baseball last year, they played games. [00:09:10] Speaker C: But in empty stadiums, no fans, cardboard. [00:09:13] Speaker B: Cutouts for fans, and crowd noise played over the sound system. [00:09:17] Speaker C: So this was a huge disappointment because. [00:09:19] Speaker B: I'd planned for this and wanted this all my life. [00:09:22] Speaker C: I regroup, I plan it again for this year. And as it turns out, blessing in disguise. This was the year to go for me because for the weekend that I chose to go and make this trip, it just turns out that my all time Cardinal hero, Ted Simmons, who's now in his 70s, was going to hold a speaking event that weekend and going to be giving away personally signed baseballs. [00:09:56] Speaker B: And we get 90 minutes to hear from him and hear the stories of. [00:10:01] Speaker C: His days playing with the Cardinals and get to meet your childhood sports hero. So it also happened to be hall of Fame week at the Cardinals. Now, the Cardinals are, if you care about these things, I think they're probably the most. What's the word? [00:10:25] Speaker B: Just. [00:10:29] Speaker C: Their culture of excellence and honor and just prestige and atmosphere as a baseball team is probably above even that of the Yankees. [00:10:43] Speaker B: And if you're a Yankees fan, you're not going to want to hear that. [00:10:45] Speaker C: But there is not another stadium that I know of in the country that quite does it like Cardinal Nation. It's an entire plaza of. [00:10:57] Speaker B: It's like being at Disneyland, only it's. [00:10:59] Speaker C: All St. Louis Cardinals. The ballpark village, the Cardinal Nation, the plaza from the old bush stadium that was torn down, the museum, which is absolutely first class. The Cardinals hall of Fame. [00:11:13] Speaker B: The Cardinals walk of mean. [00:11:15] Speaker C: This thing just goes on and on and on. It's not just the stadium. [00:11:19] Speaker B: And so this was the weekend ago. [00:11:23] Speaker C: Because it was Cardinals hall of Fame weekend. And so there's the baseball hall of Fame that's in Cooperstown, but then there's the Cardinals hall of Fame, which is right there in St. Louis. And they honor all the very top. [00:11:35] Speaker B: Elite, most impactful players in the history. [00:11:39] Speaker C: Of the St. Louis Cardinals. [00:11:40] Speaker B: If you're a fan, you would recognize. [00:11:42] Speaker C: Names like Stan Mujel, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Dizzy Dean, Ozzy Smith. The list goes on for cardinals, but this was just absolutely incredible. So I take my harley up, the. [00:11:58] Speaker B: Moonshiner, I ride the tale of the. [00:12:01] Speaker C: Dragon I go visit some family. I get to St. Louis. I spend four days in St. Louis, immersed in all things St. Louis Cardinals, and then I ride the motorcycle back, visit some more family, take a couple. [00:12:14] Speaker B: Of days and come home. [00:12:15] Speaker C: It's an eight day trip altogether. When I was there, I paid attention to some things and took some notes and thought. There are some concepts here that I think would be good for a podcast. [00:12:26] Speaker B: So, first of all, thanks for indulging me and letting me tell you a little bit about how and why I. [00:12:33] Speaker C: Became a Cardinals fan. I mean, it really was amazing. [00:12:38] Speaker B: Unfortunately, we lost two of the three games that I attended, but we won the last one, so it ended on a good note. [00:12:45] Speaker C: Seeing Ted Simmons not once, but twice. [00:12:47] Speaker B: Once on Saturday at the hall of. [00:12:51] Speaker C: Fame event and then again on Monday. [00:12:52] Speaker B: Night at his speaking event was an absolute amazing thing. I got signed baseballs from four cardinal hall of Famers, a championship ring, the. [00:13:04] Speaker C: Signed jerseys of Loubrock and Bob Gibson and Ted Simmons. [00:13:08] Speaker B: And all these things. It was amazing. But here are the things that I. [00:13:12] Speaker C: Took away that I thought, well, these would be good for the leadership window. The first thing is excellence. Just absolute excellence. Everything done to first class level, no shortcuts. Ballpark Village is absolutely amazing. Everything about the stadium, everything about the team. The museum is immaculate and so incredibly well done. And I mean, they get this. They know, again, like Disney, that these are paying people that are coming to see this and that the better they. [00:13:50] Speaker B: Can make it, the more people that will come. [00:13:52] Speaker C: And the more people that come, the. [00:13:54] Speaker B: Better they can make it. [00:13:55] Speaker C: And of course, this is a winning franchise, too. [00:13:57] Speaker B: They have eleven World Series championships. [00:14:01] Speaker C: They have 19 national League pennants. [00:14:04] Speaker B: They got banners and flags and statues. [00:14:07] Speaker C: All over the city. But it is excellence in all things. [00:14:14] Speaker B: They don't shortcut anything when you walk in the gates. [00:14:19] Speaker C: The ticket takers are professional. They're warm, they're friendly, they're courteous. [00:14:27] Speaker B: The traffic gets through. [00:14:29] Speaker C: There's no bottlenecks. [00:14:32] Speaker B: They're giving away a really cool giveaway. [00:14:36] Speaker C: Every night to every fan that comes in the door. It's just excellence in all things. [00:14:42] Speaker B: And there's a leadership lesson in that. [00:14:44] Speaker C: When we are running our organizations, when we're conducting our events. One of the questions I like to. [00:14:50] Speaker B: Ask, and those of you that have. [00:14:51] Speaker C: Worked with me as a coach know. [00:14:54] Speaker B: That this is a favorite question of. [00:14:55] Speaker C: Mine, and this is good before an event and after an event. But before an event, you might ask the question, what will wow the people that are there? What will make them say, wow. And after the event, it's a good idea to debrief and say, was that the very, very best that we could bring to the table? Could we have made that any better with any little detail? I believe that the cardinals must have some version of that sequence because of the excellence that shows in their organization. When people look at your organization, they might see a good cause. They might see caring and compassion and passion. Do they see excellence? And this has always been a thing for me, particularly in the nonprofit sector. [00:15:50] Speaker B: And this is a look at leadership. [00:15:52] Speaker C: Through the social sector lens. But in the nonprofit sector, I've had people on boards of mine that have frowned at the idea of having really world class brochures and videos and websites, and, man, we shouldn't be spending our money on this stuff. I've always had the opposite opinion. [00:16:13] Speaker B: I think that the nonprofit or the. [00:16:17] Speaker C: Social sector should have every display of excellence possible. Not extravagance, but excellence. [00:16:28] Speaker B: And that was just lesson one. [00:16:31] Speaker C: Another area of excellence that I noticed. [00:16:34] Speaker B: I mentioned that I had an executive room on the top floor of the Hilton overlooking Bush stadium, and I paid. [00:16:43] Speaker C: Attention while I was there looking down on the field, and I noticed that they work this baseball field all day long, every day, even on days when they're not having a game. By work the field, I mean an entire grounds crew is on the field. You can look out at the stadium. [00:17:03] Speaker B: At almost any time of day and. [00:17:04] Speaker C: See somebody out there doing something. They're raking the dirt on the infield, they're mowing the grass in the outfield. They're cleaning up the lines. They're watering. They are doing all kinds of things to keep the stadium in tip top condition, even on off days. And they're out there in uniform. Even the grounds crew, it's khaki pants and red cardinal shirts and red cardinal caps, and there's nobody there to see them. There's no fans there during the time. [00:17:37] Speaker B: During the day when they're working the. [00:17:39] Speaker C: Grounds, but they're in uniform and they have a system, and they're working it all day long. How much of that takes place in our organizations, where it's that behind the scenes work and that we operate as if the world were looking? Are we in uniform, so to speak? I don't mean that literally, but are. [00:18:02] Speaker B: We performing in a way? [00:18:03] Speaker C: One of the questions I ask coaches. [00:18:05] Speaker B: Often is, if a film crew were to come in and film a documentary about your leadership, and they were going. [00:18:12] Speaker C: To be there all week long, how would you behave? How much excellence would you bring? [00:18:18] Speaker B: I really appreciated that about the grounds crew. [00:18:21] Speaker C: And then finally, on the topic of. [00:18:23] Speaker B: Excellence, it struck me that with all. [00:18:26] Speaker C: The rich history of the cardinals, they certainly honor. I mean, there was a whole day of honoring Bob Gibson, who passed away last year. [00:18:36] Speaker B: So they took a night to honor him. [00:18:38] Speaker C: They rode his wife around the stadium. [00:18:41] Speaker B: In a convertible mustang and gave her a standing ovation in recognition of him. They gave everybody in the stadium a Bob Gibson signed jersey. They played montages of his history and. [00:18:57] Speaker C: His career on the mean, just really did it upright. And they did the same for Lou Brock that same weekend, who also passed away in the previous year. [00:19:09] Speaker B: And so they really honor their past. [00:19:12] Speaker C: The museum says, as such. But they don't stop at their past. They find a way, somehow, to inspire. [00:19:21] Speaker B: The fans to the next generation of. [00:19:24] Speaker C: Cardinals and to the next generation of success. And the cardinal way is to know that the next great player is probably still not even scouted yet. And so let's scout them, let's get. [00:19:40] Speaker B: Them in the minor league system, in the farm system, and let's develop them. [00:19:45] Speaker C: They have a fantastic talent development program at the St. Louis Cardinals. They're known for it. [00:19:53] Speaker B: It's what helped them win the World Series, for example, in 2011. [00:19:57] Speaker C: Some of the most underestimated, underrated, underknown. [00:20:04] Speaker B: Players that came out of the development. [00:20:07] Speaker C: System helped them as a team win that championship. And so they honor to inspire, but not to rest on their laurels. They continue to move forward, and they're. [00:20:19] Speaker B: Constantly engaged in talent development. [00:20:23] Speaker C: So those are the things that I. [00:20:25] Speaker B: Would share with you about excellence that. [00:20:27] Speaker C: We should take into our organizations. The second thing I picked up over this weekend with the Cardinals is the details. [00:20:34] Speaker B: So in the evening that I spent with Ted Simmons, it actually wasn't just Ted Simmons. [00:20:40] Speaker C: It was Ted Simmons and Tim McCarver, another cardinal catcher. In fact, he was Ted Simmons predecessor. And both of these catchers caught Bob. [00:20:52] Speaker B: Gibson, for example, one of the greatest. [00:20:54] Speaker C: Pitchers that ever played the game. And they're now in their, I think Ted's in his seventy s. I think Tim is 80 or in his eighty. [00:21:02] Speaker B: S. And they spent the evening sharing. [00:21:07] Speaker C: With us stories about their careers. And one of the things that Ted Simmons said was that he was asked by the moderator what his predecessor, Tim McCarver, had taught him. And he said, well, the most important thing that Tim McCarver taught me was the game of bridge, the card game. And everybody kind of laughed. And he goes, no, I'm very, very serious. Tim McCarver taught me how to play bridge, and it made me a far better catcher on the baseball field. Okay, how does that work? [00:21:48] Speaker B: Well, I've never played bridge, but evidently it's a pretty complicated game. [00:21:52] Speaker C: And according to Ted and Tim, who. [00:21:55] Speaker B: Were talking about it, it requires a. [00:21:58] Speaker C: Lot of concentration and a lot of memory. You got to remember which cards have been played, which cards remain, who's played. [00:22:05] Speaker B: What, when, in what order, and the. [00:22:08] Speaker C: Really good bridge players have that sort of number memory. And Tim was very good at Bridge and loved the game of bridge, but it also sharpened his memory on the field. Now, I didn't realize this. I love the position of catcher in baseball. [00:22:26] Speaker B: And if you're not a fan, you. [00:22:28] Speaker C: Figure the catcher's the guy behind the plate that catches the ball when the pitcher throws it. No big deal, right? [00:22:34] Speaker B: Well, there's obviously a lot more to it than that. [00:22:38] Speaker C: And one of the things that Ted says, he says, you know, the reason, for example, that Tim was so effective as a catcher is when you go through the entire lineup against the opposing team, there's nine players on a team, and the pitcher pitches and all nine. [00:22:59] Speaker B: Batters come up and face him. [00:23:01] Speaker C: Well, in about the third or fourth inning, they're going to start coming around again, and it's going to be everyone's second turn at the plate. Well, here's where Bridge comes in. Tim and Ted and the best catchers and pitchers in the league remember what happened to this batter the last time he was up, particularly if they got him out. So what Ted says is we don't just remember what pitch got him out. We remember that the first pitch was a strike down in the zone. The second pitch was a ball inside that the batter didn't chase. The third pitch was a cutter in. [00:23:53] Speaker B: The lower inside corner that the hitter. [00:23:57] Speaker C: Grounded to second base for a double play out. Now, to remember the pitching sequence for every batter, for every at bat, over a hundred pitches or so throughout a game is extraordinary. And the game of bridge helped Ted become better at that aspect of the game. We're talking about details. We're talking about honing your skills. We're talking about putting in the hard work and the things that are required to really excel at what we do. Now, my question for you as a good coach, I'll ask you, what are your drills? What are you doing to give yourself that competitive edge? And, yeah, even in the social sector, the competitive edge, that edge that makes you excellent at what you do? What are you doing to put in the extra hard work, to learn, to study, to research to practice and practice and practice and get to be the best at what you do. That's the kind of leadership to which I aspire. Certainly don't always put in that kind of work, but, boy, seeing something like this inspires me to do so. And then I'll close with, you know, the pitcher is seen in baseball a lot like the quarterback is seen in football often. Kind of the pivot point, the lead person on the team. Well, the Cardinals this year happen to have a pitcher who's been there for, I think, 16 or 17 seasons now. [00:25:56] Speaker B: His name is Adam Wainwright. [00:25:59] Speaker C: He just turned 40 years old, one. [00:26:01] Speaker B: Of the oldest guys in the game. [00:26:02] Speaker C: And he is still pitching at a super high level. I noticed a couple of things about him as a team leader. He is the last one on the field. So at the beginning of a game, when you're the home team, you take the field first, you bat last in the inning. So in a home game, they're about to announce the Cardinals are taking the field. The PA announcer comes on and says, ladies and gentlemen, you're St. Louis Cardinals. And he calls them all out, and they all rush out and they take their positions in the field. And Adam Wainwright, their pitcher, stays back near the dugout until all the other players are out. And then he goes last. And it's sort of a symbol, a. [00:26:52] Speaker B: Symbol of putting others first, a symbol of servant leadership. [00:26:58] Speaker C: It's just kind of a cool symbol act that he does on the field. The other thing that you notice about Adam Wainwright is he lets his defenders, the other eight people on the team, particularly those behind him in the infield and outfield, let them do their jobs and trust them. [00:27:24] Speaker B: Now, I don't want to get too. [00:27:25] Speaker C: Detailed into baseball talk, but here's how this works. There are pitchers who try a little too hard to pitch really wicked pitches. The curveballs and the sliders and the. [00:27:39] Speaker B: Knuckle balls and the cutters, the pitches. [00:27:42] Speaker C: That have movement on them that really trick the batter. They curve and they twist and they turn and sometimes they try too hard. And what happens is the batters just don't swing and you end up walking them because you're not throwing strikes. You're trying to get cute with your pitches. Wainwright's got stuff, but he throws strikes and he's not afraid to throw strikes because he knows that when the batter makes contact with the ball, he's got seven guys behind him that are going to make the plays. Let the batter swing the bat. Let him hit the ball. We have an all star third baseman we have a multi Gold glove first baseman. We've got a center fielder that can outrun almost anybody in the league. Let your defenders do their job and trust them. Don't feel like you have to strike out every single batter because if you don't, your infield won't get the job done. This is so relatable to the world. [00:28:47] Speaker B: Of leadership in organizations where we are. [00:28:50] Speaker C: Good at what we do, but we think we have to do it all rather than fully trust our team to do their jobs. Final thing I'll say about pitching as it relates to leadership, know when the time is right for you to leave the game. In the game on Sunday that I attended, where the Cardinals did win, Wainwright was pitching and he pitched eight shutout innings. He allowed only two hits, and at the end of eight innings it was three to nothing. Cardinals. Now, Wainwright had also pitched, I think, over 100 pitches, which for a starting. [00:29:33] Speaker B: Pitcher is a lot of pitches. [00:29:35] Speaker C: And most managers are not going to leave their starting pitchers out there that. [00:29:38] Speaker B: Long because they don't want to wear. [00:29:39] Speaker C: Them down so that they can't pitch the next time. So Wainwright goes to the dugout at the end of the 8th inning, knowing there's only one inning left. And by the way, every pitcher dreams of pitching complete games. It's a big deal. It's a rare thing anymore in baseball. It used to be quite common. Nowadays, it's very rare for one pitcher. [00:30:01] Speaker B: To go the complete game and pitch all nine innings. [00:30:04] Speaker C: Wainwright has done it 27 or eight or nine times in his career, and he always wants to do it. So at the end of the 8th inning, he goes to the dugout. And when the manager extends his hand to shake Adam Wainwright's hand, Adam knows what that means. It means you're done. I'm ringing in a relief pitcher in the 9th inning. You've done a great job. Thank you. Congratulations. Take a seat. Take a load off. You've done your job. And Adam said at the end of the game that when Mike Schilt, the manager, extended his hand to him, he waited a minute. He looked at Mike like, wait a minute, don't take me out. I can go one more inning. And he just kept his hand out there like, no, you're done. And finally, reluctantly, Wainwright extended his hand, shook the manager's hand, sat down and took a load off. You got to know when the time is right for you to leave. And sometimes the best time is when you're on top. I spent ten years in Danville, Virginia, leading the United Way there. And we did really amazing things there. I think we took the United Way to a new level. We gained a lot of respect in the community. We did some very impactful things in early childhood education and development, in helping to increase financial stability of families. [00:31:37] Speaker B: We really did some great things. [00:31:39] Speaker C: To be a small town united way with limited resources and at about seven years I kind of was feeling like it might be time for me to start thinking about going because I didn't want to wait until I became dry or irrelevant. Know didn't have the same kind of vision. We stayed three more years because our daughter was in high school there and. [00:32:06] Speaker B: We didn't want to pick her up and make her have to change high. [00:32:09] Speaker C: Schools in the middle of a high school career. So we stayed until the 10th year. I'm really glad I didn't stay eleven. It ended up being just about perfect to leave at the ten year mark, leaving on a high, allowing the organization to figure out what's going to get it now to the next level. And just to know, it's not all about me. It's about the team. That's what Wayne Wright can teach us about leadership. I'm going to share two more quick thoughts with you. [00:32:44] Speaker B: One is that just my favorite quote. [00:32:47] Speaker C: Of the week was from Ted Simmons. [00:32:49] Speaker B: My guy, the Cardinal hall of Fame catcher who's going to be inducted into. [00:32:55] Speaker C: The Major League Baseball hall of Fame in Cooperstown in the next week. They asked Ted. Ted. Ted was actually on the hall of Fame ballot four times before he got voted in and it took him a long time to make the hall of Fame. He's in his seventy s and they asked him during the event, were you ever bitter? Bitter that you didn't make the vote on the first three tries? Bitter that you didn't even make the ballot most of the years after you retired? That it looked like you might be looked over and not make Cooperstown. Did you ever honestly get Bitter? And Ted's answer, his quote was, he said bitterness is a really, really disgusting thing. He called it disgusting. He said, if you bring a bag of bitterness, you won't make many friends. [00:34:02] Speaker B: I have. [00:34:05] Speaker C: We've all had our share of moments where we could be bitter. Bitter at somebody, bitter at a group, even bitter at ourselves. Bitter that something didn't turn out the way we thought it should. Bitter that we didn't get that grant. [00:34:18] Speaker B: That we thought we deserved. Bitter that the board at our last organization fired us because we got crossways and we didn't have the same vision. [00:34:29] Speaker C: Bitter because somebody else was jealous or compete, whatever it is, you bring a bag of bitterness, you're not going to make many friends. And Ted said the guys that won. [00:34:43] Speaker B: Ahead of him, the guys that got voted in ahead of him, guys like. [00:34:46] Speaker C: Johnny Bench, for know, Pudge Rodriguez, whoever. [00:34:50] Speaker B: These know, the guys that got voted. [00:34:53] Speaker C: In easily, he said every single one of them deserved to be there as much, if not more than I did. So you can't be bitter. You have to appreciate what you got in the game, what the game gave you. He said, you know, I'm financially well off. I'm in the Cardinals hall of Fame already. I had a great career. [00:35:20] Speaker B: I had a blast doing it. [00:35:21] Speaker C: I have good health. I have a wonderful family. No, I wasn't bitter. Bitterness is a disgusting thing. So that was a good reminder to me because I've allowed myself to get bitter over a couple of things that have happened in my life, my career. It's a great reminder. Just don't let yourself go there. And then the final thing I'll say, whatever this is for you. So for me, it was an eight. [00:35:50] Speaker B: Day motorcycle trip to visit some family. [00:35:53] Speaker C: And go spend four days immersed in all things St. Louis Cardinals. Finally, after 55 years, whatever that is for you, do it. Do it for yourself. Take the time. I literally was very disconnected, I would say for seven of the eight days I did spend Monday. [00:36:15] Speaker B: While I was there, I spent in the hotel working a little bit on. [00:36:20] Speaker C: Some schoolwork and on responding to some. [00:36:22] Speaker B: Emails and catching up on some things. So I spent at least the morning working. [00:36:26] Speaker C: The other seven and a half days I was disconnected. I stayed out of work. I allowed myself to just immerse myself in this lifelong dream and it meant the world to me. [00:36:42] Speaker B: It made me feel like a kid again. [00:36:45] Speaker C: It connected me to some old wonderful emotions, gave me a sense of fulfillment and it was just a load of fun. Do this for yourself. Probably not a trip to Bush Stadium, but whatever it is for you, do it. And that is the jinx perspective for this week. Hope you found it interesting. [00:37:13] Speaker B: I just thought it was amazing. And this stuff, it's fresh for me, so I had to kind of get it out there and tell you the stories. We'll get back to some of the more traditional stuff next week. [00:37:25] Speaker C: Hey, listen, check out our YouTube channel. [00:37:27] Speaker B: If you haven't already. We have some about every other week. We have some short but powerful coaching videos for leaders in the nonprofit sector. It's called perspectives in nonprofit leadership. Just go to our website, jinxperspective.com. That's Jinks perspective.com. And then click on the YouTube link that's in the main menu and check that out. [00:37:52] Speaker C: Until then, we'll see you next time. Lead.