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I believe the media and our culture sends the wrong messagesabout how to manage people and this makes it difficult forBusiness Owners and Managers.

We've all heard the old clich "nice guys don't finishfirst" and that has a huge impact on how managers deal withtheir people. We're led to believe that successful managersare tough, courageous "no nonsense" type of people. And ifyou're weak or soft with your people, then you'll get walkedon and taken advantage of.

A manager will often look at "successful" managers inbusiness or sport to try and understand what makes themsuccessful. The media often portrays these people as toughguys who drive their people by the force of theirpersonality, shouts and threats - no wimps allowed.

Jack Welch the ex CEO of General Electric writes in his book"jack" - "Strong managers who make tough decisions to cut jobsprovide the only true job security in today's world. Weakmanagers are the problem. Weak managers destroy jobs".

Now that statement may be true however it leads managers tobelieve that they most certainly have to be strong. There'sno way that a manager wants to be perceived as weak.However, it's how you define tough and strong that decideshow successful a manager you'll be.

We're all aware of the big tough sports coaches who runsuccessful teams. In the United States the legendary RedWings coach Scotty Bowman, often billed as the greatestcoach in hockey, was well known as a relentless, heartlessand humourless task master.

Another legend, football coach, Vince Lombardi, was known towork his teams hard. He pushed his players and made themrepeat plays over and over till they got it right. He yelledat his teams for any mistakes, even after games they hadwon. One of his famous lines is - "Winning isn't everything.It's the only thing."He had rigid rules, imposed discipline and had no tolerancefor mistakes.

Sir Alex Ferguson, Europe's most successful soccer coach wasonce in the news due to a dressing room incident atManchester United. The team had just lost a game that hefelt they shouldn't have lost and he was letting the playersknow how he felt about that. Apparently, in his temper, hekicked a football boot across the dressing room and hit oneof his star players, David Beckham, just above the eye.

Unfortunately the media presents these situations andcharacter traits as what makes a successful manager.Managers and particularly those new to a leadership role,try to model themselves on those that they read about andsee on TV.

In a recent seminar I asked a young manager why she thoughtRoy Keane played so well under Sir Alex Ferguson atManchester United - "It's because Alex regularly kicks hisass" was her reply. Now Roy Keane is a real tough guy playerknown for his hard and uncompromising style on the soccerfield. I asked this young manager how she thought Roy wouldrespond to having his ass kicked regularly. She didn't seemto have an answer to that.

Here are some other comments I've read about successfulsports coaches and managers -

John Wooden -
"One of the true gentlemen in sports or any other walk oflife""He taught them to be good people, good sports and still becompetitive"

Scotty Bowman -
"A great sense of humour that people never see""Deep down, a caring man"

Mike Krzyzewski -
"You cannot mistake the fact that he loves his players. Hecares about their schooling and them being model citizens""Coach K still puts up the wins proving once and for allnice guys can finish first"

Wayne Graham, baseball coach, Rice University:
"A demanding coach is redundant. If they are going to behappy with you and produce, they have to know you care"

Managers are misreading the signs sent by the media and ourculture and it's creating difficulty for them. Some managerscan adopt the tough guy approach very easily but most feeluneasy with it. The ones, who're uneasy, in an attempt notto be seen as weak, then manage their people in a way thatmakes them as a manager feel uncomfortable. This ultimatelycauses problems with their teams. I think we should look atwhat really makes a successful manager and it certainlyisn't just about being a "tough guy."

posted by escs  # 7:53 PM 0 comments

When people think about slum teams in baseball, they think of the Devil Rays. They average about 65 wins a season over the past 7 seasons. This is 97 losses. So you can imagine always betting against them, right?

I would beg to differ. The past two seasons at home, these Devil Rays were 81-80 (+15 units). They are so bad on the road that their decent home record is masked to bettors to the point that they are actually a decent bet.

The Devil Rays are pitted up against the elite division in all of baseball. The Yankees and Red Sox sit atop the throne every year. Then you have teams expected to be competitive in 2006 like the Orioles and Bluejays. Against non-division rivals at home, these Rays are 47-40 (+11 units) over the past 2 years.

When they were a favorite at home against non-division rivals, these Devil Rays were 20-10 (+8 units). Sometimes when you are a bad team and you have a rare chance to win, you will! These Devil Rays showed that they can.

Like many bad teams, we are going to pick our spots betting on the Devilrays at home and against them on the road.

posted by escs  # 4:54 PM 0 comments