Throwing The Heat

“Every weed has to be removed, every burnt spot has to be repaired, and every divot has to be replaced every day. You never know who the next franchise player might be who’s playing on this field. And I don’t want to risk having him twist his ankle on my field.”

That’s the level of intensity Patrick Coakley brought to his job as head groundskeeper of a minor league baseball stadium. Of course, that’s not surprising when you consider he won the Best Sports Turf Manager of the Year award three times in eleven years.

I know Coakley personally, and it was during a conversation with him one time that I realized a lot of business lessons could be learned from his philosophy on maintaining a baseball field.

To start with, Pat’s field would get mowed every day, whether the team was playing at home or on the road. I asked him, “Why go to the trouble and expense of mowing the field every day? It can’t possibly grow that fast.” As he sharpened the blades on one of the mowers, he responded, “Mowing it every day is a lot of work. But when it’s mowed every day, the grass grows better. It grows stronger and greener.”

The same holds true in business. How strong is the temptation to stop doing the details when things are going well in your business? Sales are up, so maybe you don’t need to market as strongly. Cash flow is good, so you don’t need to pursue receivables aggressively. Production is getting done, so you don’t need to maintain high standards of appearance or discipline within the ranks.

But if you want your business to be healthy and strong, grooming it every day is a must. Even the stuff you don’t enjoy.

Pat believed his job was to deliver a perfect playing surface, not just to impress company executives who came around every now and then or for the fans who attended an occasional game. It was for the players who worked on the field day in and day out.

It’s the same in business. The reason you keep your vehicles clean and maintained, the reason you keep your shop and offices clean and organized, and the reason you keep your financial information and customer data accurate and up-to-date isn’t because you’re expecting visitors. It’s because your people perform better in that kind of environment. Morale seems to be higher when you pay attention to those details.

Perhaps the most telling characteristic about Coakley is the intensity of his focus. Pat is a competitor in everything he does, and his focus is always on winning. (I learned this about Pat first-hand on a golf course years ago.) So, even though the tasks he engaged in daily (mowing, seeding, fertilizing, watering, etc.) were intended to build a faster and safer playing field, the underlying reason he did those things was to help his team win more ball games.

Where’s your focus? Is it on the tasks you perform simply for the sake of being the best at those tasks? Or do you strive to be the best at your tasks so you can win at the game of business?

At first blush, it may not seem like business and baseball fields have much in common. But after closer examination, they sure do.