There’s no crying in baseball…even if you’re the umpire
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Being a baseball umpire must be tough. Sure, most of the calls are obvious. But, there are always a few calls during every game that get the teams and crowds riled up. Umpires never get applauded. They get yelled at. They get things thrown at them from the crowd. It is a thankless job.
All of that pressure brings to mind business leaders.
There are many similarities between business leaders and baseball umpires: both have to make quick decisions, stay composed under pressure, maintain order and authority, and ensure the performance follows the rules.
The most significant similarity is judgment.
Both jobs spend a lot of time judging others.
Leaders, like umpires, have to make decisions that affect outcomes. Leaders have to judge people and situations, and often do so quickly, with minimal information to make the decisions.
Honing the ability to judge is useful for leaders. It is not a skill one learns by age two, like how to walk. It’s more like how to swing a bat. You can learn it at age two, but to be really good at it takes years of practice and fine-tuning.
Leaders who are good at judgement can have positive effects on their teams:
Capitalize on talent: By judging others, leaders can identify talent and potential within their teams. Seeing strengths and weaknesses enables top leaders to put the right people in the right jobs, delegate effectively, and optimize team performance. It also helps leaders coach people for their future beyond the team.
Build performance: Judging others enables leaders to know where performance standards can be set and how to hold their teams accountable to the standards. The standards can become motivational for the teams and for individual growth.
Speed inovation and progress: Leaders who can judge wisely, discern, and make effective decisions are more likely to move quicker than others who need more meetings, more input, more data. The speed of innovation, response to customers, and progress matters, and the ability to judge contributes to it.
There are two significant negative effects when judging others goes unchecked:
Biased decisions: Leaders who do not guard against their own biases may overlook valuable perspectives or ideas, thus, sabotage innovation and progress.
Toxic culture: Judging can lead to lack of empathy and a disconnect between the leader and others, which can lead to people feeling insecure and constantly scrutinized. There can be a disconnect between the leader and others. There also can become a disconnect between employees and each other when judgment pits people against each other.
There is a fine line for leaders who use judgement wisely and those who do not.
Here are a few ways leaders can walk that line and stay on the positive, useful side of it:
Show empathy above all. To everyone.
Jump to positive conclusions about others before negative ones. Starting with positive enables you to go faster because when conversations begin with positive, the other person is more likely to join them.
MYOB. Mind Your Own Business. Do not judge others on things unrelated to the work team. You do not need to have an opinion about their hobbies, kids’ sports or schools, or spouse’s cooking. Free yourself from the weight of all of that by not judging things that do not impact the team.
Foster an inclusive culture deliberately. When people feel included, they are more likely to let you know you missed something in your decision-making. Without it, they check their brains and hearts at the door, and you’re on your own. (Plus, people bring ideas and all kinds of other great things that help beyond the subject of this post!)
Keep your mouth closed more often. Literally. Let others talk more. Listen more. If you stop talking, they are more likely to share in ways that can help you be more discerning.
Leaders affect whether their own teams/companies win or lose.
That’s a gigantic difference from umpires, whose detached objectivity does not affect themselves. The fact that a leader’s judgment impacts their own team is further support for honing the ability to think critically and take the five actions above.
Leaders who take those five actions may cry with their teams, but their tears will be tears of joy and their pain be champagne!
