Bong Jung-geun's Road to Major League <5> Episode 5: Major League leadership
Bong Jung-geun's Road to Major League <5> Episode 5: Major League leadership
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I miss Bobby Cox's fatherly leadership
"Former Atlanta coach"
There seems to be no time when there is a lot of talk about leadership these days. In politics, society, the economy, and even in the educational field of children, stories about the importance of leadership appear frequently.
When I describe leadership in general, I often cite examples of team sports. I have seen so many examples of leadership in sports, such as Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls, Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, and Hiddink of the 2002 World Cup that anyone outside of sports is familiar with.
The reason why sports come to mind first when we talk about leadership is that there is no such area as sports when it comes to starkly showing the world of fierce competition and a colder world of competition, and there is no more intuitive case than team sports when it comes to understanding leadership.
MLB is not star leadership, but actual leadership
Major League Baseball, where world-class players gather, is also a stage where you can experience a variety of leadership. However, as examples of leadership we encounter in management books and self-development books, leadership in the field is neither focused on a person's manpower nor that simple.
Team sports inevitably have "aces" and formal and informal "team leaders," but it cannot be a system in which a leading ship leads the whole like leadership. This is because the birth of team sports itself is made up of an organic collective in which individuals must form a team as part of the whole and move together.
Just as no matter how good a striker is, he cannot shoot and goalkeeper, no matter how good a pitcher is, he cannot win without the score of the batters.
Players can sometimes not do well or do well. Players can express anger when they perform poorly because they are human, but they are basically all aware that it is difficult to survive alone in the extreme competitive arena of Major League Baseball.
After all, players are well aware that it is not easy to raise one's performance and ransom without the help of colleagues. As a result, Major League Baseball is surprisingly conservative when it comes to outstanding behavior.
You have to wear a suit for away games, but you can't just do what you want because a star player is dressed casually. This is because it is a factor that hinders teamwork. A player cannot do well all season long. There is a time when he needs help from his teammates, and no one can help a player who has betrayed his trust.
Therefore, I think it is necessary to focus more on the practical leadership of Major League Baseball, which looks at leadership from the perspective of professional players.
Leadership by example, creating harmony for the team
Although the Major League is full of star players, no one is leading the team. Rather, I think it is veteran players and coaches who value harmony in teamwork that demonstrate leadership. They also exert indirect influence through role as helpers and example, rather than leading players.
Julio Franco, who served as a batting coach and general coach for the Korean Lotte Giants, was an active player until he was 50. He plays a great leader just by watching from the sidelines.
Franco puts a lot of emphasis on his own routine. After training, he took a hot and cold shower unconditionally, or his eating habits were set at a fixed time and steak was always eaten alone according to his routine.
It is a living education for players to apply good examples based on their own data for decades as a routine.
Director Bobby Cox's leadership in "Legendary Master"
When discussing a manager's leadership in the Major League, some consider him the best. He is Bobby Cox, the former manager of the Atlanta Braves. When he was the manager of the Atlanta Braves (1990-2010), Bobby Cox led the team to 14 consecutive World Series championships, including one World Series championship and five National League championships. He is also a great commander with 2,504 wins, ranking fourth with the most wins.
In the case of Bobby Cox, he was a father-like coach who took good care of young rookie players, who could be relatively weak in the team.
He showed through a bold decision that he can give as many chances as he can without having to dwell on small mistakes. Major League players who have experienced Bobby Cox have never heard anything bad about him.
ESPN, an American sports webzine, reported about his leadership.
"Cox does not blame players once it enters the stadium. He never says bad things and never puts the blame on players for their loss. This is one of Cox's strengths that even players who left Atlanta because Cox did not really like it. He also has tenacity to push ahead without making any changes. The atmosphere of the team is as loose as possible to guarantee individual freedom. When a team is in a slump, seniors call meetings with young players on their own, and Atlanta has become an organic organization."
ESPN then wrote about how coach Cox rehabilitated "The Journeyman."
"They were well-known 'journeymen' including Julio Franco, John Thompson, and John Bucket, who are breaking the record of the oldest hitter in the Major League. However, since they settled in Atlanta, they showed off their skills as well as their heyday.
Journeymen who were wandering the nest formed an exquisite ensemble with existing players with a sense of belonging under Cox's guidance of 'us' or 'one', which led to synergy."
He also turned his team into a "fountain" with his unwavering trust in rookies. A case in point is rookie Kelly Johnson. He went 1-for-30 for two weeks after his first appointment.
However, he has consistently appointed Cox. He advised Johnson to "push on the current level without paying attention to others."
Partnership on leadership, friendship in it
Since it is a team sport, players need a sense of partnership, a sense of partnership, to build a team together and achieve results. However, I think that the driving force for overcoming the crisis and taking the growth to the next level comes from fellowship, or friendship.
There is no separate training program at IMG Academy to develop the leadership skills of each player, but I am making sure that the players naturally create and demonstrate their leadership through on-site training.
The coach does not step up and create a team atmosphere or culture. It is said that it is important to play a role in making the environment comfortable for players to create voluntarily. Although the U.S. has a very individualistic culture, our young players also encourage us by shouting "Let's go!" when someone falls behind during training, and when we are distracted during the game, we push each other hard to change the atmosphere.
I think all of this is "leadership together" that comes from genuine fellowship. As a coach, I am committed to active and meticulous communication for this leadership.
New Director Lee Beom-ho Focuses on Communication Leadership
I think the current Kia Tigers are the domestic team that puts down the coach's sense of authority and builds a team through communication, and this is the ideal result for grades. As a young coach who had played until recently, the new coach Lee Bum-ho seems to have created a culture that fully understands the position of each player and coaching staff and respects their roles.
Veteran coaches' know-how and in-depth insight into baseball are also important, but I think the process of changing the team's atmosphere and proving its value with good performance is also a meaningful achievement for KBO growth. 토토사이트
So I've been supporting the Kia Tigers a lot recently. I think Lee Bum-ho's good example can be a great role model for young coaches to come.