What the utility-athlete can teach us about utilizing talent

The 2001 Seattle Mariners won a record tying 116 games.  They were one of the most durable Major League Baseball teams that season with minimal injuries.  The team had a certain chemistry that just worked and featured a mix of veterans that helped propel the team to greatness.  Among the roster was a scrappy Second Baseman named Mark McLemore who had previously lost his starting role to newcomer Bret Boone.  Unhappy with losing his role, McLemore had two options; demand a trade, or learn how to contribute at other positions.  

McLemore became known as a utility-athlete that season.  The utility-athlete role is defined as an athlete that can play multiple roles on the team.  In Baseball, the utility-athlete may play up to seven out of the nine positions excluding pitcher or catcher.  In sports such as Football, a utility-athlete may play snaps on both offense and defense. Regardless of the sport, the utility-athlete can be the most valuable player on the team.  This ability to suit up and play anywhere on the field on any given day allows the coaching staff to rotate and rest players who otherwise may be injured or need a game off. A team that features multiple utility-athletes gives opposing teams a real threat due to their flexibility to change the game on any given play or moment.  

McLemore was facing a season ahead in which he was most likely going to ride the bench and play minimal games.  Instead, he finished eighth in total games played and eighth in total at-bats. It should also be noted that McLemore was one of the oldest players on the team that season.  He became a durability machine for manager Lou Piniella and gave regular position players the opportunity to take a day off when needed. I can argue that McLemore was a major ingredient to the success of the team.

The success of McLemore should also be attributed to his veteran coach.  Piniella had been around the game as a player and coach for 37 seasons. He had won three World Series titles prior to coming to Seattle and he finished his coaching career with three Manager of the Year Awards.  His nickname was Sweet Lou and he is remembered for his fiery ability to motivate and inspire his players. He also is remembered for famously being thrown out of 63 major league games which currently ranks him number 11 on the list of all time managerial tosses.

Piniella knew how to coach and he knew how to handle his players.  He knew what strengths his players had and how to utilize them to the best of their abilities.  Piniella wasn’t afraid to take gambles and he was never afraid of challenging his team when they needed to hear it.  

When the season started and McLemore was unhappy with his role, Piniella’s response could have been flippant.  He could have chosen to tell the General Manager to trade McLemore. Rather than choose to create an issue, Piniella and McLemore worked together to find a solution.  That solution helped spark a winning baseball team.  

In the workplace, we tend to think of job titles like a baseball team would think of positions on the field.  We like to create job descriptions around very specific tasks that need to be accomplished and then go hire someone with the skillset to match that role.  We then lock that person into the role we hired for and keep them focused on the goals we outlined, without often thinking about the bigger picture of the company's needs.  These job descriptions can lock us into thinking one way without pointing back to the mission of the company.  

The mission of a baseball team is to win a World Series just like the mission of a company is to drive revenue and create products that are adopted by the masses.  (in addition to other things)

But what would happen if we posted job descriptions without titles and asked employees to contribute to the goals and mission ahead.  How often do we end up hiring a First Baseman but we end up playing that person at Catcher? It then becomes too late to realize that we had someone playing out of position who was incredibly valuable but we failed to identify the talent.  

What if instead of losing these talented folks to other companies we gave them the ability to be our utility-employees?  

Every day it happens in a company somewhere.  Metaphorically, Mark McLemore loses his starting role to Bret Boone and instead of the manager identifying that Mark is still an awesome employee and fit to do something new, Mark is pushed out of the company.  Mark ends up going to another company and rises to the top in another role contributing to their mission ahead.  

Talent utilization is a topic that isn’t discussed enough in the workplace.  We view talent as an upward mobility approach, or like a ladder as you’ve heard too often.  We should view talent as being able to move up, down, and side to side. Unfortunately, “down” in a company is where we get ourselves in trouble.  Sure, McLemore lost his starting job so he was technically demoted. Through that demotion though he was found to be even more valuable than ever before.  McLemore went on to play three more seasons after that 2001 season capping off a 16 year career. If he wasn’t already at the end of his playing career due to his age, he would have been one of the most valuable free agents when his contract ended in 2003.  

In the workplace, most companies would have said that McLemore wasn’t valuable any longer when he lost his starting Second Base role, and would have been happy to ship him off to another company or even push him out.  The singular focus of a role and title creates a small mind approach that leaves the employee wanting out, and the company “going in another direction.”  

Talent utilization begins at the Managerial level but the first step is to stop thinking of your team as filling roles and start thinking about how they collectively contribute to the company mission.  Strong leaders can identify talent and slot them in anywhere in the org but it’s not only up to the leaders to make these decisions. Employees must be comfortable with the unknown and be able to see how they fit into the story.  The mindset that my title is where I provide value has to be changed to my tasks and contributions are where I provide value. Leaders must be able to showcase the big picture and the why behind these changes too and make employees feel valuable along the way.  

How much better would your organization be if you had multiple utility-employees that could do it all?  If you’re interested in hiring some, find a pre-IPO startup as nobody values the utility-player more than a burgeoning company.  

by Scott Bond