You're Killin Me Smalls!

We've all had that one teammate and I'm sure that we've all at some point repeated that phrase “ You're Killin Me Smalls”. But what were our actions after that statement? Did we Mentor our teammate to help them succeed next time or did we let our teammate continue down the path for failure?

During a baseball game there are many options at bat that can occur one of which can be the bunt. The bunt is often used to advance the base runner to help get them in a better position to score for the betterment of the team and possibly win the game. In business I relate the art of the bunt to the art of mentorship. As a leader it is our job to help each of our teammates be successful for the betterment of the team and also help them take their career path in the direction in which they choose.

Not all of our teammates come with the entire skill set needed to succeed on your team but have the basics or you would not have put them on your team to begin with. Are you the leader that will take those “You’re Killin Me Smalls” moment's and help your team member be successful the next time or are you the leader that will let a team member struggle and fail?

In the movie The Sandlot you had a young boy named Scott who had just moved to the area and tried hard to fit in with the local boys. Often in business as a new team member you are in the same situation trying to fit in with your new team. In this case it was trying to play baseball with the other kids and he was embarrassed because of his inability to catch and throw the ball.

In business as leaders we might often find the same situation where a team member might have that desire to be successful and eager to learn but might not be able to retain large amounts of information at once in the training process or might not be able to be giving a large task list with many subtasks to be done.

As a leader this is where the art of a bunt comes into play. The MENTORSHIP. In the movie The Sandlot Benny recognizes Scotts problems and kind of takes him under his wing and mentors him. Benny at one point tells him that he has to stop thinking and just have fun. Sometimes when mentoring our advice has to be to stop overthinking it. We need to just get things back to the basics for our teammates and remind them to not overthink the task at hand. 

Often at times I see teammates wanting so bad to be successful that they overthink the small tasks at hand. One of the things I see the most with young leaders is the amount of time it takes for them to make a decision. This mostly revolves around wanting to be successful and not make bad decisions. Although this is what we all strive for the lack of our decision cannot directly delay a project. One of my advice is always whether your decision is right or wrong you have to make a decision. Stand behind your decision and get the work done. If it is the wrong decision you still have to stand behind your choice and fix it if you can but also learn from it. I said stand behind your choice because you might be asked why you made that decision without checking first but with every strong leader once you explain what you were looking at and your thought process behind it your leader should understand and help guide you to make a better decision next time. After all leaders are not going to micromanage you while you are at another location working. They don't want you to call them for every decision. You were assigned the task because they believed in your abilities to accomplish it and expect you to make decisions to accomplish the task. Obviously there are some things that are not that simple and require a decision being made for somebody with more authority to make the decision but this is part of the learning and mentoring process.

Our bunts should lead to our teammates swinging. Meaning our leadership and mentoring our teammates should always help them with the confidence and knowledge to go after the success they seek.

The more you mentor your team the more you will see them corroborate together to accomplish a task or goal. I had the opportunity to watch this many times over when managing a team that built a stage and display footprint each week during the NASCAR season. As we grew together and learned together pros and cons of doing different tasks in different ways and as I helped guide them with my thought processes, I watched more corroboration occur on a weekly basis. I watched them work as a team and talk among themselves on the best way to build something even if it was different then what I had known to work in the past or the way they did it the previous week. My bunt in this situation was to give my pros and cons but let them swing away for the double or triple with the known being if they struck out then we would only go for the single next time. I always encouraged them to try it but if the team as a whole didn’t agree to do it or it didn’t work then we would go back to the known.

In the scene where Benny explains to Scott how to throw a ball in comparison to a paper route we should use examples of everyday comparison when explaining things. It is easy for people to make that relationship when learning something new. As a leader if you can figure out one's passion it is easy to take their passion and make it relevant in their career. With this in the same scene Scott asks Benny how to catch the ball and he explains just put your glove up and I will take care of the rest. Our teammates should have that same confidence in us with asking those basic questions and getting no judgement back. We should have the same mentorship attitude no matter the question. They should have that confidence that they can put it out there with their desire to learn that we will give them the tools and knowledge to be successful.

At one point Scott realizes that although they are all just playing a game it is truly Benny’s passion. Benny eventually went on to play pro baseball. As we mentor our teammates we need to keep in mind that it is ok for people to take that knowledge and skill set and chase their dreams even if it is somewhere else. As you mentor your team you just might find your next Benny who has the same passion and drive to succeed as a leader that you have. Help them develop and be successful. Don’t leave them on base and not move them along knowing their success might just move them to another team. As in baseball everybody gets on base at one point but the leaders always find a way to get on base and move their teammates along.

After all if you are going to bunt the ball to advance a runner don’t you need a runner on base first? You teammates have stepped up to the plate and gotten on base and are just waiting for you to bunt them around to score. Get in the game!