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The following is the second post in a series on the Wake Forest Bridge Seminar, which was put on by Wake Forest Dec 1-3, 2023.
While nothing matches being there, I wanted to share what I learned for those who missed it, and to set the stage for an ever bigger turnout in 2024.
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Mike McFerran starts his talk by describing his job description.
His technical title, Pitching Lab Coordinator and Director of Player Development, as he admits, is a lot of words that don’t give a clear picture of his day to day responsibilities.
But Mike leans into that to forge his own mission statement: “Take all this information, and use our staff and our resources to have a positive, competitive result with our program.”
As I watched the rest of Mike’s talk, I kept coming back to that line.
What should any coach do? Take in all the information, and use their staff and their resources to have a positive, competitive result.
How about an analyst? A biomechanist? A front office exec?
In fact, 1) taking in all the information and 2) using the available resources (human capital and otherwise) to achieve the desired result is a great way to describe the goal of any coach. Or manager. Or leader.
Because as Mike (maybe unknowingly) shows us- it’s all the same thing.
Designing to Win
Mike called his talk Designing to Win. Design is a good starting point for any leader, as any leader has to identify the goal and get their team behind it.
Given his pitching focus, he as a simple message for his team: we get outs.
Without anyone asking him, he explicitly made himself a single threaded leader. He is in charge of Wake Forest pitchers getting outs. It’s direct. It’s highly correlated and causal with team success. And it’s Mike’s singular focus.
Whether Mike accomplishes this goal via player acquisition (high school recruitment, transfer portal), player development, or in game strategy, is irrelevant. All that matters is he builds a program that gets outs- full stop.
Agenda Setting to Win
After Mike defines the team wide goal, he gets his pitchers behind it. He does this by 1) keeping the message constant and 2) prescribing a high level of ownership to the individual:
Each pitcher is a single threaded leader for their own results: “you get outs”. And Mike remains the single threaded leader for the staff: “we get outs”.
It sounds simple, but that’s the point. Simple is easy to get behind. And simple gives autonomy to the individual to carve their own path.
Coaching to Win
After setting the table, it is Mike’s job to move from manager- designing the system- to coach- helping each pitcher accomplish their goal of getting outs.
Mike does this by developing their skillsets to extract their unique value- which he has a 3 step process for: dig, design, develop.
This clip gives so many examples of great management:
Mike shows he is willing to get into the weeds. He knows the details of each and every pitcher, which means they know 1) he can help them and 2) he cares.
He talks about what is important to them. Coaches may be judged on wins and losses, but that doesn’t mean they should shy away from the athlete’s goals. Yes, Mike’s pitchers want to win. But they also wanted to be drafted and make money.
He sets them up for success. After they go through the entire plan together, they have the tools they need to accomplish their goals. And they know they have Mike as a knowledgeable and trusted resource moving forward.
Leading to Win
Mike’s technical title is Pitching Lab Coordinator and Director of Player Development.
But, at the end of the day, Mike is a leader. And whether you are leading from the dugout or the front office; in college or the pros; in sports or business- good leadership is the same.
Good leadership is setting culture. Good leadership is “micro-managing” when you need to, while setting people up to thrive with maximum autonomy in the future. And good leadership is about helping others accomplish their goals, knowing that it will benefit the larger mission…and that it makes the job a lot more fun.