My turn to write a entry for the school blog is upon me and, to be honest, I have been obsessed for the past month with Blue October, the mysterious malady that has infected all of Kansas City like nothing in the last 30 years. The entire city, myself included, has been obsessed with the Royals run to a World Series title, concluding with a massive celebration where 800,000 people converged on downtown KC for the parade and pep rally.
So what to write about? Since I have been thinking about Royals baseball 24/7, I decided to look at their epic run to a championship for leadership lessons. As I have read countless articles, both in the local newspaper (yes, that still exists!) and online, I have encountered a number of recurring themes as skilled writers around the country have tried to capture the essence of this team.
Leadership is vision - "Good leaders create a vision, articulate the vision,
passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion." (Jack Welch, retired CEO of General Electric)
When Dayton Moore arrived in Kansas City in 2006, he came with a vision for building a winning franchise from one that had been historically bad in recent years. His vision included rebuilding the farm system (A few years later, it was rated the best farm system in baseball.), a commitment to the scouting department, especially in Latin America (The Royals have one of the strongest contingents of Latin American players in all of baseball.), and recruiting a stable of athletes suited in play in the confines of Kauffman Stadium (That athleticism was on full display in their recent World Series run.).
He relentlessly pursued that vision, again and again avoiding the temptation to sabotage his plan with short-term, expensive free agent signings. He knows Kansas City cannot play that game. Even in the euphoria of this postseason, he has remained resolutely committed to his vision.
Leadership is teamwork - The Royals mantra "keep the line moving" went viral during this most recent postseason run. There is no single intimidating individual in that lineup, no 40-HR guys ... but as the much-maligned Joe Buck noted in calling them the best team he has covered, "they can go one through nine in their lineup." Alex Gordon is projected to earn $100 million dollars as a free agent this offseason - he batted eighth. They were six outs away from elimination against the Astros in the first series, but they "kept the line moving" to erase a 4-run deficit. They were being dominated by David Price in the second game of the Blue Jay series before the got "the line moving" to complete another of their eight comeback wins.
Leadership is relentless - Josh Donaldson, Blue Jays All-Star third baseman said after one of the Royal's comeback wins, "These guys come to play all 27 outs ... They make you work for all of them." This is probably the over-riding theme of this postseason ... the Royals set a postseason record for comebacks after the 7th inning. The simply never gave up. They continued their late-inning heroics in the World Series. They had a homerun in the bottom of the 9th in Game 1 of the World Series to prolong the game before winning in extra innings. They scored three runs in the eight of Game 4 to take a 3-1 series lead. And they saved their best for last, scoring two runs in the top of the 9th of Game 5 to tie before winning the series with another extra inning victory.
As I look a these qualities, I can't help but think of Nehemiah and the children of Israel coming back to rebuild the city walls. Nehemiah had a vision, a vision of the former glory of Jerusalem provided by God and passed on by the his ancestors. The whole process of rebuilding the wall was an exercise in teamwork with different families assigned the part of the wall nearest their home. And Nehemiah and the children of Israel were relentless in pursuing their vision, resisting efforts from the enemies around them to thwart their work.
