It’s spring and spring always makes me think of baseball. There’s nothing like a spring afternoon at the ballfield, in my opinion. I’ve visited many Major League baseball fields, but my favorite one will always be in Kansas City. My early years were spent outside of Kansas City and I had the privilege of spending many afternoons at their beautiful stadium in the 70s. 

I soon became an avid fan. I had charts and graphs with batting orders and data and stats lined up. Each day I’d grab the sports section of the newspaper and do my updates, especially on my favorite players. I started seeing where the gaps were in the positions on the field and in the batting average. I studied the changes the manager made each game to fill in the gaps. Of course, if I noticed they were noticing for sure and way ahead of me. 

In the '70s and early '80s, the Royals were a very good baseball team. They had several players setting records each season and they were fun to watch. But they were having a hard time getting to the World Series. Early one season, I saw a big upset in the lineup. The manager started moving all the players around on the field and in the lineup. I was young, so I didn’t understand the “shaking it up a bit” tactic. 

Over the next few weeks, I saw a few players come up with great stats from being in a new position, and I saw other players’ stats fall. Then the manager put some players back to their past positions and moved others to new positions. And something great happened. In 1980. They made it to the World Series (side note for baseball lovers; they lost, but won in 1985). That was the year I moved across the country with my family so I had to watch as much as I could on television and, of course, I followed the stats every day from the newspaper. I saw how it all came together.

Now, as I help others build businesses (and build my own), I see the lessons this taught me, and I try to teach them to others. 

Having the right person in the right position matters!

On your team, is everyone in the right position? 

Everyone has things they do well and then there are things they are a genius at and should be the only one doing them on your team, including you. Shuffle as needed and you might discover some hidden talents. 

You can download the handout I gave at a recent talk and work on building your Dream Team.