Of the many metaphors that have found their way into the lexicon of organizational life, perhaps none is more pervasive than baseball. The idioms of baseball have traveled the globe and seeped into conversations between people who know little or nothing of the game. Fully integrated into our thinking and speaking, baseball metaphors help to galvanize many of the meanings central to our everyday experience.
Mar 4, 2023Liked by Admired Leadership, Michael Gale
Let me add another metaphor.
One university president I worked with used pitching as a metaphor on when to become engaged with future donors.
* The billionaires are used to sitting with the CEOs of nonprofits and of course, the president had to be willing to be the "starting pitcher," opening the relationship, being the first to see the prospect. She was.
She illustrated the other options as the:
* "long-term reliever" coming in after a prospect had been personally qualified as having major gift capacity and worthy of the president' attention.
* "set-up" pitcher, coming in later in the relationship as needed, probably to assure the prospect of the direction of the university, the importance of the donor's support.
* "closer," coming in just to ask for and close the gift, usually when the prospect has already indicated a strong likelihood of making the gift. The president is there to "seal the deal."
While this president was willing to fill any role (as world-class pitchers normally are) her preference was to be a "long-term reliever" as she liked to build a relationship with the major gift prospect and work with the prospect to structure a gift of maximum impact to the university and maximum satisfaction to the prospect.
I believe this metaphor works for leaders in the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds.
By the way, this president is among the best I have ever worked with,
Mar 4, 2023Liked by Admired Leadership, Michael Gale
And then when it comes to the greats who played the game of baseball…Yogisms “when you come to a fork in the road, take it” “It ain’t over till its over” and so on
Fun article. Personally, I think sports analogies can be taken too far. I've witnessed people (mostly women) pulling back or shutting up in a conversation/discussion when a leader starts spouting out sports analogies. I think we can do better and challenge ourselves to 'use our words' instead of relying on sports analogies. I don't see the connection with sports and business that closely tied anyway (I know I may be a minority here). But in sports, the outcome is win or lose. But in business (and in life) most outcomes are win/win.
Let me add another metaphor.
One university president I worked with used pitching as a metaphor on when to become engaged with future donors.
* The billionaires are used to sitting with the CEOs of nonprofits and of course, the president had to be willing to be the "starting pitcher," opening the relationship, being the first to see the prospect. She was.
She illustrated the other options as the:
* "long-term reliever" coming in after a prospect had been personally qualified as having major gift capacity and worthy of the president' attention.
* "set-up" pitcher, coming in later in the relationship as needed, probably to assure the prospect of the direction of the university, the importance of the donor's support.
* "closer," coming in just to ask for and close the gift, usually when the prospect has already indicated a strong likelihood of making the gift. The president is there to "seal the deal."
While this president was willing to fill any role (as world-class pitchers normally are) her preference was to be a "long-term reliever" as she liked to build a relationship with the major gift prospect and work with the prospect to structure a gift of maximum impact to the university and maximum satisfaction to the prospect.
I believe this metaphor works for leaders in the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds.
By the way, this president is among the best I have ever worked with,
And then when it comes to the greats who played the game of baseball…Yogisms “when you come to a fork in the road, take it” “It ain’t over till its over” and so on
There’s an episode on The Office that goes over this!
Fun article. Personally, I think sports analogies can be taken too far. I've witnessed people (mostly women) pulling back or shutting up in a conversation/discussion when a leader starts spouting out sports analogies. I think we can do better and challenge ourselves to 'use our words' instead of relying on sports analogies. I don't see the connection with sports and business that closely tied anyway (I know I may be a minority here). But in sports, the outcome is win or lose. But in business (and in life) most outcomes are win/win.