In my community of Bartow, we’ve been blest with Hall of Fame softball coach Glenn Rutenbar. He started the girls’ softball program over 30 years ago. We’ve won the state championship seven times.
He’s such an effective coach, that many players have moved on to college ball only to find the quality of coaching and leadership to diminish at the “higher” level.
One player told the story of being with her college coach and being asked to practice bunting.
The player asked: “What kind of bunt? What’s the situation?”
The coach seemed put out… “What do you mean? There is no situation. Just bunt the ball.”
The player pushed back: “Coach, there’s always a situation.”
That phrase “There’s always a situation” reminded me of the essence of great leadership and management.
The great leader challenges the team to refine their skills. The leader asks them, to develop a range of abilities. They are encouraged to deploy those skills in innovative ways to solve the specific problem that they encounter that day.
A good player has learned that “there’s always a situation”.
When a player is equipped, they take pleasure/satisfaction in deploying their abilities to respond powerfully to those situations.
