What I Learned This Quarter in Class

I'll be honest....yea I did learn a lot, but I don't think I've learned anything new, that I can apply to leadership. I will still maintain, till the day I die, that the sport that really, really knows how to utilize leadership skills to the max, is on ice. I've played since I was two years old, so for 20 years I've lead my respective teams, and I'm about to lead a new team in Bearcast, that I will take on just like I would my hockey team. I plan to lead by example, inspire, and trust others to do their job, while I do mine.

As I said, of the books, I really liked the small Leadership book. I'm not a fan of Bennis, even though I thought some of what he said was great, and I think Mark Ramsey doesn't know what he's talking about, but Ricky Gervais gave great advice in that book.

I think one of the most interesting arguments we had all quarter was whether you are born, or learn to become a leader. I still firmly believe that leaders are born. They learn skills and learn from experiences that shape the way they lead, but they are born leaders.

Today in Baseball

There were two HUGE, HUMONGOUS, stories out of the MLB yesterday, and I want to talk about them.

First, an almost perfect game was thrown yesterday as Detroits' Armando Gallaraga, but was blown by umpire Jim Joyce. There are a few things that I'd like to mention. First, when the call was made, you can see Gallaraga's reaction....now I've never heard of the Venezuelan till yesterday, but I'm a fan, because where most baseball players would throw a hissy fit, he didn't, and actually after the game, didn't have any harsh words for the umpire that kept him out of baseball history books, to be remembered forever. Thats class.

Jim Joyce blew the call. He knew it after the game. So what does he do? He goes to the Tigers clubhouse, stares eye to eye with Gallaraga, and apologizes. He fessed up to his mistake, and confronted Gallaraga like a man should. That's Class.

What isn't class, is Bud FREAKING Selig. What a DOUCHE!!! This could easily be prevented if, oh I don't know, he IMPLEMENTS 21st CENTURY INSTANT REPLAY. He is worried of it slowing down the game....BULLS**T! How many batters adjust their batting gloves after every single pitch? Why not get rid of that crap to speed up the game, then instant replay isn't a big deal! Because Bud Selig is the worst commissioner of all time of any and all sports.

He is willing to ruin history, and ruin the chance of this young man's perfect game. It's not like Gallaraga was 10 outs away from the Perfect Game...THAT WAS the last out. Ridiculous.

On another sad note, my favourite ball player of all time retired yesterday. Junior is the man. I was sad to see him retire, but I think he was one of the VERY slim few who played in the 90's-00's the correct way. He was a good teammate, good community guy, and great player. (Oh what could have been.) His statement he released sums up Ken Griffey Jr. the person:

"I feel that without enough occasional starts to be sharper coming off the bench, my continued presence as a player would be an unfair distraction to my teammates and their success as a team is what the ultimate goal should be"

That is class, something great leaders have, and horrible leaders (like Bud Selig) lack. Maybe Selig should take a few pages out of the much younger Roger Goodell's book. He could learn how to run a league.

On Becoming a Leader Reaction Pages 185-End

The last two chapters I did not care for because I felt it was all about politics and less about leadership. Bennis revised this, for the first time, since 2002, and I can tell, he wasn't a Bush fan and is completely against the war. I'm not into politics, so I'm not going to lie, the last chapter was extremely boring for me.

All in all, I didn't care for Bennis's book, instead, I prefer the tiny book! My philosophy on leadership does not have political idols. I feel as if people shy away from politics because they feel they cannot trust politicians....I really don't either to be honest. What I do trust, and have faith in, is the sports idols that lead teams. I can wrap my head around ideas and challenges that they have I can relate to, and better understand.

In my opinion, there are people that are light hearted, and people who are heavy. Heavy people doesn't refer to their weight, but rather how they think, and what they think about. I don't like bad news, so I avoid it as best as I can. Thats why I'm a sports guy, and other light hearted subjects. When Bennis talks politics, it just doesn't interest me. Plus, one thing that I hate, is hidden agenda's and people pushing their beliefs on others, and I think Bennis has done that successfully in a few of these chapters.