Former Deloitte CEO writes about leadership in business, baseball

Jim Quigley, former CEO of Deloitte, compares business to baseball in the need for adaptability in a recent article in the Washington Post, citing Tony La Russa, manager of the World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals.

Great leaders, like La Russa, possess two talents that make a great leader: adaptability and durability. The two characteristics are used to “harness the collective power of their organizations,” according to Quiqley’s article.

“The business world spends much time these days talking about how the magnitude and velocity of change are making the current leadership environment particularly challenging,” Quigley said in the article. “For help, I’d say we should look to baseball. The game is a prime example of a dynamic environment requiring a high degree of adaptability to ever-changing circumstances.”

A strong sense of pride is a key factor in bringing players and employees, together and building a sense of camaraderie among players with big egos and paychecks.

“A proud team will play harder and will fight to the very end, even when it finds itself 10 games out of a playoff spot during the last week of August as the Cardinals did this year,” Quigley said in the article.

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