By Lori Silverman
As a way of compensating for my ill-fated Milwaukee Brewer game attendance last Friday, I decided to treat myself on Sunday to a Chicago Cubs game at Hohokam Stadium—a mere twelve minutes from my home—when there’s no scheduled baseball game. Given my previous trip debacle, I checked and double-checked to ensure I was headed in the right direction.
I’d snagged a great seat on the aisle—a little to the left of home plate. Close enough to hear the umpire’s calls, far enough away to have a great view of the entire park. This particular day, the Cubbies were hosting the San Francisco Giants.
When the Giant players were out in the field, there was one in particular who stood out—player number 57: Twenty-five year-old short stop Eugenio Velez. All around me, people were whispering, “You see that number 57? Boy is he scrawny. He turns sideways and he disappears! His clothes are falling off of him.”
He got to first base on his at bat during the fifth inning against pitcher Eric Patterson. Once there, he kept teasing Patterson with his “try and get me out” moves as he ever slowly gravitated towards second base. And then, in a blink of an eye he took off. Patterson’s diving attempt to throw him out fell short. Ironically, this is the same move he’d used against pitcher Ryan Therlot the previous Friday.
Every time Velez made it to first base, he’d play his cat-and-mouse game. He was skilled at distracting whomever was pitching from the batter at hand. As I watched his behavior, I wondered how many times in a given week each of us is pressed to act like these pitchers and simultaneously attend to more than one person or situation. Where our heads go whipping back and forth because there’s movement in several—or even opposite—directions.
How effective are you when faced with these scenarios? Do you give them permission to unbalance you—to take you off your center? Or, have you honed your ability to have 360-degree vision and to stay grounded against all odds in order to be able to process myriad pieces of information at lightening speed and determine what’s best in the moment?
PERMISSION TO REPRINT: You may reprint this story as long as you include the following attribution. “Learn more about Lori Silverman’s work as a strategist and keynote speaker at http://www.partnersforprogress.com. Her latest book, Wake Me Up When the Data Is Over debuted in the top 100 books on Amazon in October 2006. She can be reached at 800 253 6398 or lori@partnersforprogress.com."
Comments