“Robert H. Palestini’s practical approach to leadership, based on behavioral profi les of baseball managers, provides valuable insights for leaders in all walks of life. Palestini offers important practical lessons in leadership that he has observed in others and practiced himself as the coach and teacher I personally learned from in high school.” —H. Edward Hanway, president and CEO, CIGNA “Palestini has been my colleague at Saint Joseph’s University for over twenty years, and I can attest to the validity of the leadership strategies he espouses in this latest book profi ling the effective leader- ship behavior of ten outstanding professional baseball managers. Having served as manager of an American Legion team and having personal relationships with such baseball luminaries as Bill Giles, part owner and chairman of the Philadelphia Phillies, and Jerry Hunsicker, vice president of the Tampa Bay Rays and former general manager of the Houston Astros, I have observed fi rsthand how the leadership theories in Palestini’s book can be placed into effective practice. The leadership strategies that he suggests will be of value to leaders and aspiring leaders in all walks of life.” —John Lord, professor of marketing and dean emeritus at Saint Joseph’s University “Leadership skills are vital to success in all walks of life. Palestini captures this theory and puts it into practice in his new book. Whether you’re a teacher, coach, manager, or someone striving for success, this book will start you thinking.” —Thomas Wynne, former president and COO, LCI International “Palestini continues to excite educational leaders with his insightful approaches to educational leadership that help close the gap between theory and practice. His third book in his current leadership series demonstrates how the use of situational leadership theory by ten successful baseball managers has contributed to their effectiveness. These same leadership principles can be applied to anyone’s leadership behavior whether it’s as a parent, a school principal, or a business person. As a longtime colleague of Palestini’s, I have seen these principles exemplifi ed in his own leadership style. This book is sure to be a valuable addition to any leader’s library!” —Terrance Furin, former superintendent in Ohio and Pennsylvania; and author, Combating Hatred Literature on leadership often fails to include a clear connection between theory and practice. This book details characteristics and behaviors manifested by effective leaders and discusses how their behavior was informed by leadership theory. Robert H. Palestini describes the leadership practice of professional baseball coaches as a way to illustrate situational leadership theory, offering the reader examples of leadership behavior in the four leadership frames suggested by Bolman and Deal’s situational leadership theory. This book demonstrates how someone can become a very effective leader in both his personal and professional life. Robert H. Palestini is dean emeritus and professor of education at Saint Joseph’s University in Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania. Education | Leadership ROBERT H. PALESTINI lessons from the world of professional baseball PRACTICAL LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES FOREWORD BY jamie moyer PRACTICAL LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES For orders and information please contact the publisher Rowman & Littlefield Education A Division of Rowman & Littlefi eld Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefi eld Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200 Lanham, Maryland 20706 1-800-462-6420 • fax 717-794-3803 www.rowmaneducation.com Cover Design by Devin Watson PALESTINI PracticalLeadershipPODPBK.indd 1PracticalLeadershipPODPBK.indd 1 12/10/09 2:55:05 PM12/10/09 2:55:05 PM PRACTICAL LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES Lessons from the World of Professional Baseball Robert H. Palestini Rowman & Littlefield Education Lanham • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK Published in the United States of America by Rowman & Littlefield Education A Division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowmaneducation.com Estover Road Plymouth PL6 7PY United Kingdom Copyright © 2010 by Robert H. Palestini All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Palestini, Robert H. Practical leadership strategies : lessons from the world of professional baseball / Robert Palestini. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-1-60709-025-0 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-60709-026-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-60709-027-4 (electronic) 1. Educational leadership—United States. 2. School management and organization—United States. 3. Baseball coaches—United States. I. Title. LB2805.P2895 2010 371.2—dc22 2009040670 ϱ ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI NISO Z39.48-1992. Manufactured in the United States of America. To Judy, out of whose fertile mind came the idea for this book. To Karen, Scott, Robbie, and Brendan, whose presence in my life is reinvigorating. To Liz and Vi for willingly giving much-needed technical support. v Foreword by Jamie Moyer vii 1 Contemporary Leadership Theory 1 2 Leading with Heart 21 3 Walter Alston 45 4 Sparky Anderson 59 5 Leo Durocher 75 6 Tony La Russa 93 7 Tommy Lasorda 107 8 Billy Martin 125 9 Frank Robinson 145 10 Casey Stengel 159 11 Joe Torre 175 12 Earl Weaver 187 13 Leadership Lessons Learned 199 References 207 Appendix: The Heart Smart Organizational Diagnosis Model 211 CONTENTS vii Bob Palestini has been a former dean of graduate studies and a pro- fessor of education for twenty years at my alma mater, Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. His expertise and research interest is educa- tional leadership. His twelve books on leadership have been outstanding in their own right but his current three-book series relates his theories on leadership to basketball, football, and baseball coaching and makes for a very interesting and intriguing connection. Having been a baseball pitcher in the major leagues for more than twenty years, and playing for a number of teams, most recently the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies, I know firsthand how coaches and managers have impacted both my personal and professional lives. I can relate to Dr. Palestini’s basic premise that the tenets of situational leadership theory and effective coaching go hand in hand whether we are discussing sports, business, educational, or social settings. In this book, the third in the series, Dr. Palestini demonstrates how the use of situational leadership theory by ten successful baseball manag- ers has contributed to their effectiveness and how these same leadership principles can be appropriately applied to anyone’s leadership behavior, whether the individual be a parent, a teacher, an administrator, or a CEO. FOREWORD Each of us in our daily lives is asked to assume a degree of leadership responsibility. Bob gives us a road map to follow with excellence being the result. Palestini’s book has practical applications that will allow each of us to develop and improve our leadership capabilities. It will be a valuable reference book for leaders and aspiring leaders alike. Jamie Moyer, starting pitcher for the 2008 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies viii FOREWORD 1 1 1 CONTEMPORARY LEADERSHIP THEORY 1 The effective functioning of social systems from the local PTA to the United States of America is assumed to be dependent on the quality of their leadership. —Victor H. Vroom INTRODUCTION Leadership is offered as a solution for most of the problems of organi- zations everywhere. Schools will work, we are told, if principals provide strong instructional leadership. Around the world, administrators and managers say that their organizations would thrive if only senior man- agement provided strategy, vision, and real leadership. Though the call for leadership is universal, there is much less clarity about what the term means. Historically, researchers in this field have searched for the one best leadership style that will be most effective. Current thinking holds that there is no one best style. Rather, a combination of styles, depending on the situation the leader finds him- or herself in, has been deemed more appropriate. To understand the evolution of leadership theory thought, [...]... trace the progress of leadership theory, beginning with the trait perspective of leadership and moving to the more current contingency theories of leadership THE TRAIT THEORY Trait theory suggests that we can evaluate leadership and propose ways of leading effectively by considering whether an individual possesses certain personality, social, and physical traits Popular in the 1940s and 1950s, trait theory... variables as the effort of subordinates, their ability to perform their jobs, the clarity of their job responsibilities, the organization of the work, the cooperation and cohesiveness of the group, the sufficiency of resources and support provided to the group, and the coordination of work group activities with those of other subunits Thus, leaders must respond to these and broader cultural differences... had a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve and convinced their teams to accept ownership of what would ultimately become their shared vision IMPLICATIONS FOR LEADERS The implications of leadership theory for educational and other administrators are rather clear The successful leader needs to have a sound grasp of leadership theory and the skills to implement it The principles of situational and... and then determine whether they can implement the required style Early situational research suggested that subordinate, supervisor, and task considerations affect the appropriate leadership style in a given situation The precise aspects of each dimension that influence the most effective leadership style vary THEORY X AND THEORY Y One of the older situational theories, Douglas McGregor’s Theory X/ Theory... with representatives of all segments of the school community; otherwise, there will be no sense of “ownership,” the absence of which will preclude successful implementation The next step in the process is to merge and prioritize the goals and to summarize them in the form of a short and concise vision statement The following is an example of a typical vision statement: Our vision for the Exeter School... task-oriented leadership because they require, rather than allow, the leader to take charge Moderate-control situations (IV–VII), in contrast, call for relationship-oriented leadership because the situations challenge leaders to get the cooperation of their subordinates Despite extensive research to support the theory, critics have questioned the reliability of the measurement of leadership style and the range... Republic speaks of the “philosopher-king,” where the king would rule with the philosopher’s ideals and values Paramount among the ideals that leaders need to recognize in leading an organization are the notions of teamwork and the value of each individual’s contribution to the final product The synergy an effective team produces is greater than the sum of its parts The foundation of the team is the recognition... of leadership theory If the leader consciously based his or her practice on leadership theory, this would be an example of theory informing practice On the other hand, when a leader utilizes theory-inspired behavior that is continually ineffective, perhaps the theory must be modified to account for this deficiency In this case, practice would be informing or changing theory This book examines the leadership. .. subordinates’ tasks, the formal authority system, the primary work group, and the organizational culture According to this theory, the appropriate style for an administrator depends on his or her subordinates’ skills, knowledge, and abilities, as well as their attitudes toward the administrator It also depends on the nature of the activities, the lines of authority in the organization, the integrity of their work... institutionalizing of the educational vision This step ensures that the vision endures when leadership changes Operationalizing and placing the important concepts of the vision into the official policies and procedures of the school system helps to institutionalize the educational vision and incorporate it into the school culture As we will see, virtually all of the ten football coaches profiled in this book . Cataloging-in-Publication Data Palestini, Robert H. Practical leadership strategies : lessons from the world of professional baseball / Robert Palestini. p. cm. Includes. variables as the effort of subordinates, their ability to perform their jobs, the clarity of their job responsibilities, the organization of the work, the cooperation