If you think baseball is just the national pastime, think again. According to management consultant and ex-baseball reporter Jeff Angus in his book “Management by Baseball,” baseball can teach you everything you need to know about management. From the managers’ strategies to the players’ batting averages, baseball can impart critical lessons on project management, maximizing productivity of staff, strategic planning, facing difficult organizational challenges, or engaging big changes in a specific industry or the economy.
In his book, Angus distills the lessons learned from baseball news and applies them to business management. He uses baseball stories and anecdotes from baseball history to teach management skills and illustrate ways to approach and solve problems that a business owner or manager may face.
Management by Baseball is based on the “baseball diamond” model, which has four “bases.” These bases are the skills sets that an effective manager requires — operational management, people management, self-management, and change management. As Angus said, “Like a baseball player trying to score a run, a manager has to touch all the bases and do it in sequential order.”
