Piniella's Cubs back in business
In the corporate world, Cubs skipper Lou Piniella would be what's called a turnaround expert.
They're the folks brought in to take a company that's foundering and whip it into shape, make it a contender.
(AP Photo)
Corporate management experts liken the Cubs' turnaround under Piniella to taking a penny-stock company and turning it into a blue chipper. His qualities as a manager would be highly sought after by a company looking for someone to fill a high-level leadership position.
"Inspiring and motivating people, aligning people so they're all going in the same direction -- those are all things that Piniella seems to be pretty strong in," said John Eber, former dean of the Graham School of Management at Saint Xavier University.
"What he has done is brilliant, and hopefully you would find those (management traits) in a great leader in other environments," said John Challenger, chief of executive search company Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
The veteran manager took a team with 96 losses last year -- worst in the National League -- and produced the Central Division champs.
Challenger said Piniella was able to get a diverse group of individuals all rowing in the same direction -- something a good business leader has to do.
"He took a group of overpaid and not very motivated individuals and found a way to create a real shared purpose and energy," said Challenger, who grew up as a Cubs fan.
It started out as a rocky honeymoon for the first-year manager, with the team not showing much spark in the early part of the season.
"He created a tipping point, or explosion, where it all came together," Challenger said of Piniella. "The energy on that team changed."
A lifelong Cubs fan, Eber was at first leery of Piniella because of stories he'd read about the manager's tirades while coaching other teams.
"The media had portrayed him as this wild man, and I thought 'If that's all he's got in his bag of tricks, that gets old,' " said Eber, who teaches managerial accounting at Saint Xavier and consults in the area of strategic management.
Instead, Piniella "could be fiery when needed and supportive and mellow" at other times.
Bosses can't be your buddy all the time, nor will they get very far constantly using fear as a motivator, Eber said.
"It loses its effectiveness if a person is like that all the time," he said. "Sometimes people need a fire lit under them, and sometimes they need a pat on the back."
And whether you're shepherding a pro sports team or running a multimillion-dollar corporation, there's a delicate balance between being everybody's friend and the jerk who doesn't acknowledge underlings.
"Whether you're a coach or a business manager, you can go too far in either direction," Eber said. "If you get too close to players or employees, they don't look up to you as the person in charge. If you're too aloof, that can cause problems, too."