The Yankee Years

I just read Joe Torre's book on his managerial career with the New York Yankees. This posting is not about sports--it's about a great learning I had after reading the book.

Torre's Yankees won four World Series during a five year span. As I read the book I learned why--the teams he assembled were real teams--not a group of solo performers. Those guys cared about winning, they did what it took to help the team. His teams stopped winning World series after those guys retired and the Yankees replaced them with "superstars."

Those superstars hit a lot of home runs and were quite famous, but they didn't connect with their teammates.

Just like in business. How many times have you had an employee that was a "superstar" undermine or hurt your company? It happens all the time.

We need to realize--I need to realize--that even if a person is supposedly "great" that if they aren't willing to be part of the team, they are liabilities. Sounds easy, but is it hard to realize it and even harder to do something about it. How do you fire Alex Rodriguez?