Pitch Framing Principles to Keep Your Leadership Performance Above the Mendoza Line

How can the art of pitch framing help your leadership performance stay above the Mendoza Line?

Find out in this West Coast edition of The Energy Detox podcast, where you’ll explore the parallels between the skills necessary to be an effective catcher in Major League Baseball and the skills necessary to be an effective leader in the oil and gas industry. Drawing inspiration from baseball's best pitch framer, Austin Hedges, we reveal four essential leadership lessons:

1) Positioning for Success: Just as a catcher's positioning impacts pitch framing, effective leadership hinges on strategic positioning in meetings and day-to-day interactions. Being in the right place at the right time empowers leaders to seize opportunities and influence outcomes.

2) Giving (and Getting) Credit Where Credit is Due: Framing pitches goes beyond turning balls into strikes; it involves ensuring recognition for pitches that should be strikes. As leaders, taking the time to highlight and celebrate your team's accomplishments fosters a motivated and successful workforce.

3) Exhibiting Executive Presence: Like a catcher's finesse behind the plate, leaders should strike a balance between exerting effort and demonstrating control. Executive presence is about projecting confidence and authority without appearing overwhelmed.

4) Building Trust: Trust between a pitcher and catcher is paramount in baseball. Similarly, trust within an organization is essential for effective leadership. Transparency, clarity on targets, and mentorship create an environment where trust flourishes, leading to better results and a lasting impact.

By adopting pitch framing principles, energy leaders can elevate their performance, steer their teams to success, and create a positive ripple effect throughout their organizations. Embrace these insights, step up to the plate, and lead with clarity, confidence, and authenticity in the ever-evolving landscape of the oil and gas industry.

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Transcript

(AI training in progress; please excuse any errors)

Hello, and welcome to the first West Coast edition of the energy detox coming to you from Seattle, Washington. I'm your host, Joe Sinnott, and behind me is T Mobile Park, where last week Major League Baseball held its annual All Star game and where this week, the Seattle Mariners take on the Minnesota Twins. And so to kick off today's episode of the energy detox, we might as well start with a bit of mariners trivia. And that is that the mariners are one of only six current major league baseball teams to have never lost a World Series. Now, it might also be worth noting that the mariners are the only current major league team to have never been to a World Series. And of course, that you know, relatively similar tidbit frame two different ways is an example of framing. And framing, of course, is something that you as a leader, or you as a human beings, make good use of, or at least I hope you make good use of because you know that depending on your audience, depending on the message you're trying to deliver, or the request you're trying to make or the results that you're trying to present, how you frame that data, that argument that requests can make all the difference in the world. And that topic, that leadership topic is one that has been written about plenty that's been talked about plenty, including here on the energy detox. So we're not going to necessarily dive into the general idea of framing arguments frame your conversation. But we are going to dive in to some baseball specific framing and tie it back to you as a leader in particular, we're going to take some themes from framing in baseball, particularly that of framing pitches by catcher's and give you some tips, some tools that you can use that you can employ to be a more effective leader, especially in the oil and gas industry. And so with that, I want to offer a little bit more from from a tidbit or at least from a current event standpoint, and that relates to my home team. The Pittsburgh Pirates are about 2200 miles away from where I'm standing right now, because this week, they have a lot of news related to their chief pitch framer, Austin hedges. Now Austin hedges had been their primary catcher up until this week when he was replaced by someone who was called up to make his major league debut. And Austin hedges is still on the team, I still have a mentor and role which we might talk about a little bit later. But what's significant is that Austin hedges is known as the best pitch framer in all of baseball. His defensive abilities, particularly behind the plate there as a catcher frame pitches, leads to theoretically more wins for the pirates, although they don't do a whole heck of a lot of that. But statistically, it does at least lead to less runs for the pirates, opponents. And what's interesting about Austin hedges is that his very talented pitch framing performances are offset by his very poor offensive performance is again something we'll talk about a little bit later. But before we go any further I want to explain pitch framing for those of you who might not be familiar with that art in baseball, and pitch framing is essentially when a catcher who's receiving a pitch from a pitcher is able to do some things in particular, how he moves his glove to convince the umpire that the ball that was thrown was indeed a strike. And sometimes the pitches should not have been called Strike, they were outside the strike zone. But because of the art of pitch framing, it's called a strike. And sometimes pitches are borderline and should be called strikes and pitch framing increases the odds that it will indeed get called a strike. And we can talk again for a long time about pitch framing, but in essence, it's valuable, but it's also not necessarily see right, you're not going to see pitch framing with the naked eye, like you would see hits like you would see batting average, and the case of Austin hedges, his batting average is not good. He is consistently batting below the Mendoza line. And again, for those of you who may not be fans of baseball, the Mendoza line is a 200 batting average, which, incidentally, is named after Mario Mendoza, who began his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and in 1979 came to Seattle played for the Seattle Mariners. And in that first season with the Seattle Mariners, some teammates were making fun of him for his low batting average, below 200. And thus the Mendoza line was born. So all that being said, while I could obviously fill this episode with baseball tidbits, let's get to the meat of this. And that is framing as a leader in the oil and gas industry. And we're going to talk about four tidbits today four tips that you can use, the first of which is positioning, and remembering that when it comes to pitch framing, a lot of it comes down to positioning. Yes, on each individual pitch. Again, how the catcher moves his glove and some of the little things he does makes a difference. But at the end of the day, it's how he's positioned behind the home plate relative to the umpire because the umpire doesn't stand directly behind home plate, he's often at an angle. And so depending on what that angle is, whether it's a really bad or lefty batter and where the catcher's position, the catcher can take advantage of some relative blind spots, if you will, for the umpire. And for you as a leader, how does this play? What Why does this matter? Where does positioning factor into your day to day? Well, first and foremost, the thing that I see is how you are positioned in meetings and the meetings that you're in to begin with, because leaders who don't recognize that they're positioning in a meeting, whether it's there as leader, as facilitator, as the boss, if you will, or there as somebody who is more of a backseat contributor, we're there as a coach. Depending on which hat you're wearing, you can achieve very different results. And this is very important. And this is a very good example of framing. Similarly, where are you day to day? What meetings are you in? Sometimes it's important for you not to be in the game, so to speak behind the plate. Sometimes it's better for meetings to go forth without you there for you to be positioned on the outside so that you can come and add value from a different position later on. So the question for you today related to positioning as it relates to framing is, where are you positioned? And how does that matter? How does that matter from a framing standpoint? Well, when you are in a position where you're receiving information, when you see the big picture, when you have all the data because you're not there in the wrong position, skewing how other people are responding, skewing what other people are sharing. Well, guess what it gives you more ammo, so that you can frame the conversation when you need to elevate it to a boss, to senior management to accustomed to a client, whatever the case might be. So ask yourself about your positioning and whether you are in the right spot, so to speak, on a day to day basis. The next framing related item we're going to talk about is getting credit where credit is due or giving credit where credit is due. Because it's not just a matter of framing pitches that should be called balls and convincing the umpire basically to call them a strike. No, a big piece, as we mentioned a couple minutes ago, is making sure that balls that shouldn't be called strikes, pitches that should be called strikes are indeed called strikes. And some of that can be, you know, a matter of say, you know, positioning the catcher's glove, you know, putting his glove above where he intends for the pitcher to throw the ball. And then once it's thrown, moving it down into the strike zone. That's important. Because if the umpire thinks that the target was high, and it actually was lower than planned, he might be more inclined to call a strike regardless of whether it should be a strike. So what does that mean for you? Well, don't just focus on fighting fires, don't just focus on solving problems, which is a tendency for a lot of leaders that I work with, take your time, invest a good amount of time to make sure that your team your pitchers, if you will, are getting credit for the work they're already doing. Taking that extra time to frame their masterpieces, if you will, instead of just going from pitch to pitch problem to problem, much better to get ahead in the count by taking advantage of the work that's already being done than struggling and having your team behind in the count. And now running around like a chicken with your head cut off. That is being in control. And that is being an effective catcher, so to speak, who's calling a good solid game, and again, making sure that the investments that your team is already making, are seeing the light of day. The third question to ask yourself from a framing related standpoint is are you executive exhibiting executive presence? And again, this is a topic we talked about a lot on the detox. It's a topic that I work with clients on a lot. But how does that relate to catching? Well, Austin hedges who we talked about earlier, Austin hedges was quoted. And while this is a paraphrase of one of his quotes, basically, he said, Hey, if you're working hard to catch a pitch, if you have to go out of your way to catch a pitch, the umpire is not going to call it a strike, he's just not going to do it. And so too, in an office environment, or a corporate environment, or even out in the field, if you're going out of your way to execute. And if you're working your ass off, Pardon the language to get the job done. Sure. And the oil and gas industry, that's what we do. But you also need to think about your audience, is your audience looking at you and saying, Hey, wait a second, if this guy is going crazy and sweating, and looking like he's putting in extra effort all the time? Is he really in control? Am I missing something?

09:20

Is that a pitch that really should be called the ball even though you know he's doing all this extra effort to get it to be called a strike. So ask yourself again, from an executive presence standpoint, what kind of sense are you giving off to your umpires, so to speak, especially those who may be above you senior management? Are they looking at you as somebody who's in control? Or are they looking at you as somebody who is putting forth extra effort which as Austin hedges says, is not going to have the calls going your way? And finally, the fourth piece of advice based on pitch framing and based on framing within your oil and gas industry that I see as a coach is building the Trust. And again, this might seem like a vague theme, and certainly in baseball and sports in business trust is very important. But I don't think there's any more important relationship in baseball than the trust between pitchers and their catcher. Because when it comes to pitch framing, the pitcher needs to know that it's not just a matter of having the catcher call a pitch agreeing with that call and then throwing it to the target. No, sometimes you need to know that. As we said earlier, the catcher might be setting up above where the target is, and maybe you need to aim for his mask, so that once the pitcher is throwing, the catcher can move it down into the strike zone, that takes trust, trust, knowing that you're gonna throw the ball maybe not where his glove is. And again, for those of you who are into baseball, we could talk for hours about the importance of trust between pitchers and catchers. We're not going to do that today. But I am going to challenge you to ask yourself, in what ways you might not be clear with your team on targets, which targets are real, which targets are there as carrots to motivate them for good reason? Or are you just again all over the place? Are you setting targets that your team falls short of and then you know what you say it doesn't matter anyway, you pat them on the back. That adds confusion, if you're not clear if you're not transparent, because when there's confusion, there's lack of trust. And when this lack of trust, the results are going to suffer. So all that being said, hopefully those four tips those four questions, whether you're a catcher or whether you're a leader in the oil and gas industry, help, help you win help you at least get a couple of calls in your direction, and most importantly, help you be a more conscious leader and more conscious person asking the right questions so that you can best support your team. And as we move to conclusion here one final note, I want to say as relates to the pirates and some of their catching controversy. I do want to note that Austin hedges is still on the team will still be catching one or two days a week even though he has been replaced as the primary catcher by the rookie. And that is that Austin hedges fully embraces his role as mentor. And again, we can talk about mentorship in general terms, but when it comes to catchers in Major League Baseball, think about this. A catcher who mentors a young catcher and teaches them how to frame pitches, doesn't just impact that catcher, but impacts all of the pitchers who will work with that catcher if that catcher goes on to become an effective catcher and effective pitch framework. So have that in mind when you as a leader think about how to frame conversations, how to frame mentorship conversations, how to frame your succession plan. It's not just a matter of impacting that one person but of course, as cliche as it is impacting untold numbers of people that will be influenced by that individual, especially if that individual has a role that is consistent with that of a catcher. So with that, thank you as always for tuning in to the energy detox. Thank you for joining me on this first West Coast edition of the energy detox and I hope you have an excellent rest of the week.