Alex Hoffer

With two boys playing on four baseball teams this spring, I decided to take the year off from coaching. I thought it would give me the opportunity to drive the boys to their practices and games and help Sarah manage the chaotic schedule. While I suspected I would miss certain aspects of coaching, I also thought that I would not miss the chaos of leaving work early to get to games and practices. 

Early in the season, I discovered that I was not going to simply spectate. Given my interest in leadership, I soon realized that I had a literal front-row seat to how four different volunteer coaches went about coaching their players. 

Here is what I learned:  

Positive affirmation enhances confidence and performance 

Both boys had coaches who are more positive than just about any coach I know. Will’s in-house coach has positive nicknames for his kids. For example, Will’s nickname is “stud.” “Hey stud,” he will cheer, “you got this.” Then I see my son’s shoulders lift a little higher, and unsurprisingly, so does his play. 

Meanwhile, one of Ben’s coaches similarly talks about the kids using the positive tense. “You are going to get a hit here,” he says with a huge smile. One kid, for example, looked so lost during the first part of the season that I did not think he had a chance. And then you know what happened? One Monday night in early May, he got an RBI base hit! We all clapped and cheered, but no one cheered louder than the coach. 

This has challenged me to use positive affirmations much more than I currently do. I want to be like both of these leaders. I keep asking myself, what positives do I see when I walk around our facility? And more importantly, am I sharing those with the people making those positive things happen? 

Are you doing the same where you work?  

The leader sets the tone of the team. 

One of the boys’ all-star teams struggled this year. The coaches on that team, all volunteers, were trying their best. They were very competitive, just like I am at the workplace. As the season progressed, the team become tight, afraid to make mistakes, and their play suffered. Their pitchers were “aiming” the ball instead of throwing it, and the batters were gripping the bat a little tighter with two strikes. It was a rough patch that all baseball teams go through. 

In the midst of it, things took another turn on a Friday morning via the team’s chat message board. One of the assistants posted that he wanted to teach the boys how to throw curve balls at that evening’s practice. He meant well, and I honestly believe he just wanted to teach them a new skill that could help them. But chaos ensued. Every parent voiced their discomfort teaching twelve-year-olds how to throw curve balls. While I agreed that this was a bad idea, I did not want to pile on. 

Then the head coach spoke up: 

“On this team, we will not throw curve balls.”

He then did something brilliant by sharing a Word document with the exact practice plans for the night.

I discovered that despite a leader’s best efforts, there will be times when they are not aligned with their team. When that happens, it is important to set the tone and be transparent. Our coach’s leadership reminded me that I need to make sure I give crystal clear direction to our team and be as transparent as possible. 

What message do you need to share with your team? 

Celebrate the wins

Finally, one of Ben’s coaches made a rule during April that he would take the kids to Dairy Queen after every third win. In all my years of coaching Little League, I have never seen more focus or hunger (literally and figuratively) than this team when they were on the verge of getting that third win. 

As of this writing, they are 10-3 on the season. In fact, the other night was another Dairy Queen Monday night. While I took two of my three kids home after the game (we did Dairy Queen pre-game to accommodate my daughter’s bedtime!), Sarah went with Ben to DQ. When she came home, she told me what had happened: 

“Mark (the Head Coach) was like one of the kids. As the kids convinced their parents to honk their car horns as they passed, Mark just laughed and laughed.” 

I have so much to learn from Mark. As a Type-A leader I should probably start by taking our team to DQ and having fun. 

I also have to celebrate the wins when they come because leadership is hard. 

And you know what?  

So should you. 

Coming home 

I will end this post unconventionally. As a dad in the thick of little league busyness, I often hear older parents advise that I will miss all this. At the risk of sounding awful, I do not think I will miss about 49% of it. I won’t miss parents arguing with umpires, I won’t miss always feeling like I am in a hurry to leave Hoffer Plastics and make the game on time — leaving me with a guilty feeling on both ends — and I certainly won’t miss the little league coaches that take it all way too seriously. 

But there is 51% that I am going to miss. I am going to miss my son Ben fist pumping, as he did 45 minutes ago when I told him Will’s team needed him to play up tonight; I am going to miss coaches like the ones I mentioned above. And more than anything else, I am going to miss having a game of catch with my boys on an early summer night—so much so that I had to pause my writing before continuing writing this post…

I actually had one of those moments last night. Will was pitching on the mound, Ben and I played catch on the side while watching his game, and Sarah and Sadie were in the stands. 

My little league dreams might not have come true, but my Field of Dreams did. And thanks be to God and his goodness, I hit the home run I dreamt of as a little boy.

“Dad, can we have a catch?”

“I would like that Ben.”

I was recently driving down a busy street in our city and came up to a light that had turned yellow. Instead of driving through the yellow light, I tapped the brakes and stopped as the light turned red. However, the car next to me went through the yellow light and made it in the nick of time. 

As I sat there waiting, my mind turned to my behavior. Why did I stop? I don’t always stop when the light turns yellow, so why did I stop this time?  I also began to wonder about red light cameras and their effectiveness. The presence of a red light camera influences my behavior as I don’t want to pay for an unnecessary ticket. But I often don’t even realize there’s a red light camera until it is too late. So, how effective are they? 

Like any punitive measure, one has to wonder what the real motive behind red light cameras is. Is it truly safety? Or is it to generate revenue? And would something else be more effective in creating safer driving conditions? What if, for example, instead of a ticket for people who go through red lights, people who slow down were given some kind of reward? 

Imagine a letter coming in the mail: “Congratulations, because you practiced safe driving on April 23rd, you are being entered into a drawing for a $500 Amazon gift card. Thank you for being a safe driver!” Would such a letter be more effective in influencing you to slow down at intersections? 

The more I thought about this, the more my mind turned to what we do at Hoffer Plastics. How many “red light cameras” do we have? How often are we only looking to catch people doing something wrong instead of looking for things they are doing to keep people safe or make things better?

This was a humbling thought.

What if, on the other hand, we started looking for things people were doing well? 

Catch Them Doing Things Well

For example, what if a camera caught someone following a safety procedure? What if we could go up to that person and thank them? 

Or, what if we saw somebody being a good teammate? What if a company leader went to that person and handed them a gift card to treat some of their teammates to lunch? What kind of difference would that make? 

Finally, what if we observed someone picking up a part on the floor or sweeping a mess? What if we smiled and affirmed how valuable this was to our business and the cleanliness of our facility? What difference would that make? 

I’ve come to discover that catching people doing things well and encouraging them changes cultures more deeply than punitive measures. 

And If I’m really honest, getting recognition for stopping at a red light would improve my driving more than the threat of a red light ticket… 

If your year has gone like mine, it has not been easy. The manufacturing economy is not exactly humming, team members are paying more for everyday goods, and still, everyone is working hard to make things better. 

Nowhere are my expectations higher than around safety. While the goal of business is to provide a product or service that adds value to others, leaders have to ensure that people stay safe in doing so. To that end, I want to share a few thoughts on two kinds of safety in this post.  

Physical Safety 

Physical safety should be blatantly obvious. No one should ever be physically (or emotionally, for that matter) hurt at work. Training helps in both regards. 

I was caught off guard late in the first quarter when a new team member said, “I have never been trained more than at this company.” Please understand that I think that says more about their previous company than ours, but we have emphasized training over the last few years. In other words, we want our people to be safe, and the best way we know how to do this is for them to be prepared. 

A month or so later, one of our work areas had a health emergency. The team members in that area did exactly what they were trained to do. As of this writing, all ended well, and the team member who experienced the emergency is very thankful. 

The hero in the situation above (and they wouldn’t describe themselves as a hero) said, “I was prepared.” 

Dear Lord, help me lead in a way that our people are ALWAYS prepared. 

Psychological Safety 

At the start of the second quarter, I started reading Amy Edmondson’s book The Fearless Organization. Her book explains the need for psychological safety, which she defines on page 17 as “safety (that) pertains to expectations about immediate interpersonal consequences.” 

In short, this kind of safety allows people to speak up in an organization. The book details why people fail to — and you should buy Edmonson’s book to read them all! What stood out was the need to create a culture that listens to everyone. This takes more than reminding people to speak up! She writes on page 82 that “…expectations about speaking up must become institutionalized and systemized for people to speak up.” 

How do we institutionalize this, I wondered? The best answer I came up with was to go to the people, set up small meetings — a mini town hall in a sense — and listen to what they had to say. As co-CEOs, my sisters jumped on that train as well! 

To date, we have done this with a few groups and learned a lot. While this is only the tip of the iceberg — another area we’ve been emphasizing has been in team meetings with our executive team and the willingness to weigh ALL ideas — we are committed to seeing it through. We want to be a company that keeps people physically and emotionally safe and allows them to voice their insights loudly.  

I also need the Lord’s help for this.

Dear Lord, help me be the kind of leader who not only hears people but listens to them. Give me the wisdom to change when necessary and the humility to act. Overall, help me keep people safe! 

I went to grade school in the 1980s. And if you’re of a certain age, you remember that going to the computer lab was a big deal back then. In fact, one of my favorite things to do when I earned free lab time was to play The Oregon Trail. My buddies and I competed, as only pre-adolescent boys can do, by seeing who could race towards Oregon the fastest. But none of us ever made it close to Oregon’s Willamette Valley. We pushed our digital families to the extreme, usually ending in their in-game demise of some disease like dysentery. 

I shouldn’t be surprised that my own boys (who now play the game on an iPad!) basically do the same thing I did back in the 80s. They push their crews fast, ignore the health warnings, and laugh when their characters give out. After watching this for long enough, I decided to give the game a try as an adult.

The first decision I made was on the crew. I ensured the crew had diverse backgrounds and talents. I read each character’s profiles, ensuring I had people who could fix things, socialize, and even negotiate. Next, I made sure to buy extra medical supplies and food for the journey. After all, I thought, you never know what kinds of obstacles are going to come up on the Oregon Trail! 

As I started the game, I chose “walking” as our pace because I didn’t want to burn anyone out. I also made sure to allow our team to rest whenever the computer gave me the option. I even had the team stop and talk to people on the journey so that my “social health” indicator stayed green. 

About an hour later, with my crew all still healthy and progressing toward Oregon, my son said to me, “You’re good at this game!” 

The Leadership Lesson  

What I learned from this gameplay was three things: 

First, I learned that to do well in the game, you must lead people well. In short, that means you ensure they’re fed, that they have medical supplies, and they can take breaks and rest when they need to. Additionally, you must ensure there’s enough social interaction for everyone to stay engaged and healthy. And in case you miss the implication, this is exactly how you lead people in real life as well! 

Second, understanding the “how to” of leading others is only the first part of it. The most important part is actually doing it. That means helping your team slow down when they get tired, and providing opportunities for social interaction when it’s needed — along with countless other things that you have to observe and act upon. This all takes awareness and a desire to help people. 

Lastly, to do all the above, you have to lead yourself well. It’s often easier to do these things for others than for yourself. But pushing yourself past fatigue, failing to rest, and neglecting to make time for social interaction will negatively impact your health — all things that can make you sick and make you less effective in leading others. 

So how can you apply the above lessons to your leadership as we enter the summer months? Think about these questions:

Do you need to provide your team with opportunities to socialize? 

Do you need to provide your team with opportunities to rest? 

Or do you need to focus on yourself? 

Do you need to socialize? 

Do you need to rest? 

The start of summer is a good time to take this quick assessment so that you can stay on track for the second half of the year.