On a recent cross country flight, I had the opportunity to
sit next to a chief scout of a major league baseball team. To a baseball junkie, this was like Charlie
getting the golden ticket. After 4
hours, I doubt he felt the same way..
We talked recruiting and scouting and what makes the best of
the best. What good scouts look for
besides the numbers. The underlying
traits that a major league scout looks for to determine if a prospect will
grow, peak shortly, or their best days are behind them.
He identified 5 traits that major league ballplayers and top
rainmakers share:
Preparedness and Work
Ethic: In baseball you have to be
ready every day, not like football where a weeks practice goes toward one game
a week. This requires discipline. He
gets to the park early to watch players and detect attributes in their pregame
rituals. Higher achievers are more
focused on the details and don’t put up with distractions.
Concentration and
Focus: Although related to preparedness, this is more related to how a
player conducts themselves during a game.
Pitch by pitch, play by play, they are in every moment.
Competitiveness: This may seem obvious, but everyone takes
their lumps at some point. Perhaps a
slump that lets self-doubt creep in.
When this scout sees someone with talent underachieving he said he
wonders ,”Is there a desire to succeed to the degree that there’s a failure
mechanism kicking in? Is there a fear of failure. Is the desire to succeed
significant enough to overcome the fear of failure?”
Stress Management and
Humility: It’s a cliché about how you can fail in baseball 7 out of 10
times and end up in the hall of fame. The ability to cope with failure requires
a short term memory and a sense of humor. He likes watching how a player reacts
after making a mistake. Does he hang his
head or smile it off as fans are screaming at him and come back with a big hit.
I’ve spoken with some of the biggest name attorneys in the country who are the
most approachable and self –effacing people you will know, and I’ve spoken with
junior partners at small firms that think the Sun rises and sets on their
streams of consciousness. Like the old
adage goes, if you are that good, your actions speak more than your words.
Adaptiveness and
Learning Ability: How successfully is the player able to process new
information during a game? Listen to advice.
How does he adapt when his life situation changes. The idea of coming out of law school and 10
years later being a rainmaking partner is rarely a straight line even for the
most talented. Attorneys and ballplayers
cant be too rigid in their mental approach.
What works for the top rainmaker in their firm may not work for them. They find what works for them but always look
for ways to tweak their approach.
Everyone is being scouted.
How would you scout yourself?
Andrew Wilcox, Andrew@Wilcox-legal.com, 850-893-8984
