Derek Jeter. The Captain. Mr. October. #2. He is one of my favorite MLB players along with the rest of the Core Four (Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, and Andy Pettitte), Paul O’Neil, and Brett Gardner. I grew up watching these guys play and win as a team.
On 8 September 2021 he was officially inducted into the hall of fame by obtaining 396 of 397 votes (99.7%). A full recording of his speech can be found on MLB’s YouTube channel here. I highly recommend watching it; even if you don’t watch baseball or have any idea about the game of baseball.
Here are four lessons we can learn from Derek Jeter’s Hall of Fame speech that apply to business and leadership.
1. Work Hard
At 7:15 Derek thanks his mother by saying:
“Mom, you taught me any dream is attainable as long you work harder than everyone else”.
Derek Jeter, Hall of Fame Speech, 8 September 2021
He goes on to say that his mother told him to “never make excuses” and “wouldn’t allow me to use the word can’t”.
I was raised to believe that hard work pays off. Some will disagree with me and that’s OK. There is definitely more to success than just working hard and working hard doesn’t always guarantee success.
However, if you want something, really want something, even if there are people smarter than you, the one thing you can do to give yourself the best chance of attaining it is to work harder than everyone else. That means not making any excuses.
Was Derek Jeter the greatest baseball player of all time? No, I’m not sure that title could be bestowed upon any one MLB player. I’d like to think he’d agree with that statement.
Derek’s 3,000 hit? A home run at Yankee Stadium.
His last at bat at Yankee Stadium? A walk off single to win the game.
You get the idea. Derek delivered results when results needed to be delivered. He worked harder than everyone else to get the short stop position for the Yankees and never stopped showing up and delivering results.
2. Prioritize
At 12:30 Derek says:
“I was able to have success because we had a shared mindset. The only thing that mattered was winning and I had one goal during my career and that was to win more than anyone else.”
Derek Jeter, Hall of Fame Speech, 8 September 2021
Derek’s number one priority was winning. He didn’t have a number two or a number three priority. Too often, in business, we attempt to “focus” on the top three or four or ten “priorities”. Doing so almost always yields poor (or no) results and defies the definition of “priority”.
At 11:05 Derek thanks his teammates by stating:
“You guys are special to me because I never had to worry about what your number one priority was; and that was winning.”
Derek Jeter, Hall of Fame Speech, 8 September 2021
As the Captain he set the priority for the team and they all delivered.
As business leaders we need to focus on setting the number one priority for our departments and our directs. Set the correct priority for your team, get everyone aligned and excited about the one goal that’s going to move the needle. If you’re not convinced, here’s some more evidence to support having just one priority.
If you’ve read Frank Slootman’s Amp It Up! LinkedIn Pulse Article from 13 May 2018, in paragraph 32 he talks about priorities by saying:
“The fastest way to move a dial is narrow the focus. People naturally resist focus because they can’t decide what is important. Therein lies a problem: people can typically tell you after some deliberation what their top three priorities are, but they struggle to decide on just one.”
Frank Slootman, Amp It Up! 13 May 2018
If anyone knows how to deliver results its Frank Slootman. 17 months after being appointed CEO of Snowflake he made history by making Snowflake the largest software company to IPO in US history. Prior to Snowflake Frank was CEO of ServiceNow which he took from $100M in revenue to $1bn in revenue.
3. Respect
Business is more than just the “game” of making money. It requires that you respect the rules of the game. 3:10 into the speech Derek talks about how he had the honor of sitting next to Mrs. Rachel Robinson (the widow of the late great Jackie Robinson – #42) at a BBWA event in NYC and meeting Hank Aaron at one of the fourteen All Star games he played. Meeting these people made him realize that baseball was “more than just a game”. He wanted to make them proud to be part of the history of the game.
“I wanted to make them proud; not of statistics, proud of how I played the game, how I carried myself.”
Derek Jeter, Hall of Fame Speech, 8 September 2021
Everyone has someone that helped them get where they are today. Endeavor to make those people proud of how you are conducting yourself, how you are treating employees, customers, partner, vendors. When faced with tough decisions ask yourself if your decisions would make those people proud.
4. Family
Throughout the speech Derek talks about family. First at 5:25 when he thanks his family. Creating a work environment that allows employees to put family first will help you attract and retain employees.
The second time Derek mentions family is at 11:45 when he thanks the Steinbrenner family.
“Thank you for always making me feel like a part of your family throughout my playing career and, more importantly, beyond.”
Derek Jeter, Hall of Fame Speech, 8 September 2021
Treat your employees like family and, like Derek Jeter, you will create lifelong employees who never want to leave. This goes both ways though. As an employee, treat the company like its your family and they should take care of you. This has never been more important then right now during what everyone is coining “The Great Resignation”.
The unfortunate reality is that many of us won’t stay at any single company for 23 years like Derek Jeter played for the Yankees. That’s where the end of his statement becomes important – “…and more importantly, beyond”. That means, if you’re an employee, leave on good terms; don’t burn bridges. If you’re an employer, do everything you can to take care of employees on the way out the door; whether they are leaving for a better opportunity or you’ve forced to downsize.
One Final Note: We need more professional sports athletes and business leaders like Derek Jeter.
Image Credit: Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post. No copyright infringement is intended.