OWN IT !!
DC Definition of Accountability: Own it, figure it out, get it done!
For 15 years I ran an indoor baseball facility and ACCOUNTABILITY came to be favorite characteristic of my FDD’s (that’s my Front Desk Dudes to the layman 😉 On any afternoon, we might have 30-40 individual lessons. Add to that 5-10 team rentals as well as members coming down to train and that’s a lot of moving parts. We would get literally hundreds of requests daily and it become real important for my FDD’s to be totally accountable to get the job done. What job? Who’s job? My job? Your job? NO! THE job. Whatever came their way… I needed them to have the courage to step up, make a decision, and handle the situation.
I did my best to train, prepare, and coach the FDD’s to solve problems. And then be prepared to answer why they had made a decision. The good news was that if their answer didn’t fix the problem, they had to learn from it… and try again. There wasn’t anyone else to help them fix the problem – they simply had to get it done.
My most valuable FDD’s were the dudes who charged down the solution highway, developing and showing their accountability to the role. They weren’t any smarter, they weren’t any more talented… they just weren’t going to stop at the first sign of trouble. They owned the problem, they fixed the problem. To put it simply, they best showed the characteristics of ACCOUNTABILITY.
So, how do we teach ACCOUNTABILITY? Dugout Captain presents two practical suggestions to implement this week:
#1 – Player Equipment – Own your gear. No coach, no other player, no parent handles YOUR gear this week. YOU handle YOUR gear. That means carry your bag to and from practices. That means you pick up your gear after all workouts.
#2 – Field Clean Up – Field clean up is carried out by the entire team. In high school or college baseball, these are called field jobs and everyone has one. This week, not only are we clearing the field of our own team’s equipment… we are also leaving the park in better shape that when we found it. Let’s get after it!
Play hard, have fun!
PARTNER OF THE WEEK – DOMINGO BEISBOL
I’ve known Domingo Ayala since he hit his first oppo-taco, lift-and-separate, uppercutted monster bomb. He’s as funny a baseball personality I’ve ever seen and as entertaining as they come. You’re welcome for the laughs 🙂 Leagues and groups can book Domingo as a fundraiser as well!
Visit the DC FORUMS to share best practices and Q&A.
- Name something a particular position-player is accountable to do?
- Accountability can mean admitting you made a mistake – has that happened to you?
- Never quit… get the job done… figure it out. What projects do you attack in this fashion?
OWN. YOUR. GEAR.
FIELD JOBS & PARK IMPROVEMENTS
