What Moneyball tells us about leadership

Leadership styles / 25 November 2011

A Brad Pitt film about baseball may not sound like the first place UK managers should go for business advice. But Moneyball contains important lessons for leaders at all levels, says Matt McAllister

"Adapt or die." That’s the stark choice that Oakland Athletics manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) gives to the inflexible coach of his impoverished baseball team. It’s just one of the valuable business lessons contained in Bennett Miller’s new film, Moneyball – a celebration of risk-taking, creativity and mentoring in the workplace.

Based on the bestselling non-fiction book by financial journalist Michael Lewis, the film tells the true story of how Beane and his youthful economics-whiz assistant turned around the fortunes of the Oakland Athletics by using a new approach called "sabermetrics". This involved using statistics to analyse how many times players stayed "on base" (thereby increasing their likelihood to score runs), rather than relying on the traditional method of valuing players’ batting average.

This new approach allowed Beane to ‘buy’ players he could actually afford, and take on the top major league teams using a different strategy than they did.

You don’t have to be a baseball fan to get something out of Moneyball. The film’s central message is essentially that small organisations with little capital need to come up with creative solutions to take on their larger competitors, rather than simply aping what those competitors are doing.

Jo Owen, author of the bestselling management titles How to Lead, How to Manage and the upcoming Leadership Rules, thinks this is a message that’s directly relevant to small and medium enterprises far beyond baseball teams.

"A good idea beats the dull weight of money every time," he says. "If you want to get beaten up, play to the rules of the biggest bully on the block. If you want to beat the bully, play to your rules. If you make the rules, you rule."

Calculated risks

Beane certainly makes the rules himself, though his new approach proves to be a tough sell to the team’s intransigent board, who mistrustfully inform him, "We’ve been doing this for a long time." Beane’s entire career rests on whether his ambitious business plan succeeds.

We are card counters at the blackjack table. And we are going to turn the odds on the casino!

Billy Beane, Moneyball

Like Beane, it’s important for managers to take calculated risks to succeed in business says Owen – though he does caution that risks don’t always pay off. "Managers who take risks accelerate their careers. They succeed fast or they fail fast. But you should never play catch up. By the time you have caught up, your rivals have moved on. Catch up is a recipe for failure."

Billy Beane is seen to learn some important management lessons himself during the course of Moneyball. When we first see him, he has a strict policy of distancing himself from players, which he thinks earns him greater respect and makes it easier to let players go when necessary. Yet gradually Beane learns that he can accomplish more, and inspire others, by actually talking to his team and letting them in on his unusual strategies.

He even encourages other potential leaders within the team. "You’re smart, you get what we’re trying to do here," he tells an ageing, cynical but talented player. "Make an example for the other guys. Be a leader".

Owen thinks it’s important for managers to remember that, like Beane, they are part of a wider team, and shouldn’t simply keep their grand plans to themselves. "Do not be the lone hero who tries to do it all," he says. "The job of the manager is not to hit all the runs, make all the catches and pitch all the deliveries. The job of the manager is to find the right team, coach them and work out how to beat the competition. Show trust in your team. Give them challenges, let them grow and develop."

There is one other quality that Beane possess (particularly in the film version) that helps him inspire others – charisma. Yet Owen considers that this is a quality not necessary to make an inspiring leader.

"Most leaders are not inspirational and charismatic, and that’s a good thing," he insists. "For each inspirational leader who leads you to the Promised Land, there is another who leads you straight back into the desert. Charisma is dangerous. And we cannot learn inspiration and charisma: the NHS does not yet offer charisma transplants. Fortunately, if you do all the basics of leadership well you will be so much better than 99% of leaders that many people will think you are inspirational. Deep professionalism is, in its own right, inspirational."

Moneyball is released in UK cinemas on Friday 25 November 2011.

Leadership Rules: 50 Timeless Lessons for Leaders by Jo Owen is out in December (Wiley).