I’m reading Three Nights In August, by Buzz Bissinger, the 
story of Tony LaRussa and the 2003 baseball season. In his introduction, LaRussa, who has managed baseball for a long time, laments the difficulty in managing players whose egos are as big as their salaries.
Not long ago, LaRussa says, survival in baseball was tied to playing as well and as hard as possible, because what a player earned next year was based on production this year. Bonuses for post-season play were much-needed income.
That no longer is true, LaRussa continues, because players making “seven or eight figures per year” regardless of performance or injury most often are not motivated by anything except their individual numbers. Winning and losing doesn’t affect their lifestyle. It is a battle to persuade them to practice and play hard, and be unselfish enough to make winning a priority.
LaRussa should read a book I saw advertised today, Leading Leaders: How To Manage Smart, Talented, Rich And Powerful People. The book has, according to the ad, strategies “for getting the most out of your best, while avoiding turf wars, power struggles and internecine politics.”
