Clint Hurdle on Leading with Love

Clint Hurdle has been involved with professional baseball for a long time. He played in the league for 10 years, where he played for the Kansas City Royals, the Cincinnati Reds, the New York Mets, and the St. Louis Cardinals. And yet, in this conversation, we don’t even discuss his playing career. Instead, we focus more on what life was like for him as a manager. Clint was the manager of the Colorado Rockies from 2002-2009, where he helped them go to the World Series, and then he went to the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he helped them go to 3 straight playoff appearances from 2013-2015. He was with the Pirates from 2011-2019. In this conversation, we talk about transitions, and what it was like for him to go from the Rockies to the Pirates. We talk about what it’s like to be fired. We talk about divorce and his personal life. We talk about trials and tribulations. All along the way, it will become apparent to you that Clint loves to love. He loves to lead, and he loves to lead with love in mind. He considers himself to be a transformational leader. He builds his managerial process and philosophy around leading with relationships in mind, and it’s really at the core of his essence and his being. Clint also is humble enough to talk about some of his imperfections and some of the mistakes that he’s made along the way. You’re going to find Clint to be authentic, and genuine, to be someone you want to sit down next to and just have a conversation with. At the end of this conversation, I hope you have a better sense of who you are and how you might be able to lead with love going forward. Clint had a number of incredible insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “There’s a time to learn and there’s a time to manage” (5:55). “When I got to the park, that’s when it was time to learn” (6:50). “Once the game started, I would implore my players to go play. That’s why they call it a game” (7:50). “You prioritize before, you prepare before, and once you get to the game, it’s time for me to play. It’s time for me to step back. Watch. Observe.” (8:15). “I was always infatuated with learning” (10:35). “To hold onto anything purely for the sake of tradition probably isn’t the smartest move you can make” (12:10). “Tradition can be a vision killer” (12:20). “Once we’ve made a tactical error, more often than not we overcorrect” (14:30). “The definition of a coach is to get the player better” (16:00). “When you can let people know that you love them unconditionally, you don’t want anything from it, it’s not transactional, it’s transformational, there’s no telling where that relationship can go” (21:05). “How do you earn trust? You show people that you’re there for them” (21:30). “There’s winning, and there’s learning. You only lose when you don’t learn” (28:45). “Play with emotion, don’t play emotionally” (30:00). “We can’t always dictate the circumstances. We always have the opportunity to have ownership of our reactions to the circumstances” (30:20). “There’s times when you need to be a thermometer and just report the temperature, and there’s times when you need to be a thermostat and set the climate” (32:30). “I establish priorities and I set boundaries” (40:45). “Perception is important” (42:50). “How boring would it be to have ten of me on a staff?” (44:00). “When it all becomes about the ring, it doesn’t work well for me” (45:50). “I’m a man of addictions. I have to set boundaries” (50:00). “Other than a dugout, an AA meeting is the most comfortable place I go” (53:05). “Be where your feet are” (55:10). “When you’re home, be home” (55:25). “You’re never as good as you think you are, you’re never as bad as you think you are” (1:00:40). Additionally, you can check out Clint’s website and sign up for his devotionals here. You can also learn more about Bat Around here. Lastly, you can search Prader-Willi syndrome if that is something you’d be interested in learning more about. Thank you so much to Clint for coming on the podcast! I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.