“Bumpy Roads Lead to Beautiful Places”

I’m a loyal Washington Nationals fan so I must write about their amazing 2019 World Series win. No one, except for the players and management, ever thought this would happen—especially in late May when their record was 19 wins and 31 losses.

Nationals’ manager, Dave Martinez, credits his mother for the quote “Bumpy roads lead to beautiful places.”  Perhaps it’s an adaptation of Zig Ziglar’s “Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations. The best is yet to come.” Nevertheless, it certainly has proven true for the Washington Nationals.

There isn’t one, single thing that made the difference between a 19 and 31 record in May and a World Series win. The owners increased their contribution so that the General Manager could add players to the roster. Every player and every coach had to step up, and they did.

It’s common for managers who encounter adversity to blame others or want to take drastic action such as fire people, but the Nationals did it differently. In addition to adding strength to the pitching, especially in the bull pen, the Nationals took a simple but powerful action that most likely made the biggest difference. It is the manager’s challenge to the players to go 1 and 0 every day.  Rather than obsess about the 19 and 31 record, he focused them on winning one game at a time—keep winning so that they could be World Champions.  He didn’t let them get ahead of themselves, and he certainly didn’t let them beat themselves up about the losses. The goal was, “Let’s focus on today and go 1 and 0.”

And then there was the fun element. If you saw any of the post-game coverage or the amazing parade the Saturday after game seven and the win, you saw and heard that this is a team that loves each other and loves to have fun.  While the Baby Shark music can drive me crazy in 11 seconds, it was something that was electric at Nat’s Park and got people from any age group, kids to grandparents, involved. 

There’s a lesson in all of this for managers. How could you adapt this strategy to your team? Do you set realistic goals? Do you celebrate when your employees meet or exceed their productivity goals? When you hit a bump in the road, what do you do?

Do you allow your employees to have some fun at work? Building in some time for people to get to know each other and have some fun may make your organization more productive. Give it a try!

When you hit a bumpy road—whether as a manager or in your personal life—focus on where you’re headed and celebrate when you get to the beautiful destination. Adversity can be a great motivator, or it can stop us in our tracks. It is up to you.

Barbara Mitchell