"When you are working with ownership groups involving all different kinds of backgrounds and personalities, the obvious frustrating part is when they won't let you do your job. You have to find ways to get things done. When I left the University of Massachusetts in 1986 to go to work for the [Pittsburgh] Pirates, they had 14 owners. Of those 14 owners, 11 were CEOs or chairmen of some of the biggest corporations in Pittsburgh. Westinghouse. Pittsburgh National Bank. Mellon Bank. Pittsburgh Paint and Glass (PPG) [etc.]. They were huge companies who were fantastic to work with—leaders of some of the biggest boards and Fortune 500 companies in the world.

The other two investors were what you call self-made men. Even the label is a problem. My father used to say there is no such thing as a self-made man—God made all of us. And while these two were some of the smaller investors in the Pirates, they had the biggest voices, especially in their minds. So you have to balance that. You have to listen, because everyone's opinion matters.

At the time, the Pirates were drawing 7,000 fans a game. They were in last place, losing 100 games and $10 million a year. The job to turn them around was massive. And with all those voices in my ear, I settled on three approaches: 

• No. 1: Stop sailing in the wrong direction at speed going downhill rapidly.
• No. 2: The turnaround had to be in the right direction. Honestly, you have to make them see that those are two very different things.
• No. 3: You just have to start moving forward at pace making decisions and then seeing how the decisions play out.

It took five to six years, but we did it. In Year 3, we were winning divisions (at the time, the National League East). That really helped things overall, especially on the business side. So the moral here is that you want your leadership to be moving in the same direction—the right direction.

It was the same story with the [Colorado] Rockies. They had nine owners. At the time, the Rockies were an expansion team, so everything was new. In this case, the owners left us alone, in which success became instantaneous, including an all-time attendance record for any sports team anywhere in the world—4.48 million fans. That record has never been beaten and never will be.

Most of these people have had people telling them the wrong thing for years, because that is what they thought they wanted to hear. But you cannot discuss and argue everything forever. You have to find a direction and go. Make the decision, get behind it, and see where it takes you.

Click for More - Video 5

"Sell Yourself By Building Rapport First... Then Sell Your Solution"

You need more momentum. When I first started with the Pirates, I read everything that Zig Ziglar wrote. I remember one of his stories about the importance of just getting started. Ziglar used the analogy of sitting in a car and turning the steering wheel. You have to start somewhere; you need momentum. Even if you're going in the wrong direction, all you have to do is turn the wheel and instantly, you are going in the right direction.

Momentum is everything. Doing something, even if it's slightly the wrong thing, is okay. You need to trust your judgment. So you might be five or seven degrees off, but that’s not 100 degrees off.

It would be years later, when I worked with David Stern and the NBA (National Basketball Association), I really saw what Ziglar was saying. Stern believed that even if it's not perfect, even if it's not right now, you do it. Of course, he might have ended up ripping the hell out of you, but he respected the effort. Even if it is not the perfect decision, get started. That is how we built our culture—a culture that demanded that we try something, anything, to get going.

As for less, it would basically be less of everything I just said. You have to give people a chance. If you don’t, what are you doing? When a coach looks down the end of his bench, he doesn’t think, “Great, I have to put the rookie in.” Well, if he doesn’t, how will he know if that rookie can get the job done. We are all going to make a certain amount of mistakes.

The expectation of management should not bet that you will make mistakes, but if you will make fewer and fewer mistakes each time you get an opportunity.

Click for More - Video 6

"Give People The Space To Make Mistakes... Give Them The Chance to Learn By Putting Their Hands On The Pizza Dough"

It depends on what's at stake. If there is more at stake, you tend to slow down. Like I said, you must make a decision and move forward. You can always go back and tweak what needs tweaking. The thing I always tell people is that not making a decision is making a decision. You have to make sure they get that.

If you have decided not to decide, there are consequences to that. So, if you really dig into what an organization is doing, you are going to find problems—ones that are there because of decisions people made.

The hardest part of any decision is getting people on board. But you don't need everyone; you need at least 80%. Very rarely in my career have I rammed something down someone's throat and said, "Look, this is pivotal. If you're not on board, it's not going to work."

There is always going to be dissension. It's how you build a team that matters. Having those healthy discussions is important. Decisions are about data and they are about whims.

And let's face it, people don't always get their decisions right.

The art of leadership is surrounding yourself with people who can do what you can't, and letting them do it. And that's not easy. The process is to get the right answers, and you do that by getting input from everyone. It all goes back to listening.

Click for More - Video 7

"Surrounding Yourself With People Who Have Skills You Don't"

"I think it is the process of getting to the decisions. I've always made quick decisions and I've always gone with my judgment. As a kid, my dad would always say, "In life, you make a decision based on your head and your heart. If your head and your heart are in the same place, go with it." And people say go with your gut. But it's not going with your gut; it's going with your gut when your head agrees.

Your head should be the logical, rational and data driven center. Your gut is how you feel about it. When the two are in the same place, it's always the right decision. When they're in different places, it's never the right decision.

Also, it is about getting to an decision at the same time. I don't mind the slog of putting everything together. I built new franchises with the Rockies and the Denver Grizzlies International Hockey League team. Both were fantastic experiences. I had two years to build the Grizzlies and three with the Rockies. Both turned out extremely well. There were championships and Cup wins.

In every case, you want the process to happen faster, with the exception of building something from scratch. Either way, you need a solid foundation. And that takes time. The bigger the entity you're building, the bigger, deeper and wider the foundation is.

Click for More - Video 8

"How To Build A Culture For Quicker Decision-Making"

"I think the toughest obstacle was probably the Grizzlies [IHL team] in that there had been 10 pro hockey clubs in Denver over the years and they all failed, including the Rockies. Hockey people don't know that the first Colorado Rockies was actually an NHL team. They only averaged 8,000 fans and they left. They came as the Kansas City Scouts and became the Colorado Rockies Hockey Club and left as the New Jersey Devils

Nobody wanted to talk about hockey. They said Denver is not a hockey town, and that’s why the NHL failed here. Yada, yada, yada. We took hockey out of hibernation for the Grizzlies. We averaged 13,000 fans a game and made $4 million profit. And that success put us out of work. We did so well that the Quebec Nordiques moved and became the Colorado Avalanche. The  Grizzlies was my greatest challenge, greatest reward and greatest success. We had an absolute blast.

Click for More - Video 9

"Creating A Major League Brand and Experience On A Minor League Budget Led To Success"