“Great Players Do Not Necessarily Make Great Managers”: Why Geniuses Struggle When They Take Charge

The other day, I watched a documentary following a world-class adventure racer.

Adventure racing is a grueling sport in which teams compete for several days across wilderness terrain such as mountains and rivers.

The athlete featured in the program was a world-class competitor. As a team leader, however, things had not gone particularly well.

He has now stepped down as leader and competes as an ordinary member of the team.

He was a first-rate athlete but was not suited to directing a team. Apparently, he came to recognize that himself.

Watching him reminded me of an old saying in professional baseball.

“A great player does not necessarily make a great manager.”

It seems obvious when you think about it, yet in professional sports, this obvious truth is remarkably difficult to handle.

Geniuses Cannot Understand Ordinary Players

Imagine that one of professional baseball’s greatest hitters becomes a manager.

During his playing career, he hit home run after home run.

Once he becomes the person doing the coaching, however, a question like this may occur to him:

“Why can’t he hit such an easy pitch?”

For the player, the answer is simple: he cannot hit it because it is not easy.

But the genius cannot understand that.

It came naturally to him, so he cannot explain what or how he should teach.

“Watch the ball carefully, get the timing right, and hit it.”

The player already knows that. The problem is that he cannot do it.

Being able to do something yourself and being able to teach someone else to do it are entirely different abilities.

This is not limited to sports. It is the same reason an excellent engineer does not necessarily become an excellent manager.

Then Why Not Hire a Manager Who Excels at Theory?

This raises a question.

What about someone with little achievement as a player but strong analytical skills, a talent for teaching, and the ability to unite people?

Why not make that person the manager?

In theory, it is a rational approach.

In professional sports, however, things are not so simple.

The athletes have survived fierce competition since childhood and built their current positions through talent and effort. Naturally, they also have considerable pride.

Now imagine a manager with few notable achievements as a player trying to instruct them.

No matter how sound the theory may be, a player might still wonder:

“But Coach, you could not hit as well as I can when you were playing, could you?”

Even correct advice is meaningless if the other person will not listen.

A manager needs more than the ability to give the right instructions. A manager also needs the ability to make players listen to those instructions.

In professional sports, past achievements are a powerful source of that credibility.

The Contradictory Talents Required of a Great Manager

Ultimately, the manager of a professional sports team faces a troublesome combination of requirements.

First, it helps to have achievements that command the players’ respect.

But if the manager was too much of a genius, he may not understand why ordinary players cannot do what he did.

He must also abandon the mindset of the days when he was the star and allow other people to take center stage.

As a player, he only needed to perform well himself.

As a manager, no matter how capable he is, the team loses unless the players perform.

He must also manage relationships among players with strong personalities and considerable pride.

The talent required to become a great player and the talent required to become a great manager are fundamentally different.

Even so, success as a great player is also a powerful qualification for becoming a manager.

That is where the difficulty lies.

Recognizing Your Own Limits Is Also a Talent

Seen in that light, the decision made by the adventure racer at the beginning is fascinating.

Despite his world-class achievements, he admitted that leadership did not suit him and returned to being a player.

That cannot have been an easy decision.

Normally, the better the athlete, the more people expect that person to become a leader.

And even when the person fails as a leader, past achievements make the people around them reluctant to replace them.

Pride may also prevent the person from stepping aside.

The result is the loss of one excellent player and the addition of one incapable manager.

What a waste.

When you think about it, appointing a great player as a manager is an extraordinarily bold personnel decision.

You are entrusting someone with a job they have never done simply because they succeeded at a different job in the past.