Big League advice for your job search

In any business, leaders are judged, evaluated and ultimately rewarded or penalized by objective measures of performance. Profit and loss, stock prices and sales numbers provide measuring sticks for businesses that many of you will pursue careers in over the next few years. My business — the business of baseball — does not differ. Wins and losses provide a tangible measure of our success or failure. The only difference is that our success will be measured publicly on a daily basis in coffee shops, corner bars, barber shops, on the radio and the newspaper — each and every day over the next 183 days and 162 games. Yet, as I write this column on the eve of our opening day game, I find myself reflecting on the many unforeseeable obstacles that will present themselves over the course of the marathon ahead.

Injuries will occur. We will face bad weather, questionable umpiring, off the field personal issues and many other challenges. The plan and strategy we have in place will take these factors into account, but inevitably, it is impossible to plan effectively for unforeseeable events outside of our control. How then do we limit the anxiety within this reality? More importantly, how do we counter the emotion generated by public opinion expressed in the media and derived from our own competitiveness? It is precisely this emotion and momentum that leads to poor decision-making and so easily derails a sound strategy or plan.

Within the answer to this dilemma lies the key to fulfillment for me in my career and a potentially valuable lesson for all of you that seek to begin careers in the months and years ahead. We find fulfillment within the process of building our team and implementing our plan for a sustained championship team. It is this focus on the process — instead of the outcome — that allows us to maintain consistency in our decision making, remain on course in our planning and ensure that we make evaluations consistent with our organizational vision and values. It is in the development of this culture and the manifestation of this mission in our team on the field that we find the ultimate fulfillment. If instead we base our satisfaction on the approval of others who judge us in the micro, we will live a fragile existence in a business laden with insecurity.

It is precisely this philosophy that I encourage you to adopt as you venture into the working world. Seek a culture that is consistent with your values. Find an organization with a vision that you could envision becoming vested in. Most importantly, search for leaders who will invest their energy in your development. If you adopt these parameters in your search for a job or a career — instead of seeking the perfect job — you may open up opportunities and ventures that you have never previously contemplated. Search for a career that provides you with fulfillment through the culture you will work in, the values you will share with others in that organization and leaders you can believe in. If that process guides you in your pursuit, you will find a calling that provides you with fulfillment, growth and victories — or in our case, the hopes of a championship future.

Mark Shapiro '89 was a history major and is now Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Cleveland Indians. The Indians home opener against the Chicago White Sox was played on April 11.