Tony La Russa speaks to students about leading successful teams

Tony La Russa is the former manager of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, and managed his teams to six league championships and three World Series titles. He also ranked third in all-time major league wins by a manager.

Tony La Russa spoke in the Show Me Center at Southeast Missouri State University on Nov. 8. The theme for his speech was "Leading Successful Teams."

The first piece of advice he gave to the audience was to "embrace the competition."

"No one will hand it to you," La Russa said.

He said if someone wants to succeed in life the person needs to take competition and make it his or her friend.

People need to work for what they want because no one will hand it to them.

"Bottom line is, finish line is. We're in uniform to play against another team, if you have more runs than they do you win," La Russa said.

La Russa's next piece of advice was that in order to make teams a family, in order to get them to give their best performance, at the beginning of each season or task, they had to start at zero with respect and trust.

La Russa said everyone has to earn the respect and trust of those around them. When people have to earn respect and trust, people earn the trust and respect because they are not only doing things to show they are trustworthy and respectful, but they are working to earn someone else's trust and respect. When someone is working hard to earn those things, it reflects and develops their character.

La Russa's next point was about pressure and being prepared. He said the more someone prepares for something, such as a test, the less pressure they will feel when it comes time to do it.

"The whole semester you're messing around, and now it's the last three days before the final and you're going to try cramming," La Russa said. "You're going to go into that exam and feel pressure because you didn't prepare."

He talked about how, as a manager, he would tell his teams to play as if the game was the seventh game of the World Series. That way, when and if the members reached that point, they would be prepared for the pressure and would be able to play to the best of their abilities.

He also spoke about personalizing. He said personalizing the competition means that people take the time and responsibility to earn the respect, the trust and the character.

"For 33 years of managing, before every game I looked in the mirror and said I don't want to be ashamed of that guy looking back at me when the game is over," La Russa said.

He also emphasized that people should take personal responsibility for their actions, a step of personalizing the situation.

He said people, particularly managers, can't just ask players or those around them to do something if they aren't willing to do it themselves. He said he would never back off so that when he got back to the locker room after the game, he could say he did his best that day.

At the end, audience members could ask La Russa questions.