The story behind
"Make the Adjustment"
Pictured is legendary baseball coach, Boyd Coffie. He was not only a coach, but a mentor to hundreds of lucky men and women who played baseball, basketball, or ran track at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL for almost 30 years.
When I first met "Coach" in 1988, he was a strong, but humble man who served in the US Army and played professional baseball for the New York Yankees organization. He was generally reserved and soft-spoken, would watch & observe, and wouldn't say a whole lot...but when he did speak, everyone would listen.
As a recruit to Rollins baseball, I sat in his office which was placed just behind home plate at Alfond Stadium, with a small window so he could see the field. There were a few bats, baseballs, charts, nothing special really...but behind his desk there was a giant wooden sign that said the most important 3 words that I, along with every athlete at Rollins would ever see or hear, "Make the Adjustment".
I asked him about what it meant to him, and all he said was, "If you come to Rollins, you will find out." Again, a man of few words and he was an enigma to me. I couldn't figure him out fully, but Boyd had a charisma, magnetism, and presence that could only be felt if you spent time with him.
With that, I decided to enroll and play Division 2 college baseball for Boyd. What I found at Rollins were incredible teammates and lifelong friends. Boyd recruited players based not only on their skill, but more so their drive and character. He instituted 2 mile army style jogs followed up with wind one hour of wind-sprints at 6:00am, 6 mornings a week for the entire month leading up to the season. Never mind the 4+ hour practices in the afternoon after attending classes in the morning. "No one will be in better shape than us in the 9th inning", he would say, and he was right!
You see, the deeper meaning of "Make the Adjustment", is that Boyd was light years ahead of the studies on Emotional Intelligence (EQ). What I've learned about MTA is that this simple phrase puts every good thing or bad thing that happens in your life, back on YOU, and no one else. If you get too high, he would suggest you need to Make the Adjustment and come back down to earth. If you got too low, he would challenge you and ask if what you are doing isn't working, what adjustments need to be made, either physically, emotionally, or how you interact with your teammates.
"Make the Adjustment" was such a simple, yet impactful way to teach us self-awareness, self-control, ego management, communication skills, empathy, social effectiveness, and more.
Sadly, Boyd passed away in 2006 after a long battle with cancer. When I founded MTA Consultancy, I could think of no better way to pay tribute to the man who was like a second father to me by naming this company after him and his legacy. A man who impacted so many students & athletes in such a positive way. "Make the Adjustment" was a concept that needed to live, breathe, and carry on, and hope the story behind MTA brings self reflection & inspiration to you and your employees.
My Story
Over the last 27 years, Chris Mader has been an executive specializing in coaching & developing leaders, driving revenue, corporate strategy, advisory, consulting, corporate training, executive coaching, keynote speaking, meeting facilitation, & developing talent at all levels from entry level sales & management roles to the C-Suite.
Previously a professional athlete, Chris has been fortunate enough to spend time and compete with elite athletes and business professionals, which gives him a unique perspective into the insights of what drives individual contributors and leaders to be great.
As a young boy I was always outside & playing sports, especially ice hockey, baseball & golf. The sport of baseball ended up being very good to me as it provided a scholarship & education at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL, majoring in Mathematics & Business Administration. My lifelong dream was fulfilled when I was drafted to play professional baseball for the Chicago White Sox. After 3 years with them, I was picked up by the Detriot Tigers, New York Mets, and finished my career as a Carolina League Champion with the Cleveland Guardians. I routinely spent time in the workout room or on the field with the likes of Michael Jordan (yes, that one year he played baseball), Bo Jackson, Bartolo Colon, and many other superstars while playing directly for amazing leaders & former big leaguers in Terry Francona, Mookie Wilson, and Fred Kendall.
I retired from professional baseball in 1995, and in 1996 started my first job in professional sales (IT Staffing & Consulting for New Boston Systems, which then became Sapphire Technologies). As I quickly learned, the ability to "Make the Adjustment" is paramount in the "people business". Thankfully, the skills learned from my days playing baseball for Coach Coffie was universal in the workplace.
After a few years as an individual contributor in sales, the next adventure had me opening a start up office in a new city, eventually managing the entire the Northeast Region, expanded our operations in Toronto, Canada, culminating with a promotion as Vice President of Growth Strategy at Randstad Technologies, a global IT staffing and solutions firm exceeding $1.4B in U.S. sales and $26B worldwide. This role provided me the opportunity to travel internationally to collaborate with colleagues all around the world to learn their best practices, and then put those "best concepts" into a workable plan that others could "copy & paste" into their organization, no matter the country.
What others have said is about me is my ability to quickly disarm them, connect, ask thoughtful questions, diagnose problems, and come up with practical and creative solutions, many of which may seem obvious but for some reason they never thought of. Perhaps this is attributed to my problem solving ability via my degree in mathematics, but its more likely the fact that I've been both in the trenches as well as the board room in a highly competitive environment for more than 30 years, in sports and in business, in multiple countries, for small, medium and large companies; and have "been there & done that" with college & professional athletes, as well as the "top 1%" of individual contributors, emerging leaders, and the C-Suite across the globe.
Contact me directly
I would be honored to get to know more about you and how we can help your people and business...let's connect today.
127 W Rodney French Blvd. - Suite 310
New Bedford, MA 02744
781-316-5110