The market rewards action, but action without attention is noise. Listen, then take your swing.
Listen First, Then Swing
Why This Isn’t Just About Baseball
I saw a quote the other day—slightly mangled but still sharp: “The world will teach you if you listen. You’ll never throw a home run if you don’t swing.” Wrong sport on the “throw” part, but the point stands. You can’t win without stepping up. But swinging blindly? That’s a fast way to strike out.
In business, swinging means committing resources—money, time, reputation—on something you believe will work. Listening means understanding the market, your people, your numbers. The sequence matters. I’ve watched companies hit doubles and triples because they listened first. I’ve also seen others burn through cash because they treated “action” as a substitute for insight.
The CFO’s View: Numbers Tell the Truth
As a CFO, my “listening” is often to numbers. They’re not the whole story, but they don’t lie. A product might have strong sales, but if your margin’s thin and cash cycle is slow, you’re not winning. Too many leaders swing because “the market’s hot” without looking at the cost to actually play the game.
Listening here means asking: What’s the unit economics? How fast can we recover cash? What’s the downside if we miss? If you can’t answer those in a sentence, you’re swinging in the dark.
The COO’s View: The Field Is Real
Operations is where listening gets messy. It’s in the late shipments, the supplier who’s suddenly less responsive, the sales team hinting that customers are hesitating. This isn’t just data—it’s texture. If you ignore it, your well-timed swing might connect with nothing but air.
For example, I once worked with a distributor who pushed for a new product launch because “our competitors are doing it.” The ops team had flagged two key issues: supplier lead times were unstable, and the warehouse was at capacity. Leadership swung anyway. We sold out the first batch fast—but then couldn’t restock for 10 weeks. Customers moved on. That swing looked good on paper but killed our momentum.
When Listening Turns into Waiting Forever
There’s a trap on the other side too. Endless listening becomes analysis paralysis. You can only forecast so much. The market shifts while you’re still “getting ready.” The smartest swings I’ve seen came from teams that set a deadline to act. They gathered the best info they could, then committed. You can always adjust mid-game, but you can’t score from the dugout.
How to Balance Listening and Swinging
- Define what “enough data” looks like before you start.
- Listen beyond numbers—talk to customers, suppliers, and front-line staff.
- Timebox your decision-making. Set a date to swing.
- Have a fallback plan for a miss. You will miss sometimes.
The Human Side
Listening is also about people. A CEO I respect says, “My job is to ask the second question.” The first answer you get is usually polished. The second—“What makes you say that?”—is where the truth slips out. Swinging in business isn’t just capital allocation—it’s betting on people to deliver. If you don’t listen to them, your bet is blind.
Small Swings Add Up
Not every swing has to be a home run attempt. In fact, most shouldn’t be. In finance and operations, I look for low-cost, low-risk swings that teach us something. A small marketing test. A pilot in one store. A week-long change in scheduling. These micro-swings give feedback faster and cheaper than big bets. Over time, they compound into wins.
Closing the Loop
Here’s the pattern I’ve seen: The best leaders listen like detectives, swing like hitters who’ve studied the pitcher, and learn from every contact—hit or miss. The worst leaders either swing at everything or stand there with the bat on their shoulder.
So yes, step up and swing. Just make sure you’ve heard what the field is telling you first.
Book Recommendation
Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke — It’s about making smarter decisions when you don’t have all the facts, and learning from the results without falling into hindsight bias.
Your Turn
What’s one time you swung before listening—and what did it cost you?
0 Comments