Kyle Stark on Creating Culture

Kyle Stark spent several seasons in Major League Baseball. He started his career with the Cleveland Indians (now the Cleveland Guardians). Then he went to the Pittsburgh Pirates for an amazing run, and he’s going to talk about that run and that experience working with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He started in 2007 and ended his run with the Pirates in 2019. And what’s pretty cool about Kyle is he’s vulnerable, open, honest, real, and genuine in today’s conversation about being fired.

If you work in sports, you know that most teams, organizations, and people have a shelf life regarding the amount of time they work at an organization. So, we talk about that in today’s conversation. But he had an amazing run with the Pirates. In his 12 years with the Pittsburgh Pirates, he became the Assistant General Manager, worked as the Vice President, and started off in player development as a director. Today’s conversation is really about both player development and organizational development.

I think Kyle is uniquely positioned and has had a front-row seat to what a baseball team does to try to create an environment that can help its people thrive, and he was integral in trying to help the Pittsburgh Pirates find ways to thrive, while also thinking about the individual. And so, this is a conversation about mindset, it’s about leadership, and I think mostly it’s about culture and how we can create an intentional culture to help our people be the very best that they can be.

Kyle had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“[One] key to being a great communicator is recognizing that communication is as much about heart as opposed to your head” (5:50).

“It’s ultimately not about the message that I’m trying to deliver; it’s about the message that’s received” (6:10).

“Unless your God, it isn’t truth; it’s your perspective” (7:55).

“Know yourself, like yourself, be yourself, and grow yourself” (10:50).

“As a leader, it doesn’t matter what I do; it matters what my people do. The people who are performing and producing is how you’re measured” (11:00).

“At the end of the day… people want the truth” (11:25).

“The best leaders think beyond the task” (19:25).

“Vision leads to systems; process leads to systems” (20:05).

“I think [baseball] replicates life better than any sport” (21:40).

“At the end of the day, I’m someone who’s obsessed with excellence” (22:35).

“That’s why sports exist: for teams to accomplish something together” (28:50).

“I identify more as a change agent than a sustainer or a maintainer” (38:15).

“The principles of being a great leader can show up in any situation if I understand those principles and stay true to those principles” (41:55).

“Sometimes I think our expertise can actually be a trap for us as a leader” (42:35).

“I believe every problem is a leadership problem” (44:10).

“When I talk about culture, I see it as who you are and how you do things” (44:40).

“Everybody has a culture, it’s just a matter of how intentional you are with it and whether it works for you to bring the best out in people or not” (44:50).

“We have to build alignment” (52:10).

“We’ve got to continue to refine” (55:10).

“Success is a matter of consistency” (56:00).

“The interplay between selection and development is absolutely critical” (1:02:45).

Additionally, you can connect with Kyle on LinkedIn.

Thank you so much to Kyle for coming on the podcast!

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.