Episode Summary:

Sometimes you know what you want to do with your life, and for Bianca Smith, that was baseball. Professional baseball. Her path to becoming the first Black woman to coach in professional baseball is a story of grit, single-minded focus, and force of personality. Still only 30 and a coach at a minor league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, Bianca tells us how she got there and what life is like when you’re a 5-foot-tall woman teaching professional male athletes how they could be better baseball players.

Sydney Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life.

Bianca Smith

Bianca Smith finished her 1st season with the FCL Red Sox in 2021. Prior to the Red Sox she was an Assistant Athletic Director and Assistant Baseball Coach/Hitting Coordinator at Carroll University. Smith has also coached at Case Western Reserve University (where she earned her dual JD/MBA) and the University of Dallas, as well as worked in Baseball Operations in the front offices of the Texas Rangers, the Cincinnati Reds, and MLB’s Commissioner’s Office. Smith graduated from Dartmouth College in 2012 where she played varsity softball and club baseball.

Insights from this Episode

• The journey into the baseball major leagues
• The transition from front office work into coaching
• The skill sets and mindset that are necessary to be a coach
• How to build relationships of trust with your players as a coach
• The psychological side of coaching
• The challenges of being a woman in the coaching environment
• Why analytics are helpful in sports

Quotes from the Show:

• “One thing I can say about Bianca is that she is simply not a stoppable force because along with driving passion she brings a learning mindset to everything she does”- Sydney Finkelstein in “The Sydcast” [05:40]
• “Professional baseball is a little bit different because, yes your individual stats matter to your contract, but overall the goal is still, you’re gonna win a world series and you can’t win a world series by yourself, the team wins the world series not you”- Bianca Smith in “The Sydcast” [14:27]
• “As a coach, one of the biggest things I think you need is just to be open minded, don’t come in thinking that you know everything because I guarantee you in any sport you’re never gonna know everything”- Bianca Smith in “The Sydcast” [25:31]
• “The best players are the ones that can adjust on their own because they have that body awareness, they know what they’re looking for, they know what they did wrong and they are able to make that adjustment in game”- Bianca Smith in “The Sydcast” [30:07]
• “[About statistics] The best coaches are the ones that know when to use it and in what situation”- Bianca Smith in “The Sydcast” [46:03]
• “Ignore the criticisms and the expectations and do what you want to do”- Bianca Smith in “The Sydcast” [1:01:09]

Stay Connected:

Sydney Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Bianca Smith

LinkedIn: Bianca Smith

Twitter: Bianca Smith 

Instagram: Bianca Smith

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This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.