This Week’s Focus Point: Going to WARWAR is a fairly new baseball statistic invented out of the sabermetric phenomenon where the emphasis on metrics is accentuated. WAR stands for “Wins Above Replacement” and is an indication of how many wins a player is worth to his team over what is considered a “replacement player.” That definition is a player who is just called up from the minor leagues and is average at best. A good baseball player has a WAR of about 2-3 games. An All-Star player is worth about 5-6 wins for his team. For perspective, I saw a statistic last week when Ken Griffey Jr. was elected to the Hall of Fame, that his WAR was calculated at about 8-9 wins a year over an 11 year period.
What’s your WAR to your employer? In other words, are you just a “regular” employee that does the work, but offers no additional “wins” to the organization? Or rather, are you so valuable in your WAR category that you are considered an All-Star? If you’re the employer, the same question can be asked of you, and frankly may be more important. If you’re not adding tremendous value to your company and employees, how can you expect the same in return?
Final thought. While it’s not as easy to attach metrics in this area as it is in baseball, everyone knows based on the “eye test.” Whether you’re the boss or the employee, your value to the team is being measured. How good is your WAR?
“Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday’s success or put its failures behind and start over again. That’s the way life is, with a new game every day.”
~ Bob Feller, former Cleveland Indians pitcher and Baseball Hall of Famer
