Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (27) drapes the team home run jacket on third baseman Addison Barger (47) during a game in late September. The jacket is a clear symbol that helps bring the team together.Dan Hamilton/Reuters
Mike James Ross is a consultant at Egon Zehnder and former chief human resources officer at La Maison Simons.
The Toronto Blue Jays are not only providing Canadians with must-watch baseball this postseason, they are also knocking out some useful leadership lessons for any manager at any workplace. Having a clear purpose, building rituals and making room for fun are lessons that will help all teams, even if they aren’t in the World Series.
This year’s Jays are doing something heroic. A ragtag underdog team at the start of the year, they continue to beat the odds and they are obviously having fun while doing it. While the World Series is not over yet, it isn’t too soon to draw some insights from the way the Jays got here that we can all apply.
Create clarity about what it means to win
For the Jays, winning games is everything. That clarity cascades throughout the organization. From the coaching staff to the clubhouse and the analytics team, everyone knows what their goal is, and the measure of that goal is right there on the scoreboard.
For corporate teams, winning is not so obvious. Are we hitting for market share, net profit or shareholder value? Without clarity, you get internal competition, fights over resources and a lack of focus. Whether you are responsible for a whole company or just one part of it, you must ensure that everyone on your team knows what the overall objective is. Make your own scoreboard and put it up on the wall, measuring progress and reinforcing it at the start of every meeting. Tell your team what winning the World Series is for you and celebrate your journey toward it.
Use rituals as the glue
The home run jacket is not just a quirk. It is a clear symbol that connects the player who hit that run to the whole team. As recent research from Harvard Business School has shown, when you ring a gong after each big hire or share a box of Timbits every Tuesday, you are helping make your team a team. While some rituals are directly related to the team’s goal (home runs or sales), others should be about team bonding and these are often centred on food.
The tricky thing about rituals is that you cannot make them happen. As a leader, you must watch for rituals that develop organically and then reinforce and expand upon them, reducing friction and building their consistency. This is not about declaring Hawaiian shirt day; it is about noticing the second time that team members order lunch from the same restaurant and offering to pay for that lunch once a month.
Toronto Blue Jays left fielder George Springer (right) and third base coach Carlos Febles (left) smile after the eighth inning against the Minnesota Twins at Rogers Centre on Aug 25, 2025.John E. Sokolowski/Reuters
The story behind the Blue Jays’ bedazzled home run jacket
Have fun off the field
More than the wins, what is most thrilling about the Jays’ run this October is how they are obviously having so much fun as a team. The best teams are ones in which joy is an integral part of the culture and the key to creating it is time spent together that is not focused on work. For the Jays, much of that comes from bonds built off the field. The players spend a lot of time on planes and it is in those moments when nicknames are given, quirks are joked about and team cohesion is created.
For corporate teams, moments outside the office – whether it is after-work drinks, spa days or travelling together to a conference – are all important ingredients in creating an environment of fun. But this can also be built through five-minute catch-up moments before a regular conference call or short walks after an in-person meeting.
To build fun in your team, you need to allow space for it to emerge. Similar to rituals, fun can’t be forced. By intentionally giving teams time together that is not focused on deliverables, you allow it to emerge. Resist the urge to maximize the utility of every moment and create opportunities for fun to happen.
So swing for the fences, find that jacket and enjoy the ride. Go Jays!
This column is part of Globe Careers’ Leadership Lab series, where executives and experts share their views and advice about the world of work. Find all Leadership Lab stories at tgam.ca/leadershiplab and guidelines for how to contribute to the column here.