Even Wizards need a solid work ethic.

Ozzie Smith, aka “The Wizard,” earned his moniker for his "wizardry" on the field, namely his unthinkable plays at shortstop. 

Early in his rookie season in 1978, in the top of the fourth inning, Atlanta left fielder Jeff Burroughs smacked a hard ground ball just to the shortstop side of second base.  Smith quickly broke to his left, but just as he began his dive, disaster struck. The ball took a bad hop to Smith's right, back behind his glove. With no time to adjust, there was only one option left: Stick out his bare hand.

You can take it from there.

But in the weeks leading up to the 1982 season, Ozzie was settling in with a new team. In February, he’d been officially traded from the Padres to the St. Louis Cardinals, and ongoing salary negotiations threatened to interrupt his preseason preparation.

His on-the-field magic was well documented. But The Wizard’s work ethic didn’t skip a beat heading into Spring Training that season.

As mentioned in the book “Whitey Herzog Builds a Winner,” Smith proved he was anxious to get going when he was literally the first Cardinal to land in St. Petersburg for spring training. Once there, he arrived early (pre-dawn) at the facility every day resurrecting his swing to achieve a higher percentage of ground balls... but also to perfect his already near-perfect defensive mastery.

“Ozzie came in and worked his butt off. He took 200 or 300 extra ground balls every day. He can do things with that glove that you didn’t think were possible,” Former teammate Gene Tenace recalled.
Spring Training is all about preparation. The greats seem to get it. When we’re on (or rather out in) the field, below are some “Spring Training Tips” for developing and perfecting your routine plays.

Three Ways to be a ‘Wizard’ Out in The Field

1. Arrive Early. Stay Late.

Great things happen before 8 a.m. 

Ozzie wasn’t the only one to get to the ballpark first. Pitcher Roy Halladay also led by example with his tireless work ethic ... and early alarm.

Then-teammate Chase Utley shared a story on Instagram recently about 2010 spring training, when he got to the park at 5:45 a.m. and Halladay was already drenched from completing a workout. Utley had to ask him if it had been raining. Tom Verducci’s story for SI from that same April recounts the way Halladay started arriving that early, and then pushed his routine even earlier as teammates attempted to beat him to the facility.

One person at Datamax who embodies this sentiment is Inventory Specialist Roy Martin.

Roy opens the building at 6:30 a.m. every morning. He turns off the alarm, turns on the lights and begins pulling parts for techs that will be stopping by before they head out in the field. He prefers the quiet of the pre-dawn office, and uses the time to catch up on paperwork uncompleted from the day before.
In the evenings, after most employees are heading home, Roy stays to set up machines for the next workday.

“Showing up early, it’s just what I’ve always done,” says Roy, who points out that he arrives early and stays late under his own volition. “If I see something that needs to get done, I just do it. Otherwise, it’s not going to done.”

Roys simple, yet sound, reasoning resonates. And while we won’t all arrive at 6:30 a.m., we can all do whatever is necessary to be prepared and ready to go upon arrival. 

2. Go Through Your Reps.

Repeatedly creating the same routine again and again will produce "Wizard-like" results. Success magazine offers these "10 morning routines of wildly successful entrepreneurs."

1. Make a to-do list the night before.
2. Get energized immediately.
3. Your personality determines your ideal routine.
4. Fire up your brain.
5. Take the ultimate nutrient when you wake up.
6. Schedule your day with intent.
7. Determine your one or two biggest priorities.
8. Greatness happens before 8 a.m.
9. Work on yourself, others, creativity and mission.
10. Early tranquility creates the blueprint of success.

Also a solid routine to rehash ... What matters to our clients matters most to us. Here's three items to keep handy: 

• The Competitive Advantage Program: The elements of this program are the building blocks as to how we remain relevant every single day. By understanding Competitive Advantage, you can communicate to the public precisely what our differentiators are, and how they better serve our clients. For more on this key Datamax initiative, click here.
• Go Vertical, Grow Vertical:  We must own the ability to see things from our clients’ perspective. With more than 50 years of experience developing custom business process-based technology services and solutions for virtually every industry, Datamax knows how to speak the unique language of all kinds of business. Do you? To learn more about applying our expertise to individual industries, click here.
• Take Time to Listen: Just as writer and founder of the world Scouting movement Robert Baden-Powell said, "if you make listening and observation your occupation, you will gain much more than you can by talking." The best method for compiling relevant information is forcing yourself into your client’s shoes and shadowing their path. The only way of getting there is by listening.

3. Throw a Change-Up.

One of the most successful pitches in baseball is the “change-up,” aptly named for its sudden drop in velocity from the previous pitch. Great pitchers can build an entire career on the change-up.

Its success is predicated on its surprise – unveiling the unexpected. How can we individually catch a client off guard? Not be predictable? Do the unexpected? Here’s three ways:

Write a handwritten thank you note.

This dying art in business is still appreciated, and almost always unexpected, by customers. It's a delightfully personal action that will definitely deliver a strike.

Do more than just the minimal repair.

Focusing merely on what's on the service ticket? You might be missing the point. Tim Williams, featured in this month's “Creating Raving Fans” article, shares his thoughts on going further on a service call.

"You can fix the initial problem, but if you don’t communicate with the client, ask a lot of questions, something could have happened last week and might become a repetitive issue. You might as well fix it while you're there. That just prolongs the life of equipment if you approach that way."

Justin Harper, Tyler service manager, adds: Clean the laser. Clean the glass. Check the feed rollers. Check the drums. Check the fusers. Do that before you walk out of every customer’s office.

Take Phone Courtesy to the next level.

Need advice on this? Just ask Barb Noll in Little Rock. In her Little Blue Book Story, Barb described her pro-level phone skills perfectly:

“When a lot of people walk by my desk, they can’t tell if I’m on a personal phone call or with a client, because I treat every potential customer like they are a friend,” Barb said. “When I talk to customers, the first thing I’m going to ask is how everything is going for them. Is there anything I need to know? If you’re unhappy about anything, we want to know.”