Español and social: Life skills Arizona sports leaders would add

Around Doug & Wolf’s Newsmakers Week, we wanted to get to know the leaders of the local Arizona sports landscape a little bit better.

We picked four off-beat questions to get a sense of their duties and leadership styles.

1. If you are recruiting or hiring someone and you have a day to sell them on Arizona beyond the workplace, where are you taking them and what are you showing them?
2. If you had the time to stop your job to learn one skill to make you better at your job or otherwise, what would that be?
3. What is the last book you read? What is it about and why did you read it?
4. What’s the toughest decision you had to make in your career? Is there anything you regret?

Here is Part II of our four-part series, where our Valley sports leaders explained one skill they would want to learn.

Suns general manager James Jones

“I’d probably be more social media savvy. I’m not really a social media guy. Understanding the new generation of players, you know, that’s where they spend most of their time, that’s where they live. I’d harness the power of that a little bit better to get my messages across to them.

(So he’s not into Fortnite?) “Fornite, I can’t — I’m still Nintendo 64 and Sega. I played 64 but I was always a Sega guy, Sonic the Hedgehog.”

Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo

“Hundred percent become fluent in Spanish. There’s so many incredible players that come up from South America — I guess there are several countries so you can find those. I’d love to be able to communicate with them directly instead of piecing together some phrases and some key words, or have an interpreter. There are some barriers there that make instruction a little tough. We manage it, we work through it but I think it would give me a complete advantage if I could get to them one-on-one.”

Former Suns and Diamondbacks owner Jerry Colangelo

“As I think back on my whole life, although I took a lot of business courses, I would’ve gone even a step further in terms of probably a law degree. I became somewhat of a practicing lawyer without the pedigree, without the piece of paper to support it, but just by learning in the trenches.”

ASU athletic director and VP for university athletics Ray Anderson

“I think the best skill anyone can have in terms of how they get on with life is good listening skill. So I’d take the chance to maybe go to a university where there’s a famous lecturer and I’d just sit in his or her classroom with my mouth shut and just listen.”

Cardinals GM Steve Keim

“Anything handy ’cause I can’t even put a nail on the wall. So when it comes to hanging pictures, whatever it is, fixing things, I am the worst. My dad was a guy who was great with his hands, he was able to put additions on the house, change the oil on the car and I can’t even put a nail in the wall.”

ASU head football coach Herm Edwards

“One skill… I mean, you can always be a better communicator. In life and just jobs, how you communicate, how you gather information, we’re all information gatherers. I think everything we’ve learned, we’ve actually learned from somebody else.”

Coyotes president and CEO Ahron Cohen

“With how fast technology is advancing and these different communication platforms, whether it would be through social media or digital channels, I would say spending a lot of time understanding exactly what the younger generation — the Gen Z and Millenials — are thinking. (That) would be a very important skillset.”

Diamondbacks president and CEO Derrick Hall

“I think probably fine-tuning Spanish. It’s something that I’ve said forever I want to do and wish I had. I took Spanish when I was in high school and I took a little bit in college and I was pretty good. I’ve lost so much. Now I can use bits and pieces with the players. With our market, with our demographics, with most of our fanbase now, being bilingual, I think it’s important to communicate better with the players. And they’re great. They’ve learned English, they learn English as they’re young players, but for me to learn their native tongue would be more beneficial.”

Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen (via email)

“I would want to learn Spanish because of how valuable it would be to communicate with so many of our players and coaches in their native language.”

ASU president Michael Crow

“My job requires many skills, and I’m always looking for new skills. I think probably the best skill for me to learn would be understanding how better to tie together disciplines that aren’t connectable. So it’s like, how do you build a language that connects philosophy to astronomy, astronomy to chemistry, chemistry to management, management to economics?”

Cardinals chairman and president Michael Bidwill

“Learn a second language, specifically Spanish.”

Fiesta Bowl executive director Mike Nealy

“I think the constant learning skill is always leadership skills. As the younger staff is coming in, and different generations, how do you relate to, how do you motivate different generations differently. You can’t go with what always worked in the past.”

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