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For the coaches and managers who offer their advice in seminars and books, the primary method they use is simply to look back at their careers and attempt to sort out the most important influences behind their suc- cesses and failures. Ultimately, the composition of their lists depends on the seat-of-the-pants assessment of the person doing the writing. This is the way that Joe Torre finds his "12 keys" to successful management. Bill Par- cells lists four or five major factors in accomplishing the task of turning around a team. John Wooden organized his ideas in a pyramid founded by five basic building blocks with four levels of blocks above that base. Vince Lombardi listed three essentials. Not only do the number of "essential" or "key" factors differ, but some- times the "lessons learned" and the advice given by successful people may even stand in direct conflict with each other. For example, Earl Weaver, one of the most successful baseball managers of all time with the Baltimore Ori- oles, made it a point to distance himself from his players to the point of rarely speaking with them. To put it in his own words, "A manager should stay as far away as possible from his players. I don't know if I said ten words to Frank Robinson while he played for me." In contrast, many other highly successful coaches such as baseball manager Joe Torre and basket- ball coach Mike Krzyzewski place open and clear communication with players as one of their most important keys to success. Some coaches, such as football's Bill Parceiis and basketball's Bob Knight rely heavily on direct and even mean-spirited confrontation to try to pressure players into better performances, while others such as basketball's John Wooden consider such methods useless or even childish. Sometimes, when such diversity is pointed out, the phrase "each coach must do what works best for them" crops up as the reply. If carried to it logical limit, such a conclusion would seemingly imply that nothing can re- ally be learned about successful managing—it is totally personal in nature. While most students of management or leadership would agree that there are nontransferable attributes that likely enter into effective management, they do not make up the sum. Some lessons can be learned, but how? The attempts by sports figures at ferreting out the main components of managerial success bear a strong resemblance to "behavioral" approaches or closely aligned "case study" approaches used to study management in many academic settings. In behavioral approaches, a business analyst might spend time in corporate suites observing the activities of the executives or might interview or survey executives regarding their decisions. The thrust of such research is to steer away from esoteric theories and opinions about managerial activities and get down to the brass tacks of what executives actually think and do. Similarly, in MBA programs where case studies are the primary peda- 4