Focus On What You Can Control: A Leadership Lesson From The San Diego Padres’ Surprise Start

Every so often, a team reminds us why we play the games—and why we lead with purpose.

The biggest surprise of the opening month of the 2025 Major League Baseball season isn’t a billion-dollar juggernaut. It’s not the high-rolling Los Angeles Dodgers or the tradition-rich San Francisco Giants. No, the early-season thunder has come from their NL West rival San Diego Padres, a team many analysts wrote off before a single pitch was thrown.

Critics were quick to pounce this offseason. While the Dodgers continued to spend—tallying $450 million in payroll and deferring a mind-blowing $1.2 billion in future salaries—the Padres were called out for doing too little. One insider even gave their offseason work a near-failing grade.

But here we are, not even through April, and the Padres are leading their division and right there in the fight for the best record in baseball. Why? Because they’ve embraced a truth that every high-performer and high-character leader knows: control what you can control.

Padres manager Mike Shildt was asked before the season if he was intimidated by the Dodgers’ massive financial advantage. His response was swift and telling, a hard no.

“We only take care of what we can control,” Shildt added. “We think about the Dodgers you brought it up, you know, we respect it. We compete against them. We compete against everybody. We have 162 games.”

That mindset is powerful and it isn’t just coach-speak. Shildt is offering us a powerful example of leadership under pressure.

One bold move Shildt made was installing the electrifying Fernando Tatis Jr. as his leadoff hitter. A lot of baseball experts questioned the move. But leadership is about seeing potential others miss—and Tatis has responded, hitting over .350 and blasting eight home runs in just 23 games. It’s paying off. Petco Park was rocking last week with the third largest crowd in its history—for a game in April! In San Diego, the fans and the team believe they have momentum.

One of those fans is Cesar Enciso, founder of the technology firm Evotek, who has long studied success in baseball. “With baseball it’s not about how much you spend on your payroll,” he said. “It helps, but it’s about the players gelling as a unit. Units that work together well play together really well. If it was always about payroll, the Yankees and Dodgers would have every single championship. But that’s not what happens.”

The kind of mental discipline that Shildt is displaying—building a team of players that enjoy each other, then focusing only on what you can control—isn’t limited to baseball diamonds.

After the Paris Olympics, I had the honor of interviewing Kristen Faulkner, a venture capitalist who just happened to win two Olympic gold medals in cycling. Her approach to pressure was similar to Shildt’s since she lists the things she can control and those she can’t.

“I can control that I’m only going to think about positive thoughts,” she told me. “I’m going to make sure that I listen to music ahead of time that pumps me up and relaxes me. I’m going to make sure that I don’t look at the crowds right before I get on the starting line because that’s going to make me nervous. So instead, I’m going to make sure that I take a brief look at the crowds to take it all in. After that, I focus on my bike and me, and not on the crowds. In every situation I’m in, I do a deep assessment of what can I control, what can’t I control?”

Now that is elite thinking that all of us should embrace. Whether you’re leading a startup, running a Fortune 500, or looking for your next career opportunity, the principle holds true. Jack Kelly, a senior contributor here at Forbes, echoed this in his advice to job seekers.

“You have only so much control over the interview process, but you can maintain complete control over how you react to events,” Kelly advised. “Instead of instinctively becoming depressed when an interview bombs, take a pause and process what happened. Look at it head-on with clarity and objectivity. ‘Is it really that bad or am I overreacting?’ Even in a tough spot, you need to find the mental fortitude to think of positive solutions to improve things. Rather than punishing yourself, consider what you did right and think of what you could have done better, so you’ll be prepared for the next interview.”

Back in San Diego, Shildt isn’t declaring victory. He knows it’s early. The Padres could fade, sure. But right now, they’re doing what skeptics said they couldn’t—because they’ve locked in on what they can control. That’s the game. That’s the job. That’s leadership.

All of us should ask ourselves what we are focused on right now. Is it what we can control—or what we can’t? Because when we choose wisely, we might find ourselves defying gravity just like the Padres are at the top of the standings.