Happy Sunday Everyone:
I’m reading a book right now called “Trillion Dollar Coach”. Bill Campbell is the coach in question. I had never heard of him but he coached the biggest people in Silicon Valley, including Eric Schmidt (author of the book and chairman of google), Steve Jobs (went on a walk with him every Sunday), and what appears to be every other big shot in Silicon Valley. All of the people I’m reading about, who have really large egos, suggest that Bill Campbell is personally responsible for creating 2 plus trillion dollars in market cap because of his coaching. They also suggest his impact on their lives, and everyone else that came in contact with Bill was “life changing”. Its pretty amazing to think of the people in this book and what one person could do to have such a lasting impact on all of them, far outside from financial.
As I’m reading this book, I find it both fascinating because of the stories involved, but more importantly, validation that many of us are on the right track with focusing on human elements around trust, humility, honesty, and transparency. Everything these monsters of industry talk about is the basic stuff we talk about. I keep thinking I’m going to get some crazy tactic but it always comes down to the human elements I mentioned above. This guy wasn’t easy, on his death bed he told his buddy delivering the eulogy “Don’t f$#@ it up” but how he communicated, what he got out of people, and how those people felt about what he did for them is fairly amazing, and certainly worth the read.
I wanted to share a few of my favorite points that will certainly help me:
* Trust: Everything comes down to trust. If trust is established, tactical conflict is good. If trust is established relational conflict can be resolved. Psychological safety is proven to be the number one factor in highly effective teams and trust is the number one component to establish Psychological Safety.
* Humility: He would determine who he would coach and who he wouldn’t based on humility. You have to be honest, humble, and have a high degree of vulnerability.
* Servant Leadership and return on assets. It has been proven that servant leaders have a much higher return on assets than that of a narcissistic leader. We might all say “duh” but reality is a lot of highly successful leaders have more narcissistic tendencies than that of a servant leader. I think we always need to ask ourselves of the leader of our teams, big or small, which camp do we fit in?
* All people have value, help them find their value, but only if they’re coachable. There is a great story of someone interviewing for a president job at Google and not realizing Bill Campbell was the final straw. His first question was “are you coachable”, and the presidents response was “depends on the coach”…Bill started to get up and walk out, the guy found some humility real quick, and asked Bill if they could please continue their discussion. 15 years later that guy is to co-author of this book.
* A great coach understands where people are honest with themselves and where their blind spots are. With a high degree of trust, you can work through the blind spots.
* Poor listening is something a lot of leaders possess. We have to listen more. He would never tell people what to do, he would ask them question after question until they identified for themselves what needed to be done. When people are asking for advice, they’re usually asking for permission. Ask them questions to help them get to their own conclusion.
* Statement by all these CEO’s about him: There were no gaps between statements and facts. He was a straight shooter. He was transparent. Say what you think while still. showing people you care. Candid feedback can’t wait and feedback should be task specific.
* Never embarrass someone in public. Constructive feedback is always one on one.
Great Quote from Tom Landry: “A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you’ve always known you could be”.
I’m not doing this book a fraction of the justice it deserves. I was going to say anyone in any type of leadership role should read this book but I think everyone should read this book. It’s a refreshing reminder of how simple things can be if we focus on the human elements first.
Have a great rest of your Sunday.