A book on leadership by Bill Walsh, a
- coach of the San Francisco 49ers American football team
- led them to 3 Super Bowls
- Turned around the team from 2-14 -> 2-14 -> 6-10 -> 13-3 with super bowl win in 1981
It's very practical and to the point. I liked how the writer really made the effort to be honest about his own shortcomings and his regrets in addition to how he went about rectifying them.
The book's central thesis is that an uncompromising, obsession over Standard of Performance is critical for success, and results will follow as a matter of course. While doing this Walsh is really upfront with the realistic challenges of leadership. He expects pressure. He plans for defeat and setbacks and has a plan for it.
Rather than starting with a vision of championship, Walsh starts by defining the norms that lead to success. He then goes on to expound his views on hiring, training, teaching, handling setbacks and other aspects of leadership in a lot of detail without any fluff.
These are the key lessons from the book:
- Obsess over the standard, not the outcome - Define and enforce a clear standard of performance. Results are lagging indicators.
- Expect setbacks - Defeat is part of the game. Don’t complain, blame, or seek sympathy. Always focus on recovery, planning and fighting again
- Consistently upholding the standard is the real battle - Consistent effort is a consistent challenge.
- Genius doesn't work - Success is built on preparing for all contingencies in exacting detail. Genius or element of surprise is not reliable and doesn't work
- Expertise is the basis for leadership - No one follows a leader who doesn't have answers. A leader must be able to tell others where he wants to go and how to get there
- Be wrong for the right reasons - Proving the self right or others wrong is the wrong motivation to resist
- Hire people with characters and be wary of characters - It takes character to stick it out during a lean patch. Characters on the other hand can be unpredictable, difficult to manage and a liability.
- Communicate clearly, comprehensively and consistently - Praise sparingly but effusively, criticize promptly, and be positive while speaking
- Manage successes - Celebrate briefly, then return to work. Use this as an opportunity to refocus and reset.
- Maintain an internal hard edge - Excessive casualness breeds complacency. Only serious environments can produce serious results.
- The score really does take care of itself - If and only if the standard is upheld relentlessly.