Successful Coaching in Leadership: Seven Lessons from the ‘Trillion Dollar Coach’

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Bill Campbell was once described as the “Silicon Valley’s best kept secret” by Fortune.

Bill was a former American Football Coach who became so influential that he worked regularly coaching Steve Jobs and the founders of Google.

The ‘Trillion Dollar Coach’ is written by former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, Former Snr Vice President of Google Jonathan Rosenberg, and Director of Google Alan Eagle.

All three of the authors have worked with Bill Campbell throughout their careers and time working at Google and describe the impact the Bill had on the company by saying:

“We can say, without a doubt, that Bill Campbell was one of the people most integral to Google’s success. Without him, the company would not be where it is today.”

Here are 7 lessons that I have taken from the book and from Bill Campbell’s leadership and coaching skills.

1. The difference between a mentor and a coach

“Whereas mentors dole out words of wisdom, coaches roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty. They don’t just believe in our potential; they get in the arena to help us realize our potential.”

2. The power of listening and being honest

“Scholars would describe Bill’s approach-listening, providing honest feedback, demanding candour as “relational trans-parency,” which is a core characteristic of “authentic leadership.”

3. Solving problems as a team

“His first instinct was always to work the team, not the problem. In other words, he focused on the team’s dynamics, not on trying to solve the team’s particular challenges. That was their job. His job was team building, assessing people’s talents, and finding the doers.”

4. Working towards shared goals

“There is another, equally critical, factor for success in companies: teams that act as communities, integrating interests and putting aside differences to be individually and collectively obsessed with what’s good for the company.”

5. Telling stories to pass on information

“Bill coached me to tell stories. When people understand the story they can connect to it and figure out what to do. You need to get people to buy in.“

6. Invest in making people better

“Most people don’t spend a lot of time thinking about how they are going to make someone else better. But that’s what coaches do.”

7. Human connection creates empathy

“Bill’s approach was to make the human connection first, then approach the work with that understanding.”

Throughout the book, i turned every page waiting to read the moment that describes the skill that Bill Campbell had that made him so unique.

But it never happened.

The truth is, that the majority of the things that Bill did were basic skills that we can all do; listening, building strong teams, creating communities within teams, telling stories for impact, taking time to make people better and connecting with people on a human level.

The final lesson that I took from the book was:

“Being a good coach is essential to being a good manager and leader. Coaching is no longer a specialty; you cannot be a good manager without being a good coach.”

I’ve dipped in and out of this book for years and noted pages and pages of quotes that I regularly reference back to when working with clients.

The secret structure to great talks | Nancy Duarte

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In this fascinating talk Nancy Durate breaks down some of the most iconic speeches in history to show a pattern, shape and structure that we can apply to our own speeches and presentations.

Nancy is hugely passionate about presentations and the value that they can have.

The world has been and still can be changed through powerful and meaningful presentations.

And just like Chris Anderson’s talk, all presentations and talks h ave to start with an idea.

“The idea has got to be spread, or it won’t be effective. So it has to come out of you and out into the open for people to see. And the way that ideas are conveyed the most effectively is through story.”

A story with the correct structure can be easily consumed and remembered by the listener.

The big question that Nancy asked was; how do you incorporate stories into presentations?

She then goes on to break down structures of stores:

  • A beginning, middle and end
  • A likeable hero
  • A desire
  • A roadblock
  • Overcoming to emerge transformed

What I like is that Nancy highlights that in a presentation or speech, the speaker is not the hero in the story.

If we truly want the audience to engage and have the emotional response we want them to have, the audience have to be the hero, the speaker has to be the mentor.

To present our ideas with the biggest impact, we need the audience to believe that they are the heroes in our story, we create a desire from them through our idea.

Then we bring in the roadblock through creating curiosity, making the audience want to know how they can overcome the roadblock.

And that’s when our idea gives them the transformation in how they think, behave or act.

But to have this impact, Nancy has created a shape which we can all fit our presentations and speeches into so that we can have the desired impact when we tell our stories and share our ideas.

The shape identifies that there are 2 main features

  1. What is
  2. What could be

To break this down further, Nancy explains; “At the beginning of any presentation, you need to establish what is… And then you need to compare that to what could be.”

She goes on to explain that there needs to be a back and forth between the ‘what is’ and the ‘what could be’ to highlight the idea even greater.

Using another tip from Chris Anderson, Nancy goes on to use a sailing metaphor to highlight how her structure works when encountering resistance to your idea.

By working with the resistance in the ‘what is’ and ‘what could be’, just like a sailing boat using the wind to generate more power, the structure helps the presenter pull people towards their idea.

And finally, after the back and forth of using stories, analogies, metaphors to highlight to the audience the ‘what is’ and then the ‘what could be’, the speech or presentation ends with the call to action which should leave the audience transformed.

Nancy goes on to show how she uses this shape as an analysis tool for famous speeches like Steve Jobs and the iPhone launch and the iconic Dr Martin Luther King ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.

I’ve used this talk so many times to work on my own public speaking skills which is why I’ve put it on my Top 5 TED Talks to improve public speaking.

 

The 110 techniques of communication and public speaking | David JP Phillips

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David JP Phillips is a public speaker, coach and renowned TEDx speaker.

In this talk, he explains that he dedicated time to analysing 5,000 public speakers from all over the world to understand “what makes a good speaker good, what makes a great speaker great, and what makes an outstanding speaker outstanding.”

From his studies, he created a list of 110 core skills that we can all learn to improve in public speaking.

“The more of them you fulfil, the greater you are”

One of the key takeaways in this talk is that these are skills, not talents.

There is often an argument that being able to stand in front of a group of people to speak or present is a talent.

But in this video, David is quick to highlight that skills can’t be learnt, practiced and developed.

And if you follow his 110 core skills, anyone can become a confident and established speaker.

Here are some of the tips he shares in the talk:

  • Stepping forward increases focus
  • Tilting your head to the side increases empathy
  • Changing the pace of what you’re saying increases focus on your words,
  • Lowering your body increases trust,
  • Lowering your voice creates anticipation and
  • Using pauses gets audiences attention.

He shares 5 of his most important skills that he focuses on when he is coaching:

  1. Using open body language
  2. Stepping forward into focus
  3. Use functional gesturing
  4. Slow your speaking pace down
  5. Use pauses to add impact

I’ve followed a lot of these skills and techniques and worked hard on honing in on the ones I need to work on more.

Being aware of how you’re speaking, what you’re saying and what you do when you are speaking are essential to becoming a better speaker and/or presenter.

This video gives so many tiny lessons we can all learn from and improve our communication skills.

This is one of my Top 5 TED Talks to Improve Public Speaking.

How to speak so that people people want to listen | Julian Treasure

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This is one of my all time favourite TED Talks.

Julian is a sound and communication expert, author and international key note speaker.

“What would the world be like if we were speaking powerfully to people who were listening consciously in environments which were actually fit for purpose?”

His talk has amassed nearly 40 million views on YouTube and explains to the viewer his ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ of speaking, his four cornerstones to make our speech more powerful, the toolbox we can use to say our speech better, and his speaking warm up exercises.

Julian Treasure’s Seven Deadly Sins of Speaking

  1. Gossip – “Speaking ill of somebody who’s not present”
  2. Judging – “It’s very hard to listen to somebody if you know that you’re being judged”
  3. Negativity – “It’s hard to listen to somebody when they’re that negative”
  4. Complaining – “complaining is viral misery, It’s not spreading sunshine and lightness on the world”
  5. Excuses – “They pass it [blame] on to everybody else and don’t take responsibility for their actions”
  6. Embroidery, exaggeration – “exaggeration becomes lying, and we don’t want to listen to people who are lying to us”
  7. Dogmatism – “Confusion of facts with opinion.”

Julian Treasure’s Four Cornerstones – HAIL

Julian talks about his four “really powerful cornerstones, foundations that we can stand on if we want our speech to be powerful and to make change in the world.”

Honesty – Be clear and straight

Authenticity – Be yourself

Integrity – Be your word

Love – Wish them well

Julian Treasure’s Toolbox

According to Julian, we all have a toolbox which contain really powerful tools we can use that will make our speeches much more powerful.

Putting all of these tools together can ensure that when we have something to say, we know that it will have the power and affect that we wanted it to have.

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  • “We vote for politicians with lower voices because we associate depth with power and with authority”

Timbre

  • “We prefer voices which are rich, smooth, warm, like hot chocolate”

Prosody

  • “It’s the root one for meaning in conversation.”

Pace

  • “I can get very excited by saying something really quickly, or I can slow right down to emphasise, and at the end of that, of course, is our old friend silence.”

Pitch

  • “pitch often goes along with pace to indicate arousal, but you can do it just with pitch.”

Volume

  • “Some people broadcast the whole time. Try not to do that. That’s called ‘’sodcasting’.”

There are some really valuable public speaking skills that I have taken from this video as well as the the other TED Talks I use to enhance my public speaking and presentation skills.

TED’s secret to great public speaking | Chris Anderson

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Chris Anderson is the head and curator of TED.

So if there’s one person who knows the secret to a great speech it’s him.

In this video, he explains in that there is no such thing as a ‘TED Talk formula’.

But from all of the talks that Chris has listened to and watched, he does point out that there is one thing that they all have in common: A speaker transferring an idea across to an audience.

“Your number one task as a speaker is to transfer into your listeners’ minds an extraordinary gift, a strange and beautiful object that we call an idea.”

He describes an idea as being:

“A pattern of information that helps you understand and navigate the world.”

Ideas can help change how people think about the world and can impact on the actions that the audience take.

Chris then goes on to give his four guidelines on how to build an idea inside the mind of your audience:

1. “Limit your talk to one major idea”
  • Don’t overload the audience with loads of different ideas, focus on the single idea that you are most passionate about.
  • Share examples and paint the picture for the audience to give them context to your idea.  

2. “Give your listeners a reason to care”

  • It’s all about creating curiosity.
  • Identify why something doesn’t make sense by asking the audience questions to get them thinking.
  • Creating a knowledge gap, the audience will need that gap to be bridged through your idea.

3. “Build your idea”

  • Use concepts that the audience already understands.
  • Language is a huge tool when helping people understand your idea, but don’t use complicated and technical language, what language will your audience understand?
  • Using metaphors and analogies help people understand complex ideas and can be a great tool to get your idea across.

4. “Make your idea worth sharing”

  • When crafting your speech, ask yourself who the idea benefits.
  • TED don’t want this to benefit the speaker or a related business or organisation, they want it to benefit the audience.
  • Will your idea brighten up someone’s day, change their perspective on a subject for the better, and/or inspire someone to do something differently?

In this short video, Chris Anderson is able to convey the importance of creating an idea and how to share it with an audience in the most effective way.

I use his 4 guidelines regularly when I am working on creating a new speech.

My Top 5 TED Talks to Improve Public Speaking

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Crafting Clarity and Connection: The Art of Using Analogies in Public Speaking

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When George Lucas pitched the idea of his original plan for ‘The Adventures of Indiana Smith’ to Stephen Spielberg, he described the storyline to ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’.

Spielberg loved the idea and described the movie concept as:

“James Bond without the hardware”.

They would go on to change the name from Indiana Smith to Indiana Jones and the rest is history.

Spielberg used the analogy of “James Bond without the hardware” to describe the concept of the movie in the most simplest terms.

In just 5 words, he was able to paint a picture of the complete concept of the character, movie themes and what the film will be about.

Analogies can be hugely powerful when we communicate and are a great public speaking skill. 

Here are my 7 key reasons why using analogies can help with public speaking.

1. Analogies break down complex ideas

When delivering a speech or presentation, there needs to be a clear and obvious message for the audience.

But if that message is complex to explain, there’s a danger that the speaker uses jargon and technical language.

This can disengage an audience very quickly and often the message or idea can be completely lost on everyone.

An analogy can simplify the idea and make the message much clearer.

2. Analogies engages with the audience

Analogies only work if they’re relatable to the audience.

Tailoring the content is hugely important to creating engagement with an audience.

If the audience can’t relate to what is being said then they wont be engaged.

Sporting analogies are very popular but make sure they’re appropriate to the audience, or a home run might turn into an own goal… (see what I did there?).

3. Analogies improve retention of wha’t being said

A well delivered and descriptive analogy will be remembered.

people are much more likely to remember information that’s connected to something that they’re familiar with.

When Spielberg described his concept of Indiana Jones in the 1970’s, everyone knew who James Bond was.

 4. Analogies help build a rapport with the audience

Rapport with an audience is finding a connection to create a positive relationship.

By using analogies that resonates with the audience’s background and experiences the audience will feel a stronger connection.

Tailoring speeches and presentations is essential when it comes to building rapport with an audience, and analogies that resonate instantly build connections between the audience and the speaker.

5. Analogies enhance persuasiveness and influence

If you need to be persuasive, an analogy can make a particular point easier to accept for the audience, especially if the analogy aligns with the audiences beliefs, values and experiences.

When communicating for change, using analogies that highlight the positives of moving forward and the negatives of going backwards can have a big impact.

6. Analogies clarify abstract concepts

If you’re concept is ‘as clear as mud’ in the mind of the audience, it would suggest that they don’t have much understanding on the concept that’s being communicated.

However, if you use analogies which helps the audience ‘unravel a complex knot’ then you’re making difficult to understand topics much clearer for the audience to get their heads round.

7. Analogies encourage creative thinking

Using analogies stimulates the imagination of the audience.

When the audience begin to think in pictures and images, it encourages them to think more creatively about the subject matter.

Creativity stimulates thinking which can create new ideas and motivates people to try new things or think differently.

Using analogies is a powerful tool when speaking publicly or delivering a presentation.

Tailoring content to the audience and using analogies that are relatable and easy to understand can help create engagement, simplify the message and connect with the audience.

My Public Speaking Process – How I prepare

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I’ve been doing a lot more public speaking recently, and I’m absolutely loving it. There’s something about being in front of a group of people and speaking that just makes me happy.

People often view ‘public speaking’ as delivering keynote speeches to rooms, lecture theatres, or stages with hundreds or thousands of people watching and listening.

But actually, speaking in public can be as simple as presenting or speaking to a room of 3-5 people. Public speaking is mainly defined as ‘speaking in front of a live audience.‘ And for many people, this can be a terrifying thought.

I never knew and still don’t fully know if speaking can be a profession. But what I do know is that it’s something I love doing, and I want to explore as many different avenues of it as possible.

Putting my training hat on, I decided to jot down some of the key points that I follow when it comes to preparing and delivering a presentation or speaking in public.

If anyone would like to find out more information on this and would like to be a guinea pig for a speaking and communication coaching session, then please drop me a message.

Disclaimer: This is my own process and what I do. There will be other people who use completely different or similar processes, but this is what I do.

  1. Know the message: Before I go out to deliver training sessions, presentations, or speak to people, I always have a message that is to be delivered. Basically, what is the one thing that I want everyone to take away from what I have said? This keeps me on track, and I know this will be the ‘through line’ of the whole speech or presentation.
  2. Focus points: Have points to focus on. Less is more in this sense. I don’t want to bombard people with too much information, and I don’t want to try and squeeze too much in. Keep it simple and use these focus points to emphasise the message being delivered.
  3. Tell a story: People love stories, and we communicate best through telling stories. I like to relate all my presentations or speeches to a story or anecdote that I can connect to the main message or use to deliver on the focus points.
  4. Simple structure – Beginning – Middle – End: There’s nothing fancy or scientific about this. Keep it simple and know where you are in the structure at all times. A strong opening to grab people’s attention, bring in the relatable focus points in the middle, and then deliver and emphasise the message and/or call to action at the end.
  5. Power of emotion: We all communicate through emotion. Humour, body language, and using variety in my voice help me emphasise the emotion I want to get across at certain parts. Am I being serious, am I being funny, or am I trying to leave an impact? The only way the audience will know this is how I use my own emotions with them.
  6. Engage with the audience: Make them feel part of it. You really have to know the audience for this to know exactly what level of engagement you want or need. But, make them feel part of it, ask questions and encourage actions. Interactive presentations keep people tuned in and focused on what you are saying.
  7. Know your audience: This is one of the biggies for me. Understand and know who you are speaking to. How are they feeling? How can I empathises with them so that they know that I know them and their needs? I try to find out as much about who will be in the room as I can. Then I can gauge how I’ll deliver the message and how I can make my presentation/speech as relatable as possible.
  8. Visualise: I’m a big lover of visualisation. In the build-up to every presentation, training course, or speaking engagement I visualise constantly right up to the point I begin. In my mind, I’m picturing how people will react to certain points, what I will do in certain moments, how I will emphasise what I want to get across, and what to do if something doesn’t go to plan. Usually, I visualise being carried out on top of a cheering crowd chanting my name, but that’s still not happened yet…
  9. Practice – Analyse – Practice: My wife will tell anyone that I rarely shut up. And she’ll clarify from overhearing me that I constantly talk to myself in the toilet and the shower. I have an inner and outer dialogue, and it’s always on. If I have a topic in my mind, I’m practicing it in my head and out loud. Then when I think it’s ready, I’ll practice it on a group or in a speech. I’ll analyse how it went and what needs tweaking, practice it again and again and again, and keep doing it.
  10. Keep it flexible: I don’t like to have restrictive boundaries. Time can be the main one. I have a ‘web’ in my mind of topics, anecdotes, stories, and jokes (some funnier than others) that I can pick out and use in an instant. When I’m practicing, I’ll use these together or in different orders. I try not to use notes, but if I do, I use them as prompts so I don’t need to read and talk at the same time. If it’s flexible, I can cut bits out or add bits in as I’m going, and that way I can make it as long or as short as I need it to be and also make it personal to the audience.
  11. Enjoy the silence: In many cases when speaking publicly, silence is golden. This wasn’t the case when I did the quietest 5 minutes of comedy material at The Stand in Edinburgh. But silence can be your friend. Use it to pace yourself and use it to emphasise points. Just don’t fill silence with ‘umms’ or ‘ehs’.

I’ve tried to put my own points down to explain my own process when it comes to delivering presentations and speaking in public. I’ve read plenty of blogs and listened to loads of podcasts on this, and some of these points will be consistent with what other people do too.

It was actually quite hard to put these down in a list as it’s become something that is almost second nature to me now.

find out more about public speaking with my full guide and breakdown of Public Speaking Skills.

If you find any of this helpful and/or insightful, please let me know. And if you would like to try a free communication coaching session, then let me know.