Tag Archive for: Lessons from Leaders

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.

Crafting Your Speech: A Step-by-Step Guide to Defining Your Message

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Is your message clear before you step in front of an audience?

Without clear boundaries and guidelines for a specific subject, discussions may lack depth on key points while simultaneously delving into excessive detail elsewhere.

When speaking at a Climate Change convention, rather than addressing Climate Change broadly, the speaker would likely focus on a specific aspect within the larger topic.

Having a clear focus will help the speaker create a powerful message that the audience will understand and remember.

Defining the message of the speech is an essential public speaking skill. 

When I do this, the process I like to follow is nice and simple: Topic – Intention – Plan – Message.

Step 1. Identify Your Topic

Think about subjects that you are most passionate about or have extensive knowledge in.

A useful technique I once discovered for this purpose is the “Three Rs Test”: List down subjects and topics for which you’re Recognised by others, have achieved positive Results, and actively invest time in Researching.

Example: Communication is far too broad a topic to talk about, so in the past I have chosen ‘Communication in Sport’ as a topic due to a personal and professional interest in sports dynamics.

Step 2. Understand Your Audience

Who is the audience and what are their interests, needs, or problems related to the topic?

Understanding your audience is crucial for making your speech relevant and impactful.

Example: The audience I spoke to consisted of individuals within the commercial environment with a keen interest in sport that were looking to enhance their communication skills.

Step 3. Find Trends and/or Themes

Think about any specific trends, themes or even personal observations that are relevant to the topic which will make the speech more engaging and relevant.

Example: I used examples of how coaches and players communicated from the rugby and football World Cups.

Step 4. Determine the General Purpose of the Speech

What is the main goal of the speech?

Do you want to inform, persuade, entertain or achieve a mix of them all?

Example: The purpose I wanted to achieve was to inform the audience with the facts that I had, but also entertain them with stories and anecdotes.

There was also a small element of persuasion as the part of the purpose was to help people learn new ways to communicate in a team environment.

Step 5. Identify the key Outcome

Define what you want your audience to learn, feel, or do as a result of your speech. This should be a specific outcome that your speech is designed to achieve.

Example: The specific outcome for my audience was to learn the key benefits of interpersonal communication in a team or group environment.

Step 6. Identify a Problem or Need

Identify a specific problem, need, or gap in understanding that your speech can address. This makes your speech more valuable and practical for your audience.

Example: It had been established before I spoke that there was a need within the organisation for improved communication in leadership roles within team and group environments.

Step 7. Establish the Key Message for the Audience

Summarise the key message or what you want the audience to take away from the speech.

The message should capture the most important part of the speech and be directly related to the outcome of the speech.

Example: My key message was to highlight the importance of tailoring communication to individual team members by leaders.

After completing this simple process, this is what I’m left with:

Topic:

Communication in Sport

Intention:

To inform and persuade, with an entertaining delivery.

Plan:

To educate the audience about the key benefits of interpersonal communication in a team environment, specifically focusing on how leaders can tailor their communication to different individuals within the team.

Message:

The importance of tailoring how leaders communicate to different individuals in a group or team environment is crucial for enhancing team dynamics and overall performance.

This process took me some time to become familiar with, but it’s now the first point of call that I go to when I need to craft a speech, presentation or workshop.

Preparing for speeches this way gives me full confidence in what I’m saying.

It helps me create a clear message and establish the specific topic I’m going to speak about and gives me the focus and boundaries to ensure I don’t overcomplicate my message.

How You Say It – Lessons from Sir Alex Ferguson on Leading

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For me, Sir Alex Ferguson is the godfather of ‘man management’. It’s not just the longevity of managing at the highest level in world football, it’s the consistent success he had throughout his career as a leader.

Tactics, ability to sign great players and being able to watch a football match unfold and know what changes need to be made. These are all some of the attributes that make good football managers. However, communication is what separates the good managers from the great managers.

One of the books I dip in and out of very often is Leading which is co-written by Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Michael Moritz. The book is structured around the key skills that Ferguson values highest. It is aimed at giving the reader lessons in leadership that anyone can apply to their own situation.

The one chapter that I’ve dipped into the most, and used in plenty of my training courses is Chapter 8 -Owning The Message. This is the chapter that is dedicated to speaking, writing and answering questions.

Alex Ferguson had to communicate with a lot of people on a day to day basis as the manager of one of the biggest sporting organisations in the world. Players, coaching staff, owners/directors, media, supporters and the global audience. How was he so successful at communicating?

Despite how hard I’ve looked at this and analysed how complex or profound the answer could be,  it’s actually a little bit anticlimactic in some ways.

Keep it simple.

That’s it. Nothing fancy. Just keep the message that you want to deliver simple and clear to understand.

It’s not rocket science, but as easy as that looks and sounds; keeping it simple takes a hell of a lot of work.

Know your audience

“I got into the habit of imagining that I was in the shoes of the listener. I knew from my own experience as a player what it was like to listen to a manager drone on, especially if it was the day before a game, and you were just raring to get onto the training field and blow off some steam.”

He also explains the importance of keeping his team talks ‘short and punchy’ but still getting his point over. To do this, he had to know exactly what message he wanted to convey and how he would deliver it.

As football became more global, he was dealing with international players from all over the world. Language was a barrier. And if his team talks were being translated then it was essential that messages and meaning weren’t being lost in translation.

Next time you’re  needing to explain something to someone, imagine how you would say it to a translator for them to explain your words to another person.

Despite playing at the top level of competition in the world with some of the best players on the planet. Sometimes the simple messages were the most effective and easiest to understand:

“The instructions i gave most frequently were very short. They were nothing more complicated than ‘Keep the ball’ or ‘Do not let them score’”.

Know what you want to say

“You need to know what you want to say; you have to contemplate how you are going to deliver the message; and you have to maintain control of the audience.”

Preparation is so important when planning on delivering a message. Ferguson was always aware of not wanting to deliver a ‘sermon’ that the players had possibly heard him say in the past. He would find new ways to get a message across to emphasise his point.

He explains how he used the Canadian Geese in their flying formation as an example of team work. On one occasion he told a story of his recent trip to his first live performance of a classical music concert. He described to the players how the conductor wanted the same things from the musicians as Ferguson wanted from them: control, harmony, tempo, timing and rhythm.

He planned this conversation and took the time to work out how he would deliver his message using the metaphor.

Alex Ferguson calls this ‘maintaining control of the audience’. For me this is creating engagement. Making sure that he was never repeating himself to agonise over the same old points with players and always thinking of new ways to get his message over.

“Whether the audience is one person or 75,000, you need to assemble your thoughts, know what you want to emphasise and just say it.”

How you say it

“One message that seemed to strike home (at least judging by the number of players who appear to have remembered it) were the words i used at the half-time during the 1999 Champions League final when we were trailing Bayern Munich 1-0. I said’ ‘When that cup is going to be presented, just remember that you can’t even touch it if you’re the losers – you’ll be walking past it with your losers’ medals, knowing someone walking behind you is going to lift the Cup.’”

Alex Ferguson had a reputation for being a feisty character. The phrase ‘the hairdryer treatment’ had been coined by pundits to describe what it felt like to face the angry side of the feisty Scotsman. But this persona was often over-played by the media. No one would have lasted the length of time in leadership at the top level if they had only communicated using anger and raised voices.

He knew exactly at what point to deliver his message to his players and how he should do it. In the book, he mentions the power of giving a player positive reinforcement to make them feel better about themselves rather than using negative feedback. He would never tell a player if they were looking tired, even if he could see it. Instead he built them up to feel stronger.

He knew which players would respond positively and which ones wouldn’t to different ways of saying something. He knew when would be the best time to make his remarks more punchy and when saying less got more.

Using the power of silence can be just as powerful.

“Sometimes, after we had a bad result, I would finish what i had to say to the players and then sit down on the bench and say nothing. The subsequent quietness was probably more effective than anything i said.”

Sir Alex Ferguson knew how to get the best out of people. And although he had great players, coaches and a wealth of experience in the game. One of the main reasons for his success is how communicated. He delivered a message of success to players in a rapidly changing environment consistently. This takes huge skills to keep your message relevant over such a long period of time.

But the beauty of what he did is that he kept it simple. Regardless of whether it was a 1 to 1 conversation with an individual or addressing a stadium full of 75,000 people. He never overcomplicated it and always got his message across.

I would strongly recommend buying this book. If you’re like me and don’t have the attention to sit and read a book cover to cover, this book is ideal to dip in and out of for small reminders.