Trillion Dollar Coach – Bill campbell – Book

Overall: 8/10

I initially breezed through this book in a week thinking it mostly contained nice stories and glib niceties. However going back to 

write the Book Notes took 3 weeks, I found myself scribbling down page upon page compared to my usual amount of notes. Upon reflection, it was a really good book with lots of good points and anecdotal stories to help remember them. If Bill was getting this many “easy” parts right, I can see how the overall impact would have been large.

My main take-away: Team First – A company is formed from teams, get the right people, built an envelope of trust, support and love them.

Actions:

• Improve work roadmap meetings. Given we have the whole team present, anything but very effective use of that time is a waste.
• Re-read project aristotle
• Think about what makes a good meeting
• Always set a measurable goal, sometimes a Big-Hairy-Goal to stretch people

Book Notes:

1. Caddie and CEO
2. Title makes you a Manager, your people make you a leader.
3. Built an envelope of trust
4. Team first
5. The power of love
6. The yardstick

• Caddie and CEO
  • background and some hero-worshiping
  • Teams are building block of a company, not individuals.
  • pg26 Raises interesting possibility of coaches for managers.
    Given the leverage, why are there not coaches providing real-time feedback
  • Mentor vs coach
• Title makes you a Manager, your people make you a leader.
  • A managers authority emerges as they establish credibility with subordinates, peers and superiors.
  • “It’s the people” – Support = Respect + Trust
    • Support = tools, info, roadmap, training
    • Respect = Career goals / Life choices
    • Trust = Autonomy and Decision Making
  • Lying in bed at night, the CEO should worry most about his staff
  • One to ones and staff meeting are critical.
  • Trip Reports – Having one person tell a personal story of their weekend at a Monday meeeting
  • Decision Making – “Making the right decision is important
    Just as important is getting the whole team there.”
  • Managers job to run decision making process, ensure voices heard, cut tie-breaks when stuck and to remind everyone of purpose and root truths.
• Built an envelope of trust
  • The first thing some managers focus on is building a product or getting people working. The priority should be to build trust.
  • Bill saw the world as a network of people with different skills,
    learning to trust each other as a primary mechanism of achieving goals.
  • Psychological Safety – The ability for a team member to voice crazy ideas and feel safe from negative repercussions has been found to be critical to success.
  • Coach the coachable – pg86 “A coach is someone that 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 have always known you can be.”
  • Honest, humility, perseverance and constant openness to learning.
  • Leadership is about service to something that is bigger than you.
  • Practice active-listening
  • Diane Greene – “When I’m really annoyed or frustrated with what someone is doing, I step back to think about what they are doing well and what their value is”
  • No gap between statements and facts. Give feedback close to the time, in public if good, in private if negative. Always give it from a place of love.
• Team first
  • Work the team, then the problem.
    When faced with aproblem or opportunity, the first step is to ensure the right team is in place and working on it.
  • Pick the right players. The ability to learn fast, a willingness to work hard, integrity, grit, empathy, and a team first attitude.
  • Bill saw peer relationships as critical and instituted a regular survey amongst peers at google to asses performance at job/relationships/meetings/leadership/innovation.
  • Winning depends on having the best team and the best teams have more women.
  • Identify the biggest problem, the elephant in the room, bring it front and centre and tackle it first.
  • Listen, Observe and fill the communications gaps
• The power of love
  • Get to know and care for people as individuals
  • Cheer people and their successes