Book Notes from Trillion Dollar Coach, Bill Campbell

I think I heard his name added to year end reading list when reading half way through Steve Jobs biography that The Coach was the only one who Steve Jobs retained in his Board after he returned to Apple. After reading the book, I can see why.

This Book is gem of leadership development tool than a memoir of a legendary coach who shaped a lot of leaders in the Valley. I’m jotting the notes as I read, highlighted and scribbled in my book, these things stood out from reading the book. Actually can make for a lot of tweetable content, but there is so many of them, so I’m making a notes of them here, i can refer back when I need to or in crisis of people management.

#1. Your Title makes you a Manager. Your people make you a Leader.

“IT’S THE PEOPLE”

The primary job of each manager is to help people be more effective in their job and to grow and develop. We have great people who want to do well, are capable of doing great things, and come to work fired up to do them. Great people flourish in an environment that liberates and amplifies that energy. Managers create this environment support, respect and trust.

Support means giving people the tools, information , training and coaching they need to succeed. It means continuous effort to develop people’s skills. great managers help people excel and grow.

Respect means understanding people’s unique career goals and being sensitive to their choices. It means helping people achieve these career goals in a way that’s consistent with the needs of the company

Trust means freeing people to do their jobs and to make decisions. it means knowing people want to do well and believing that they will.

It’s the People. The Top Priority of any Manager is the Well-being and Success of her/his people.

# 2. Lead based on First Principles:

Define the “First principles” for the situation, the immutable truths that are the foundation fr the company or product and help guide the decision from those principles.

Money’s not about Money. Compensation isn’t just about the economic value of the money; its about the emotional value. it’s a signaling device for recognition , respect and status, and it ties people strongly to the goals of the company.Bill knew that everyone is human and needs to be appreciated, including people who are already financially secure. this is why the superstar athlete who is worth tens or hundreds of millions pushes for that next huge contract. it’s not for the money, it’s for the love.

“ Compensating people well demonstrated Love & Respect and Ties them strongly to the goals of the company”.

This is my favorite,

# 3. “ Innovation is where the crazy people have stature”.

The purpose of a company is to bring a product vision to life. All the other components are in service to product. Manage the aberrant genius. Aberrant genius — High performing but difficult team members should be tolerated and even protected, as long as their behavior isn’t unethical or abusive and their value outweighs the toll their behavior takes on management, colleagues and teams.

On Letting people go,

Layoffs and firings are inevitable, perhaps more so in the startups and technology. Bill’s point of view on this was that letting people go is a failure of management, not one of any of the people who are being let go.

If you have to let go of people, its important for management to let people leave with their heads held high. Treat them well, with respect. Be generous with severance packages. Send out a note internally celebrating their accomplishments. Bill once told Ben Horowitz about a departing executive,” Ben, you cannot let him keep his job, but you absolutely can let him keep his respect”.

#4. Building an Envelope of Trust:

The most important currency in a relationship, friendship, romantic, familial or professional is trust. If someone doesn’t trust you, you didn’t have a relationship with him no matter how long you have known them or worked together. Trust is a multifaceted concept, according to Bill, Trust means you keep your word. If you told someone you were going to do something, you did it. And the same applied to him; his word was always good.

Trust means loyalty. To each other, to your family and friends and to your team and company. Bill was one of the few Apple executives to fight to keep Steve Jobs when he was let go from the company in 1985. Steve never forgot that expression of loyalty, which later became the basis for their close friendship and working relationship.

Trust means integrity. Bill was always honest, and he expected the same in return. And it means ability, the trust that you actually had the talent, skills, power and diligence to accomplish what you promised.

Trust means discretion. If you know a people’s personal things through your working stature with that person, if they respect & trust you enough to share with you, you respect that trust, keep it at discretion.

Bill would build an envelope of trust very quickly. It was a natural thing for him, ability to build rapport, a sense of comfort and protection. It’s a cornerstone of any coaching in business. Vinod Khosla mentions about Bill, Bill built a great relationship around trust, whether he agreed or disagreed. Trust doesn’t mean you always agree; in fact, it makes it easier to disagree with someone. If you could get someone to trust you. Your success of a working relationships stemmed from that.

Establishing trust is a key component to building what is now called “ psychological safety” in teams. The common notions that the best teams are made up of people with complementary skill sets or similar personalities were disproven; the best teams are the ones with the most psychological safety. And that starts with trust.

#5. COACH ONLY THE COACHABLE

But in the high stakes, big-ego world of business executives, it is easier said than done. So Bill only went about coaching only the coachable. If you passed his test, he listened intently, practiced complete candor, believed that his coaches could achieve remarkable things, and was intensely loyal. I noticed when you are striving to build a startup high performing high growth, people do come with their innate sky high ambition and opinion, arrogance and ego to go with it. Sometimes this differentiates the pack from the crowd. You should never encourage those traits in anyone just because of a high performance, but if they are coachable, then can tune in their ego where its required, where they can listen to make sound judgements based ongoing basis. Even if someone is smart and works hard, you only have to ask one question, “ Are they coachable?”.

Smart alecks are not coachable. Leadership is not about you, its about services to something bigger: the company, the team. Bill believed that good leaders grow over time, that leadership accrues to them from their teams. People who were curious and wanted to learn new things were best suited for this. There was no room in this formula for smart alecks and their hubris.

Traits of Coachability Bill sought were honest and humility, the willingness to persevere and work hard, and a constant openness to learning.

Honesty and humility because a success coaching relationship requires a high degree of vulnerability, much more than is typical in a business relationship. If people can’t be be honest with themselves and their coach, and if they aren’t humble enough to recognize how they aren’t perfect, they won’t get far in that relationship. Humility, because Bill believed that leadership is about service to something that is bigger than you: your company, your team. Today the concept of “servant leadership” is in vogue and has been directly linked to stronger company performance. Bill believed and practiced it well before it became popular.

Bill lived the true definition of A coach. : 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 have always known you could be.”.

#6. Practice Free form listening:

Bill’s listening was usually accompanies by a lot of questions, a socratic approach. People perceive the best listeners to be those who periodically ask questions ask promote discovery and insight. people feel more respected ,visible and less anonymous and included in teamwork. When a leader asks open questions and listens attentively to the response, is effective because it heightens the “ follower’s” feelings of competence( feeling challenged and experiencing mastery), relatedness(feeling of belonging), and autonomy(feeling in control and having options). These factors are sort of the holy trinity of the self determination theory of human motivation, originally developed by Edward L. Deci and Richard M.Ryan.

No matter what, Bill was uplifting, I felt heard, understood and supported. Listen to People with your full and undivided attention — Don’t think ahead of what you’re going to say next and Ask questions to get to the real issue.

#7. No GAP between Statements and Fact:

Bill was always transparent; there was no hidden agenda. There was no gap between his statements and fact. They were always the same. He really taught me about honesty and authenticity in giving feedback. You can keep someone’s respect and loyalty while delivering tough news about their performance. An important component of providing candid feedback is not to wait. A coach coaches in the moment. Scott cook says, It’s more real and more authentic, but so many leaders shy away from that. Many managers wait until performance reviews to provide feedback, which is often too little, too late. Bill’s feedback was in the moment ( or very close to it), task specific, and always followed by a grin and a hug, all of which helped remove the sting.

When I’m really annoyed or frustrated with what someone is doing. She steps back and force myself to think about what they are doing well and what their value is. You can always find something. If we are in public, I’ll praise them on that. I will give constructive feedback as soon i can, but only when the person is feeling safe. Once they are feeling safe and supported, then I’ll say by the way and provide the feedback. Bill always did this in a supportive way.

BE Relentlessly honest and Candid, Couple negative feedback with caring, Give feedback as soon as possible, And if the feedback is negative, deliver it privately. When people understand the story they can connect to it and figure out what to do. You need to get people to buy in. It’s like running back in football. You don’t tell him exactly what route to run. You tell him where the hole is and what’s the blocking scheme and let him figure it out.

“Don’t stick it in their ear, Don’t tell People what to do, offer stories and help guide them to the best decisions for them”.

#8. Be the Evangelist for Courage

Bill pushed for the boldest solutions possible. If he was going to do something big, there was no way to anticipate all the smaller details and problems, but if there is a big idea, come up with more courageous path forward. Bill’s perspective was that its a manager’s job to push the team to be more courageous. Courage is hard. People are naturally afraid of taking risks for fear of failure. It’s the manager’s job to push them past their reticence.

Full identity Front and Center: People are most effective when they can be completely themselves and bring their full identity to work.

#9. Team First. Work the Team. Then the Problem.

When Faced with a Problem or Opportunity, the First step is to Ensure the right team is in place and working on it. Pick the right players. If you’re running a company, you have to surround yourself with really, really good people. Everbody that is managing a function behalf of the CEO ought to be better at that function than the CEO.

Four characterisitics in people, That person has to be smart, not necessarily from a academical standpoint but more of get up to speed quickly in different areas and then make connections. Ability to make “far analogies”. The person has to work hard, and has to have high integrity. Finally, the person should have that hard to define characteristic:grit. The ability to get knocked down and have the passion and perseverance to get up and go at it again.

Smart, Learn Quickly & Make the connection, Grit, Passion and Perseverence to get back up again and do it again. Team player, Integrity.

Understanding, success depends on working teams together, there is a give and take, put company first. He looked for commitment, to the cause and not just to own their success. Team first. You need to find, as Sundar Pichai says,” People who understand that their sucess depends on working well together, that there’s give and take people who put the company first.”

#10. PAIR PEOPLE & GET PEERS TO REVIEW PERFORMANCE

Pair people, Peer relationships are critical and often overlooked, so seek opportunities to pair people up on projects or decisions.

For the past 12 months, to what extent do you agree/disagree that each person,

1. Displayed extraordinary in-role performance
2. Exemplified World class leadership
3. Achieved outcomes that weer in the best interest of both good as a whole and ahis/her organization
4. Expanded the boundaries of what is possible for Google through innovation and/r application of best practices
5. Collaborated effectively with peers( for.example, worked well together, resolved barriers/issues with others and championed the same in his/her team
6. contributed effectively during senior team meetings ( for example, was prepared, participated actively, listened well was open and respectful to others disagreed constructively.

Product Leaders Attributes

For the past 12 months, to what extent do you agree.disagree that each person demonstrated exemplary leadership in the following areas

1. Product Vision
2. Product Quality
3. Product Execution

Open-Text Questions:

1. What differentiates each SVP and makes him/her effective today

2. What advice would you give each SVP to be more effect and/or have greater impact

Getting Women to the Table:

Winning depends on having the Best team, and the best teams have More women.

Solve the biggest problems, The” Elephant in the room”, Bring it front and center, and tackle it first.

Don’t let the bitch sessions last: Air all the negative issues, but don’t dwell on them. Move on as fast as possible.

#11. Winning Right:

Coaching or leading a company is about winning. but Winning right. Bill demanded commitment, passion and above all loyalty just like in his business life. Ability to instill a culture of winning, and winning right. It was about “the humanity of winning” which means winning as a team not as individuals, and winning ethically. whether in business or in sports, it’s amazing what can be accomplished if you don’t care who gets the credit. he listened intently, and would take you aside for 1:1’s. The tough talk and sincere love, it didn’t matter if you were a middle school kid or an executive at a big corporation: Bill’s approach didn’t waver.

Winning Right, Strive to Win, But always Win right, With commitment, Teamwork and Integrity.

Leaders Lead, You can’t afford to doubt. You need to commit. You can make mistakes, but you can’t have one foot in and one foot out, because if you aren’t fully committed then the people around you won’t be either. If you are in,be in. It’s great and fun to talk about winning, but what about losing? HIs teams at Columbia lost a lot, and the startup he joined, GO failed, lsing a lot of investor money in the process. Failure is a good teacher and Bill learned from these experiences that loyalty and commitment are easy when you are winning and much when you are losing.

When things are going badly, that’s when loyalty, commitment and integrity are even more important, teams need even more of these characteristics from their leaders. Decisiveness becomes more important in challenging situations, Decisiveness comes from their leaders. Fill the gaps between people, Listen, Observe and fill the communication and understanding gaps between people.

Permission to be empathetic, Leading teams becomes a lot more joyful, and the teams more effective, when you know and care about the people.

Bill Campbell employed all of these techniques, from hiring well( pick the right players) to promoting gender diversity (get to the table) to taking care of small misunderstanding before they come big (fill the gaps between people), to help teams achieve greatness. And the essence of Bill was the essence of just about any sports coach: teams first. All players, from stars to scrubs, must be ready to place the needs of the team above the needs of the individual. Given that commitment, teams can accomplish great things. That’s why when faced with an issue, his first questions wasn’t about the issue itself, it was about the team tasked with tackling the issue. Get the team right and you’ll get the issue right.

#12. Genuinely Care for People,

Bill was a coach of teams and a lover of people. Compassionate love ( entirely chaste), will have higher employee satisfaction and teamwork, lower absenteeism and better team performance. He had a way of communicating that he loved you. And that gave him license to tell you that you are full of shit and you can do it better. It was never about him. Coming from him, it didn’t hurt when he told you the truth. That’s okay to love the people in your team, that the whole team becomes stronger when you break down the walls between the professional and human personas and embrace the whole person with love.

Bill cared about people. He treated everyone with respect, he earned their names, he gave them a warm greeting. Showing people whatever they are doing, what really matters at the end of the day is how you live our life and the people in your life. It was a lovely reset. When you have a friend who is injured or ill or needs you in some way, you drop everything and just go. That’s what you do, that’s how you really show up, Just go.

To care about people you have to care about people. Ask about their lived outside of work,understand their families, and when things gets rough , show up.

Cheer demonstrably for people and their successes. Clap for the people when they win and come with brilliant ideas and execute them. Build community instinctively. A place was much stronger when people are connected. Invest creating real, emotional bonds between people. Those are what endure and what make teams truly strong. Always build communities inside and outside of work.

#13. One more thing, Help People, Be generous with your time, connections and other resources.

Have a generous spirit, which anyone can afford. even when being busy, he was generous with his time.if you truly need him the phone call would come right away. Five minute favors. Being an effective giver isn’t about dropping everything every time for every person. It’s about making sure that the benefits of helping others doesn’t outweigh the costs to you. Instead of saying yes to every request for help, they look for high-impact low cost ways of giving so that they can sustain their generosity — and enjoy it along the way.

Its okay to help people. Do favors. Apply judgement in making sure that they are the right thing to do , and ensure that everyone will be better off as a result. Then do the favor.

#14. Mentorship and coaching are intensely personal, pay attention to their human needs and values

It is often the highest performing people who feel the most alone. They usually have more interdependent relationships but feel more independent and separate from others. Their powerful egos and confidence help drive their success but may be paired with insecurities and uncertainty. They often have people who want to be their friends for personal gain rather than for friendship. They are human. They still need affirmation and to know they are appreciated.

Bill grasped that there are things we all care about as people — love, family, money, attention, power, meaning, purpose that are factors in any business situation. To create effective teams, you need to understand and pay attention to these human values. Regardless of our age, level or status, Bill would get to know people as people, and by doing so he could motivate them to perform as business people.

To create effective teams, you need to understand and pay attention to human values, that positive human value generate positive business outcomes.

I never know how magnificent of a character he would have been around when you was coaching their CEO’s, teenagers on the field, his friend and family. But just by reading his lessons, I sure learnt hell a lot more about people, human values, what matters the most in life end of the day. Thank you Coach for being a great life in service to extending your skills, your time, your diligence, honest and integrity and making team accountable and helping them to win.