Book Sips #21 — ‘The Captain Class’ by Sam Walker
Let’s imagine that Dr. Frankenstein gave you the keys to his laboratory and that it was your mission to build the perfect captain for a sports team. Maybe you would start with the donor body of a freak talent — a superstar with transcendent skills and abundant charisma. You’d then probably want to inject qualities such as eloquence, diplomacy, institutional fealty and dedication to the highest principles of sportsmanship.
Conventional wisdom suggests that these are the key traits of a superior captain. But are they really? This book looks at this question from a very numbers-driven angle. The results of Walker’s analysis are eye-opening and probably the best findings and learning for lateral leadership out there.
A sip:
‘“Beyond this, most of the Tier One captains had zero interest in the trappings of fame. They didn’t pursue the captaincy for the prestige it conveyed — if they pursued it at all. In 2004, when Carles Puyol’s teammates unanimously elected him captain, his was the only dissenting vote. “I thought it was more ethical to vote for others,” he told me.”
More content around the book
Interview with Sam Walker (2018)
Podcast by learningleader.com with Sam Walker (2017)
The Captain Class
The Hidden Force That Creates the World’s Greatest Teams
by Sam Walker
My opinion
Since I’m a huge sports enthusiast, I had to read this book. Sam Walker gives excellent insights into how the sixteen most dominant teams in sports history had one thing in common: Each employed the same type of captain — a singular leader with an unconventional set of skills and tendencies. As a product manager and lateral leader of your team, you can apply so much from this book to your daily behaviour. Great to open the tech-defined horizon.
“The book taught me that there’s no cookie-cutter way to lead. Leading is not just what Hollywood tells you. It’s not the big pregame speech. It’s how you carry yourself every day, how you treat the people around you, who you are as a person.”
— Mitchell Trubisky, quarterback, Chicago Bears
368 pages, Random House Trade Paperbacks 2018
Get this book (amazon.com), (amazon.de)
