Book Review: Eleven Rings

Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success by Phil Jackson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Phil Jackson says he often quotes a Zen expression, "Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water." It seems the same might be said for championships.  The fundamentals of basketball (and life) are the same before you win as they are after you win.  You always have to love your teammates. Group unity is always going to trump talent. Great performers are always going to do better when they support their partners, even at the expense of their personal gain. Leaders always have to walk the talk.

There is clearly something about the game of basketball that allows for a unique kind of leadership development. Maybe I have never seen them, but it does not seem like the world's greatest practitioners of baseball, football, or hockey have had much to say on the subject. (Except at Ohio State where both Jim Tressel and Woody Hayes have written about leadership!)  Basketball coaches, on the other hand, seem to have a special insight into what it takes to mold a group of talented young individuals into a team.  John Wooden, Dean Smith, and Mike Krzyzewski all wrote wonderful books about leadership, books full of wisdom and practical advice.  Even with eleven championships, Phil Jackson was going to have to produce something pretty special with his book to be able to truly add anything to the genre. 

Slam dunk. 

This is an excellent page-turner of a book, which mixes inside-the-lockerroom storytelling with Buddhist philosophy and Jackson's own personal journey.  We get to see the highs and lows of working with world-class, all-time superstars like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Shaquille O'Neil (to name a few.)  A pro coach has to manage up (owners, general managers, league officials), manage sideways (consultants, front office staff, other teams) and manage down (players, trainers, assistant coaches.)  Throw in the media and real-life family and friends, and that is a lot of balls in the air.  Jackson doesn't make it sound easy - he shares his internal struggles.  The learning is in how he manages his interior life, subdues his ego, works through anger and disappointment and unexpected change, and comes out on top.  Eleven times.

I saw Phil Jackson in person once - from a distance - in a hardware store in Boulder Colorado.  He did seem to have some kind of special larger-than-life aura about him, maybe because of his imposing physical stature, or maybe because the hardware store employees were hyped up and scrambling for autographs.  But maybe it was the Zen thing. Jackson is a man who has mastered his internal space... which is why he can effectively lead others, be they basketball players or random consultants.

Fabulous, highly recommended.  A two page summary, written by me, is available for free download by clicking here.





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Book Review: The Carolina Way by Dean Smith

The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching by Dean Smith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I always dreaded basketball days in gym class.  It terrified me that someone might pass the ball to me and I would have to do something with it.  Running track was OK, until they introduced relays. The idea of letting down teammates was what I just couldn't stand.  Still can't, really.  So I truly admire athletes who want the ball - the ones with the confidence to know they can contribute when the hopes and dreams of others are riding on it.

Apparently, though, the skills and style that get one noticed by college basketball scouts - outstanding individual accomplishment and big numbers - have to be overcome to be successful at the college and pro levels.  According to the great coaches, including Dean Smith, basketball is a team game and success only comes to those who share.  In the chapter called "Breaking Bad Habits" he says "Many good high school players are taught to be selfish. They're used to being 'the Man.'  They're the best players on their teams, so sometimes the coaches encourage them to take the most shots and not too worry too much about playing defense."   They had a rigorous re-orientation program for North Carolina freshman. Play hard. Play together. Play smart. 

John Wooden, Mike Krzyzewski, and Phil Jackson also wrote of this phenomenon in their books on leadership, but Smith stands out because he worked in conjunction with a business professor who put Smith's coaching principles into a business context. On breaking bad habits, Dr. Gerald Bell had this to say: "...the fact is that when recruits come to work, their knowledge is often very limited. They often have great intellectual ability and academic knowledge but little wisdom. They lack the people skills and the judgment to work with others to implement solutions to business problems. There's a large gap between where they are and where they need to be, but they can't see it." He then describes some on-boarding exercises to help young professionals grow into their roles.  This was a brilliant idea for a book executed with wisdom and care.

Dean Smith died last weekend and will be well remembered by many grateful people, including some of the world's most successful basketball superstars (Michael Jordan) and also by at least one random Ohio woman who grew up afraid of the ball.

My two-page summary is posted and ready for downloading.

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Books with Tools, Part 1

Some of the best books in personal and organizational development contain assessment tools or exercises that enrich the learning experience for individuals or groups.  I have found many of these tools useful in my consulting practice, working with organizations on planning, team building, or otherwise improving their processes or operations.  Here are some of my favorites. Click on the title of any of these books to download a free two-page summary written by me.  

The Strengths Series:  One of the fastest and best ways there is to help a group of people unite as a team is to have them each take the Strengthsfinder 2.0 assessment online and then share their results with each other.  The code for the online test comes with several books, each building upon the last.  Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton (The Free Press 2001) explains the strengths theory in some detail and provides tips for managing or working with individuals who have the various signature themes of talent.   Strengths-Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie (Gallup Press 2008) breaks the signature themes into categories and shows how well-rounded teams make the most of each individual's unique talents.  Another great one by Marcus Buckingham, Go, Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance does not make use of the 34 signature themes but provides its own online tool for identifying strategies individual readers can use to offer more of their best at work.



Building Functional Teams:  The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni (Jossey-Bass, 2002) is a fable-style story about the most common barriers work groups most overcome if they are to be effective.  The book contains a 15-question self-assessment that I have used productively both to help client organizations determine how they might work together better and also to measure progress over the course of a team-building project. 



Understanding the Nature of Trust: When Stephen M.R. Covey and Rebecca Merrill first published The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything (Free Press, 2006) I was truly amazed at what a rich and deep subject matter the nature of trust can be.  The authors provide easy-to-understand bullets on what they call the "Four Cores of Credibility" and also the "13 Behaviors of Trust" which make a nice handout for groups wrestling with trust issues.  Because the most important action anyone can take to rebuild trust where it has been lost is to address their own trustworthiness, the authors provide two self-assessments that individuals always find eye-opening, if not disturbing. 


The Habits of Successful Organizations:  Those interested in a book that is more worksheets, checklists, and templates than actual narrative will be glad to pick up Six Disciplines for Excellence: Building Small Businesses that Learn, Last and Lead by Gary Harpst (Synergy Books, 2007).  Harpst, the founder and CEO of an organizational development firm, provides dozens of illustrations for each of the six areas of the cycle of excellence he describes: 1) Decide What is Important, 2) Set Goals that Lead, 3) Align Systems, 4) Work the Plan, 5) Innovate Purposefully, and 6) Step Back.  There are tools for analyzing likely return on investment, for collecting stakeholder feedback on draft goals, for conducting brainstorming exercises, and hundreds more. 

There are many books such as these with tools and exercises to explore and deploy, so check back here next week for more.

Book Review: Strengths-Based Leadership

Strengths-Based Leadership by Tom Rath

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Building off of the others in this series, this book is really helpful when working with groups. There is little in my consulting practice which is as much fun as assigning a group of work colleagues to each take the Strengthsfinder 2.0 test online and then share their printouts with each other.  As each person in the room tells what they learned about each of their top signature themes of talent, you can almost see lightbulbs coming on.  People grow in their understanding not only of themselves, but of each other.  And that is a beautiful thing.

Stengths-Based Leadership is especially fun, not just because it provides tips and strategies for leading with the various strengths (or leading others with the various strengths) but because it sorts the 34 by-now familiar themes into four categories: Implementing, Strategic Thinking, Relationship-Building, and Influencing.  The authors teach us that individuals do not need to be well-rounded - but groups do.  I like to plot group members' strengths on a grid and then look at it when everyone is finished.  It helps to see how the team can make the most of each person's unique contributions to the group, and sometimes to see what kinds of strengths to look for in new teammates.

It turns out that my own strengths are stacked up in Strategic Thinking, with little in Relationship Building and nothing in Influencing.  That is all well and good, until I desire to influence others.  That's when I need a partner with a healthy dose of Woo, or at least Communication or Self-Assurance.  The truth is that it is very helpful to know this.

These guys could put out a new book every year as far as I am concerned.  Keep the learning coming fellas!  The applications of the strengths knowledge must be endless!

Wanna see a two-page summary? You can download it for free here!


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Book Review: The Winners Manual

The Winners Manual: For the Game of Life by Jim Tressel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


So the Ohio State football season opened yesterday and I was not in front of the TV for the game.  This is the third Buckeye season without Jim Tressel and I find myself struggling to care whether the team wins or loses.  My whole life I have "bled scarlet and gray" as we say around here... but when they pressured Coach Tressel into resigning they really tarnished the OSU brand as far as I am concerned. 

Tressel's book is about leadership... something at which he excels.  I loved this book, and felt like I learned a great deal even though I have never played a down of football.  The life lessons Tressel extrapolates from the game are universal in their application. His ability to shape young men into champions and professionals is unmatched.  His coolness on the sidelines was a wonder to behold.  The clarity of his vision, strength of character, depth of commitment to those he led, and willingness to set a positive example all added immensely to Ohio State's stature as a world-class institution capable of attracting the best of the best.  Wouldn't it have been brilliant if instead of punishing Tressel for not being perfect, the university had highlighted his example of how a great leader handles himself following a mistake?  He acknowledges the wrong, apologizes for harm done, accepts responsibility for the consequences, and pledges to avoid that mistake going forward. What else can any of us ask of anyone? 

Jim Tressel is a winner... and his book is an excellent addition to any collection on leadership.  Thanks Coach!  No matter where you go in life... I will be rooting for you!

Click here for a download of a two-page summary written by me.

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Book Review: Leading with Heart

Leading with the Heart: Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life by Mike Krzyzewski

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a really good one from leader with world-class credentials.  Very few people can ever lay claim to being the best in the world at what they do, but Coach K can.  I found his book to be clear and instructive.  I especially love the way he weaves narrative with teaching.  Each chapter ends with "Coach K's tips" which distill the lessons from the chapter into a few golden nuggets.  Few leaders have ever articulated how they do what they do, decide what they decide.  We owe Coach K a debt of gratitude for taking the time to think it through and commit himself to paper.  Fantastic!

A two-page summary written by me can be downloaded here!


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Book Review: The No Asshole Rule

The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't by Robert I. Sutton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


When I featured this one in my monthly column in the North Coast Business Journal* I checked with my editor before starting the draft.  "Will you accept a column from me about a book with this title?"  I asked.  He said he would, but probably wouldn't feature it too boldly in a headline.  That's OK... I figured he was running a risk just publishing the column.  Of course, I pushed the boundaries a little further and paired my summary of this book with a summary of the Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs.  After reading them both, I knew they went together... but I worried NCBJ would get some blow back from unhappy Jobs admirers.  They didn't.

To be clear, Professor Sutton makes a distinction between assholes and office jerks, bullies, and backstabbers.  To qualify as exhibiting asshole-like behavior one must make a regular practice of belittling, humiliating, and oppressing people of lower status or power.  That's a relatively high bar, though one all too often accomplished in our workplaces.

The No Asshole Rule is a zero tolerance policy... zero.  Assholes are costly, demoralizing to coworkers, offensive to customers, and leave havoc in their wake.  What talent or experience they have is never worth it, never. Sutton hesitantly includes a chapter called "The Virtues of Assholes" but he doesn't convince me that there is ever an upside to tolerating this kind of behavior.  As I say, I read the Steve Jobs book and I see that he was a genius. But he also relied heavily on collaborative partners who shaped his thinking and helped shape Apple.  Sure, he had success in the end... but what might he have been able to create if instead of hatefully berating people who didn't meet his standards, he nudged them kindly or quietly let them go?  How many great partners and ideas did he shove away with his bottomless vitriol?     

The points made in the fourth chapter, called "How to Stop Your 'Inner Jerk' from Getting Out" are well-placed and well-taken.  We won't build civilized workplaces by always focusing on the other guys.  We all have to monitor our own behavior and seek to have a positive impact on others. 

*The Well-Booked Business, a summary of a business-related book written by yours truly appears each month in the North Coast Business Journal.  Those within the Ohio counties of Erie, Ottawa, Huron, Sandusky and Seneca can pick it up at most local grocery stores or subscribe via their local Chamber of Commerce.  Others can see it online at www.ncbj.net.  The column about The No Asshole Rule appeared in the March 2012 edition. A downloadable, two-page summary of the book, written by me, is available by clicking here.



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Book Review: Leading Change

Leading Change by John P. Kotter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Yep.  I see why this one rose to the top of the must-read list for the organizational change practitioners and the consultants to nonprofits LinkedIn groups I follow.  It is a classic, a one-stop shop for anyone interested in understanding the process of change within organizations.  Focused largely on business (Kotter's examples and "reasons for" tend to be about competitive advantage,) the book is clearly applicable in nonprofit and governmental contexts. 

Of particular interest to me, and of real importance I think, is Kotter's clarity with regard to the different functions of management and leadership.  I have already used some of this material with clients - even before I finished the book - and I assume I will do so over and again.  The narrative is clear and concise, and the exhibits support an additional level of understanding.  Every chapter is an eye opener, building on the chapter before. 

I usually prefer to cherry pick good ideas from authors, leaving "take it all" prescriptive stuff for those who need an orthodoxy.  But I can see how the eight stages of Kotter's change management process hang together in a cohesive whole.  He makes his case for not skipping any of the steps in a convincing fashion.  With such a large percentage of the world transforming itself every year... this how-to guide is essential reading.  Good stuff.

A two-page summary, written by me, is available to those who click here.

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Book Review: Speed of Trust

The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything by Stephen M.R. Covey

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Powerful, powerful, powerful!  Before reading this book, I did not know anything about trust except that it is awfully difficult to rebuild once it has been violated.  I never thought about the nature of trust, when and how we come to trust and distrust others, or when and how others come to trust or distrust us.  But it turns out that this is very rich subject to explore.  Covey's breakdown of the component parts of trust is clear and memorable, the very essence of excellent teaching.  The action steps he lays out for building and rebuilding trust puts each of us in the driver's seat. 

The author's father published a book in 1989 that included the following passage I had turned into a poster for my office wall: "If I try to use human influence strategies and tactics of how to get other people to do what I want, to work better, to be more motivated, to like me and each other - while my character is flawed, marked by duplicity and insincerity - then, in the long run, I cannot be successful.  My duplicity will breed distrust, and everything I do - even using so-called good human relations techniques - will be perceived as manipulative. It simply makes no difference how good the rhetoric is or even how good the intentions are; if there is little or no trust, there is no foundation for permanent success. Only basic goodness gives life to technique."  Those sentences have haunted me since I read them... and deep down inside I know this is the root cause of any unhappy relationship (personal or professional) in my life.  I can embrace the Seven Habits and work on my character every day, and I do, but I never understood how I was affecting others until Covey, Jr. spelled it out in Speed of Trust.  Reading this was a life changing moment for me as I am sure it will be for anyone who seeks to understand themselves and their interactions with others.

A word of caution to fellow professionals who work with groups and organizations: I've twice tried to use the exercises in this book to help clients move through planning when trust has broken down among a group of colleagues. Twice it has backfired, once quite disastrously.  When people are feeling betrayed and angry with each other, they are looking for the outside consultant to come in and proclaim the others wrong.  Powerful as self-assessment was for me, it is clear that unless people are ready to receive the message they will reject the messenger.  I will continue to recommend the book and share the exercises in leadership development and training programs, or when asked about rebuilding trust, but otherwise keep what I have learned to myself.  That is where it is most powerful, anyway.

You can download a two-page summary, written by me, when you click here.

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Book Review: Five Dysfunctions of a Team

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I use a lot of books in my consulting practice... popular works I think will connect with whatever group or individual professional I am working with.  Over the years, I have turned to Patrick Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of a Team over and over again.  The concepts are quick to grasp and hugely familiar to just about anyone who has ever had to work with others to accomplish an objective.  We can all recognize ourselves in the fable's characters, and then learn some strategies and tactics for overcoming the problems we have created together.

Note that I am not crazy about the term "dysfunction."  It can feel judgey to people and it usually helps to show clients you are on their side when you are trying to help them.  Sometimes, I recast the "dysfunctions" as "characteristics of a high-functioning team" - High degree of trust, Ability to disagree with each other, etc.  Still, I always give credit to the authors whose work I use and Lencioni called it Dysfunction so dysfunction it is. 

If you can't get your colleagues to read the book (it'll take all of two hours), then draw them the pyramid at your next opportunity.  If just one lightbulb clicks on, you'll be ahead of where you were. You can also use a copy of the two-page summary I have posted here.



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