'The Score Takes Care of Itself' Book Review

But then following the stellar 2016 season, my numbers dropped, my team underperformed. What happened?

I thought perhaps my team logos needing jazzing up and so I spent ungodly amounts of time in paint:

Even that didn't get me back. I wallowed in the relegation league until ultimately giving it away, citing interest/time/excuses for not being a good enough coach to get my team back to the top.

Sigh.

If only I'd have read 'The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership' by Bill Walsh at the time I'd have realized my standard of performance had slipped and how I needed to focus on how to keep winning after winning.

From sports to business, this book is jam packed with do's & don'ts when it comes to leadership and cultivating a culture of winning. It comes from a coach who delivered 3 Super bowl's to the San Francisco 49ers team from 10 years so you'd be hard pressed to find a better source of information on the subject.

To save scrolling through the many, many insights, here my top 3's across the different areas Bill covers:

Develop a Culture of Winning

1. Take pride in your effort as an entity separate from the result of that effort.

2. Use positive language and have a positive attitude.

3. Exhibit a ferocious and intelligently applied work ethic directed at continual improvement.

Habits for being a better leader

1. Be positive. Spend far more time teaching what to do than what not to do; far more time encouraging individuals than criticizing them; more time building up than tearing down. Maintain an affirmative, constructive, positive environment.

2. Be prepared. Good luck is a product of good planning. “What happens when what’s supposed to happen doesn’t happen?” is the question that you must always be asking and solving.

3. Be near-sighted and far-sighted. Keep everything in perspective while simultaneously concentrating fully on the task at hand. All efforts and plans should be considered not only in terms of short-run effect, but also in terms of how they impact the organization long term.

Ten ways to fail as a leader

1. Exhibit patience, paralyzing patience.

2. Find ways to get out from under the responsibilities of your position, to move accountability from yourself to others — the blame game.

3. Act in a tedious, overly cautious manner.

What it takes to teach

1. Passion is not just having a desire to do the job of teaching. Passion is a love for the act of teaching itself — believing in your heart that it is not a means to an end, but an end in itself.

2. Persistence is essential because knowledge is rarely imparted on the first attempt.

3. Expertise is the inventory of knowledge and experience you possess, and the greater it is, the greater your potential to teach. Understand all aspects of your profession, not just one particular area. Actively seek the counsel of those you respect.

Do's and Don'ts

1. Do set clear expectations. Employees can thrive in an environment where they know exactly what is expected of them — even when those expectations are very high.

2. Extreme effort requires extreme prudence. The art of leadership requires knowing when it makes sense to take people over the top, to push them to their highest level of effort, and when to take your foot off the accelerator a little.

3. Be supportive rather than negative. If you’re growing a garden, you need to pull out the weeds, but flowers will die if all you do is pick weeds. They need sunshine and water. People are the same. They need criticism, but they also require positive and substantive language and information and true support to really blossom.

Being a good teacher

1. Use straightforward language.

2. Account for a wide range of difference in knowledge, experience, and comprehension

3. Be observant during your comments. Know if you’re connecting.

Managing people effectively

1. Allow for a wide range of moods, from serious to very relaxed, in the workplace depending on the circumstances. Develop the fine art of knowing when to crack the whip or crack a joke.

2. Avoid pleading with players to “get going” or trying to relate to them by adopting their vernacular. Strong leaders don’t plead with individuals to perform.

3. Seek positive relationships through encouragement, support, and critical evaluation. Maintain an uplifting atmosphere at work with your ongoing positive, enthusiastic, energizing behavior.

Keeping people happy

1. Leadership involves many people, each with their own need for role identity within the organization. Find what a person does best, utilize and emphasize it, and steer clear of his or her weaknesses.

2. The most talented personnel often are very independent minded.

3. Demonstrate a pronounced commitment to employees by providing a work environment that enables them to achieve their maximum potential and productivity.

Keeping good staff members on the same page

1. You must recognize that staff members may work in different ways, using approaches that are at variance with yours. This is OK, as long as you and the staff member are philosophically compatible on the key issues. Insisting on a totalitarian, lockstep mentality removes creativity from within.

2. Don’t cede inordinate power or control to a staff member simply because you are relieved to have an experienced and proven performer come on board.

3. Be alert for those staff members who seek to use their position to teach and express their personal beliefs.

Strategy

1. Success doesn’t care which road you take to get to its doorstep.

2. Be bold. Remove fear of the unknown — that is, change — from your mind.

3. Be obsessive in looking for the upside in the downside.

Control what you can control

1. Flying by the seat of your pants precedes crashing by the seat of your pants

2. Planning for foul or fair weather improves the odds of making a safe landing and is a key to success. When you prepare for everything, you’re ready for anything.

3. You bring on failure by reacting in an inappropriate manner to pressure or adversity. Your version of “scripting” helps ensure that you will offer the appropriate response in a professional manner, that you will act like a leader.

Getting back into the game

1. Do expect defeat. It’s a given when the stakes are high and the competition is working ferociously to beat you. If you’re surprised when it happens, you’re dreaming; dreamers don’t last long.

2. Do allow yourself appropriate recovery (grieving) time. You’ve been knocked senseless; give yourself a little time to recuperate. A keyword here is “little.” Don’t let it drag on.

3. Do begin planning for your next serious encounter. The smallest steps (plans) move you forward on the road to recovery. Focus on the fix.

Leading when losing

1. Concentrate on what will produce results rather than on the results; the process rather than the prize.

2. Exhibit an inner toughness emanating from four of the most effective survival tools a leader can possess: expertise, composure, patience, and common sense.

3. Don’t let the magnitude of the challenge take you away from the incremental steps necessary to effect change. Continue to be detail-oriented.

How to continue winning after winning

1. Formally celebrate and observe the momentous achievement and make sure that everyone feels ownership in it

2. Be demanding. Do not relax. Hold everyone to even higher expectations. Don’t relax your Standard of Performance.

3. Recognize that mastery is a process, not a destination. Mastery requires endless remastery.

The last one was defiantly what I needed back in 2016!

I cant' recommended this book highly enough if you are looking to sharpen up your leadership of yourself and others.

Cheers,

Alex.