Leadership Lessons from Bill Campbell, the Trillion Dollar Coach
Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell was an absolutely gripping read about a legendary coach and business executive, whose mentoring of the likes of Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, and Jeff Bezos, amongst other tech luminaries, played a major role in the success of their companies.
While Bill was a private person — he passed away in 2016 — who instead preferred to shine the spotlight on the entrepreneurs and executives he worked with, three of his mentees, Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle, decided that his invaluable teachings needed to be shared far and wide, in order to have the biggest impact that they possibly could; so they captured his wisdom in this easily digestible 191-page book (a welcome reprieve after having previously ground through a series of 400–600 page books).
Somewhat surprisingly, Bill took no cash, no stock…and no shit, and until I picked this book up, I didn’t realize people like Bill existed.
The book was packed with value bombs and what follows are some excerpts from the book, and my own notes, which I thought I’d publish to, again, amplify the reach of Bill’s teachings.
There is a new breed of the employee the smart creative who is critical to achieving this speed and innovation. The smart creative is someone who combines technical depth with business savvy and creative flair. These people have always existed, but with the advent of the internet smartphones cloud computing and all their attendant Innovations, they can have a much greater impact than ever before. For companies to be successful they must continually develop great products and to do that they must attract smart creatives and build an environment where these employees can succeed at scale.
There is another equally critical factor for success; companies forming teams that act as communities. Conversely, a lack of community is a leading factor in job burnout.
Teams of people who subordinate individual performance to that of the group will generally perform better than teams that don’t.
Patrick Pichette, former Google CFO, says that when you these factors in play and a team of ambitious, opinionated, competitive, and smart people, there is tremendous ‘tension in the machine’. This tension is a good thing. If you don’t have it you will become irrelevant. But the tension makes it harder to cultivate community and community is necessary to cultivate success. To balance this tension you need a coach.
Every sports team needs a coach and the best coaches make good teams great. The same goes in business. Coaching is the best way to mould Effective People into powerful teams.
“Your title makes you a manager. Your people make you a leader.”
A 1991 study finds that when a company is in the implementation stage of an innovation they need managers to coordinate resources and resolve conflicts. However, a 2005 study finds that creativity flourishes in environments such as Broadway shows that are more network-oriented than hierarchical. So there’s always a tension between creativity and operational efficiency.
People who are successful run their companies well. They have good processes, they make sure their people are accountable, they know how to hire the right people, how to evaluate them and give them feedback, and they pay them well.
The more talented the subordinate, the less likely she is to simply follow orders.
Great people flourish in an environment that liberates and amplifies their energy. Managers must support, respect, and trust.
The top priority of any manager is the well-being and success of their people.
There’s a direct correlation between fun work environments and high performance, with a conversation about family and fun, what academics call ‘socio-emotional communication’, being an easy way to achieve the former.
More than 50% of study participants do not think that their meetings are an effective use of their time.
To build rapport and better relationships among team members, start team meetings with weekend or ‘trip reports’ or other types of more personal non-business topics.
5 words on a whiteboard: have a structure for one on ones and take the time to prepare for them as they are the best way to help people become more effective and to grow.
Use the Rule of Two to make decisions. Get the two people most closely involved in a decision to gather more information and work together on the best solution. Usually, they come back a week or two later having decided together on the best course of action.
One of the managers main jobs is to facilitate decisions.
A place where the top manager makes all decisions leads to just the opposite because people will spend their time trying to convince the manager that their idea is the best. In that scenario, it’s not about the best idea carrying the day, it’s about who does the best job of lobbying the top dog; in other words, politics.
Use first principles to make decisions. Define the first principles for the situation, the immutable truths that are the foundation for the company or product, and help guide the decision from those principles.
Bill Campbell hated politics and consensus.
When you can get people past being passive aggressive, then heated but honest arguments can happen. If your team is working well and thinking company first rather than me first then after the fireworks subside the best idea will likely emerge. A 2016 study shows that when it is called a debate rather than a disagreement, participants are more likely to share information. They perceive that other participants are more receptive to dissenting opinions.
A managers job is to break ties and make the people better.
Geniuses have to be able to work with other people. If they can’t, you need to let them go. Geniuses who continually put themselves above the team can’t be tolerated.
Compensation isn’t just about the economic value of the money, it’s 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.
Compensate well.
The degree of independence of creative thinking, of being not so conformist, is a strength.
When you fire someone you feel terrible for about a day and then you say to yourself that you should have done it sooner.
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The WorkFlow podcast is hosted by Steve Glaveski with a mission to help you unlock your potential to do more great work in far less time, whether you're working as part of a team or flying solo, and to set you up for a richer life.
To help you avoid stepping into these all too common pitfalls, we’ve reflected on our five years as an organization working on corporate innovation programs across the globe, and have prepared 100 DOs and DON’Ts.
