Whole Earth Web

I just finished reading Bill Walsh’s book “The Score Will Take Care of Itself”. Since I found it to be such a great read on leadership, I have collected the key take-aways for you here. It is definitely worth a read, if you are interested in the whole topic of leadership. It truly was an inspiring read by one of the great legends in sports.

He loved making lists, so you will find some of them in the summary below — they are great because there are very practical (almost like laundry lists for leadership). Enjoy, and make use of this in your work lives!

TAKE-AWAYS FROM BILL WALSH’S THE SCORE TAKES CARE OF ITSELF

Context: The Score Takes Care of Itself is not about football. It’s about how to treat people right. How to get the best out of people around you. How to be a highly effective leader. 

Main message: Leaders need to focus on establishing a “Standard of Performance” and then the score will take care of itself. That means, leaders need to focus on establishing a culture, environment, and team of excellence and then the results will follow automatically (ergo: don’t focus on the results, focus on pieces of the puzzle that will get you the results as a “side product”).

“Success belongs to everyone”: Leaders sometimes wonder why they or their organization fail to achieve success or never seem to reach their potential. It’s often because they don’t understand or can’t instill the concept of what a team is all about at its best: connection and extension. This is a fundamental ingredient of ongoing organizational achievement.  — Victory is produced by and belongs to all (sales people, customer care agents, etc. — they are all connected and they are extensions of each other. This needs to be instilled in the organization by the leader).

It comes down to details: The intense focus on those pertinent details cements the foundation that establishes excellence in performance. The simplest correct execution of procedures represents the commitment of players and staff to the organization and the organization to them. (E.g. “Shirttails in” matter, running exactly ten yards and no inch more matters.)

Establishing your Standard of Performance:

1. Start with a comprehensive recognition of, reverence for, and identification of the specific actions and attitudes relevant to your team’s performance and production.
2. Be clarion clear in communicating your expectation of high effort and execution of your Standard of Performance. Like water, many decent individuals will seek lower ground if left to their own inclinations. In most cases you are the one who inspires and demands they go upward rather than settle for the comfort of doing what comes easily. Push them beyond their comfort zone; expect to give extra effort.
3. Let all know that you expect them to possess the highest level of expertise in their area of responsibility.
4. Beyond standards and methodology, teach your beliefs, values, and philosophy. An organization is not an inanimate object. It is a living organism that you must nurture, guide, and strengthen.
5. Teach “connection and extension”. An organization filled with individuals who are “independent contractors” unattached to one another is a team with little interior cohesion and strength.
6. Make the expectations and metrics of competence that you demand in action and attitudes from personnel the new reality of your organization. You must provide the model for that new standard in your own actions attitude.

Write your own script for success: The military is known for doing this – war gaming, thinking through its response to all contingencies. The more thorough, the more extensive, the more rehearsed, the better you perform under the pressure of any situation that calls for an immediate decision. (Bill Walsh used to write down all possible plays for each situation that might occur before the game. This way, when a situation occurred he knew exactly how he and the team would react.)

Be a leader – twelve habits plus one:

1. Be yourself. I am not Vince Lombardi; Vince Lombardi was not Bill Walsh. My style was my style, and it worked for me. Your style will work for you when you take advantage of your strengths and strive to overcome your weaknesses. You must be the best version of yourself that you can be; stay within the framework of your own personality and be authentic. If you’re faking it, you’ll be found out.
2. Be committed to excellence. I developed my Standard of Performance over three decades in the business of football. It could just as accurately (although more awkwardly) been called “Bill’s Prerequisites of Doing Your Job at the Highest Level of Excellence Vis-à-vis Your Actions and Attitude on Our Team”. My commitment to this “product” – excellence – preceded my commitment to winning football games. At all times, in all ways, your focus must be on doing things at the highest possible level.
3. Be positive. I spent far more time teaching what to do than what not to do; far more time teaching and encouraging individuals than criticizing them; more time building up than tearing down. There is  a constructive place for censure and highlighting negative aspects of a situation, but too often it is done simply to vent and creates a barrier between you and others. Maintain an affirmative, constructive, positive environment.
4. Be prepared (Good luck is a product of good planning). Work hard to get ready for expected situations – events you know will happen. Equally important, plan and prepare for the unexpected. “What happens when what’s supposed to happen doesn’t happen?” is the question that you must always be asking and solving. No leader can control the outcome of the contest or competition, but you can control how you prepare for it.
5. Be detail-oriented. Organizational excellence evolves from the perfection of details relevant to performance and production. What are they for you? High performance is achieved small step by small step through painstaking dedication to pertinent detail. (Caution: Do not make the mistake of burying yourself alive in those details.) Address all aspects of your team’s efforts to prepare mentally, physically, fundamentally, and strategically in as thorough a manner as is humanly possible.
6. Be organized. A symphony will sound like a mess without a musical score that organizes each and every note so that the musicians know precisely what to play and when to play it. Great organization is the trademark of a great organization. You must think clearly with a disciplined mind, especially in regard to the most efficient and productive use of time and resources.
7. Be accountable. Excuse making is contagious. Answerability starts with you. If you make excuses – which is first cousin to “alibiing” – so will those around you. Your organization will soon be filled with finger-pointing individuals whose battle cry is, “It’s his fault, not mine!”
8. Be near-sighted and far-sighted. Keep everything in perspective while simultaneously concentrating fully on the task at hand. All decisions should be made with an eye toward how they affect the organization’s performance – not how they affect you or your feelings. 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. This is very difficult.
9. Be fair. The 49ers treated people right. I believe your value system is as important to success as your expertise. Ethically sound values engender respect from those you lead and give your team strength and resilience. Be clear in your own mind as to what you stand for. And then stand up for it.
10. Be firm. I would not budge one inch on my core values, standards, and principles.
11. Be flexible. I was agile in adapting to changing circumstances. Consistency is crucial, but you must be quick to adjust to new challenges that defy the old solutions.
12. Believe in yourself. To a large degree, a leader must “sell” himself to the team. This is impossible unless you exhibit self-confidence. While I was rarely accused of cockiness, it was apparent to most observers that I had significant belief – self-confidence – in what I was doing. Of course, belief derives from expertise.
13. Be a leader. Whether you are a head coach, CEO, or sales manager, you must know where you’re going and how you intend to get there, keeping in mind that it may be necessary to modify your tactics as circumstances dictate. You must be able to inspire and motivate through teaching people how to execute their jobs at the highest level. You must care about people and help those people care about one another and the team’s goals. And you must never second-guess yourself on decisions you make with integrity, intelligence, and a team-first attitude.

 The inner voice vs. the outer voice:

The true inspiration, expertise, and ability to execute that employees take with them into their work is most often the result of their inner voice talking, not some outer voice shouting, and some leader giving a pep talk.

For members of your team, you determine what their inner voice says. The leader, at least a good one, teaches the team how to talk to themselves. An effective leader has a profound influence on what that inner voice will say. 

Leadership by example: cool, calm, and collected:

Allow for a wide range of moods, from serious to very relaxed, in the workplace depending on the circumstances.

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.

Communicate on a first-name basis without allowing relationships to become buddy-buddy.

Don’t let differences or animosity linger. Cleanse the wound before it gets infected.

How to work with and lead individuals under your command (from General George Patton)

1. Remember that praise is more valuable than blame. Remember, too, that your primary mission as a leader is to see with your own eyes and be seen by your own troops while engaged in personal reconnaissance.
2. Use every means before and after combat to tell troops what they are going to do and what they have done.
3. Discipline is based on pride in the profession of arms, on meticulous attention to details, and on mutual respect and confidence. Discipline must be a habit so ingrained that it is stronger than excitement of battle or the fear of death.
4. Officers must assert themselves by example and by voice. They must be preeminent in courage, deportment and dress.
5. General officers must be seen in the front line during action.
6. There is a tendency for the chain of command to overload junior officers by excessive requirements in the way of training and reports. You will alleviate this burden by eliminating non-essential demands.

Create uncertainty:

Effective leaders often have this quality: They understand that if you’re predictably difficult or predictably easygoing, others become predictably comfortable. In a highly competitive environment, feeling comfortable is first cousin to being complacent. 

Sometimes you snarl; sometimes you bite; sometimes you smile and give thumbs-up. There’s a little bit of the actor in all good leaders.

Expertise is the inventory of knowledge and experience you possess on a particular subject:

“You may be an offensive coordinator and making more money than your offensive line coach who’s reporting to you, but unless you know offensive line coaching, he’s the de facto offensive coordinator. He determines your fate, because he knows more than you do.”

Communication is the ability to organize and then successfully convey your informed thoughts:

Your enthusiasm becomes their enthusiasm; your lukewarm presentation becomes their lukewarm interest in what you’re offering.

I came to understand over my years as an assistant coach that when the audience is bored, it’s not their fault. And when they’re plugged in and excited, it’s because of you, the person in charge.

Persistence is essential because knowledge is rarely imparted on the first attempt:

Passion, expertise, communication, and persistence are the four essentials of good teaching and learning.

Checklist of personal qualities – assets – in potential staff members:

1. A fundamental knowledge of the area he or she has been hired to manage.
2. A relatively high – but not manic – level of energy and enthusiasm and a personality that is upbeat, motivated, and animated. Groups will often collectively take on the personality of their department head. A negative, complaining staff member will be emulated by those he or she is in charge of. So will a positive go-getter.
3. The ability to discern talent in potential employees whom he or she will recommend to you.
4. An ability to communicate in a relaxed yet authoritative – but not authoritarian – manner.
5. Unconditional loyalty to both you and other staff members. If your staff members are chipping away at one another, the organization is weakened from within – like a tree full of termites. There is, in my view, no offense more serious than disloyalty.

Make friends, not enemies:

“Hostile relationships are toxic. Cultivate good relationships. Be available; avoid making enemies; don’t close off communications.” I taught those in the organization that it was necessary to initiate communication after a conflict, even if the other person had misunderstood you or wrongfully ridiculed you. And to understand that regardless of the cause of animosity, negative relationships have ongoing negative consequences. 

“No enemies” policy: It’s a maxim that one enemy can do more damage than the good of a hundred friends.

Keep your boss in the loop:

Whether they read it or not, flood your superiors with information that is documented – projections, evaluations, reports on progress, status updates. Then ask for periodic meetings. In a very professional way, force them to understand that you’re doing everything you possibly can and that it’s documented; in fact, they’re holding it in that large folder in their hands. Open and honest communication with your superiors, both written and verbal, is a valuable tool in keeping them from coming to the wrong conclusions.

Management of people:

Establish a protocol for how members of the organization interact with one another. This is essential in preventing compartmentalization and “turf protection.” Let them know their first priority is to do their job; their second priority is to facilitate others in doing their jobs.

The last word on getting in the last word:

If you care about how you’re perceived by others, including the public, it’s good to remember the following: Criticism – both deserved and undeserved – is part of the territory when you’re the one calling the shots. Ignore the undeserved; learn from the deserved; lick your wounds and move on.

Sometimes you can’t have the last word. 

Cut your losses before they cut you:

When you make a mistake, admit it and fix it. Don’t let pride, stubbornness, or possible embarrassment about your bad decision prevent you from correcting what you have done. Fix it, or the little problem becomes a big one.

A pretty package can’t sell a poor product:

In your efforts to create interest in your own product, don’t get carried away with premature promotion – creating a pretty package with hype, spin, and all the rest. First, make sure you’ve got something of quality to promote. Then worry about how you’re going to wrap it in an attractive package. The world’s best promotional tool is a good product.

Zero points for winning:

Losing, however you define it, even the thought of losing, can become so psychologically crippling that winning offers little solace and no cause for celebration because you’ve imposed an internal accounting system on yourself that awards zero points for winning and minus points for losing. You can never get ahead on points. => Victory means little more than delaying the pain of loss.

You are putting yourself on a slippery slope when you start believing that the outcome of your effort represents or embodies who you really are as a person – what your value as a person is. 

Let me share some thoughts on avoiding the trap I fell into:

1. Do not isolate yourself.
2. Delegate abundantly.
3. Avoid the destructive temptation to define yourself as a person by the won-lost record, the “score”, however you define it.
4. Shake it off. (24 hours to let a loss bother you, then move on.) 

You do not control the result!

Quick results come slowly: The score takes care of itself:

For me, the road had been rocky at times, triumphant too, but along the way I had never wavered in my dedication to installing – teaching – those actions and attitudes I believed would create a great team, a superior organization. I knew that if I achieved that, the score would take care of itself.