What makes an excellent leader? About the trillion dollar coach – the late Bill Campbell

What makes an excellent leader? About the trillion dollar coach – the late Bill Campbell

For decades, Bill Campbell, a former football coach turned C-suit executive counseled the biggest leaders like Jonathan Rosenberg, Eric Schmidt, Sheryl Sandberg and Steve Jobs in Silicon Valley.
Campbell was interested in raising leaders who produce better results and builds an ethical culture in the workplace.
Years after his death, three of his mentees Jonathan Rosenberg, Eric Schmidt, and Alan Eagle wrote the Trillion Dollar Coach: the Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell, to pass his message across to future generations.

Here are 7 leadership lessons from the book :
Coach only the coachable: Campbell understood that it was irrelevant and a waste of time and energy to coach someone who isn’t interested and that is why he admonishes good leaders to coach people who have bigger dreams and work towards realizing those dreams. According to him, good leaders grow with time and look for candidates who are willing to work, honest and continuously open to learning new things.
Listen actively to your employees: Campbell believes that the primary key to being an effective leader is being an active listener. Every leader must be present when talking to people at work, and not just replying their emails or speaking to them through the window. In addition, effective leaders must adopt the Socratic approach of asking important questions after carefully listening to what his employees have to say.
Never tell people what to do: Campbell believes that good leaders are not supposed to tell their staffs what to do. Instead, they listen carefully, ask questions and develop stories that relate to the topic while allowing employees to draw conclusions from such stories. He believes that once people can understand where you are coming from, they connect the dots and figure out what to do.
Adopt performance oriented goals: Campbell agrees that teams which adopt performance oriented techniques like targeting, incentives, and monitoring perform better than those that don’t.
Do not demand respect: Campbell believes that respect should be accrued and not demanded. Effective leaders accrue respect by projecting humble behaviors. He also agrees that employees dislike working with a dictator who does not care about their welfare, work culture, and future outcome.
Honesty is key: Campbell believes that every good leader must be honest. According to him, good leaders allow employees to air out their opinion even when it is conflicting and heating the environment. He also agrees that complex problems at the workplace must be dealt with honestly and openly before it degenerates.
Care about your employees: Campbell believes that every good leader must establish a deep level of connection with his or her employees. There is nothing wrong with showing up for them, caring about them, getting to know their families and showing them true love.
Finally, it is vital for people in leadership positions to imbibe all the qualities listed above if they want to create a great work environment where employees are allowed to air their opinion and put in the best in producing the right result.

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