They, and many others, had Bill Campbell, that passed away April 18, 2016, as a coach, mentor and perhaps most importantly, as a friend.
He was Silicon Valley's best-kept secret.
Without Bill, Google would not be where it is today. After Bill passed away, Google started teaching his principles via internal seminars to emerging leaders.
He worked side by side with Steve Jobs to build Apple from near bankruptcy.
Spending his first decade of the career coaching football, Bill learned that great teams need to work together, and he learned how to make it happen. Being a good coach is essential to being a good manager and leader.
Bill taught business leaders that the path to success in a fast-moving, highly competitive, technology-driven business world is to form high-performing teams and give them the resources and freedom to do great things.
The book is loaded with his lessons and simple, yet powerful, practices and principles.
Make people flourish through support, respect, and trust. Leading teams become a lot more joyful when you know and care about the people. Believe in people more than they believe in themselves.
Structured 1:1 meetings
Have a structure for your 1:1 meetings and come prepared. Start with a brief small talk, then move to performance:
- What are you working on?
- How is it going?
- How can I help?
Bill also included peer feedback and relationships, teams and innovation on the agenda. For him, the 1:1 meetings were the best way to help people grow.
Strive for the best idea, not consensus
Get all authentic opinions and ideas on the table for the group to discuss. Sit down with individuals before the meeting to find out what they are thinking.
Failure to make a decision can be as damaging as a wrong decision. If you have the right conversation, then eight out of ten times people will reach the best conclusion on their own. But the other two times you need to make the hard decision and expect everyone to not only accept, but to commit.
Listen
Listen to people with your full and undivided attention. Don't think ahead to what you are going to say next, and ask questions to get to the real issue.
"Don't stick it in their ear"
... he said. Don't tell people what to do, tell them stories about why they are doing it. When people understand the story, they can connect to it and figure out what to do.
