Trillion Dollar Coach
Eric Schmidt
Summary
We often underestimate the value of coaching. This is a fantastic book from Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, who talked about the story of Bill Campbell, who was a coach to some of the biggest names in technology and helped generate over a trillion dollars in value. Great management book for anyone that's leading others.
Rating: 4/5
Notes
The higher you climb, the more your success depends on making other people successful
Build safety, clarity, meaning, dependability and impact into teams
The smart creative: someone who combines technical depth w business savy and creative flair
Teams acting as communities is critical to success
The path to success is to form high performing teams and give them the resources and freedom to do great things
Your title makes you a manager, your people make you a leader
Great managers listen and pay attention. Make sure they feel valued by you
People are the foundation of a company’s success
The top priority of any manager is the well-being and success of his/her people
Institute an informal trip report: let everyone talk about their lives when you have meetings start
Have a structure for 1-1s and take time to prepare for them, as they are the best way to help people be more effective and grow
Believe in striving for the best idea, not consensus
When the best idea doesn’t emerge, it’s the managers job to make the decision
Do something, even if it’s wrong. Make the best decision for the company and move on
Lead based on first principles, the truths that are the foundation for the company or product and help guide the decisions from there
Do not tolerate an aberrant genius putting himself always above the team
Compensation isn’t just about economic value of money but emotional value
Compensating well demonstrates love and respect and ties people strongly to the goals of the company
If you have the right product, for the right market at the right time, go as fast as you can
Innovation is where the crazy people have stature
If you have to let people go, be generous, treat them well and celebrate their accomplishments
Send out financial and operational details of board meetings prior to the meeting and expect questions
Share the good and the bad with the board
Trust in your team and CEO. Keep your word, be loyal, act with integrity and discretion
Only coach the coachable
Build trust with those around you and never break it
If people feel secure and that they can trust you, they won’t leave
‘A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to heard, who has you see what you don’t want to see so you can be who you have always known you be’ - Tom Landry
Honesty, humility, willingness to persevere and work hard and a constant openness to learning are what makes a person coachable
Listen to people with your full and undivided attention and ask questions to get to the real issue
Be relentlessly honest and candid, couple negative feedback with caring.
Give feedback ASAP and if the feedback is negative, do it privately
Don’t tell people what to do, offer stories and help guide their decisions
Believe in people more than they believe in themselves and push them to be courageous
People are most effective when they’re completely themselves
Work the team, then the problem: ensure the right team is in place to work on it
When assessing people, look for smarts, hard work, integrity and grit, empathy, a team-first attitude and the ability to learn fast
Peer relationships are critical so seek opportunities to pair people up
Winning depends on having the best team and the best teams have more women
Identify the biggest problem, bring it front and centre and solve it
Always win right, with commitment, teamwork and integrity
When things are going bad, teams look for even more loyalty, commitment and decisiveness from their leaders
Listen, observe and fill the communication gaps b/w people
Teams are better when you know and care about the people
To care about people, you have to care about people
Ask the questions about the family, learn people’s names then ask more questions, look at the pictures and above all else, care
Cheer demonstrably for people and their success
Be generous with your time, connections and other resources
***
Buy the book here
Free E-book download here
Make Something Wonderful
Steve Jobs
Summary
The life of Steve Jobs in his own words
Rating: 5/5
Notes
Make something wonderful and put it out there
‘You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear’
When you’re a stranger in a place, you notice thing you don’t otherwise (Jobs after India trip)
Whenever you start with nothing, always shoot for the moon. You have nothing to lose.
You never achieve what you want without falling on your face a few times
Never be afraid to fail. You never achieve what you want without falling flat on your face a few times
We are never taught to listen to our intuitions, to develop and nurture them. But if you do pay attention to these subtle insights, you can make them come true
Creativity equals connecting previously unrelated experiences and insights others don’t see
Believe that some of what you follow with your heart will come back and make your life richer. And it will. And you will gain even firmer trust on your instincts and intuitions
Make your avocation your vocation. Make what you love your work.
The journey is the reward. The reward isn’t in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it’s in crossing the rainbow
To find A+ talent, if experienced, look at their track record and results
The world we know is a human creation and we can push it forward
The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do (read whole ad ‘here’s to the crazy ones)
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle
Hire people better than you are
You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life
It’s impossible to connect the dots looking forward, but they make sense looking backwards so you have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future
Everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you
***
Buy the book here
Free E-book download here
