Trillion Dollar Coach

This book is finally a little different from many others I've read about leadership. Bill Campbell (the Trillion Dollar Coach) left a significant impression on many prominent leaders of Silicon Valley (arguably, you might not like them all but they were all quite successful). His track record is impressive and I'm surprised to learn about him only after his passing (less surprising after you read the book). The reason I picked this up was because some of his traits resonated with me. Especially his focus on people and compassion.

What impressed me the most was his genuine and profound care for individuals, followed by a track record that affected influential leaders in tech. For too long I was left with the impression that some of the highest-performing leaders have an edge, they are brilliant in a very specific way but when you look at how they treat people around them they become much less inspiring. That, combined with articles or books recommending that as a manager you can't afford to be nice (oversimplifying here for convenience), has been quite off-putting.

In my life, the few leaders/coaches that I really admired were able to push me to new highs by Telling it like It is. The big difference was that it came from a place of love and respect rather than a need to assert themselves as "bosses". That made me feel at ease because when they were yelling at me from across the field (soccer), I knew it was to push me, not to put me down. They knew I could do better and had confidence in me. That's the type of leader I try to be and I was surprised I couldn't find extremely successful stories to prove that it was viable.

I also love life stories and I'm grateful the authors decided to honor Bill with this book. He liked to stay in the shadows which explains why I never heard about him before. This book is rich with recommendations on how to be a leader more than a manager. It focuses on people and relationships rather than methodologies and formalities. I found a few gems I want to incorporate and I think any reader would find some too.

As usual, though, I take this book with a bit of skepticism. It is fair to focus on the coach side but I wanted to understand how and if he found a balance in his life. That's not something that's ever touched on, if anything they bring up the opposite. At times it sounds like Bill was consumed by his work, and his incredible availability to all of these people made me question if he ended up finding that balance. I agree that to achieve this success, some level of obsession will set you apart and almost sounds "required". I'm also afraid that some of his mannerisms wouldn't fly in today's day and age, but I wouldn't want to over-index on that.

All in all, I recommend this book, it's an interesting story even if you won't get much out of Bill's playbook (somehow I doubt it though). Last note that I almost forgot about, the book also includes references to very interesting research articles, I bookmarked more than a few that I want to read.