The Score Takes Care of Itself - Bill Walsh  ## Metadata - Author: **Bill Walsh** - Full Title: The Score Takes Care of Itself - Category: #articles - Tags: #leadership - URL: https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/31282634 ## Highlights - Running a football franchise is not unlike running any other business: You start first with a structural format and basic philosophy and then find the people who can implement it. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01grzjn0h43k2te019jzypajg9)) - Most big things are simple in the specific, much less so in the general ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01grzk27sep1v14hqswz9tds1s)) - People are the heart of your organization, ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01grzkaa8mpsc7fprz5hptpvyt)) - Bill Walsh loved lists, viewed them as a road map to results. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01grzkb53186mrjp0d00hhjxcv)) - To Succeed You Must Fail ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01grzkjx4f1hre9kad3nwghn0n)) - Almost always, your road to victory goes through a place called “failure.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01grzkkyp3xxyyawk2fnsygppd)) - Tags: #antifragile - I’ve observed that if individuals who prevail in a highly competitive environment have any one thing in common besides success, it is failure—and their ability to overcome it. “Crash and burn” is part of it; so are recovery and reward ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01grzmaes1zpfek3xc3n6tdx1t)) - The ability to help the people around me self-actualize their goals underlines the single aspect of my abilities and the label that I value most—teacher. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01grzmav01s5wn7zvah21t9m9q)) - “If you’re up at 3 A.M. every night talking into a tape recorder and writing notes on scraps of paper, have a knot in your stomach and a rash on your skin, are losing sleep and losing touch with your wife and kids, have no appetite or sense of humor, and feel that everything might turn out wrong, then you’re probably doing the job. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01grzmd2zm2pg1w87b6c12n8k6)) - MY FIVE DOS FOR GETTING BACK INTO THE GAME: 1. Do expect defeat. It’s a given when the stakes are high and the competition is working ferociously to beat you. If you’re surprised when it happens, you’re dreaming; dreamers don’t last long. 2 . Do force yourself to stop looking backward and dwelling on the professional “train wreck” you have just been in. It’s mental quicksand. 3 . Do allow yourself appropriate recovery—grieving—time. You’ve been knocked senseless; give yourself a little time to recuperate. A keyword here is “little.” Don’t let it drag on. 4. Do tell yourself, “I am going to stand and fight again,” with the knowledge that often when things are at their worst you’re closer than you can imagine to success. Our Super Bowl victory arrived less than sixteen months after my “train wreck” in Miami. 5. Do begin planning for your next serious encounter. The smallest steps— plans—move you forward on the road to recovery. Focus on the fix. MY FIVE DON’TS: 1. Don’t ask, “Why me?” 2. Don’t expect sympathy. 3. Don’t bellyache. 4. Don’t keep accepting condolences. 5. Don’t blame others. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gs0y05ngw4znefeb2pa4jpp7)) - an organization is not just a tool like a shovel, but an organic entity that has a code of conduct, a set of applied principles that go beyond a company mission statement that’s tacked on the wall and forgotten. In fact, we had no mission statement on the wall. My mission statement was implanted in the minds of our people through teaching ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gs0zp0djjer6410c32fx4yd9)) - Great teams in business, in sports, or elsewhere have a conscience. At its best, an organization—your team—bespeaks values and a way of doing things that emanate from a source; that source is you—the leader. Thus, the dictates of your personal beliefs should ultimately become characteristics of your team ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gs1097eseh5azx6xfbe4qxq7)) - Your philosophy is the single most important navigational point on your leadership compass. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gs10d6n32143b7wsjt5xxgey)) - Tags: #values #philosophy #leadership - Jerry Rice was a professional and looked like a professional. And it all helped him in some way to think and perform like a professional. That “perfect” appearance—“appropriate appearance” is more accurate— applied to others in the organization as well, because it is part of the motif that directs thinking into a mode I view as conducive to high performance. That perfect appearance was a predicate of perfect performance ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gs1228zktpkcnjz7y4fey77a)) - Victory is produced by and belongs to all. Winning a Super Bowl (or becoming number one in the marketplace, or reaching a significant quarterly production quota, or landing a big account) results from your whole team not only doing their individual jobs but perceiving that those jobs contributed to overall success. The trophy doesn’t belong just to a superstar quarterback or CEO, head coach or top salesperson. And this organizational perception that “success belongs to everyone” is taught by the leader. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gs2jsxd445s8bvdsz71dy169)) - 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 them 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 and attitude. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gs3kkbq0qcnz9rfskfxdgaz5)) - s it right there in front of you, unseen because your thinking is rigid and resistant to originality and change? How effective are you at turning nothing into something, something into something that changes everything? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gs4q7y4a3g8wz7hne5b7gk4f)) - 1. Success doesn’t care which road you take to get to its doorstep. The traditionalists— rigid and resistant in their thinking—who sneered at the new passing system I was creating were soon trying to figure out why it was beating them and how to copy it. 2. Be bold. Remove fear of the unknown—that is, change—from your mind. Respect the past without clinging to it: “That’s the way we’ve always done it” is the mantra of a team setting itself up to lose to an organization that’s not doing it that way any more. Paul Brown didn’t flinch when I came to him with my revolutionary ideas—a completely new system of playing offensive football. By nature he was an innovator who wasn’t afraid of change. 3. Desperation should not drive innovation. Here’s a good question to write on a Post-it Note and put on your desk: “What assets do we have right now that we’re not taking advantage of?” Virgil Carter’s “limited” skills, the 53.5 yards of width, and the availability of five potential receivers were all available assets even before desperation drove me to utilize them creatively. While waiting to get what you want—a “quarterback with a strong arm”—make the most of what you’ve got. 4. Be obsessive in looking for the upside in the downside. My evaluation of Virgil Carter’s “weak” résumé, his so-called limited assets, led directly to utilizing them productively. Why? Instead of looking for reasons we couldn’t make it work, I sought solutions that would make it succeed. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gs4qqckyn47ad2ay3qx8wrgb)) - Unfortunately, too often we find comfort in what worked before—even when it stops working. We get stuck there and resist the new, the unfamiliar, the unconventional. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gs4r8hwk89v8q6wgjyydk2tg)) - Few things offer greater return on less investment than praise—offering credit to someone in your organization who has stepped up and done the job. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gs4rg2m7epw2as1bdzjr7zsz)) - never again would I walk into the future unprepared for foul weather. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gs4rwh7p2ckfx2r1pnz1pngr)) - Among other things, it plugged me into the future; I was visualizing the game ahead, “seeing” what would happen. I could close my eyes and literally see all twenty-two men running and responding to some specific play I had drawn up. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gs7ax6eqv9c5jptqec0q7fn8)) - Most leaders take this no deeper than the first level of inquiry. You must envision the future deeply and in detail—creatively—so that the unforeseeable becomes foreseeable. Then you write your script for the foreseeable ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gs7azdjt34t8zfy08rz48mfc)) - What is the width and depth of the intellect you have applied to your own team’s contingency planning? What is the extent of your own “scripting”? What could happen tomorrow, next week, or next year that you haven’t planned for, aren’t ready to deal with, or have put in the category of “I’ll worry about that when the time comes”? Planning for the future shouldn’t be postponed until the future arrives. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gs7dctcbnyramvkvwdpxde1e)) - What about the quantity and quality of talent on my team? Doesn’t that override everything? Of course you need talent, but talent is not the only factor. And at the upper levels of competition, talent becomes much more evenly distributed. Thus, for working purposes my 80/20 ratio is quite good. Additionally, regardless of the level of talent in your organization, you have got to maximize the 80 percent when it matters most—on game day. Those same numbers, in my opinion, applied not only to the San Francisco 49ers but to our competition, as well. I recognized that my job as a leader was to get more out of my 80 percent than the opposing coach and his staff could get out of their 80 percent. I believe a parallel phenomenon holds true in business. After all, in business, every day is game day. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gscedq51rm58gza2mmvm3r1t)) - Planning for foul or fair weather, “scripting” as it applies to your organization, improves the odds of making a safe landing and is a key to success. When you prepare for everything, you’re ready for anything. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gscekkr237fdtmhtas483cxb)) - In planning for a successful future, the past can show you how to get there. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsdrkddqmvryswnfskcjxwg1)) - For example, he knew that organizations have leaders within, not just one leader, the CEO or head coach, but interior leaders who make possible or prevent what the guy in charge is trying to accomplish. In football they’re called locker-room leaders, and ultimately they play a major role in creating the culture of the team—instilling either a positive or negative mindset. Every organization has them, influential people who’ve got your back—or are putting a knife in it. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsdrqj5pat8p9k30z3q8xqf6)) - Bill was smart enough, strong-willed enough, to get rid of talented people if they were contributors to a negative organizational culture—not team players. Those he allowed to remain he allowed to thrive—letting guys like Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott influence others in their own positive and individual ways without Bill telling them how they should do it. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsf121qesq96bbgj4j0sy8sf)) - There is an inner compulsion—obsession—to get it done the way you want it done even if the personal cost is high. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsj0n8rbtncy3ea8mjsesgbc)) - You look around the room and find yourself with only a few supporters. Or perhaps not even a few. Heads are bowed, everybody’s eyes are lowered, looking down at their hands, embarrassed to look at you. You may be standing alone. This is when you find out if you’re a leader. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsmcmfnsf88rb0ga0ypyvp8t)) - Tags: #leading - A leader must have a vision, which is simply an elevated word for “goal.” Significant time and resources will be applied to achieving that goal. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that you proceed and persist for the correct reasons; your tactics must be sound and based on logic seasoned with instinct. If I led our team down the road to failure, I wanted to make sure the quality of my reasoning was very solid. If we went down, I wanted to go down for the right reasons. That’s tough enough to take, but what is toughest of all— what is inexcusable—is to fail because you are unwilling to admit that your way was the wrong way and that a change of course is your only path to victory. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsmd7dazsafwyxyr0m3t2qc8)) - Here’s a short checklist worth keeping in mind when it comes to persevering, to doing it “your way” at all costs: 1. A leader must never quit. 2. A leader must know when to quit. 3. Proving that you are right or proving that someone is wrong are bad reasons for persisting. 4. Good logic, sound principles, and strong belief are the purest and most productive reasons for pushing forward when things get rough. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsmdat1js98shzd4yt3kgyk0)) - 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. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsmgc6wsdm0w5k1267mymgyr)) - 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. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsmgdwkrvdxfmn1hkqabt0mg)) - While it is critically important to concentrate on the smallest relevant aspects of your job without losing sight of the big picture, it is easy to become so completely overwhelmed by ongoing setbacks that you start focusing on issues completely extraneous to improvement in an attempt to keep from having to look at intractable problems. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsnfc65kg5repshm3r3q957n)) - The trademark of a well-led organization in sports or business is that it’s virtually self-sustaining and self- directed—almost autonomous. To put it in a more personal way, if your staff doesn’t seem fully mobilized and energized until you enter the room, if they require your presence to carry on at the level of effort and excellence you have tried to install, your leadership has not percolated down. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsnfz1pf4t1wwskz97826b7x)) - Tags: #auto-organization #culture - Ideally, you want your Standard of Performance, your philosophy and methodology, to be so strong and solidly ingrained that in your absence the team performs as if you were present, on site. They’ve become so proficient, highly mobilized, and well prepared that in a sense you’re extraneous; everything you’ve preached and personified has been integrated and absorbed; roles have been established and people are able to function at a high level because they understand and believe in what you’ve taught them, that is, the most effective and productive way of doing things accompanied by the most productive attitude while doing them. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsng3h705xsvvymt33ntxbnw)) - The responsible leader of any company or corporation aggressively seeks to ensure its continued prosperity. It’s the mark of a forward-thinking leadership. A strong company that goes south after the CEO retires is a company whose recently departed CEO didn’t finish the job. If everything goes great when you’re around but slows or stops in its tracks when you’re not there, you are not fulfilling your responsibilities. Your leadership has not percolated down. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsngk1db5mk0xks6jxncpdmj)) - From time to time, leaders must show this hard edge. They must make those around them somewhat uneasy, even ill at ease, in not knowing what to expect from you, the leader. The knowledge that there is this hardness inside you can have a very sobering effect on those who might otherwise be sloppy—those who occasionally need to be reminded of your policies and practices. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gspth6pannne5axyqqsqjdkh)) - Members of your organization should be empowered by the expertise and motivation you offer—the Standard of Performance you have defined—but also by their very clear understanding of the consequences of taking you too far. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsptgnk9kxtt8z6namx9gv7f)) - Leadership is expertise. It is not rhetoric or cheerleading speeches. People will follow a person who organizes and manages others, because he or she has credibility and expertise—a knowledge of the profession—and demonstrates an understanding of human nature. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsptkvvh30hrmzg8pxdtdw34)) - The great leaders in sports, business, and life always have the most powerful and positive inner voice talking to them, which they, in turn, share with and teach to their organization. The specifics of that inner voice varies from leader to leader, but I believe all have these four messages in common: 1. We can win if we work smart enough and hard enough. 2. We can win if we put the good of the group ahead of our own personal interests. 3. We can win if we improve. And there is always room for improvement. 4. I know what is required for us to win. I will show you what it is. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsptt2vd299482x5v9aas4r3)) - Speak in positive terms about former members of your organization. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gspvpeynrvf2a2f3g8tw715v)) - Communicate on a first-name basis without allowing relationships to become buddy- buddy. Deep resentments can develop when others see you playing favorites by exhibiting a special bond with select members of the group. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gspvrn2zp7khyd08dgmp1m0q)) - 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. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gspvth9frtqv04s0tpzzbjtk)) - Nevertheless, it’s easy to get caught up in or enamored of lofty titles, praise, and flattery as you subconsciously attempt to become the character others have created out of who you are. That character isn’t you, but it’s an addictive attraction if the plaques, awards, and commendations start rolling in. Believing your own press clippings—good or bad—is self-defeating. You are allowing others, oftentimes uninformed others, to tell you who you are. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gspvzptkzv51584yws0hwk46)) - If you’re growing a garden, you need to pull out the weeds, but flowers will die if all you do is pick weeds. They need sunshine and water. People are the same. They need criticism, but they also require positive and substantive language and information and true support to really blossom. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gspwryvv5mfx6bsvy15jvskm)) - Constructive criticism is a powerful instrument essential for improving performance. Positive support can be equally productive. Used together by a skilled leader they become the key to maximum results. Most of us seem to be more inclined to offer the negative. I don’t know why, but it’s easier to criticize than to compliment. Find the right mixture for optimum results. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gspwxxqze0s3ttw9texm41dj)) - a leader’s personal example is perhaps the most powerful teaching tool, but words have their own power and specificity. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gspx06t3mb93rm08jsv6psyg)) - He discussed how to wear the uniform, how to dress for meals, how each player was expected to keep his locker in order. He told players how he wanted them to respond to coaching, how to take notes during lectures, how teaching would be done, and what to expect from each assistant coach. Brown covered such specifics as punctuality, the training-room rules, what would happen when players were waived (this always sent a chill through the group), and the overall environment he intended to create. Furthermore, he shared his policy of treating each player—stars, backups, veterans, rookies, free agents— equally, with the same high level of respect and dignity. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gspx0yxcsgs6c2ectafr8r5v)) - A leader must know when his team is making a lot of noise signifying nothing. UCLA’s coach John Wooden summed it up like this: “Don’t mistake activity for achievement.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gspxcc8wq5hgfy7r6k1aq10z)) - Big Ears Are Better Than Big Egos ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsvz86v5wvc5rhyh9mmmrb6n)) - Quality collaboration is only possible in the presence of quality communication; that is, the free-flowing and robust exchange of information, ideas, and opinions. And “having big ears”—the skill of being a great listener—is the first law of good communication. (The second law is “When you’re not listening, ask good questions.”) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsvzce9nmddaws56ktgvdv5d)) - Eating a tuna fish sandwich and drinking a Pepsi next to players was an unassuming way to break down barriers and facilitate organizational familiarity, which facilitates better interaction. Your can also learn a lot while eating your sandwich. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsvzqd0r2xykspw8jsrrr4ad)) - 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. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsz0nvejwp9mcp44tmdemrdh)) - Sometimes you snarl; sometimes you bite; sometimes you smile and give a thumbs-up. There’s a little bit of the actor in all good leaders. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsz16cd2rqkr20c378amm9tz)) - People say there are winners and losers in life. But typically, it’s more like this: There are winners, and there are people who would like to be winners but just don’t know how to do it. Intelligent and talented people who are motivated can learn how to become winners if they have someone who will teach them. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsz1p790pvqan50ab584a33m)) - Leadership, at its best, is exactly that: teaching skills, attitudes, and goals (yes, goals are both defined and taught) to individuals who are part of your organization. Most things in life require good teaching— raising a family and educating children, running a company or sales team, or coaching athletes—so it’s unfortunate that more people don’t spend the time and thought required to do it effectively. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsz1q9w172wtxkx1kwe0zcag)) - the source of my greatest pleasure in leadership. In my experience, this is what it takes to be a good teacher: passion, expertise, communication, and persistence. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsz1r5cqh3qyfzzhpadkgqdq)) - For me it was a fundamental source of personal joy. I was consumed by the process of developing the abilities of others. You do it because you really care for it; you do it because you have to. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsz1vs8pm6vd9t9p41871d22)) - Here’s a good rule of thumb: “The more you know, the higher you go.” To advance in any profession, I believe it is imperative to understand all aspects of that profession, not just one particular area: Only expertise makes you an expert. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsz1yqytwmcq63ah8h2y4tmq)) - Communication is the ability to organize and then successfully convey your informed thoughts. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsz22vvx66s1fv661hzqa5vr)) - Your enthusiasm becomes their enthusiasm; your lukewarm presentation becomes their lukewarm interest in what you’re offering. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsz2zkjh71v97a5a846fw8p2)) - Remember Sun-tzu: “With more sophistication comes more control.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsz353s8dmka9r1yyvvm2frt)) - If you don’t love it, don’t do it ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gsz3ev8hkdt0rany0x1tjpvj)) - He didn’t want puppets, however, guys just taking orders. He would even throw out some radical schemes on plays for us to consider, just to shake up our thinking. He wanted input, but once the decision was made, he wanted it carried out precisely. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gt12cer0rnxs1b2bfmp36pvd)) - Essentials of a Winning Team: People, Priorities, and Performance ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gt12f9v32g7hsd8n9c8zrrfs)) - You’re as Good as Your Good People ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gt12kqetvtd46jm4gek2sdqc)) - A fundamental knowledge of the area he or she has been hired to manage. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gt12vvy66pj1scp517yk01wh)) - A relatively high—but not manic—level of energy and enthusiasm and a personality that is upbeat, motivated, and animated. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gt12wbce3hybmh3rggpsazzz)) - The ability to discern talent in potential employees ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gt12wj8p1mrzdakftd8gz6wr)) - An ability to communicate ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gt12wpnv7er4kmx8ypgscjpb)) - Unconditional loyalty to both you and other staff members ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gt12wwkdzha66nq7wan7rncf)) - The second-richest man in America, Warren Buffett, says one of his biggest challenges is to help his top people—all wealthy beyond belief—stay interested enough to jump out of bed in the morning and work with all the enthusiasm they did when they were poor and just getting started. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gt1336rnrhvt1kjmm7n9s6s0)) - assumption that you can win at will, turn it on when it counts. The time to turn it on (and leave it on) is before it counts. In fact, my belief is that it counts all the time. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gt5a545h2gnwpb1qg0e2erbc)) - when you couple contentment with underestimating the competition, you—all by yourself— have set yourself up for defeat. Imagine that. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gt8nd505nf01qvj02azfbfjs)) - Formally celebrate and observe the momentous achievement—the victory—and make sure that everyone feels ownership in it. Praise, bonuses, and other rewards can make it special. This is a unique opportunity to strengthen the bond everyone feels to your organization, especially the special role players who get less attention. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gt137k5rgjd6cw0bppraa5xw)) - Allow pats on the back for a limited time. Then formally return to business as usual by letting everyone know the party is over. Nevertheless, don’t tighten down too far. Victory can produce enormous energy—so powerful and overwhelming that in sports grown men will burst out in tears and run around like little children at Christmas. You must channel that powerful force and enthusiasm into the work ahead to solidify and build on the gains made by your team in achieving their recent success. Make sure the power of your victory propels you forward in a controlled manner. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gt14k2qaxe0q87bep4rhcdqe)) - You need to stretch people to help them achieve their full potential. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gt8nhaf08hzeekcet0yxd5e2)) - The most powerful way to do this is by having the courage to say, “I believe in you,” in whatever words and way are comfortable for you. These four words—or their equivalents—constitute the most inspirational message a leader can convey. There are many different ways to do it, but the fundamental and underlying message must always be the same: “I believe in you. I know you can do the job.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gt8nhny8t6mmcgrvc3gegjb1)) - In my experience, there has never been a leader who arrived fully formed, who figured it out all by him- or herself. Ralph Waldo Emerson described a great and creative person as one who “finds himself in the river of the thoughts and events, forced onward by the ideas and necessities of his contemporaries. Thus all originality is relative. Every thinker is retrospective.” We learn from others. Always there are mentors—some official, some unofficial. We apprentice when we are young, and it should continue even when we are old. A good leader is always learning. The great leaders start learning young and continue until their last breath. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gt8nq57e5b58bg0a2zvz2rmx))