(Note: I presented my synopsis of Phil Jackson’s Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success last Friday. I’ll have a few more blog posts in the coming days from this very useful book).
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Your leadership team could take a brief excerpt from Eleven Rings by Phil Jackson once a week for about three months, and not run out of great conversation starters.
Here’s one:
I’d ask them to commit to being coached that season, saying, “God has ordained me to coach you young men, and I embrace the role I’ve been given. If you wish to accept the game I embrace and follow my coaching, as a sign of your commitment, step across that line.” The essence of coaching is to get the players to wholeheartedly agree to being coached, then offer them a sense of their destiny as a team.
Phil Jackson incorporated rituals into his leadership. This is one of them. He would gather all of the members of his team together, draw a line, and ask them to step across that line to demonstrate their commitment to following him as their coach — for that season.
In other words, he would demonstrate that they had to take his coaching, and their learning, seriously.
I have a hunch that every leader (every manager; supervisor; coach) could benefit from such a tangible, physical ritual.
Of course, that means that the leader has to take his or her role as seriously as Phil Jackson took his.
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My synopsis of Eleven Rings, with handout+ the audio of my presentation, will be available soon at our companion site, 15minutebusissbooks.com.
First Friday Book Synopsis 