Burson Holman of Granite Properties recently asked me the best book I have read on leadership, and it led me to compile a list of recommendations. What won’t be included: self-help books. Over the past five years, I’ve generally tired of books that are really just built-out outlines on a topic. Rather, I like to study people and topics through their stories. And there are lots of ways to get to their stories.
I’ll start first with Bill Belichick of the Patriots, as I find the organization and its leaders fascinating. A decade ago, I read David Halberstam’s book on Belichick, The Education of a Coach. The line I recall more than any other that best summarizes Belichick’s approach to players is: “The more you can do, the more you can do.”
What I notice in Belichick is an absolute focus on the present. This fall, I read a Twitter account of Belichick’s in response to a reporter asking what else Belichick could accomplish in an already legendary career. His reply was simple: “I want to go out and have a good practice today,” he said. Later, after Christmas, the Patriots picked up former Steelers linebacker James Harrison. Another reporter asked Belichick if he felt like this acquisition might provide “team intelligence” in the event the Patriots played the Steelers weeks later in the playoffs. Belichick quickly responded, “We’re playing the Jets this week.” He never looks beyond the task at hand, a practice I think is crucial.
Another leader close to Belichick—his star quarterback, Tom Brady—sets an example through his dedication to the book, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, by Don Miguel Ruiz. The book offers a quartet of directives: Be impeccable with your word; take nothing personally; make no assumptions; and try your best. Pay attention to Brady’s play and his interviews, and you’ll notice that whether he’s about to be down 21-0 in the second quarter of the Super Bowl and trying to run down a speedy Falcons defensive back, pressed on Deflategate, or flattered as the GOAT, he follows these principles precisely.
In tandem with Four Agreements is The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance, the seminal book in the field of sports psychology. What I took away from a leadership perspective is the importance of helping others remove judgment from playing any game (in the case of a tennis match, a player’s goal should be to fill his head with two thoughts: “bounce” and ”hit”), as well as the effectiveness of showing someone how to do something versus telling them how to do it.
To provide you with a quick example of how this plays out for me as a parent, my 6-year-old son loves emulating his 11-year-old sister’s volleyball spike. I can serve them both lobs all day and all night if I have the time. After a while, I tell my son, a righty, to hit with his left hand. Immediately, his power and control diminishes, and he’ll often offer up the perfunctory verbal acknowledgement that he’s not good with his left hand. Without explaining what I’m teaching him (to eliminate judgment), I remind him not to denigrate his effort and that we practice to improve. Markito, just try your best.
Next, David Ogilvy’s 1960s memoir, Confessions of an Advertising Man, is the original study of growing a business and, by default, leadership. You’ll feel his style with a dive into his book.
I have also previously mentioned my fondness for Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike. Speaking to leadership specifically, it’s interesting to see in Nike’s early days how Knight essentially assembles a collection of ragtag and pretty average businesspeople bonded together by a shared sense of competitiveness and then “leads” them to tremendous success largely by staying out of their way (even ignoring their pleas for assistance).
And finally, I have to mention former President George W. Bush’s book entitled 41: A Portrait of My Father. What a masterful and loving study of his father’s family and political career. We all should strive to create families where the parents so love their children and, in turn, are so adored by their children.
Here’s to a fantastic 2018, leading others and ourselves to great new heights!
Jon Altschuler is the founder of Altschuler and Co.
