"Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers." - Harry Truman
Truman used the rhetorical technique of chiasmus to get his point across (A - B, B - A) which we'd learn in Mark Forsyth's The Elements of Eloquence. We remember JFK's inaugural address including, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."
Rereading great books outweighs reading a dozen mediocre ones. Basketball leaders are readers - George Raveling, Gregg Popovich, Mike Neighbors, and Steve Kerr to name a few.
Lasting ideas, concepts, and quotes can arise anywhere. Some are dos, others don'ts. A book might share a couple of extraordinary ideas, like these from David Cottrell's Monday Morning Leadership.
- "The main thing is the main thing."
- "People don't quit jobs, they quit people."
Legacy. James Kerr's masterpiece analyzes the power behind the New Zealand All Blacks rugby dynasty. I've read it three times.
The Score Takes Care of Itself. Bill Walsh left behind more than a football legacy for the 49ers. The 49er Standard of Performance applied equally for players, coaches, the guys who striped the field or staff answering the phone. "How we do anything reflects how we do everything."
The Art of War. Sun Tzu taught principles that lasted for millennia. "Every battle is won before it is fought."
The Leadership Moment. Michael Useem teaches lessons starting in the introduction, asking four questions, "what went well, what went poorly, how can we do better next time, and what are the enduring lessons?" He profiles leaders who may not be well known but whose decisions changed lives.
Leadership in Turbulent Times. Doris Kearns Goodwin is one of America's greatest historians. She profiles the Roosevelts, Teddy and FDR, Abraham Lincoln, and Lyndon Johnson and how their personal struggles affected their leadership and our nation forever.
Benjamin Franklin. Walter Isaacson examines the life and times of Benjamin Franklin, scholar, author, founder, patriot, military leader, scientist. From the University of Pennsylvania to fire departments, Franklin was "The Man."
Vision of a Champion. Anson Dorrance's UNC soccer women have won over twenty NCAA titles. He shares his ideas about excellence, about the daily grind of the competitive cauldron and much more.
The Captain Class. Sam Walker looks at over a dozen athletes who changed teams forever. The ascent and decline of the team corresponded to the arrival and special influence of their leader. Many are not household names. Walker shares, "But what I discovered was that the great captains of these teams were not obvious people. They were rarely stars. They did the grunt work. They also had other surprising characteristics, like they embraced dissent and conflict inside their teams."
Extreme Ownership. Jocko Willink lead a Navy SEAL unit. He doesn't portray what his team did as just winning, but a hard slog to accountability with wins and tragic losses along the way.
Sapiens. Yuval Harari explores humankind from 70,000 B.C. to the present. How do civilizations rise and fall? Why have men dominated across societies? What defines empires and how many have coalesced to a few. Leaders require followers and the capacity to understand and connect with people is the story of humanity.
I anticipate the arrival of Bill George's True North today, which shares interviews with 125 leaders.
About a quarter of Americans never read a book. In the video at the top, Coach George Raveling shares that slave masters often hid money in books, because slaves were forbidden from learning to read. They had no reason to take books off the shelves. What's our excuse?
Summary: Books to consider for our summer reading
- Legacy
- The Score Takes Care of Itself
- The Leadership Moment
- The Art of War
- Leadership in Turbulent Times
- The Vision of a Champion
- Benjamin Franklin
- The Captain Classification
- Extreme Ownership
- Sapiens
Lagniappe. Chris Oliver shares tips on training basketball skill and decision making with one-on-one drills.