champion lead

In the last month, there have been two cumulative cases of strategy being undermined by culture. As I said in my other article, “Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast,” we can’t move forward with implementation. These are the cases:

1. The new commercial director of a shipping company unilaterally canceled the commission paid to the seller without notice, simply because “the commission is too high for her”.

2. The business manager is a veteran of a logistics company, and he does not allow others to follow up on “his customers” because he is the “only expert” and others “know nothing”.

Two years later, I was finally going on a beach vacation, and I decided to buy a book that was sure to give me a new perspective: Eleven Rings by Phil Jackson. If you like the NBA, you know who it is; but if not, read on because you don’t need to know it to learn Phil. This gentleman gave Michael Jordan five titles and Kobe Bryant five titles. Neither has won a championship under another coach. He is the coach with the best record in league history.

After years of validating how the most successful companies we’ve worked with have the best leaders, I wanted to take Phil’s theory and apply it to the business world.

My attention was strongly drawn to the concept that Phil used as the basis for his success, which was based on Dave Logan’s concept of tribal leadership and identified five stages in the evolution of a tribe or team:

1. “Life sucks.” Characterized by typical aggressive gangsters.

2. “My life sucks.” Made up of people who consider themselves victims.

3. “I’m cool and you’re not.” Winning is personal and your competition for success is at home. most common stage.

4. “We are great, but they are not.” Tribal pride stage, full integration, fierce competition.

5. “Life is great.” Extraordinary and rare, unite tribes and contribute to the world.

When Phil came to the Bulls, they were in the third period, and Michael Jordan felt superior to his teammates but was also intimidated by them. He was able to make Jordan’s competitive spirit a catalyst for his teammates, make them a valuable complement to Jordan, and make Jordan support his teammates’ development. Only by entering the fourth stage can they become champions.

Which of Phil’s leadership principles can you apply in your company to move from Stage 3 to Stage 4?

As you will see from the list, he is a spiritual man who constantly quotes Buddhism, Lao Tzu, Sioux, etc.

1. Don’t worry about trophies, create conditions to get trophies, and trophies will come. Obsession can lead to emotional fuzziness and loss of control.

2. Delegating as much power as possible to promote the leadership of others, but paradoxically, this only strengthens leadership.

3. Generous, leaders empathize with anxious young people and open their hearts to work as a team in more meaningful ways.

4. Team meditation, ten minutes a day, let us breathe unanimously, and be able to live in the moment in the critical moment of the game.

In my experience, all of Phil’s teachings apply to your company. They’re not all you need to know to be a business leader, as the lack of strategy and infrastructure concepts doesn’t apply to leading a basketball team, but when it comes to managing people, you don’t need to know more to be a champion leader. ..