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The Score Takes Care Of Itself: My Philosophy Of Leadership (2009)

by Bill Walsh(Favorite Author)

4.08 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1591842662 (ISBN13: 9781591842668)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Portfolio Hardcover

review 1: Published after his death, the book is a collection of Bill Walsh's leadership talks and lectures, loosely collected into sections that don't always describe the content. I got the feeling that I was reading a collection of excerpts one after another, without much connection.There are two sides to this book. One side is for NFL fans in general, and 49ers fans in particular. Walsh illustrates his points with a lot of great stories about the teams he coached, focusing mostly on his phenomenal success with the 49ers. The book describes (in random fashion) the steps he took to achieve four Super Bowl wins - both the ups and the downs. If the book focused on that, with the leadership "philosophy" integrated into the narrative, this would be a much more interesting read. But it'... mores presented as a leadership philosophy with football as the backdrop. Walsh was a autocratic micro-manager to the extreme. I suppose that would work very very well in sports, but in the corporate world, your best employees are going to jump ship fast. Walsh tries to sugarcoat his methods, at times illustrating his supportive and encouraging side. If you dial back his over-bearing approach, you might find success with his methods. However, there is nothing new here that you won't find in a thousand other leadership books (I know I have read dozens). The book is really about Bill Walsh's coaching philosophy. I hesitate to recommend it as a leadership philosophy that you should emulate.
review 2: I don't know if I could have worked for Bill Walsh. But I've worked for guys like him-obsessive, attention to detail, micro-managers who unrelentingly strive for perfection. But I learned much from them. It's sad Bill is no longer with us-would love to hear his take on everything happening today. This is a great book about leadership. He worked hard, perhaps, too hard to win. But it wasn't about winning initially. It was about mastery of your craft and striving for perfection. But success can be a drug and tear people apart. Bill talks all about this too. Some great stories in here not only from Bill but those closest to him-his players, coaches, and family. Bill was all about creating an ethos of mastery and doing the right thing. It's a how to and how not to book with a mea culpa thrown in. But it all comes down to knowing when to know when to do something and Bill was a real master at that most of the time. He was truly ahead of his time and suffered (according to himself) from a real lack of respect from his colleagues and the hierarchy of the NFL. But he showed them. less

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