On Thursday this week, Paul & I were lucky enough to be invited to an event in Derry where the great Dan Rooney was talking about leadership.  Dan Rooney is Chairman of the Pittsburgh Steelers (his father Art Rooney founded the team in 1933) and current US Ambassador to Ireland.  Last time I ran into him was in the White House in March – he was standing next to me.  Anyway – this is what he had to say.

He started by remarking on how much he likes the Hewlett Packard story – which endeared him to me straight away.  One of my favourite bits of the Jim Collins book, Good to Great, is the description of Level 5 leadership as demonstrated by Dave Packard & I just love the fact that his eulogy pamphlet described the great man as “Rancher, etc”. 

As you would expect from someone with a lifelong immersion in competitive sports, Dan uses sports analogy to make all his points.  He talked about the 3 levels of leadership in his own sports world as being:

1.       The President as leader – the president’s role is similar to that of any business CEO.  They are responsible for setting the scene, making sure everyone’s doing their job, actually getting the players...I can relate to that.  I see recruitment as one of the most important things I do as a small business MD.  Dan himself was President of the Steelers from 1975 until 2002 & it’s clear from the way he talks about the role that it was something he enjoyed very much.

2.       The Head Coach as leader – the coach is responsible for all player related issues and for making sure the team is ready & able to play at their best on a Sunday.  The coach deals with any people issues and keeps everyone focused on winning.  The Steelers had only 3 coaches in 30 years.  Their legendary head coach, Chuck Noll, was there for 23 years (1969 to 1991)and 4 Superbowl wins, more than any other head coach in NFL history.  Impressive.  Noll is known for his meticulous attention to detail which included going back to basics with new players to the extent that he would re-train them in basic fundamentals that they would already be familiar with.

3.       The Player as leader – this one is interesting as it’s less obvious than the other two.  Dan Rooney cited the example of the intelligent player in the locker room that knows what’s going on & is willing to do what it takes.  He used the example of Steelers stalwart, (Mean) Joe Greene – leader and anchor of the “Steel Curtain” and one of the most dominant defensive players in the NFL during the 1970s.  A player with an intense desire to win, no matter what that would take, and who would rally everyone else on the team.

Dan Rooney left us with a great quote about leadership – “when things are good, always be at the back; when things are bad, always be in the front” – a variation on Jim Collins observation about the window & the mirror I believe.  Eloquent & to the point – rather like Ambassador Rooney himself.

Today’s blog is a question rather than a whole bunch of answers.  The photo is a snapshot of what was on the bookshelf in Learning Pool’s communal bathroom yesterday (bit of Ally McBeal-ism goes on at Pool Heights imagining the glamour of a fictional & quite eccentric Boston law firm whilst dealing with the reality of living as a fast growing Derry based online learning business).

My business partner & I are voracious readers of business & technology books...we buy them all the time at airports, when we’re hanging around in railway stations and the like.  We swap them with each other, circulate bits & pieces of them to others in our team & then we chuck them into the communal Learning Pool “library” where we hope others will also read them.

At the moment, I’ve got Jim Collins’ “Good to Great” on the go as well as Richard Koch’s "80/20 Principle"; Paul’s reading Guy Kawasaki’s “Enchantment” and something by those bright guys at Hubspot on “Inbound Marketing”.

But my question is how do we get the more junior members of our team to read more?  Has anyone got any ideas about this or is that just the way things are?  Very interested to hear your comments on this topic.