Next Level Blog

The Teacher as Leader: Paul Samuelson and Phil Jackson

Some of you, having read the title of this post, are likely asking yourself, “What could possibly be the connection between a Nobel Prize winning economist and a 10 time NBA championship coach?”  Fair question.  I’d just ask that you bear with me for a few paragraphs because I think there is a common lesson to be learned from the life of Paul Samuelson and the career thus far of Phil Jackson.  But first, a bit of background.

Paul Samuelson died over the weekend at the age of 94. To say that he shaped the field of economics in the 20th century and into the 21st is an understatement. As two of his colleagues at MIT once wrote, “he has been more than a role model;  he has been the role.”  Samuelson shaped the practice of economics through his book The Foundations of Economic Analysis and made his discipline accessible to millions through his textbook, Economics.  He had a hand in teaching at least seven other Nobel laureates and reached at least four million students around the globe over 60 years (I was one of them.) with his textbook. His theoretical contributions are too numerous to mention here but include the idea of the multiplier effect, the theory of public goods, linear programming and the correspondence principle which shows the link between the behavior of individuals and the stability of the entire economy.  Probably his greatest accomplishment was  developing what he called the neoclassical synthesis. His big idea was that when an economy is near full employment, the forces of supply and demand will create equilibrium. But, when employment falls (as it has so dramatically this year), then government must intervene through spending, tax cuts and lowering interest rates to keep the economy going. Fortunately for the global economy, a lot of finance ministers around the world were schooled in the Samuelson approach and followed his teachings late last year and early this year.  (Check out the New York Times or the Financial Times  for more on Paul Samuelson.)

Phil Jackson, on the other hand, is still very much alive.  He came to mind today when I read a story in the Sports section of the New York Times about how Kurt Rambis, who used to play for Jackson in LA, is working to install the triangle offense in his new job as head coach of the (relatively woeful) Minnesota Timberwolves.  Basketball aficionados know that Jackson first used the triangle with the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls and has since gone on to use it in coaching the Lakers to four championships. Jackson learned the triangle from a veteran coach named Tex Winter who had learned it from a USC and Iowa coach named Sam Barry. The triangle (which is explained in this graphic from the Times) is so simple it’s hard. As Rambis said, “It really teaches players how to play. It teaches players how to move without the basketball, how to read defenses, how to play together.”

Here’s what I think is the thread that ties the Samuelson and Jackson stories together in a inspiring way for leaders. Both of these men became experts in their chosen fields and both benefited from the teachings of others. They both, in turn, dedicated significant portions of their careers to refining what they learned and then passing those lessons on to others. Both Samuelson and Jackson were links in a chain of learning that began several generations before them and now extends to generations beyond their own. 

In the day to day pressure of leadership, it’s easy to forget what shaped you as a leader and way too easy to overlook the opportunities you have to shape the next generation of leaders. Those opportunities exist in any field of leadership whether it’s economics, sports or anything else you’re involved in.

So, as this week begins and 2009 draws to an end, here are a few questions to consider. What valuable knowledge have you learned from others?  What are you doing to build on that knowledge and pass it on?  What difference might that make?

Obama, Immelt and American Leadership

This was a big week for notable speeches. Of course, there was President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo on Thursday. There was also a speech delivered by GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt for West Point’s Distinguished Leader Series on Wednesday. Both speeches were interesting to me because of the multiple audiences they sought to address and the needles they chose to thread. You can find the text of the Obama speech on the New York Times web site and the text of Immelt’s speech on this GE web site. Immelt’s speech was entitled, “Renewing American Leadership.” Obama’s Nobel speech was essentially on the same topic. They’re both worth reading if you want to get some insight into how two influential leaders view America’s role in the world.
 
Of the two, I thought I’d highlight one section of the Immelt speech in this post. In his remarks to the cadets, Immelt used the second half of his time to identify five leadership traits that he says he is personally working on and that he thinks are important to the success of GE in the future. He said that leaders:

• “Have to be better listeners…
• Must become systems thinkers who are comfortable with ambiguity…
• Must build competency and move with speed…
• Must motivate with vision, but win with execution…
• Must like and respect people…”

That’s a pretty interesting list. I was encouraged and a little surprised to see that listening was the first trait he mentioned. Not necessarily what you’d expect from the head of one of the world’s largest companies.

If you were creating your own list of the leadership traits that are required for success in the 21st century what would it include? What do you agree or disagree with on Immelt’s list? From a development standpoint, can liking and respecting people be coached and taught or do you just have to hire for it?

I’d love to hear what you think on these questions or any better ones you come up with.

A Life Well Lived

Last night in Washington, DC, a memorial service was held for Abe Pollin in the Verizon Center, the arena that transformed a neighborhood and that he built with his own money a little more than 10 years ago.  Washingtonians knew Pollin as an NBA and NHL owner, a real estate magnate and a philanthropist. I never met the man, but have been moved by the many tributes that have been written about him since he died of a debilitating neurological disease just before Thanksgiving.  

His life was what Zorba the Greek referred to as the “full catastrophe.” The son of an Ellis Island Russian immigrant, Abe Pollin went on to build a real estate business and sports empire that made him a wealthy man. He was married for 64 years to his wife, Irene, and had just given her a bouquet of flowers for Thanksgiving in the moments before he passed away. Those who knew him tell story after story of his philanthropic work and the connection he made with those he served whether it was starving children in Uganda, low income families in DC that needed a safe and clean place to live, or creating futures for kids by paying for their education. 

At the same time, Pollin suffered setbacks and tragedies in his life. He and his wife lost two children to disease. He had contractual disputes and lawsuits to deal with over the years. He was the NBA owner who fired Michael Jordan as the Wizards’ general manager in 2003 when Jordan was still held in the highest regard (Pollin was right on that one.).

His was a life well lived. He had vision. He had drive. He was loyal. He had a heart and acted on it. He was also stubborn and didn’t take criticism well. He wasn’t perfect, but he was a human being who stuck with it for 85 years and in the process helped a lot of other human beings. I’ve been thinking about writing about Pollin for the past couple of weeks. What prompted me to go ahead and do it was this column in today’s Washington Post from Mike Wise. In it, Wise tells the story of Pollin’s barber for 40 years, Jose Ayala. The barber told Wise of how, on a Saturday morning 15 years ago, Pollin helped out in the shop by picking up a broom and sweeping the mounds of hair off the floor. The bigger story, though, was how Pollin helped Ayala adopt his son from Venezuela after his wife had had two miscarriages. The barber and his wife had been to the country and met the one week old baby at an adoption agency. Bureaucracy got in the way, however, and they returned to DC without a son. The next Saturday, Ayala told Pollin what had happened and, as Wise recounts, Pollin said, “Listen, you are going to adopt this child and I will help you. Don’t worry, I will take care of you. The main thing is you have your son.”  From there, Pollin paid for his high end attorneys to run the traps on the adoption process. Today, Jose’s son is a 19 year old college lacrosse player.

If you want to understand the heart of a servant leader and how one life can impact thousands of others, read about the life of Abe Pollin. As you read, look past the wealth that Pollin created and look instead at how he paid attention to and acted on what he felt in his heart. No matter the level of financial resources available to us, we all have opportunities to serve others. 

Here are some Abe Pollin articles I recommend:  Maureen Dowd’s, Colbert King’s, George Solomon’s and Peter Perl's Pollin obituary in the Washington Post.

Retiring Tiger Woods from the Repertoire

Anyone who’s been to one of my presentations or group coaching programs over the past three years knows that I’ve been a big fan of Tiger Woods (readers of this blog know the same thing through posts like Think Like Tiger,  Who’s Your Caddy?  and Tiger’s No Good, Horrible Very Bad Weekend). As a matter of fact, I’ve regularly illustrated two of the most popular leadership tools I’ve shared with my audiences and clients with examples inspired by Tiger. So, in addition to being one of many disappointed fans, the whole Tiger mess that started on Thanksgiving night is going to compel me to retire some really good stories from my repertoire.

As an example, one of the slides I’ve used a lot over the past few years is a picture of Tiger watching the flight of a monstrous drive with the question, “What Do You and Tiger Need to Have in Common?” as the headline. In asking my audience members for their top of mind response, I’d usually get some humorous answers like a “Swedish supermodel wife” or “corporate sponsors.”  We’d all have a good laugh at answers like that. After the events of the past couple of weeks, I don’t think I’d ever get the audience back if I asked that question. Honestly, can you imagine the answers I’d get if I asked it now?

The answer that I used to have in mind when I asked the question was a clear swing thought.  As most golfers know, a swing thought is the mental process you go through before you hit the golf ball.  It’s the visualization process that answers two questions:
 
1.    What’s the outcome I’m trying to create?
2.    How do I need to show up (or swing in the case of golf) to make that outcome likely?

My point has always been that those questions extend far beyond golf.  They’re good questions to get in the habit of asking oneself before starting anything that matters.  Good questions, but not ones that I’ll be explaining with Tiger Woods stories for awhile.

So, while acknowledging that the whole story for Tiger has yet to play out, I thought I’d share a few leadership lessons that I’ve thought about in relation to Tiger over  the past couple of weeks. (The premise here, much like my post a few months ago on the management of the Washington Redskins, is that you learn from examples of bad leadership as well as good. Just never thought I’d be writing one of those kinds of posts about Tiger.)

Something Positive You Can Do

As I write this on Friday, I’m thinking back on the serious and crazy events of the last week or so. The first few that come to mind are President Obama’s speech on the troop increase in Afghanistan, the White House jobs summit, the White House party crashers and the whole Tiger Woods debacle. If all you focused on was this kind of stuff, a person could get sort of down.

Fortunately, I’m at the annual meeting of the International Coach Federation in Orlando this week and there are  a lot of other things to pay attention to. I just attended what was probably the best session of the conference for me which was a talk on the “Science of Coaching with Positivity” by Barbara Fredrickson who is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of North Carolina. She’s also the author of Positivity which I just picked up at the conference book store. It looks like a great book based on a quick scan. You can read more about her work at www.positiveemotions.org.

Fredrickson’s research shows that positive emotions are inherently impermanent. That presents a challenge for all of us since her research also shows that in order to show up at our best cognitively, socially, psychologically and physically, we need a ratio of at least three positive inputs for every one negative input. She offers an entire tool kit for building positivity in her book and offers some free tools online at www.positivityratio.com.

For now, here’s one thing she shared with us this morning that you can try with someone you care about (e.g. co-worker, teammate, child, life partner). Fredrickson’s research shows that gratitude is a game changer in transforming relationships. It turns out, though, that there is a right way and a wrong way to say thanks. Let’s start with the wrong way. Don’t thank someone for doing something and then immediately start talking about how it benefits you. Instead, when you thank someone put the focus on them and talk about how what they did for you is reflective of the larger qualities that you appreciate in them. The example that Fredrickson gave was a husband who thanked his wife for bringing a lemon square home for him from an office party. He didn’t talk about how much he loved lemon squares (even though he did); he talked about how her bringing home the lemon square was an example of how thoughtful she is.

So, in the midst of this crazy and stressful world we live in, I encourage you to look for some opportunities today to spread some positivity. Go find someone who’s done something you appreciate and offer them a high quality “thank you.”  They’ll feel better and so will you.

Cheers.