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They called him the “Trillion Dollar Coach” because he coached executives at some of the largest companies in the world, including Google, Facebook, and Amazon, to name a few. I’d like to share one piece of key advice that he shared with those executives, who included Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs, among others, and how this advice applies to engineering firms.
I recently shared the following in our Engineering Management Pulse, a column I send to engineering executives, learning, and HR professionals, on or about the first day of each month to help them best develop their most important resource, their people.
The story of Bill Campbell intrigued me, primarily because of my executive coaching training, but also because of his career. Bill Campbell was a high school and college football coach until age 39. Yes, age 39. He then decided to jump into the corporate world, only to become one of —if not the most — famous and successful executive coaches ever.
People refer to him as the “Trillion Dollar Coach” because companies such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, and others wouldn’t have been close to as successful as they are without Campbell coaching their leaders.
What was the key piece of advice that Campbell shared with his clients? He told them that the top priority of any manager or leader should be the well-being and success of his or her people. He was so adamant about this philosophy that he developed what is known today as the It’s the People manifesto, which I’d like to share here:
“People are the foundation of any company’s success. The primary job of each manager is to help people be more effective in their job and to grow and develop. We have great people who want to do well, are capable of doing great things, and come to work fired up to do them. Great people flourish in an environment that liberates and amplifies that energy. Managers create this environment through support, respect, and trust.”
“Support means giving people the tools, information, training, and coaching they need to succeed. It means continuous effort to develop people’s skills. Great managers help people excel and grow.”
“Respect means understanding people’s unique career goals and being sensitive to their life choices. It means helping people achieve these career goals in a way that’s consistent with the needs of the company.”
“Trust means freeing people to do their jobs and to make decisions. It means knowing people want to do well and believing that they will.”
The sentiment in the manifesto and its ultimate mission is a great one, but there’s one problem. Many managers and leaders, especially those in engineering, aren’t great at interacting with people. Therefore, we can’t expect them to abide by this manifesto or the general idea that they should spend their time cultivating their people. First, we need to train them on how to interact and lead people effectively. Otherwise, we are pointing them to a road that they simply aren’t capable of traveling down.
Bill Campbell didn’t earn the name “Trillion Dollar Coach” for nothing. He knew that people drove the growth of companies and focusing on them should be the most important task for any leader.
“Leadership is about recognizing that there’s a greatness in everyone, and your job is to create an environment where that greatness can emerge.” ~ Bill Campbell
This article was originally posted on LinkedIn here.
How are you helping the leaders in your engineering organization lead people effectively?
Are you making this an important goal in the development of your greatest asset, your people?
At the Engineering Management Institute, we have a full suite of people skills development programs focused on just this.
If you’re interested in discussing how our Engineering Leadership Accelerator People Skills Course programs might fit into your organization’s development plans, feel free to message or call me directly at 800-920-4007.
I invite you to PLEASE SHARE strategies, in the comments below, that you have used to cultivate people for company growth.
