Listening Leadership

I'm a believer that you can learn things from anyone--even from your enemy. As a result, I am reading Bo Schembechler's book on leadership, Bo's Lasting Lessons: The Legendary Coach Teaches the Timeless Fundamentals of Leadership. Many of you know that I am a die-hard Buckeye, so this is a stretch for me--although it's not as difficult as you might think, because Bo actually started his career as an assistant to Woody Hayes at Ohio State.

In any event, last night I read something interesting. Bo shared how on Tuesdays and Wednesdays before a game, much of his time was spent in long meetings with his assistants devising a game plan for the coming game. He gave explicit instructions to his assistant that nobody could interrupt them, not even a phone call from the president of the university...or even the president of the United States!

There was one exception to this however. If any player, whether they were a star player or a lowly walk-on, came to see him, she was to interrupt the meeting immediately so that he could talk with them. He said, you need to take care of those on your team and when you do this they will play much harder for you.

This is impressive to me. I can see that I need to do a better job of this in many areas of my life, especially with those in my family. Thanks for the lesson Bo!