The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership

Being a football coach, I am always trying to learn more about strategy as well as ways to motivate young men. I have always been intrigued by Bill Walsh. After all, the man did reinvent the game of football, and made it into what we know it as today. I am a fan of his previous books, and when I saw that this book was being released, I knew that I had to get my hands on it. The book is a little unconventional, in that it is published posthumously. You can tell that the work was not quite finished, and Steve Jamison does not shy away from this fact. What you have is the words of Bill Walsh, supplemented with those that knew him best. Bill's son Craig, Joe Montana, John McVay, and Mike White, all give their insight into what made Bill Walsh such a spectacular person. The beginning of the book is a little dry, as it is mostly Steve Jamison explaining how the book came to be. However, once you get to Part I, you find out quickly what this book is about...Leadership. The examples that this book gives comes from the football world, but can be applied to life in general. This book has given me a better understanding about the ways in which Bill Walsh was able to be a successful leader, but more importantly it has made me think about ways that I can become a better leader. As I was reading this book, I also began taking notes on how to create my own "Standard of Performance."

Great insights into the ideas that took Bill Walsh to the pinnacle of the coaching profession and the stressors that wore him down. The "Score Takes Care of Itself" relates to Walsh's "Standard of Performance" and the idea that if you have a consistently high quality process that you will produce a high quality product. You will always be in the base camp, close to the summit: As a coach, this book will help you build the assembly line. The quality car (and football team) will follow: Bill Walsh on the Standard of Performance: * Culture precedes positive results. It doesn't get tacked on as an afterthought on the way to the victory stand. Champions behave like champions before they are champions. * The exceptional assembly line comes before the quality car - strive to make your assembly line better and better. * All we can do is increase the probability of success. Do it by intelligently and relentlessly seeking solutions that will increase your chances of prevailing in a competitive environment. When you do that, the score will take care of itself. * Teach players to hate mistakes in games and practice - if you aim for perfection and miss, you're still pretty good...if you aim for mediocrity... * "Organizational excellence evolves from the perfection of details relevant to performance and production." * "I know what is required for us to win. I will show you what it is." * "There are winners and there are people who would like to be winners but just don't know how to do it."

I picked up this book as I am in business, lead a team and wanted to get better at coaching. Bill Walsh is a coaches coach as he brought about great teams, organizations, models and singlehandedly is responsible for many many coaches who are now head coaches. I think John Maxwell outlines all the coaches that came to head positions after working with Bill Walsh and it is pretty unbelievable. The author is great and telling a story, packing in a lot of information and showing the human side to Bill Walsh. I am familiar with the author as he wrote many John Wooden books which are very good. One huge takeaway from the book is Bill Walsh was an incredible smart and creative person. Reading 50 pages of the book you'll know that as it is JAM PACKED with tons and tons of examples, steps and plans on everything he did. I mean everything as it gets down to how he wrote job descriptions for the receptionist at the 49ers. If you are a coach or leader there is much to be gained as there is plenty to glean from and ponder to how you do and lead what you lead. Often I had to put the book down as there were so many different examples and things to think about as I was searching and thinking through how j could apply his examples to my work. The human side is very honest as well as it touches the coaches life in winning, losing, leading, coaching, family and brines of depression. Makes you understand what perhaps some coaches deal with. This is a great book for anyone who is a coach or business leader as you see a very honest a fine example of what goes into the habit and outcome of excellence which no doubt Bill Walsh created. I would recommend it.

This book is about Bill Walsh’s philosophy of leadership that he implemented with the San Francisco 49ers. It is inspiring and relevant for any leader or anyone who wants to be leader. He describes his Standard of Performance, a way an organization can achieve excellence and execute towards perfection, and the definition of success for the organization as well as concepts and fundamentals of leadership and the lessons he learned. What made these ideas come to life was the examples interspersed with the lessons in the book. When I started the book, I knew about Bill Walsh at a high level about Bill Walsh as the leader of the 49ers, just what I got from the news headlines. Now I have a better understanding and appreciation for the 49ers organization and what he did as the head coach and GM. I will be studying Bill’s values, principles, and leadership philosophy as I develop my own.

I read every day. I love to read. I love reading books that touch my soul. Today, I finished one of those books: “The Score Takes Care of Itself, My Philosophy of Leadership by the late Bill Walsh with Steve Jamison & Craig Walsh. A phenomenal read!! I love football (life long Cowboys fan) and I remember Coach Walsh beginning his time in San Fran and the infamous catch. This book gave me perspective on Transforming a toxic culture, how to lead with clarity, vision and and unwavering excellence in you do. I felt the conviction and sadness of a Master of his craft battle desperately trying to be honored by his peers who did not understand how far ahead of his time he was. The NFL of today owes Coach Walsh a debt of gratitude because his offense. He also revealed that every coach, executive “pushes themselves to the brink and beyond, often have no support system and become isolated from family, friends, and normal interactions.” His story teaches me to be a better life and leadership coach and to be a part of that “support system” leaders can turn to. Coach Walsh, your legacy lives on. Thank you. NFL fan? Read this book. Leader of an organization or team? Read this book. Feeling burned out as a leader? Read this book.

Wow, what a great book. I don't know how I came across this book as I don't watch football and have never heard of Bill Walsh but I'm happy I did. His leadership approach to football is straightforward and applicable to a variety of professions. If I could summarize his philosophy it would be that success is the result of attention to detail, every minute detail. What you read about in this book is a man who poured his heart and soul into what he loved to do. This isn't some fluffy do x,y,z and you'll get there type of book. This is about showing the insane dedication, work, and sacrifice it takes to excel at what you do. What also stood out for me was the brutal self-honesty of his own shortcomings which is refreshing to read in a profession with many big egos. I recommend this to anyone looking to improve upon their approach to work and/or life.

I understand it's difficult for Bill Walsh's son to write a novel that comprises mostly his own father's unfinished book. The book itself is full of anecdotes and enough insights into Bill Walsh's football career to make the book interesting and usually informative for running operations. The fault that I find is that there does not seem to be any real logical construction. There is no consistent theory or approach under which to place his stories or anecdotes. Instead, the book comprises a long list of 1-3-5 page snippets of how Bill Walsh ran his organization. Perhaps that organization makes for a good bathroom reader, but for someone trying to decipher a methodology or formula, well, the structure is simply lacking. As someone who has been involved in management and who closely followed the 49ers in the 1980s, the book is a fun, easy read. If you're looking for a guide to good management, there are some suggest embedded in the book, but you'll have to make your own cohesive theory and approach to bring it all together.

Bill Walsh was a very complex, yet interesting man. He tells others when he made mistakes, was a workaholic, but it also tells where he gets it from. For someone to turn around a franchise that had been dormant for a number of years and turn it into a winner is a feat in and of itself. From the time he was "blacklisted" by his own boss, Paul Brown, until he meets Tommy Prothro, who gave him a second chance, the book has great leadership traits. His love of military history does not hurt either...