“Eleven Rings” shares the insider story of what it’s like to be the most successful NBA coach ever and to be the leader of the best basketball teams and talents of all time: Michael Jordan’s Bulls and Kobe Bryant’s Lakers.
Takeaways
- Love and brotherhood make winning possible
- Maintain respect as the leader
- Get the best players possible to win as much as possible
Summary
About the Author:
Phil Jackson was an NBA player and later NBA coach. He holds the record for most NBA championships by a team’s coach.
Foster an emotional bond among players (‘circle of love)
Phil says the circle of love is the secret sauce that takes teams from a bunch of individuals to a cohesive winning teams.
Of course, the author clarifies, it’s not about romantic love and not even brotherly love. What Phil refers to is the emotional connection that ties the warriors together in the heat of battle.
That kind of bond, of being willing to take a hit for a comrade, is critical to success.
Phil quotes Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright in their five stages of tribal development, which are:
- STAGE 1 – Despair, hostility, and the belief that “life sucks.”
- STAGE 2 – Apathetic players perceive themselves as victims and who are passively antagonistic. The mind-set is “my life sucks.”
- STAGE 3 – Focused on individual achievement and a mindset that “I’m great (and you’re not).” The tribe is a tribe of “lone warriors”
- STAGE 4 – Pride of belonging to the tribe and a belief that “we’re great (and they’re not). It requires an enemy, and the more powerful the enemy, the more powerful the tribe;
- STAGE 5 – A sense of innocent wonder and the mindset that “life is great.” (Chicago Bulls during 1995–98)
How to lead top performers
Jackson advises:
Depersonalize criticism
It allows coaches to criticize the play, not the players.
He was interested the players all understood the basics of the system, and every critique and feedback was about that, not about the player.
Distribute Leadership
The group, as a whole, had a purpose and each player was an important part of the system.
The players began teaching one another, and that formed a stronger bond that no individual glory moment could ever foster.
Phil Jackson says that Jordan at the beginning was working solo a bit too often and that he had to emulate Magic or Bird instead in working with the rest of the team. He has a great quote from Red Holzman:
“the real mark of a star was how much better he made his teammates.”
Merge sacred and practical
To enforce a sense of ‘bigger than the team’.
Hit the sweet spot: individual freedom with team-mindset
Jordan didn’t exactly love giving the ball away more often. But when he realized Phil wasn’t going to back down, he started looking for ways to make the system work to make him win. Exactly what Phil wanted.
Phil Jackson wasn’t looking for a totally selfless team where everyone is equal and there is no space for creativity.
He was looking for a middle way between systems and space for personal creativity.
Once the Bulls hit that middle spot, they took off.
Put a real leader next to the top performer (Jordan was not a natural leader)
Phil Jackson thought Jordan didn’t really have the charismatic personality of Larry Bird or Magic Johnson.
Jordan was not a natural leader, he was a natural doer who pushed the team with his will and with the high demands he placed on everyone around him.
The team needed someone else to balance Jordan’s perfectionism, so Phil named Bill Cartwright as cocaptain. Bill wasn’t afraid to stand up to Jordan.
Surround yourself with the best, drop the ego
The tendency for some of us might be to have weak people around us so that we can feel superior and in power.
Phil Jackson surrounded himself with the strongest and most knowledgeable people instead and then gave them space to contribute.
Obviously, Phil had a Growth Mindset. Read here on how to get a growth mindset.
Remove bad apples from the team (or they’ll spoil the bunch)
A great challenge for coaches is to stop the players who dislike them from corrupting the rest and undermining the team’s chemistry.
He quotes Casey Stengen:
“the secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided.
I have seen a few teams and small companies crash and burn because discontent spread like a virus.
As Greene says in the 33 Strategies of War, you’re better off removing these people.
Know your players (so you can better influence them)
Another great insight from Eleven Rings is that Phil Jackson made it a point to get to know his players.
He’d ask questions such as “what’s your greatest aspiration”, “whose influence you the most” or “what’s something people don’t know about you”.
He’d have them fill out questionnaires or use psychological tests such as the “social bull’s eye” to assess how players felt in relation to others.
Phil also mentions he never figured out a way to heal the wounds of players who didn’t feel part of the team for getting little playing time.
Change minds with buy-in, not dominance
To get Jordan on board with his plans, Jackson would not force anything on him.
He would treat him as a partner and ask him questions to switch his point of view. He’d ask how that strategy could improve the team, and what Scottie or Horace would feel about it.
When he let Jordan solve the problems and answer the questions by himself, he’d be more likely to buy into the solution.
This is TPM’s concept of ‘power protecting’:
Respect over ‘whipping boy’
Phil Jackson tried an old technique called “whipping boy”.
The “whipping boy” technique uses a single player for most of the criticism to motivate the rest of the team to bond together.
Jackson understood the whipping boy stratagem was a losing one and constructive criticism, respect, and compassion were the way to go.
Give Credit for Devotion
Phil Jackson quotes Liu Bang on the importance of giving credit to the players.
He says he would put players in the position to fully realize their potential and then give them credit for their achievements.
Then, as the grass grows toward the sun, the players would sprout towards the coach in devotion.
Dealing With Player Mutiny
Scottie Pippen famously refused to go back in the game once.
Phil stayed focused on the moment and looked for another player to take the shot instead of Pippen.
He then didn’t let the situation pan out without injecting his ego and escalating.
Pippen understood and the issue was behind them.
TPM Note: This is a risky approach, you risk losing the respect and power that’s needed to lead effectively.
As a leader you can’t be afraid to take a stand -or remove- a rebellious player.
Dealing With Rebels
How do you handle rebels like Dennis Rodman?
Phil says Dennis tried to buck the system, sometimes in small and childish ways, like showing up with an untied shoe or hiding some jewelry.
Sometimes Phil would make a joke, giving him a small fine, or simply ignore it.
And once Dennis realized nobody was interested in his little pushbacks, he stopped.
My Note: This must be a strategic choice rather than fear of disciplining
This highlighted the psychological need of some people to stand up to authority just for the sake of not following orders. Once you ignore them, the issue often goes away as they don’t feel pressured anymore.
Standing Up to Bullies
Jackson mentions the fight of Jordan vs Kerr.
He says that after he had stood up to Jordan, Jordan looked at him differently and never picked on him anymore. And he started trusting him on the court more as well.
My Note: This highlights again the importance of standing up to bullies (see an example here on: how to deal with an alpha male handshake)
Consider a clear status-structure to prevent competitiveness
Phil Jackson talks about the rise of Scottie Pippen as a player and as a leader.
Scottie was more human than Michael and better at relating with other players.
He says that in every successful team, he’s coached, players had a clear idea of their role in the team. Having a clear structure helps reduce the players’ stress because there’s no need to jostle around for power.
Read more in our guide:
Be direct with direct men (or you look weak & lose respect)
Phil says that the more freedom he gave Kobe, the more combative he became.
Jackson would later understand that Kobe took his laissez-faire approach as indifference. And while in the past he had been passive-aggressive, now he was openly aggressive.
Phil says he realized there wasn’t much he could do to change his behavior, so he focused on dealing with his own anger in reacting to Kobe’s anger outbursts.
TPM Note: It feels like Jackson made a leadership mistake here.
By going indirect when Kobe expected straight talk, he came across as sneaky/passive aggressive himself. That’s not what people perceive as a masculine approach. Next, allowing Kobe to run slipshod, Jackson was showing weakness.
He was signaling he wasn’t strong enough to stand up to Kobe, and people don’t like weak leaders.
Says Kobe:
Kobe: (says he expected direct talk but Jackson never gave it to him)
Use loss as fuel to resurrect
Phil says, there’s nothing like a humiliating defeat to focus the mind.
To him it means reaching that stage of deep camaraderie arising when a group commits to something greater than themselves, no matter the risks standing in the way.
It involves covering teammates’ mistakes and weaknesses and even fouling when necessary to protect a friend.
There’s nothing like a humiliating defeat to focus the mind
Review
“Eleven Rings” is a great book to understand leadership of elite-level performers from a practitioner’s point of view.
Since Jackson doesn’t always provide clear examples and leadership lessons learned, you must be good at reading between the lines to tease out the strategies and power dynamics, something we’ve partially done for you in this review.
In general, to lead top talent, you must be a top talent in power and leadership.
If you’re interested in high-power leadership of top teams, you can check out our science-backed program aimed precisely at ambitious men and leaders:
