Trillion Dollar Coach
by Eric Schmidt & Jonathan Rosenberg & Alan Eagle · 2019
In a nutshell
Trillion Dollar Coach imparts founders leadership lessons from Bill Campbell on team-first culture, trust-building, and coaching for scaling trillion-dollar companies. Key use cases include high-impact 1-on-1s, radical candor feedback, and fostering psychological safety in team building. Compared to High Output Management, it prioritizes relationships and emotional intelligence over operational systems.
Overview
Bill Campbell played an instrumental role in the growth of several prominent companies, such as Google, Apple, and Intuit, fostering deep relationships with Silicon Valley visionaries. This book explains the Coach's principles and illustrates them with stories from the many great people and companies with which he worked.
Key Principles
- People First: Your title makes you a manager. Your people make you a leader.
- Build Trust: The foundation of every relationship is trust
- Team First: The team is paramount, and the most important thing you can do as a leader is to help the team be successful
- Love: You have to care about people, both as professionals and as individuals
- The Importance of Storytelling: Stories create connections and help people understand context
- Operational Excellence: Great leaders sweat the small stuff
What Founders Will Learn
- How to build high-performing teams
- The importance of 1-on-1 meetings done right
- Giving feedback that actually helps people improve
- Creating psychological safety for innovation
- Balancing tough decisions with genuine care for people
- The role of a coach in scaling companies
About Bill Campbell
Bill Campbell coached dozens of Silicon Valley's visionaries including Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, and Sheryl Sandberg. He was a former football coach who became one of the most sought-after advisors in technology.
Authors
Eric Schmidt (former CEO of Google), Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle compiled this book based on interviews with over eighty people who knew and loved Bill Campbell.
Available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats. Published by Harper Business in 2019.
Reference
Trillion Dollar Coach — publisher / official page. Summary adapted from the Awesome Startup Books collection.
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