Is coaching truly a key to innovative success?

Six years ago, as part of promotion of our book The Intrapreneur's Journey, we wrote about the strategies of the most accomplished of business coaches, Bill Campbell, known as the "Trillion Dollar Coach". Bill was the focus of our article, along with Steve Jobs and Intuit co-founder Scott Cook.

Since then, the biography of Bill Campbell, entitled "Trillion Dollar Coach - Bill Campbell", by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle , has come out, and the book reveals more wonderful details about the techniques and success of this great business leader.

Before diving into Bill’s top coaching lessons, let's address a simple question– Are you, and every member of your management team, excellent coaches?

If the answer is no, well is there perhaps a high priority area for improvement sitting on your horizon?

The essence of Coach Campbell’s success in business, which in many ways was phenomenal and unparalleled, is rooted in a couple key insights– (1) great leaders ARE great coaches, and (2) success is all about the team, not the "brilliant" or "transcendent" individual.

These insights, and this implied manner of behavior (rather than a hollow set of words), indicates the central keys to driving peak performance and continuous growth.

When we distill the "how" behind great coaching, we see that not only is humble inquiry, honesty, trust, encouragement, keen summarization, and deep empathy for all team members (as well as the customer), the essence of coaching, but the team dynamics which support these mindsets and behaviors, are of primary importance.

To go deeper with great business coaching, we have three suggestions for you–

1. Read our original blog post, Great Coaching, which covers the coaching acumen of Bill Campbell, Steve Jobs, and Scott Cook
2. Pre-order the new international version of our book "The Intrapreneur's Journey, now co-authored by business professors Mjumo Mzyece and Diran Soumonni (see below for more info)
3. Do yourself a real favor and pick up a copy of "Trillion Dollar Coach - Bill Campbell" by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle

Happy coaching!

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In our book The Intrapreneur's Journey, Hugh Molotsi, Mjumo Mzyece, Diran Soumonni and I have written about how companies can drive growth by empowering employees to work on their own ideas. Our soon-to-be-released second edition includes new African innovation case studies.