Let Them Lead

Taken from an interview in the New York Times with John Bacon, who wrote the book "Let Them Lead" about coaching one of the worst hockey teams in America. A key part of his leadership approach is giving up control and letting his players take ownership.

Was handing over control of the team to the players themselves what turned things around?

Bad teams, nobody leads. Good teams, coaches lead. Great teams, everybody leads. It works. It works at ice hockey. It works in newsrooms. It works during Stanley Cup runs. It can work in any company. But it’s scary, and it takes courage.

How does it work?

You identify what is essential, what is negotiable, and what is a deal breaker. A lack of trust is a deal breaker. In the work world, once trust is broken, you’re not going to get it back.

At first, I only trusted them to stretch and count simultaneously, and they couldn’t do it. It was that bad. But as time went on, they assumed responsibility for themselves as a group. We just kept doing it. My belief was, over time we’re going to learn this thing. The cool part was by the end of the summer, we were out in the field stretching and if a parent or the athletic director came up to me, I could say, “Seniors, you run it,” and they would.

Be patient with results. Don’t be patient with behaviors. If the behaviors are right, you’ll get there. By the end of the third year, one night I said, “OK, seniors, you are going to coach the entire game.” And they went out and smoked the other team.