Book Review: Eleven Rings

I just finished reading the EXCELLENT book, Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success by Phil Jackson. Jackson was a player and ultimately a coach in the NBA. He won 11 championships (and the rings with them) in his career. Six with the Lakers and 5 with the Bulls. Don't make the mistake of dismissing this book as a piece of basketball history.

This book is about leadership and Jackson's approach to winning. Jackson's coaching/leadership style is grounded in the religion of his parents, Zen Buddhism and the spiritual teachings of the Lakota. Jackson believes in always learning. For me, the book has four major themes:

- Love
- Mindfulness
- Tribe or Tribal Leadership
- Selfless Leadership.

Regarding "love", Jackson quotes from Sebastian Junger's book, "War" (which I also highly recommend by the way). Junger states that the most essential ingredient for team success is "love." Love is what bands the band of brothers together. Jackson also quotes his brother who believes that one of the things that can help you cope with fear is love. (The other is faith.)

Mindfulness is about quieting your monkey brain and focusing on being present. Jackson brough in George Mumford to help the Bulls. 

George taught mindfulness as a way of life, what he called “meditation off the cushion.” That meant being fully present not just on the basketball floor but throughout the rest of the day as well. The key, he said, was not just to sit and calm your mind but to learn to read and react effectively in any situation based on what’s happening at that very moment.

Jackson refers heavily to Tribal Leadership by Dave Logan et al. (Added to my reading list.) Logan and company lay out their thoughts on the 5 Stages of Tribal Leaderships. Tribes/groups exist in any one of the 5 stages and can move from stage to stage. The five stages of tribal development are: life sucks, my life sucks, I'm great and you're not, we're great and finally, life is great. Jackson leads his teams through these stages to get them to perform at high levels.

Throughout the book,  Jackson shares his leadership style. He believes in Selfless Leadership. He believes everyone is a leader. He wants his players to think for themselves, not look to him for decisions. He believes is distributing power. Jackson said, "...the more I tried to exert power directly, the less powerful I became." He believed that leadership "is not about forcing your will on others. Its about mastering the art of letting go."

Again, this was a fantastic read. I strongly recommend it. It will set you on a path for sure. As I sit here reflecting on the book it strikes me that this is a book about systems thinking. Jackson shares his system with us. His system is about systems thinking. How to get the system (team) to run harmoniously. Wow.