Finding the Winning Edge - Preview
Legendary SF 49ers head coach Bill Walsh wrote multiple books about football and his coaching career. Most people know about The Score Takes Care of Itself, where he talked about his coaching philosophy and how if you have a process in place, do the little things right, and focus on getting better each day that winning usually follows.
Far fewer people read his other book, Finding The Winning Edge. This was not only difficult to get a hold of because it’s out of print and I had to read a PDF copy online, it’s also over 500 pages and goes into detail like no other book I’ve read. Where The Score Takes Care of Itself talks about his coaching philosophy, Finding The Winning Edge spends an entire chapter on why having a coaching philosophy in and of itself is critical.
My goal with these podcast episodes (also in blog format) is to discuss the major themes from the book, tie them into the lessons from previous podcast episodes, and apply everything to team building.
When I started podcasting several years ago I had experience working as part of several teams with jobs both in and out of sports. Now that I have experience building and growing a team within a major organization, the lessons here resonate more with me now than they would have back in 2020.
There are 2 main takeaways from the book that will span across all future episodes/posts, the first is that Bill Walsh had a singular focus on perfection. Every day. Every practice. Every play. Every meeting. Every situation.
The second is that he viewed coaching as teaching. In his words, “Of all the accomplishments I may have achieved over the years, I value the relationships with my coaches and players above all else. The ability to help the people around me self-actualize their goals underlines the single aspect of my abilities and the label that I value most — teacher.”
So keep an eye out over the coming weeks for episodes/posts discussing leadership, competition, coaching, building an organization, and many more valuable lessons.