Score Takes Care of Itself

The book that I chose for our Leadership Book Forum project is The Score Takes Care of

Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership. It was written by former NFL coaching great Bill

Walsh. He was the innovator of the “West Coast Offense” which is used to this day by many

teams, whether it be High School, College, or the Pro’s. He won three Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. After he retired from the 49ers, he lectured on Leadership at Stanford University and to corporate groups.

In this book I noticed several models of Leadership that were used. The first was Leadership Style which consists of two different behavior patterns used to attempt to influence your subordinates. Those two behavior patterns are Directive behavior which accomplishes goals by being given directions, establishing goals and methods of evaluation, setting time lines, defining roles and showing how the goals are to be achieved. They answer what is to be done and how it’s to be done. The second behavior pattern is Supportive behavior which helps team members feel comfortable about themself. Some examples of Supportive behavior are asking for input, solving problems praising, sharing information about oneself, and listening.

Leadership Styles is broken up into four categories of Directive and Supportive Behavior. Directing (High directive-low supportive) the leader focuses on communication for goal achievement and uses little time on supportive behaviors. A leader gives instructions about what the goals are, how to achieve those goals and then supervises them to make sure it (goal) is accomplished. Coaching (High directive-high supportive) the leader focuses communication on both attaining goals and meeting the socio emotional needs of his subordinates. The leader gives encouragement and takes in consideration advice given to him by his group. However the leader still has the final say so on how the goal will be...