Lessons on Leadership From Bill Russell

Coaches and leaders often ask, “What can I do to make myself better now? What can I study that might help me expand my knowledge and improve my craft?” Solving problems outside of conventional thinking requires curiosity and imagination. Bill Russell had both.

He always made those around him better. Whether it was on or off the court, Russell was willing to sacrifice himself for the higher goal. He understood his most significant achievement would be measured not by scoring titles, but by how he improved his teammates’ performance. Winning is what he stood for. He won gold medals for his country during the 1956 Olympics and NCAA basketball championships in 1955 and 1956 with the University of San Francisco, where legendary UCLA Coach John Wooden labeled him “the greatest defensive man I've ever seen.” Russell capture 11 NBA Championships with the Boston Celtics, nine as a player and two as a player/coach. He understands how to win, what it takes to win, the process that goes into it, and most of all, the dedication toward one common goal.

In 2001, Russell, along with writer David Falkner, wrote a book detailing the “Russell Rules,” 11 Lessons on Leadership. Each is sensational and can help any leader at any point in his or her life. However, lesson No. 9 stood out in part because it focuses on an often overlooked leadership tool — the ability to focuses on imagination, seeing the unseeable. How can we find better solutions by using our imagination and our curiosity?

Before we use this skill set, we need to separate imagination from inspiration. Inspiration is exercising and evaluating or stimulating influence upon the intellect or emotion, whereas imagination is the image-making power of the mind. For Russell, all great leaders have great command of the subject matter and often restructure problems to see new situations in a new light, thus discovering new insights.

As an example, Russell said: “Beginning in my freshman year, I developed the concept of horizontal and vertical games. I made a distinction between the two that others had not done. The horizontal game meant how I played side to side. The vertical game was how I played up and down. I knew that if I could integrate the two games, our team could win. I would always be in a position to determine where the ball was and where it was going. In the end, imagination and creative thinking are simply the realizations that there is no particular virtue in doing things the way they have always been done. My innovations came from first asking, ‘Why?’ and then thinking ‘Why not?’”

What Russell did was take a creative leap, but use divergent thinking, which then empowered convergent thinking, ultimately leading to a practical solution. As leaders, we must always seek new methods to fuel our creative minds. Then our imagination will be able to solve problems we never thought we could.

P.S. If you are in search of a book recommendation, our team at The Daily Coach highly recommends Russell Rules: 11 Lessons on Leadership From the Twentieth Century's Greatest Winner by Bill Russell and David Falkner. The star center of the Boston Celtics reveals the eleven essential steps to attaining success in one's professional and personal life, offering the insights, memories, and enduring philosophy that made him a star.

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