ED (Seth): Oh, a new book by Bacon dropped. It’s about when he was the coach of the worst high school hockey team in the state, and he had enough leadership stuff in there  I haven’t gotten a chance to read it yet, but it’s on the docket as soon as I can get this offseason to the finish line. You can get it from Bacon’s website, or wherever you prefer to get books.

He’s also doing an event TONIGHT at the Michigan Theater with Ira Weintraub, and Carol Hutchins. You can get in for $5 or in with a book he’ll sign for $35. Need a mask and your vax card to get in. Michigantheater.org.

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John, by way of Brian Cook and Seth Fisher, asked me to review his new book, Let Them Lead: Unexpected Lessons of Leadership from America’s Worst High School Hockey Team, without other direction. No one said to me “give it a good review;” or even tepid encouragement to “say something nice.” Rather, I was just asked for the favor of my thoughts.

I admit I wasn’t overly enthusiastic. While I am always up for the story of the downtrodden becoming, well, much less so---who, after all, doesn’t like Major League and its ilk---the title took away all secrets of what the text is about—leadership and (mostly) not hockey.

Generally, self-help books are a pass for me. “I’m OK, You’re, OK?” It might be OK, but I don’t care. My preference is historical fiction from the period of the Weimar Republic, something noir or, even, say, a sports book about basketball or hockey.

But I promised, and I was surprised. The writing is smooth and uncomplicated---I didn’t expect anything less---but as I went through it, I found (a) the Major League elements to be engaging and (b) even though I haven’t supervised anyone (except myself) for a long time, the core of the work grabbed me and held on.

[After the jump: Maybe we need this more than we thought.]

I once supervised at least as many people as John did at Huron Hockey, though, in retrospect, I can’t say I was a particularly good or bad manager of others. Mostly, I let my (nearly legion) competent staff do their thing and I got out of the way. I tended not to micro-manage. “In case of cardiac arrest, the first pulse to take is your own” was about my limit of my advice, save for when I was really pushed. However, the problems John encountered were not dissimilar from those I faced, and I can say, with complete honesty, this book would have helped me on a few occasions. Maybe more than a few. I wish he had written it in 1990.

I needed it more in 1978. I worked for many years in the court system as an attorney (employee) and later did referee work (sorta like a magistrate) before I supervised other lawyers and professionals. I was hired by a very fine man (oddly, his sons were and are friends of JUB) who had lost mooring with his bosses. His replacements were well-meaning and good attorneys who (in my opinion) never quite understood their agency’s role in the judicial system. I then worked for a man I did not respect though, thankfully, we tended to leave each other alone. In the end, I worked for a genius and the best bureaucrat I ever witnessed, and he needed no help from me that he could not define.

Through this sequence of managers, I was both a very good and a very bad employee. Yeah, I worked hard---more hours than were required--- and I often carried much of the weight of the system. Yes, I was creative in changing inefficiencies. But I could have helped my managers in ways that, at the time, I didn’t perceive to be in my job description. If I had read John’s book in in 1978, I would have grasped that I didn’t really need to be a designated manager to be a leader and organizer of the landscape I was in. This would have been in everyone’s interests; my bosses, my co-employees, the court system and my own. Leadership covers all those in an organization, something John details in a book that is fun. [One corollary, something that slides around the edges of Let Them Lead, is that you always have a really good chance to get something accomplished if you are willing to try and don’t care who gets credit.]

Let me sketch out, briefly, one of my favorite stories in Let Them Lead, one that mirrored a problem we had (with a similar solution) in the courts. In John’s first year Huron had five goalies. Who needs five goalies, and John determined he needed to release one. But, number five, Nate, was such a good kid Bacon did not have the heart to cut him, even though he “couldn’t stop a beach ball.” The following year Nate was a very distant third in the goalie competition. Goalies #1 and #2 were perceived as competent, but the coaches also believed that their interpersonal dramas were impacting their performances and the confidence of the team. After disappointing performances from the perceived-as-competent goalies, Bacon asked five assistant coaches which goalie to use. Two picked one kid, two picked another and one said, “Just pull the goalie and play with an open net all night,” something John writes would “have been funnier if he was kidding.”

No coach picked Nate, but John decided to start him “if for no other reason than to give him a chance and send a message.” It worked for the coaches, the team, and even the other goalies, who ended their feud. All of a sudden, Huron had a goalie the team had confidence in, and Nate was voted the team’s most improved player. The principle related is “Don’t try to predict who is going to succeed and who isn’t. Don’t get into the prediction business. Get into the production and promotion business.”

The book is loaded with these sorts of problems and solutions. If you are a manager or want to be a manager, I think Let Them Lead will be a valuable tool in facing the problems you will inevitably confront. But, of at least equal utility, if you are an employee within a system, business or structure that you care about, this book is even better, in showing how individuals who are not in charge can lead and make a difference. And if you are just looking for Major League, you may not be disappointed either, because it is an enjoyable story even if you just (like me these days) supervise yourself.