Bill saw all the chess pieces all the time, because he had the luxury of not being on the board.
This line stood out the most for me in #trilliondollarcoach because it reminded me of the concept of the balcony in Ron Heifitz’s Adaptive Leadership theory. He defines it as “getting off the dance floor and going to the balcony,” an image that captures the mental activity of stepping back from the action and asking, “What’s really going on here?”
Bill Campbell coached without any skin in the game per se — no stock, no cash, no direct incentives — but he had his heart in the game. Even if you don’t have that luxury, you can still go to the balcony for the perspective. More often than not, that’s all it takes to see past the emotions in the room, and converge.