An uplifting leadership book about a coach who helped transform the nation’s worst high school hockey team into one of the best. Bacon’s strategy is straightforward: set high expectations, make them accountable to each other, and inspire them all to lead their team.
When John U. Bacon played for the Ann Arbor Huron High School River Rats, he never scored a goal. Yet somehow, years later he found himself leading his alma mater’s downtrodden program. How bad? The team hadn’t won a game in over a year, making them the nation’s worst squad—a fact they celebrated. With almost everyone expecting more failure, Bacon made it special to play for Huron by making it hard, which inspired the players to excel. Then he defied conventional wisdom again by putting the players in charge of team discipline, goal-setting, and even decision-making – and it worked. In just three seasons the River Rats bypassed 95-percent of the nation’s teams.
A true story filled with unforgettable characters, stories, and lessons that apply to organizations everywhere, Let Them Lead includes the leader’s mistakes and the reactions of the players, who have since achieved great success as leaders themselves. Let Them Lead is a fast-paced, feel-good book that leaders of all kinds can embrace to motivate their teams to work harder, work together, and take responsibility for their own success.
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“How do you take the country’s worst hockey team and turn it into one of the best? John Bacon knows the answer, because he made it happen. This book is brimming with brilliant, concrete, and actionable insights on leadership—like the importance of less theory and more practice, what we get wrong about motivational speeches, and why you should be strict on a few rules and loose on the others.But the best part is that Bacon’s a born storyteller. Some of his stories will inspire you, others will tug at your heartstrings. Some will do both—like the tale of the third string, quiet goalie who led his team to a championship season. But all of these stories will keep you turning the pages. This is the leadership book you’ve been looking for.”
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Susan Cain, New York Times bestselling author