No One Wins Alone – Leading others, building teams and inspiring greatness by Mark Messier
This book is part autobiography and part what it takes to lead a hockey/sports team or a Fortune 500 company.
Mark starts off with recalling his childhood years playing youth hockey and the importance of believing in the goodness of each of us and learning lessons of resolving conflict and living together productively even within our own immediate families.
As Mark’s career progresses from junior hockey to professional he begins to get into what it takes to make a team, a program, or an organization become successful. In his mind it begins with a leader(s) who is honest, communicates well, inspires others, sets a vision and purpose while setting boundaries of positive reinforcement and discipline or consequences for negative actions. Leadership needs to truly care and value all those in the organization for people to even want to give their best efforts or go above and beyond.
Finally, he sums up his career and reflection by “if you want to go fast, go by yourself. If you want to go far, go together”.
This book hits close to home for me literally, as Mark grew up in St. Albert (a suburb of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) and I grew up in Fort Saskatchewan (another suburb of Edmonton) and when I was 10-11 years old I remember Mark’s early years playing professional hockey for the Edmonton Oilers.
So not only is this a trip down memory lane and back into my childhood, but it also represents the the leadership I saw in a young Mark Messier though out his hockey career. These prior mentioned principles apply to my life in leading a family of 8 and owning two businesses and managing all the relationships associated with that, not limited to all the patient interactions and leading people to make better healthcare choices naturally.
