Let Them Lead

Brad Park has been voted one of the 50 best hockey players of all time. The nine-time All-Star finished second of the Norris Trophy, awarded to the NHL’s best defensemen, a record six times, thanks to his one mistake: being born the same year as Bobby Orr, considered the best defenseman of all time. Here he talks about Team Canada coach Harry Sinden, who led the country’s first “Dream Team” of NHL All-Stars against the Soviet Union in the 1972 Summit Series.

Team Canada was supposed to win every game, but after winning just one game in the first five, plus a tie, Team Canada had to win all three games in Moscow. “We weren’t in the kind of shape they were, they played a style of hockey we’d never seen before, and we didn’t take them seriously – at first!” Park recalls.

But Team Canada discovered they had certain advantages, too: led by Sinden, they were smart enough to adjust, they knew how to handle a long series – unlike the Soviets -- and they created a team spirit where none had existed before during a two-game layover in Sweden, on the way to Moscow. They also had their country behind them. More Canadians watched the last three games in Moscow than the moon landing three years earlier. As Wayne Gretzky told me, “This was more important!

Under unprecedented pressure, and with Bobby Orr out with a bad knee for the entire series, Brad Park played some of the best hockey of his life, and Team Canada actually did win all three games, each by a goal, including Paul Henderson’s famous game winner with 34 seconds left in the final game.

“We learned humility and respect, and how to rely on each other,” Park recalls. “Hey, when it’s you against the world, you gotta come together! I’ll never forget it – and no one else will, either.”

This week we're sharing an interview I just did on Jeff Cohen's popular "Heart of Sports" radio show from Philadelphia's WWDB, 840AM. While it's focused on college football, the themes are all leadership, in real time: at the NCAA, where a vacuum of leadership is being filled by conference commissioners and others; at the University of Michigan, where the administration and head coach Jim Harbaugh are trying to figure out how to respond to potential NCAA sanctions, and more. As I say, the NCAA is great at misdemeanors and horrible at felonies, and they prove it here.

About our Host:

For info about the book or this podcast please visit our website:

http://www.letthemleadbybacon.com

http://www.johnubacon.com

You can connect with John via these platforms:

https://www.facebook.com/johnubacon

https://twitter.com/Johnubacon

If you have a TV you’ve probably seen former Federal Prosecutor Barb McQuade discussing the latest legal issue, almost daily. She’s also a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, and the author of the forthcoming book, “Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America.

In this episode McQuade talks about her start in journalism, and what it taught her, her shift to the legal world, and her rise up the ranks to Federal Prosecutor. Along the way she has become an expert on criminal law, criminal procedure, national security, data privacy, and civil rights. From 2010 to 2017, McQuade served as the U.S attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, the first woman to serve in her position.

Here she talks about what she’s learned from her best bosses, including the virtually lost arts of civility and collaboration, the importance of volunteering for opportunities others decline, and how she and her husband have raised four adult children – plus the impact her high school counselor had on her, and her career.

About our Host:

For info about the book or this podcast please visit our website:

http://www.letthemleadbybacon.com

http://www.johnubacon.com

You can connect with John via these platforms:

https://www.facebook.com/johnubacon

https://twitter.com/Johnubacon

This week we talk with two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Maraniss, whose bestsellers include biographies of Bill Clinton, Vince Lombardi, Roberto Clemente, and the city of Detroit itself.

Our discussion focuses on his Lombardi book, “When Pride Still Mattered,” one of the best biographies I’ve read on any subject, in any field of endeavor. In it, Maraniss dispels several myths about the legendary leader, including his reputation as a win-at-all-cost coach, and a tyrannical authoritarian. In fact, Lombardi believed it is better to lose honestly than win dishonestly, and that faith and family are more important than football. With his players he was undeniably a strict disciplinarian, but remarkably fair – especially appreciated by his African-American players – and surprisingly open to their ideas. And, in his personal life, he looked out for his relatives who were closeted homosexuals, showing that his love for them was greater than society’s approbation.

Maraniss took hundreds of personal interviews with the people who knew him best and transformed them, and his insights, into a deeply considered, well-rounded portrait of a complicated man, but one whose fundamental values are as important today as ever.

Launched in 1988, “Shark Week” is the world’s longest running cable TV programming event, broadcast in 72 countries. Its creator, Clark Bunting, served as President and General Manager of Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, and joins us on the Let Them Lead podcast to tell us how it started, how leadership works in cable TV, and how it succeeded – and other ideas failed, often spectacularly.

Here Clark, a proud Michigan State alumnus, brings his Midwest charm, humility, and humor to our conversation about cable TV in particular – including inside info even the most avid viewer wouldn’t know – and leadership in general, including: the importance of finding great mentors who “know more than you do,” showing respect for his colleagues and their audience; and always giving credit where credit is due.

“As you rise the ranks,” he says, “the skills you need tend to be less technical and more personal.”

Along the way we get great stories about everyone from Mike Rowe to Steve Irwin to Jane Gooddall.

“No one trains you to be famous,” Bunting says, “so it’s interested to see how they handle it.”

About our Host:

For info about the book or this podcast please visit our website:

http://www.letthemleadbybacon.com

http://www.johnubacon.com

You can connect with John via these platforms:

https://www.facebook.com/johnubacon

https://twitter.com/Johnubacon

This week we're addressing current events: two leadership failures, one very shocking, and the other not surprising at all -- alas. I taught at Northwestern University for six summers, and have great admiration for the university and its amazing football program under Pat Fitzgerald. I wrote about both at length in my book Fourth and Long, so I was stunned to learn he'd been fired for failing to stop a years-long hazing custom in his program -- and hazing might be euphemistic. Lawsuits are bound to follow.

The second failure comes from the NFL, an entirely amoral organization, where Oakland coach Jon Gruden had been fired a few years ago when his racist emails were leaked to the press. Now he's suing the NFL because he believes commissioner Roger Gooddell tacitly approved former Washington owner Dan Snyder releasing the emails. Clearly, there are no heroes in this story, they all pretty much deserve each other, and the value system is almost comical.

The other change of pace this week is delivering all this through my weekly appearance on WTKA.com, hosted by the great Sam Webb and Ira Weintraub, which results in a fast, focused, and often funny exchange among us. Please leave us a review and let us know what you think.

http://www.WTKA.com

About our Host:

For info about the book or this podcast please visit our website:

http://www.letthemleadbybacon.com

http://www.johnubacon.com

You can connect with John via these platforms:

https://www.facebook.com/johnubacon

https://twitter.com/Johnubacon

This is The Mark Divine Show, where I explore what it means to be fearless through the lens of the most inspirational, compassionate, and resilient leaders in the world, including folks from all walks of life: Stoic philosophers, motivational scientists, peace crusaders, and amazing journalists and coaches like my guest today, John U. Bacon. John’s a renowned sports journalist, radio personality, and author of 13 books, including 7 national bestsellers. But most interesting to me, he led the nation’s worst high school hockey team to become one of the best in three years, which we’re going to talk about today, from his book, Let Them Lead: Unexpected Lessons in Leadership From America’s Worst High School Hockey Team. He shares insights on leadership and the power of making things hard.

Some people are lucky enough to have one interesting career. Pat Hughes had two: playing in the NHL for nine years, then serving 20 years in the Ann Arbor Police Department, retiring as a Detective Sergeant. He played for legendary coaches Scotty Bowman in Montreal and Glen Sather in Edmonton, and alongside all-time greats Guy Lafleur, Wayne Gretzky, and Mark Messier, winning three Stanley Cups, then earned a reputation as one of Ann Arbor’s most respected law enforcement officers. He talks here about the lessons he learned along the way.

In this episode Pat tells us what he learned becoming one of the first college hockey players to get to the NHL – “There is no substitute for honest effort,” then playing for two hockey dynasties, the Montreal Canadiens and the Edmonton Oilers. While Montreal was an established, old-school organization, and Edmonton was run by young players whose coach gave them more freedom, the two clubs had a lot in common, as all winning teams do.

“Great teams are inclusive,” Hughes says. “They bring you in right away, and make you feel like you belong.” He explains how both teams did that, and made every player feel important and valuable to the team’s mission.

He also talks about both Hall of Fame coaches, Montreal’s Scotty Bowman, and his remarkable ability to influence his players, and Edmonton’s Glen Sather, who took a different approach in some ways, with a younger, looser bunch, but kept his finger on the pulse of his players, and still instilled the principles needed to win four Stanley Cups in five years.

Hughes also talks about what he learned playing alongside such all-time greats as Yvan Cournoyer, Guy Lafleur, and Ken Dryden in Montreal, and Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, and Paul Coffey in Edmonton, among others. A humble man, Hughes had to be prompted to discuss one of his highlights: five goals in one game against Calgary – the second highest total any NHL player has achieved, including Gretzky.

The conversation then turns to Pat’s lifelong interest in law enforcement, and how he realized his second dream by becoming a Detective Sergeant in the Ann Arbor Police Department, and the lessons he learned in his 20-year career, including how to settle down a college party run amuck without sparking a riot, and how to transfer his ability to stay calm under pressure from his hockey career to the AAPD.

We close with Pat describing his favorite teacher from high school, and his great advice about being either really smart or very organized. Pat jokes that he picked the latter!

About our Host:

For info about the book or this podcast please visit our website:

http://www.letthemleadbybacon.com

http://www.johnubacon.com

You can connect with John via these platforms:

https://www.facebook.com/johnubacon

https://twitter.com/Johnubacon

In this episode of the Let Them Lead podcast, host John U. Bacon sits down with Pete Heeringa and Chris Fragner, his former high school hockey captains at Ann Arbor Huron, the subject of Bacon’s book, Let Them Lead. They discuss the valuable life lessons they learned on and off the ice, proving that hockey is more than just a sport; it's a means of developing lifelong skills and relationships.

The explain how the team’s basic values – work hard, support your teammates – help the team define itself, and allowed the players to focus on their behaviors, which they controlled, not their results, which they often didn’t.

The two also share how they've made hockey a big part of their lives without playing professionally, by leveraging their passion to propel their careers in finance and engineering, respectively. They also discuss the lessons learned from former Michigan hockey coach Red Berenson, and their favorite teachers, Ms. Thompson and Professor Brophy.

That these two started out as high school players of Bacon’s, and have since become close friends and mentors themselves – their sons are older than Bacon’s! – is a testament to the depth of relationships sports can create.

About our Host:

For info about the book or this podcast please visit our website:

http://www.letthemleadbybacon.com

http://www.johnubacon.com

You can connect with John via these platforms:

https://www.facebook.com/johnubacon

https://twitter.com/Johnubacon

Doug Stanton wrote the #1 New York Times bestselling In Harm’s Way and Horse Soldiers. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer turned Horse Soldiers into 12 Strong, starring Chris Hemsworth. Stanton is interested in “dramatic situations when people are forced to make a right decision at the most difficult moment.”

Here we discuss In Harm’s Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Store of its Survivors, and the lessons it teaches on leadership, responsibility, and accountability to each other, after the absolute worst happens.

In July of 1945, after the Indianapolis delivered the atomic bomb to Tinian Island so the Enola Gay could drop it on Hiroshima, the Indianapolis was torpedoed by the Japanese, sending 900 sailors into the shark-infested seas. Due to several catastrophic mistakes by Navy command, no one came to the rescue for days after, leaving 600 men to drown or be eaten by sharks. (This is the scene in JAWS that Quint describes while drinking with his crewmates.)

To Captain McVay III’s great credit, he kept the men together and spirits up during four inhumanly hard days – a sterling example of leadership under tremendous pressure, by McVay and the men themselves -- until finally a U.S. plane discovered them by accident, saving 300 souls. Nonetheless, McVay became the first U.S. Navy captain to be court-martialed, despite testimony from his crew to the Japanese captain who torpedoed his ship. It was a grossly unfair outcome, but Captain McVay never blamed anyone else – though he surely could have. The survivors kept reuniting for years afterward, and through their efforts, McVay’s name was finally cleared in 2000 – 32 years after his death by suicide.

Stanton tells the story masterfully, and the leadership lessons it has to teach.

Connect with Doug and get his books:

http://dougstanton.com/

For info about the book or this podcast please visit our website:

http://www.letthemleadbybacon.com

http://www.johnubacon.com

You can connect with John via these platforms:

https://www.facebook.com/johnubacon

https://twitter.com/Johnubacon