Ryan Walter authors 'Simply the Best'
Mar 28, 2005 19:36:09 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2005 19:36:09 GMT -5
www.nhl.com/hockeyu/history/where/walter032805.html
Walter won a Stanley Cup as a member of the Montreal Canadiens.
Ryan Walter had a terrific NHL career that included winning the Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens in 1986.
After he captained Team Canada in the World Junior Championship, he was the second overall pick in the 1978 Entry Draft and became captain of the Washington Capitals in his second season.
He also was part of a blockbuster trade, going to the Canadiens with Rick Green in 1982 for Rod Langway, Craig Laughlin, Brian Engblom and Doug Jarvis.
He's also led a happy and productive life after his playing days concluded. Walter gained renown as a vocal Christian athlete and rallied others to more fulfilling, focused lives. He's a Sportsnet broadcaster and served as an advisor on the movie Miracle and the Canadian television series, Making the Cut. Look carefully, Walter is the referee in the U.S.-Soviet game in Miracle.
Walter has also authored three books, Off the Bench and Into the Game and Power Forward: Leading Strategies for Winning Teams came first. Then, last year, Walter and Vancouver Canucks' assistant coach Mike Johnston authored Simply The Best, a must-read for hockey fans who want to know the thought processes of such legendary NHL coaches as Scotty Bowman, Mike Keenan, Ken Hitchcock, Pat Quinn and eight others.
Johnston was a highly successful Canadian college coach and went on to great success with Canada's national teams. Thus, it's not surprising that Walter and Johnston reached out to others who had success in Canada's coaching ranks, including Dave King, George Kingston and Clare Drake. Canucks coaches are well represented as current head coach Marc Crawford, Pat Quinn and the late Roger Neilson also contributed. Brian Sutter, Jacques Demers and Andy Murray round out a cast that is presented as deep thinkers. Read the book and you won't disagree.
Walter and Johnston conducted in-depth interviews and drew from these coaches thoughts not normally expressed in the context of a game or a season. The questions are the result of more than 30 years of Walter's wondering about the role of leadership and its impact on teams. As a sought-after motivational speaker to businesses, Walter sees teams in other places than hockey rinks.
"When I retired, my wife, Jenny, and I took all the courses the NHL and the player's association put forward on transitioning into the world of real life. We were as ready as we could be," Walter said. "I had played 15 seasons in the NHL, so the cash side was we didn't have a lot, but we had enough. As ready as we were, it was difficult for everybody. I went into business and lost a business. Now, I have another business. I went back to school. I keep focused on my passions.
"I have two strong passions in my life, other than my family and my faith. My first passion is the game of hockey that I was so fortunate to play at the highest level. The other passion, and I didn't know this when I was playing, is understanding how leadership affects the high performance or low performance of teams. To be able to spend 2 1/2 years at the master's level exploring why that happens and how leadership impacts high performance has been amazing.
"There is an interesting evolution in life. I really felt like I needed to go back to school and grow myself. I'm four months away from a master's degree in leadership in business.
"My speaking career is an outgrowth of my NHL career. When I was a player, people pushed me upfront as a captain or an assistant captain. I got to like it and now I do a lot of keynote addresses and seminars on leadership for business. Long term, that's something that I want to do more.
"I tend to know lots of people in business and do my own marketing and I also have agents. Groups I address often have me come back five or six times to develop leadership teams."
As for his latest writing project, Walter wrote that he thought he'd have to ask 20 or more coaches to get the dozen respondents he sought. He was done by the fourteenth call. NHL coaches responded with enthusiasm to the project.
"We started out wondering what direction it would go. When we finished, we knew it was much more about how to develop a high-performance culture than it is about the Xs and Os. We were pleased with that," Walter said. "We knew we had the best coaches in the NHL and the world, masters of the art and science of leadership. The science being the systemic, it's more about the Xs and Os, who is on which line, etc. The art is about the dressing room. How is the leadership impacting the culture of our team? Simply The Best is a study of how organizations and teams can develop a high-performance culture.
"There are a couple of ways to dice and slice this book. Most people likely read it chapter by chapter. Others go directly to their favorite coach, then the next favorite. They'll look at Brian Sutter's chapter or Scotty's chapter because they want to know the way they think."
Walter and Johnston were well aware of Neilson's valiant battle with cancer when they started writing and made sure they got the thinking of "Captain Video" before it was too late.
"Our first goal was to get Roger Neilson's thoughts. His chapter is at the very end of Simply The Best.
"One of our motivations in wanting to do this project -- Mike and his wife, Myrna, and my wife Jenny were tireless workers on this project -- was that we felt there is so much great wisdom written from college basketball coaches to NFL and NBA coaches and not a lot about NHL coaches. But there have been some very good, thoughtful NHL coaches. When was the last time you quoted an NHL coach like you would John Wooden? That was our point in writing this book: Get the great wisdom of these fabulous NHL coaches out into the world. We boldfaced many of the quotes that we thought are the most important. With the boldface sentences, you can scan quickly to, for example, what Scotty Bowman thinks about leadership or Marc Crawford's thoughts on that subject."
Of the dozens coaches profiled, one was never an NHL head coach. Clare Drake is the most successful Canadian hockey coach of all time. He was no slouch as a football coach, either. In 1968, Drake's University of Alberta Golden Bears won the national titles in hockey and football. There's much more on him in Simply The Best.
"As we were preparing for this book, we kept asking coaches who were their mentors and Clare Drake's name came up again and again, especially with fellow Western Canadian college coaches like Dave King and George Kingston. The hardest thing we did in writing this book was winnow down from 15-20 NHL coaches to 12. That's a hard cut. There are great coaches, wonderful people like Jacques Lemaire and Pat Burns and others that we could have talked to, but our goal was 12. We saw Clare as an asset because we wanted a bit of a change from the professional level, although he was once an assistant coach with the Edmonton Oilers. We wanted to include him so readers could see where some of the other coaches in the book got the foundation that they have."
Walter won a Stanley Cup as a member of the Montreal Canadiens.
Ryan Walter had a terrific NHL career that included winning the Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens in 1986.
After he captained Team Canada in the World Junior Championship, he was the second overall pick in the 1978 Entry Draft and became captain of the Washington Capitals in his second season.
He also was part of a blockbuster trade, going to the Canadiens with Rick Green in 1982 for Rod Langway, Craig Laughlin, Brian Engblom and Doug Jarvis.
He's also led a happy and productive life after his playing days concluded. Walter gained renown as a vocal Christian athlete and rallied others to more fulfilling, focused lives. He's a Sportsnet broadcaster and served as an advisor on the movie Miracle and the Canadian television series, Making the Cut. Look carefully, Walter is the referee in the U.S.-Soviet game in Miracle.
Walter has also authored three books, Off the Bench and Into the Game and Power Forward: Leading Strategies for Winning Teams came first. Then, last year, Walter and Vancouver Canucks' assistant coach Mike Johnston authored Simply The Best, a must-read for hockey fans who want to know the thought processes of such legendary NHL coaches as Scotty Bowman, Mike Keenan, Ken Hitchcock, Pat Quinn and eight others.
Johnston was a highly successful Canadian college coach and went on to great success with Canada's national teams. Thus, it's not surprising that Walter and Johnston reached out to others who had success in Canada's coaching ranks, including Dave King, George Kingston and Clare Drake. Canucks coaches are well represented as current head coach Marc Crawford, Pat Quinn and the late Roger Neilson also contributed. Brian Sutter, Jacques Demers and Andy Murray round out a cast that is presented as deep thinkers. Read the book and you won't disagree.
Walter and Johnston conducted in-depth interviews and drew from these coaches thoughts not normally expressed in the context of a game or a season. The questions are the result of more than 30 years of Walter's wondering about the role of leadership and its impact on teams. As a sought-after motivational speaker to businesses, Walter sees teams in other places than hockey rinks.
"When I retired, my wife, Jenny, and I took all the courses the NHL and the player's association put forward on transitioning into the world of real life. We were as ready as we could be," Walter said. "I had played 15 seasons in the NHL, so the cash side was we didn't have a lot, but we had enough. As ready as we were, it was difficult for everybody. I went into business and lost a business. Now, I have another business. I went back to school. I keep focused on my passions.
"I have two strong passions in my life, other than my family and my faith. My first passion is the game of hockey that I was so fortunate to play at the highest level. The other passion, and I didn't know this when I was playing, is understanding how leadership affects the high performance or low performance of teams. To be able to spend 2 1/2 years at the master's level exploring why that happens and how leadership impacts high performance has been amazing.
"There is an interesting evolution in life. I really felt like I needed to go back to school and grow myself. I'm four months away from a master's degree in leadership in business.
"My speaking career is an outgrowth of my NHL career. When I was a player, people pushed me upfront as a captain or an assistant captain. I got to like it and now I do a lot of keynote addresses and seminars on leadership for business. Long term, that's something that I want to do more.
"I tend to know lots of people in business and do my own marketing and I also have agents. Groups I address often have me come back five or six times to develop leadership teams."
As for his latest writing project, Walter wrote that he thought he'd have to ask 20 or more coaches to get the dozen respondents he sought. He was done by the fourteenth call. NHL coaches responded with enthusiasm to the project.
"We started out wondering what direction it would go. When we finished, we knew it was much more about how to develop a high-performance culture than it is about the Xs and Os. We were pleased with that," Walter said. "We knew we had the best coaches in the NHL and the world, masters of the art and science of leadership. The science being the systemic, it's more about the Xs and Os, who is on which line, etc. The art is about the dressing room. How is the leadership impacting the culture of our team? Simply The Best is a study of how organizations and teams can develop a high-performance culture.
"There are a couple of ways to dice and slice this book. Most people likely read it chapter by chapter. Others go directly to their favorite coach, then the next favorite. They'll look at Brian Sutter's chapter or Scotty's chapter because they want to know the way they think."
Walter and Johnston were well aware of Neilson's valiant battle with cancer when they started writing and made sure they got the thinking of "Captain Video" before it was too late.
"Our first goal was to get Roger Neilson's thoughts. His chapter is at the very end of Simply The Best.
"One of our motivations in wanting to do this project -- Mike and his wife, Myrna, and my wife Jenny were tireless workers on this project -- was that we felt there is so much great wisdom written from college basketball coaches to NFL and NBA coaches and not a lot about NHL coaches. But there have been some very good, thoughtful NHL coaches. When was the last time you quoted an NHL coach like you would John Wooden? That was our point in writing this book: Get the great wisdom of these fabulous NHL coaches out into the world. We boldfaced many of the quotes that we thought are the most important. With the boldface sentences, you can scan quickly to, for example, what Scotty Bowman thinks about leadership or Marc Crawford's thoughts on that subject."
Of the dozens coaches profiled, one was never an NHL head coach. Clare Drake is the most successful Canadian hockey coach of all time. He was no slouch as a football coach, either. In 1968, Drake's University of Alberta Golden Bears won the national titles in hockey and football. There's much more on him in Simply The Best.
"As we were preparing for this book, we kept asking coaches who were their mentors and Clare Drake's name came up again and again, especially with fellow Western Canadian college coaches like Dave King and George Kingston. The hardest thing we did in writing this book was winnow down from 15-20 NHL coaches to 12. That's a hard cut. There are great coaches, wonderful people like Jacques Lemaire and Pat Burns and others that we could have talked to, but our goal was 12. We saw Clare as an asset because we wanted a bit of a change from the professional level, although he was once an assistant coach with the Edmonton Oilers. We wanted to include him so readers could see where some of the other coaches in the book got the foundation that they have."