Jon Gordon - Row the Boat: A Never-Give-Up Approach to Lead with Enthusiasm and Optimism and Improve Your Team and Culture

JON GORDON

P.J. FLECK

Copyright 2021 by Jon Gordon and P.J. Fleck. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.

Interior photography provided by the University of Minnesota, used with permission.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Names: Gordon, Jon, 1971- author. | Fleck, P. J., 1980- author.

Title: Row the boat : a never-give-up approach to lead with enthusiasm and optimism and improve your team and culture / Jon Gordon, P. J. Fleck.

Description: Hoboken, New Jersey : Wiley, [2021]

Identifiers: LCCN 2021010915 (print) | LCCN 2021010916 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119766292 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119766315 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119766308 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Fleck, P. J., 1980- | Leadership. | Perseverance (Ethics) | FootballCoachingPhilosophy.

Classification: LCC HD57.7 .G666743 2021 (print) | LCC HD57.7 (ebook) | DDC 658.4/092dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021010915

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021010916

Cover art: SHUTTERSTOCK | KELVIN REYNOSO
Cover design: PAUL MCCRTHY

To my children, may you always see the good in everyone and dream BIG! Know that the dream is the journey.

To our players (current and former), may you never be a better football player than you are a person.

To our staff (current and former), thank you for always making our culture look so good.

To my wife, Heather, thank you for not allowing me to give up on R.T.B. Your strength, integrity, patience, and forgiveness inspire me daily.

To the children in the hospital, Row the Boat.

P.J.

I've followed P.J. Fleck's coaching career for years, ever since he built the Western Michigan University (WMU) football team into a national powerhouse. I always admired his positive energy and passion and could tell he was a great culture builder and leader. I had also heard stories about him from Brad Black, whose company, HumanEx Ventures, performed the talent search and evaluation of head coaching candidates for WMU. Brad recommended to the leaders of WMU that they hire P.J. Fleck, despite his lack of qualifications, lack of head coaching experience, and unimpressive resume. Brad's assessment tools, used to evaluate people and predictive leadership performance, told him that P.J. would shine as a head coach and build a winning culture and team, and that's exactly what happened.

After proving himself as a successful head coach at Western Michigan, taking the program from 111 to 131 during his four years, P.J. Fleck was hired as the head coach of the University of Minnesota football team during a tumultuous time. Once again, P.J. turned around a program in need of a cultural changeacademically, athletically, and sociallyand built a winning culture both on and off the field. He created a team that won 11 games for the first time since 1904, achieved numerous academic records, and became a program that was more about serving and giving than just winning games.

After the season I invited P.J. to be on my podcast. One of my questions was about how he got into coaching. After the podcast I asked him to share more about his journey. The tale he told me was more than a story of his entry into coaching. It was about the man himself and what led him to become the kind of coachand the kind of personthat he is.

Jon Gordon

Proceeds from this book will help support the Fleck Family Fund at the University of Minnesotas Masonic Childrens Hospital. For more information about Row the Boat and/or to support the foundation, please visit RowtheBoat.org.

P.J. Fleck

Growing up as a runt on the block always seemed like an uphill challenge. Little did I know that the underdog way of life was paving the way for what I would need to succeed in a career that humbles and challenges the proudest and strongest of men. The chip on my shoulder started when I was young and eventually turned into a crack. I didn't feel I had to prove to anyone else that I could achieve my own dreams; rather, it was more that I had to prove to myself that I was everything I said I wanted to be.

I have always been referred to as the King of the Toos. Too small, too short, too slow, too young, too inexperienced, and on and onany kind of too you can think of, I've probably heard it. This kind of label makes people do two different things: run and forget, or play and prove. I chose to play and prove. My dad, Phil, always knew I was going to be an underdog with an undersized frame who would have to prove my worth on the sports field. My dad is 5-foot-5 and was a boxer in his youth. Whenever I would come home from shooting hoops or throwing the baseball or any other athletic endeavor, he would ask, Are you done? When I told him yes, he would reply, Well, that's fine, but don't forget, there is always someone out there taking one more rep than you just did. Early on he was instilling in me that my path would