Raise Your Game
Hardcover | Paperback | eBook | Audiobook
Book Reviews aim to provide succinct, thoughtful summaries of books I have read. They contain quotes from the book, thoughts from others, and also some thoughts of my own. Typically they will be structured in the following order: author, introduction, message and purpose, remarkable chapter, and conclusion. This review will cover Raise Your Game, a book written by Alan Stein Jr. that shares high-performance secrets from the best of the best.
Author
Alan Stein Jr.
Introduction
Alan Stein Jr. — former performance coach for NBA superstars Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and Kobe Bryant — has a lot of experience working closely with top leaders in sports and business. Raise Your Game provides a blueprint for how to improve in whatever it is you do. The principles outlined in this book are simple but not easy: establish, tweak, and repeat positive habits in everything you do. Raise Your Game will inspire and empower you to commit to the fundamentals, respect the process, and create a winning mindset.
Message and Purpose
I love how Stein Jr. structures this book. Rather than speak ambiguously to a general audience, he breaks up the book into three parts where he speaks to three distinctive groups: the coach, the player, and the team. Each part has five chapters that delves deeper into each group:
Part I: Player
Chapter One: Self-Awareness
Chapter Two: Passion
Chapter Three: Discipline
Chapter Four: Coachability
Chapter Five: Confidence
Part II: Coach
Chapter Six: Vision
Chapter Seven: Culture
Chapter Eight: Servant
Chapter Nine: Character
Chapter Ten: Empowerment
Part III: Team
Chapter Eleven: Belief
Chapter Twelve: Unselfishness
Chapter Thirteen: Role Clarity
Chapter Fourteen: Communication
Chapter Fifteen: Cohesion
In each chapter, Stein Jr. establishes the idea that the basics work, they always have, and they always will. Drawing from interviews with elite athletes and prominent business professionals, Raise Your Game takes a peek behind the curtain and shares the secrets of what makes the best so successful.
Remarkable Chapter
It's difficult to select one chapter to elaborate on since there are multiple perspectives the book can be read from, but Chapter Eleven is one that resonates strongly with me. This chapter talks about belief within a team, how to create it, and why it's so important. Stein Jr. explains it wonderfully:
"When belief is shared in a group, it expands. It latches on to every member of the team and even on to those who are supporting that team. The more people add to that shared pool of belief, the more power it has. Everyone is responsible for carrying and exhibiting that belief, ensuring that it's always present in the group. When one person is having an off day, he can rely on the others' beliefs to power him through. It's a collective feeling that lifts everyone up."
Belief is something I've been reading and writing about a lot recently and this chapter perfectly summarizes what it means to have belief within a team. Stein Jr. closes the chapter with this:
"Belief is when a group's positivity and confidence meet their trust and commitment. They think they can do it, and they put their minds and hands together to get it done. They will it into existence."
Conclusion
There's a reason why so many teams and organizations are collectively going through this book. Stein Jr. is someone who knows what it takes to achieve excellence and he does a marvelous job laying out the blueprint in a simple, understandable, and applicable way. Raise Your Game is a must-read for any player, coach, team, or business looking to improve in whatever it is they do. If you read it and apply, your game will surely be raised.