Review: The Captain Class by Sam Walker

The good: well-written, concise, thoroughly researched, contains lots of interesting stories.
The bad: the reasoning behind the core argument of the book seems flawed.

It’s not that the book is necessarily wrong—I have little doubt leaders play a key role in success—but Walker tries to present his conclusions as if they are the result of careful statistical analysis, which is just not the case.

First, there is selection bias at play. Walker’s choice of the top 16 sports dynasties of all time is highly subjective and based on his own arbitrary criteria. Had slightly different criteria been used, you could have come up with a very different, but still valid, list of 16 teams—except those teams, in all likelihood, would not have fit his narrative.

Second, the teams Walker focuses on in this story have as many differences between them as similarities. Walker chooses to focus on a few of the similarities—namely, certain types of leaders or captains on those teams—and ignore everything else. The captains Walker focuses on also have many traits in common and many different. Walker again picks a few particular traits and ignores the rest. Perhaps the characteristics Walker identifies explain the success of those teams, or they could be coincidences, or the success could be driven by totally different factors. Correlation does not imply causation, and ignoring everything that doesn’t fit your narrative only weakens the argument.

Third, the amount of randomness in sports makes me skeptical of any narrative that boils down to “do this ONE THING well and you’ll succeed!” It’s never one thing. That’s the case not just in sports, but any other complicated, dynamic, competitive system. If you found “one thing” that worked in the stock market, everyone else would react to it, and it would no longer work. The same is true in sports. It’s never one thing. It’s always a combination of factors. Leadership matters, but so do many other factors, such as coaches, superstars, owners, payroll, fans, opponents, strategy, and dumb luck. Walker does take some time to dismiss these popular counter theories, but the evidence for ignoring those items is no better or worse than the evidence for ignoring his “Captain Class” argument. There are many factors at play, and I did not find Walker’s argument convincing that the type of leadership he describes is essential or in some way a more important factor than the other possibilities.

All that said, there are useful insights in this book about the type of leadership it actually takes to be successful. Walker’s description of an elite captain is refreshingly different—and in my experience, more accurate—than the stereotypes we always hear about. Two of the key insights:

• Being a great leader is not about motivational speeches, good looks, charisma, fame, or doing things that make you look good. It’s about doing the hard, gritty work that it takes to make your team successful. Often, this work is not glamourous. Great leaders “carry the water” for their team.

• When people work in groups, the natural tendency is to put in less effort than you would if you were working alone, as your effort becomes less identifiable when mixed with the rest of the group. The only thing that seems to fix this is to see that someone else in the group is giving it their absolute all and not holding back even a little. That “someone else” is the kind of great captain Walker describes: the type of person that goes hard every play, every practice, on and off the field, pushing themselves in every single opportunity. This sort of work ethic is contagious and can drive an entire team to greatness.

Rating: 3 stars