Leading with the Heart: Coach K’s Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life
Leading with the Heart: Coach K’s Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life
In his more than twenty years coaching the Blue Devils, Coach Mike Krzyzewski has made his program the most admired in the nation, with back-to-back national championships in ‘91, ‘92, and again in 2001, and ten Final Four appearances since 1986. Now, in Leading with the Heart, Coach K talks about leadership-how you earn it, how you practice it, and how you use it to move your organization to the top. From the importance of trust, communication, and pride, to the commitment a leader must make to his team, this inspiring book is a must-read for anyone who loves college basketball-or who simply wants to win in any competitive environment today.In some respects, a top-level college coach is a lot like a manager in any business. He has to turn a group of talented individuals into a smoothly running team, and he has to produce results that please the fans of his team–the shareholders of the athletic program. Thus, in Leading with the Heart, Krzyzewski reviews the lessons he’s learned as basketball coach at Duke University, and tries to universalize them so they translate to any leadership position. For example, he writes, “Adjustments are not unusual, they are usual. So a leader’s ability to think on his feet … to do things without instruction … is of paramount importance.” Makes sense, as does this admonition: “When teaching, always remember this simple phrase: ‘You hear, you forget. You see, you remember. You do, you understand.’”
The book has four sections–”Preseason,” “Regular Season,” “Postseason,” and “All-Season”–and each of those has four chapters. Each chapter begins with three quotes (”Too many rules get in the way of leadership” leads off chapter 1), and ends with bulleted tips summing up the chapter’s message. Between the quotes and the bullet points are anecdotes about Duke basketball games and (occasionally) Krzyzewski’s life outside basketball. What you come away with is an understanding of why Krzyzewski is a great basketball coach, why former Duke assistants such as Tommy Amaker and Quin Snyder are probably going to become great basketball coaches, and how anyone who’s currently a coach can become a better coach. It would be great if other types of managers in other types of businesses could incorporate these lessons in compassionate, focused, highly flexible leadership, but it seems unlikely. Most managers in business rise through the ranks not because of their ability to lead or inspire but because of their knowledge and competence (if not their connections). On the other hand, it would be nice if each of us, just once, could work for someone like Coach K, someone who could push the right buttons and lead us to our own version of the Final Four. Not likely, but a pretty sweet fantasy. –Lou Schuler
User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars Leadership in the Experiences of Coaching Basketball
I attended Duke from 1987 to 1991. In all four basketball seasons, Coach Krzyzewski led the Duke Blue Devils Basketball team to four straight Final Fours. In 1991, Coach K and the Duke basketball team won the final game of the NCAA tournament and became National Champions. Duke basketball was very magical to me in those four years to say the least.
Coach Krzyzewski relates a lot of different ideas and practices to how to lead a team. He speaks of the team being like a fist where when all “fingers” or players are united they are stronger than when alone. He also talks about the way he focuses for a game. It is interesting that Coach K stated that he coached each team differently due to different characteristics of each team. He shows the ability to adapt to changing situations and to different crises that he details in the book. Another interesting idea is the trust and a feeling of family that bonds between coach and players. He shows this with events that occur on and off the basketball court. Another point Coach K makes is that he tells the reader that success should be determined internally in a team and not from an external source. Especially interesting and moving is when he speaks of his friendship with Coach Jim Valvano of NC State in the time that Coach Valvano was struggling with cancer. After finishing the book, it is easy to see why Coach K has such success in collegiate basketball. He is definitely a winner in many aspects. Coach Krzyzewski writes in a very simple and straightforward manner and gives ideas of leadership that should be standard in any successful organization.
5 Stars Coach K on Leadership, and Life
I have always found Coach K’s Duke basketball teams to be good, disciplined, and well prepared. I respect Coach K for his teams’ accomplishments, and for his demeanor on and off the court. I thought this book would be interesting, and a good learning experience for me. I was right on both accounts.
The book is written in an easy-to-read, almost conversational style. The material was presented and explained in a logical and organized way that made Coach K’s points easy to understand. I definitely sensed that the book was written by a master coach, a master teacher. I found Coach K a lot more philosophical, intellectual, and psychologically-oriented than I ever imagined. The book was a very honest glimpse inside the head and heart of one of college basketball’s most respected and successful coaches.
One of the most interesting things about this book is that it discussed many leadership situations not usually covered in other leadership books (e.g. academics, dealing with success, respect for authority, the links between individual and collective responsibility, nurturing and developing leaders at all levels, etc.).
Another aspect of the book that I liked was that it contained many examples of how Coach K learned from his own personal experiences and then taught those lessons to others: caring for his players (his `other family’), from his parents; the tradition of honoring seniors, from his college days at West Point; what it means to focus on and accomplish your mission/objectives, from his military service; dealing with defeat, setbacks, success, tragedies, adversity, and changing environments, from all throughout his coaching career. I was also impressed with how he constantly transforms his beliefs into actions for himself and others.
Coach K’s book is a great, detailed look at leadership from someone who continues to successfully live and teach leadership on and off the basketball court.
2 Stars cannot consider new
I purchased this book to give as a gift. It was described as new. When I received it it had a bend in the book and a big black marker across the top of the spine. I could no longer give this as a gift and had to go to a store to buy a good one. I would never purchase from this vendor unless you didn’t care what it looks like !
5 Stars Great book
If you want to lead any kind of group, this is the book to read.
4 Stars team leadership
This book gave insight into great leadership techniques whether you are leading a team or an office. The principles used for leading a team can be applied to most real life situations. I appreciated that the author used real life scenarios to illustrate his points and it wasn’t just theory.
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