Leading with the Heart: Coach K’s Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life
Product Description
Hes led the Duke Blue Devils to five straight Final Four appearances, culminating in back-to-back championships in 1991 and 92. Hes received five National Coach of the Year Awards. Many of the players he coached in college have gone on to NBA stardom. The facts speak for themselves: Mike KrzyzewskiCoach Kknows how to get the best out of his players and win consistently. He now offers the insights he uses to coax peak performance from his team, relying on lessons he learned as a captain in the U.S. Army, sportsmanship, respect, and a genuine gift for leading with the heart.Amazon.com Review
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
Leading with the Heart: Coach K’s Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life
GLEN KOROBOV said,
Wrote on July 24, 2010 @ 9:53 am
Perhaps no other book will hit you where you are more than this one. Mike combines life experiences with true nuggets to guide us apply proven leadership and to take our team to a new level of excellence. You will want to read it through,then come back and highlight. The chapter on handling crises is worth the book by itself.
Rating: 5 / 5
Dr. L. Johnson said,
Wrote on July 24, 2010 @ 10:58 am
I graduated from Duke in 68 and am an avowed fan of Coach K.However, I’ve hit a rut in my reading recently, can’t find anything that seems stimulatiing or interesting.I was afraid this book would just be another of those “smaltzy” rah rah type of books that coaches(and usually someone else write), but I was happily surprised. It is really worth everyones attention, whether to motivate a business person or anyone on how to live ones life. The usual blah blahing about excellence is pretty much left out, thank goodness, and the book is full of very helpful aphorisms about what priorities to put first and how to lead a wholesome and successful life,even if you don’t have a jump shot.Coach K comes across as really honest and sincere.I can’t stand phonies and really was pleasantly surprised by the book. Lots of real life anecdotes about games, players, situations and how to take defeat.Truly inspirational from a superb leader. For sports fans, look what he did with the team of mostly freshman this year, way beyond anyones expectations.He uses his heart a lot, but also his head.You can also read and skip around in the book, its not like a novel.Again, his repeated emphasis on how to deal with defeat and failure shows true wisdom, far beyond that of most college coaches. I remember the tonge in cheek defintion of a college basketball coach by a player once.”you have to be a little bit crazy to base your career on someone else’s jump shot.” Coach K is crazy like a fox.
Rating: 5 / 5
Steven Burris said,
Wrote on July 24, 2010 @ 12:20 pm
I chose this book to read for a business class at my college. The book focuses around Coach K and his experiences with basketball. He alludes to his theories applications towards business some, but it is up to the reader to apply them to his/her own business situations. His theories though on leadership and family are empowering, touching, and entertaining. I highly recommend this book to anyone. It’s not just a book for the basketball lover, Duke fan, or business reader. It’s a book that shows how one man has steadfastly stood by his beliefs throughout his life. Great book, Coach K!
Rating: 5 / 5
Henry F. Lemieux said,
Wrote on July 24, 2010 @ 2:27 pm
Good book. Good lessons. Resonated well with me because (A) I was at Duke in K’s early years and (B) I’m now a CEO working to be a better leader.
Where it excels: While many books say, “do this” K explains why you “do this,” which makes the lesson much more valuable. Focuses specifically on interpersonal skills, rather than vague over-arching principles of some Forunte 100 CEO. Gives lots of examples and the fact that I witnessed many of them myself (albeit on TV) helped me understand. Summarizes the points at the end of each chapter (though this could be improved).
Where it’s weak: K himself says he wants honesty, so here it is: He needs more confidence as an author and to set his sights higher. It’s a “good” leadership/basketball reminiscing book that could be a truly _great_ leadership-only book if it were better edited to spend less time on irrelevant details of some game in 1988 and more time on being concise. Those details are entertaining, but we’re business leaders, we need people to get to the point. The publisher probably said it needed fluff to sell. However, I’ll bet a second edition with less fluff and promoted more as a true management book would sell more. In K terminology, the “heart” of this book is in its leadership lessons. We’ve already seen the games.
One other troubling aspect: contradictions. K will talk about honesty with players and media, then later cite a ploy with Brian Davis and “blowing smoke at the media” before the second UNLV game. Those should be clarified.
Either way, I recommend it. Coach, you helped me learn.
Rating: 4 / 5
Jonathan Licis said,
Wrote on July 24, 2010 @ 5:21 pm
Coach K presents his approach for the “storming, performing, and norming” that he performs every season (!) as he takes new recruits and melds them into a national team. This book is a great way to see team building and management from the sports perspective. HIGHLY recommended for its heartfelt, pragmatic advice!
Some great quips (a few paraphrased) include:
* The deal is – there won’t be any deals.
* People make rules to keep from making decisions.
* I’m not going to promise you anything. You have to come in, work hard, and earn everything you receive.
* Look for good kids with strong character, not necessarily great talent, but great individuals who are willing to be part of a team.
* Dislike job descriptions, they tend to put people in boxes and hold them back from realizing their true potential.
* Leader has to assess the quality of the team, set the standards, of excellence, and then work with the team to achieve that standard.
* What a leader does now sets up for later. And there is always a later.
* Want the team to get better every day. The rest will take care of itself.
* Change things up; don’t do the same thing each year.
* Almost everything comes back to relationships.
* Nothing demonstrates that you care about people then spending time with them.
* The only way you can lead people is to understand people. The best way to understand them is to get to know them better.
* Some feel discipline is a dirty word, it only means doing what you should, when you should, in the best way.
* Fellas, I am the truth. At any time, I can and will tell you where you stand and how you’re doing.
* We must be honest with each other, there is no other way.
* A leader has to know who he is, what he stands for. Also he has to say it, demonstrate it, and mean it.
* There are a lot of commonsense advantages to running a team like a family – honesty, strength, caring, but one of the greatest is that you are never alone.
…and check out the book for a whole lot more!
Rating: 5 / 5