“A leader has to know who he is and what he stands for. And he also has to say it, demonstrate it, and mean it if he ever hopes for people to follow him.” At the beginning of every season Coach K sits the players down and tells them a little bit about himself, he explains that he only has one rule and it is don’t do anything detrimental to you, it’ll be detrimental to our program and to Duke University. He teaches them to have good time management, that they need to have good grades and they must graduate, and that they are a family now so they set up a support system.
“Leaders instill respect for authority by having a caring attitude, by being direct, by communicating regularly, and by being honest.” -Coach K. This book is about leadership. It traces Coach K’s development as a leader, from the organizer of high school pick-up games, through his adventure at West Point, his assistant coaching days, and finally, his time at Duke. He draws lessons from his experiences, and from the important people in his life, and returns to the same lessons time and time again throughout the book. Discipline, persistence, trust, leadership, honesty, and of course, how to win.
The book uses a basketball season as a framework, and moves from pre-season (groundwork, organization, core values, leadership) to regular season (teamwork, training, rolling with the punches) to post-season (crisis management, focus, celebration), and finally to a few all-season priorities (friendship, character, basics). Many of the principles described can be applied to any type of team, not merely sports teams. Each chapter also concludes with a one-page list of “Coach K’s tips”. “Almost everything in leadership comes back to relationships.”
Coach K teaches each of his teams differently because each individual is different. He believes they only way you can possibly lead people is to understand them. And the best way to understand them is to get to know them better. He has a close relationship with every member of his team.
“Our basketball team is a family, family is like a fist- complete with communication, caring, trust, pride, and collective responsibility. Family makes individuals part of something bigger.”
Coach K likes to have close relationships with his team so they can all be like a family. He likes for his family to have good communication for instance in the book one of his team members was going through something and he wanted to know so he could possibly help them out. He cares for and trusts all of his team members and he wants them to care and trust him too. He also wants his family to have pride in what they do and he wants the team to take responsibility for things not just one person.
For example, in the book they lost a game because someone missed the last shot but coach wanted the team to take responsibility saying we lost together and not just blame it on that one certain person. “People must have confidence in themselves before they can realize their full potential. And a leader must be committed to helping people grow and reach their full potential.”
Coach wants every member to realize their full potential and to be the best he can be. He wants them to promise to him that they will try their best and wants them to have full confidence in themselves and the team and if they do this they can achieve anything. “People are not going to follow you as a leader unless you show them that you’re real. They are not going to believe you unless they trust you. And they are not going to trust you unless you always tell them the truth and admit when you were wrong.”
Coach K is real with everything he does. He is real because he wants his team to trust him in what he does on and off of the court. If coach doesn’t like what your doing or he does like it he tells you up front and tells you if you need to change it or not. In the book he called a play that he thought would work and it ended up not working so he admitted to the team he was wrong and that was a bad call on his part. This is how Coach K builds relationships with his team.