Best Of Coach K's "Leading With The Heart"

Here is a selection of memorable quotes from Leading with the Heart: Coach K’s Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life by Mike Krzyzewski with Donald T. Phillips 

Grant Hill once perceptively remarked that every team he played on during his four years at Duke, I coached differently. Actually, every team I’ve had in my coaching career, I’ve coached differently. That’s because each year brings with it a new team, with new people who have different personalities and different skills. If I hope to get the most out of these players as a group, I have to coach them differently than previous teams.

p. 16-17

Recruit great individuals who are willing to be part of a team and who are coachable.

p.18

Because they’ve been in that rotation, they’ll have great empathy for the current players. And to me, that is a much more important aspect of leadership than having the great technical expertise of someone who’s coached for fifteen years elsewhere. Not everyone can know what he players are going through. But everyone, if they’re bright, can learn the Xs and Os.

p. 23

The only way you can possibly lead people is to understand people. And the best way to understand them is to get other know them better.

p. 26

I never want to lead a team that doesn’t have a clear definition of where they are headed or are not allowed to full freedom to pursue what’s in their hearts. If you’re a leader, you’d better understand that if you want people on your team who are fully committed, then you’d better be fully committed to a course of action act allows proper use of that commitment. If not, you should change your course of action. In other words, your goal must be worthy of your team’s commitment.

p. 62

Thinking is one of the toughest things a leader has to teach. To be able on think on the run was been a key to Duke basketball success. 

p. 71

For leaders in a high-paced environment, it’s absolutely critical to deal with any issue in a rapid manner — especially if the problem has the potential to bring down the level of performance of the team. If leaders don’t deal with a slump in performance, or any other form of nonperformance, the organization is not going to achieve its goals. And in a case like that, it’s the company beating the company—not the competition beating the company.

p. 76

Don’t hire people solely on their technical merits. Consider whether they can work in a team environment.

p. 84

Communication skills are just as important as technical skills.

p. 84

Too many rules get in the way of leadership. They just put you in a box and, sooner or later, a rule-happy leader will wind up in a. Situation here he wants to use some discretion but is forced to go along with some decree that he himself has concocted. 

p.10

Leaders should be reliable without being predictable. They should be consistent without being anticipated. Instead of providing a spawning ground for creativity, a leader may be so structured, so ruled, so totally predictable, that he completely erases any enjoyment on the part of the team. 

p. 98

Subsequently, I took this technique of asking questions to another level — one that really helps to enhance my own creativity and innovation. I’ll frequently ask a variety of people how they see our team. What are our strengths and weaknesses? Do they see any problems? What do they think we need to work on?

I may ask my secretary, or our sports information director, or my wife questions like these. And I’ll ask D.C., the person who cleans our locker room.

“Are they sloppier than usual, D.C.?”

“No, Coach, they’re pretty good.”

“Do you think any of the kids are having any personal problems?”

“Not that I can tell.”

“Will you keep an eye on them for me, D.C.”

“Sure will, Coach.”

Well, there have been a couple of times when I’ve been working in the locker room on something and D.C., who’s been cleaning in the background, will pipe up with a comment. 

“Hey Coach, I think Nate might have gotten a bad grade on a test. Doesn’t seem to be himself right now.”

“Thanks, D.C. I’ll keep an eye on him in practice tomorrow.”

I wouldn’t have known about that potential problem unless I had already opened up a line of communication with D.C. Leaders aren’t the only people who can think of innovative things. Good ideas can come from anywhere and everywhere. And often, they may come from the people you least expect to have them.

p.100

The U.S. Military Academy taught me a very key principle: “Don’t worry about losing. Think about winning.’

p.111

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. 

p.153-154 

A leader has to let his players have the freedom to show their personal commitment to the organization. If people invest time in something, they are more likely to become valued members of the organization. 

p. 207

The leaders the team is responsible for getting to know the players well enough to understand what methods are the most effective for each individual-as well as the team as a whole. And so we’re back to relationships and communication again.

p. 211

To stay successful, you have to stay hungry. A leader should not allow his team to cheat themselves with complacency.

p. 212

My hunger is not for success, it is for excellence. Because when you attain excellence, success just naturally follows.

p. 209

Continual learning is a key other effective leadership because no one can know everything there is to know. In leadership, things change. Events change, circumstances change, people change. As a matter of fact, leadership is all about change. Leaders take people to places they’ve never been before.

p. 231