All Book Reviews.

Book Reviews: Leading with the Heart: Coach K’s Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life, by Mike Krzyzewski and Donald Phillips

This book review was written by Jennifer Robinson

Let me start out by disclosing that I received my undergraduate degree from Duke in 1989. This is essentially the same as saying that I’m a Duke basketball fan. You already know this if you know anyone at all who graduated from Duke during the Coach K years. So, when I tell you that I loved this book, you’ll have to understand that I’m not objective. But I can safely say that if you’re a Duke basketball fan, and/or a Coach K fan, you’ll enjoy this book, and you might find it inspirational. If you’re not a Duke fan, well, you can’t argue with success. Coach K just won his third NCAA Championship, only the fourth coach ever to win three titles. And he did this with a program that nearly always graduates all of its players (did in fact graduate them all until very recently).

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 tenure 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 concludes with a one-page list of “Coach K’s tips”. If you don’t have much time, you could just read through these tip pages, and find them worth the price of the book. Most of the tips are common sense. For example:

Goals should be realistic, attainable, and shared among all members of the team.

Having fun helps reduce pressure.

Cultivate relationships with people who support your organization.

Business, like basketball, is a game of adjustments. So be ready to adjust.

Some of the tips sound a little hokey, like “The only way you can lose is if you don’t try your best” and “Touch people’s hearts with sincerity and excellence.” And yet, if you read the whole book, the thing that comes through is that Coach K believes in everything he says. And his methods obviously work. This is what makes the book inspirational for me, the fact that he clearly practices what he preaches.

What makes the book fun to read are the examples, nearly all drawn from basketball games and teams over the past 15 years. For example, what did Coach K say to his team during the time out right before the fantastic overtime finish of the Duke-Kentucky game in 1992? Was it luck, as many people say? Or was it an example of leadership? How did Coach K react when Elton Brand, Corey Maggette, William Avery, and Chris Burgess all left early in 1999? What did he say to his team after the crushing loss by 30 points to UNLV in the 1990 Championship game? If you’ve ever been curious about any of these things, this is the book for you.

The book isn’t all that well-written, in a classic sense. Some of the sentences run on, or are terse. It reads, in fact, like the author is talking to you. Some people will find this annoying, others will find that it reinforces the message. The book is well-organized, and a quick, easy read. It may leave you with some ideas for team-building, or with some additional motivation to be a good leader. Or, at the very least, it will leave you with some Duke basketball trivia to share with your friends.