Getting Personal

"In my opinion, leadership relies very heavily on face-to-face communication - especially in the areas of building relationships and establishing trust. Accordingly, our coaching staff has strategically increased the amount of personal time we spend with our players." - Mike Krzyzewski

Countless times I've hit the delete key when trying to send a sensitive message via e-mail in the right tone. Phone calls are better; meetings better still! And trust greases the wheels of the tough times. Spending the early times building a bond of vulnerability is a worthwhile investment!

Changing And Succeeding

"'How do you stay number one when your environment is changing so rapidly?' I'm asked. Well, the answer is really fairly simple. You have a choice. You can either change with the environment or you will eventually fail. A leader has to find a way to win.

The question is not whether or not you should change. The question is how you should change." - Mike Krzyzewski

99% Perspiration, 1% Show Up?

"I once heard a high school coach tell a kid that it was not his job to motivate players, that they should show up motivated. Well, I just shook my head. I could not disagree more with a statement like that. I believe the main job of a coach is to motivate. The main job of a leader is to inspire." - Mike Krzyzewski

Inspire how, coach?

"And for me personally, the best thing about my profession is that I can teach. The personal relationships that are developed, the impact that I'm able to have on the young people in their development as human beings, is incredibly worthwhile to me."

"Trying to do your best, learning about your limits, and then trying to extend them - this is the proper perspective for a leader to have. As teachers and coaches, we should remember that when mere winning is our only goal, we are doomed to disappointment and failure. But when our goal is to try to do our best, when our focus is on preparation and sacrifice and effort - instead of on numbers on the scoreboard - we will never lose."

So there it is - who doesn't feel better when they're growing in some way? Teachers do this naturally. Inspiration comes from lifting others up.

Gaffe-Free VP

"And I find that people, generally, want to be on a team. They want to be part of something bigger than themselves. They want to be in a situation where they feel that they are doing something for the greater good." - Mike Krzyzewski

On Friday Dena officially became Vice President of the Normal Kiwanis club. She is definitely a walking example of being called to do something for the greater good! Rising before 6 a.m. on some weekdays, attending Board meetings late at night, serving meals at the homeless shelter on Saturday afternoons.

And fortunately she is a VP who is not prone to gaffes - yet! One speaker during the ceremony got to talking about the club's goals and history. At one point, trying to make a point that the club had had one of the first women presidents after Kiwanis formally allowed them in 1987, sort of mistimed his pauses when he declared: "Did you know that Anne was a woman prior to 1987... there were no women presidents in Kiwanis!"

It's a fun club...

Fresh Err

"I don't look at anything in the past as failure. I look at it as a great experience. Mistakes are part of the building process. Mistakes have to be made. How you act when you make mistakes is of paramount importance. That's how both teams and individuals grow and improve." - Mike Krzyzewski

Helping Them Help Them

"If I didn't give Coach Iba or Coach Newell the right answer, they'd ask me another question in an effort to lead me to the correct solution. But always, always they would make sure that I came up with the solution myself. They would not just tell me the answer.

And the fact is that I always remembered these solutions better. I would think about the situation myself, determine that right answer, and I would never forget it. I also noticed that I was more determined to implement my newfound solution in practice. And I was better able to teach it to my players." - Mike Krzyzewski

Over Rules

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

Leaders become a lightning rod for the unpredictabilities of life. Setting rules and sticking by them is the only way to create "fairness" in some proper respects. It also tears the heart strings of the widow, the orphan, the hospitalized, or any number of extreme circumstances that run into the cold, indifferent nature of regulation.

Life varies, and so do people. Rules bring order, and brightest happiness comes from what happens beyond the rules.