Mike Krzyzewski's Leading With The Heart

Followers create the influence necessary for a leader to have authority. Without it the organization will stagnate.

Followership can be defined as the willingness to follow a leader, to work effectively as a team member, and exhibit loyalty to the leaders. Cadets exhibiting followership should not be afraid to ask for help from their leaders in order to improve themselves. When a follower feels the need to voice differences of opinions, it should be done so respectively.

In Coach K’s book Leading with the Heart Grant Hill is allowed to write the forward and talk about his coach from the perspective of a new college recruit, and later he speaks as a friend and confidant. What Coach K teaches is about life and leadership. He sets the bar high so you can 1) strive to be the best you can be; 2) appreciate the value and rewards of a hard work ethic; 3) build close relationships based on trust; 4) set shared goals; 5) sacrifice and give of yourself; 6) win with humility; 7) lose with dignity; 8) turn a negative into appositive; 9) be a part of something bigger than yourself; and, 10) enjoy the journey (Krzyzewski, pg x).

I chose to review “Leading with the Heart Coach K’s Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business and Life” Mike Krzyzewski, Donald T. Phillips, and Grant Hill (Forward), 2001. The book is written by Duke Basketball coach Krzyzewski, in it he recalls some of his most significant games and events in his career. He also offers advice to anyone who is trying to do better in life. Coach K, "There are five fundamental qualities that make every team great: communication, trust, collective responsibility, caring and pride." The book has four sections; Preseason, Regular Season, Postseason, and All-Season. Each section four chapters. In each chapter he provides readers with an understanding into how he selects, learns about, and builds his team.

Pat Summitt and Mike Krzyzewski are legendary coaches icons that will always be remembered for their lifetime achievements and winning the championships in a unique style. It’s tranquil to say that they are great coaches but what enhanced their ability to be even better was their capability to showcase transformational leadership and emotional intelligence. These two individuals have set a new standard for what the coaches should instill in their personal values to allow them to be consistent in the efforts to inspire a vison, challenge the process, encourage the heart, enable others to act, and model the way.

In addition to completing the Strengths Based Leadership assessment, I completed Robert Kelley’s Followership Survey. According to the survey, I am an exemplary follower (Kelley, 1992). According to Kelley (1988), exemplary followers, or effective followers, mange themselves well and are courageous, honest, and credible (p. 144). These types of followers are additionally committed to the organization and to a purpose, principle or person outside themselves (Kelley, 1988, p. 144). Lastly, exemplary followers are independent thinkers who act on their own initiative, engage actively when working in a group and provide constructive input (Kelley, 1988, p. 144). Another assessment that I completed was the Authentic Leadership

Coach Mike Krzyzewski was a phenomenal coach and leader. He had the most career wins in NCAA Division I history. His is a prime example of exceptional leadership. Throughout the book Leading with the Heart I have seen prime examples of the following leadership theories: transformational leadership, trait theory, behavioral theory, and power and influence theory.

Followers are as powerfully driven to follow as leaders are driven to lead. Followers really praise their leader and they transfer experiences and emotions from past relationships onto the present. Like in “The Wave” the students praise Mr. Ross and see him almost like when a fan girl sees their favorite celebrity. Transference is the emotional glue that binds people to a leader. People see their leader as better than they will ever be. Transference seems to get out of control in followers when they are under a lot of stress. In that moment followers need praise and protection from their leader. They like to use their leader as attention towards

Starting with Coach K, he has a successful record due to his leadership style. He carries out a style that relies on positive reinforcement, supportive encouragement and also most importantly genuine and heartfelt communication with his players. Coach K approaches is all about caring, trust and sense of family. He believe in fundamentally ambitious, which means that players are will perform their best because they are self-motivated and self-disciplined. Coach K leads his team in the style of empowering and stresses profound love to each other, unlike Coach Knight who uses his own leadership style. Coach Knight has also had a successful win record due to his own leadership style of showing tough love and having a stone cold hearted management style, which all was built around rewards and punishment. He assumed that people are fundamentally inferior; which means he believed that his players will not perform at their best level unless someone is watching them and forcing them to. He believes heavily on discipline and intimidation, which is what he tries to teach his players. The overall main difference is the primary goal that they set out. Coach Knight takes a hard motivational tactic through an extreme system. While Coach K motivate in a more pleasant way where he influences strong relationship and team

Effective followership is an essential component of effective leadership in that, without good followers, the leader’s work is difficult and cumbersome. The role of the follower is many times understated. As illustrated by Kelley (1998), “effective followers are thinkers; energetic and assertive, self-starters, independent problem solvers, and carry out their tasks with these characteristics (p. 143). Effective followers also are characterized by their ability to perform tasks with little supervision, their intelligence, and ability to think for themselves. We are all followers, even those who consider themselves leaders; so to encourage this effectiveness in others; we must be role models for those under us, so that they may also be effective at following. Chaleff (2009) observed that “all important social accomplishments require complex

Followers help leaders manifest their vision. Successful followers (supporters or team members) come in a wide variety of personal characteristics. There are people who may be good followers who do not make good leaders or even want to be leaders, but there are no good leaders who are not good followers. A good leader was once a follower. Without followers there is no leadership in any organization. Leaders can develop effective followers as followers develop effective leaders. The performance of followers and leaders of an organization are variables that depend on one another. Both roles are proactive together they can

The role of the follower and the quality of the relationship itself are informally negotiated between followers and their leaders over time (Gils, Quaquebeke, & Knippenberg, 2009). Based on the LMX theory, leaders build a special relationship with an inner circle, or “in-group”, of followers, who often get high levels of responsibility and access to resources. The in-group members work harder and are more committed to task objectives. They are also expected to be totally committed and loyal to their leader. Conversely, other followers fall in the “out-group" and are given low levels of choice or influence. Aggression, sarcasm and a self-centered view are qualities seen in the out-group. The quality of the LMX relationship varies and is better when the challenge of the job is extremely high or extremely low (Graen et al., 1982).

2. Followership should be viewed as an active skill that must be developed in order to be considered an effective follower. According to the Air and Space Power Journal (Winter 2004), followership is considered a discipline that when viewed from a professional perspective is considered both an art and a science, requiring a balance between the development of skills and the understanding of followership roles within a professional

As a good follower, I need to accept responsibility and I need to be aware of the tasks that I have to take on. I have to readily support my leader at all times and I should be able to voice my opinions to my leader in a very supportive way. Leaders can only lead an organization successfully if they have personalities that appeal to their followers. The individual reflection and big five

The leader and follower relationship is looked at as winners and losers, when it is actually a symbiotic association. (Chaleff) Leaders cannot exist without followers and followers cannot exist without a leader. Leaders can forget that they need the backing of a solid team of followers in order to succeed. Because they make the “important” decisions and enjoy an astronomical rate of pay, it is easy to overlook the loyal, hard working individuals that make everything happen under them. Followers too can forget that they are a valuable element of a successful organization, and that their feedback and ideas are welcome.