The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching

The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching

A. Part One: Introduction and The Foundations of life skill coach

In the book's first chapter, Smith introduces the reader to his personal background. Smith grew up in the Midwest as the son of a father who was a high school sports coach and a mother who was a teacher. (12) He also briefly reviews his basketball career beginning when he was a player at the University of Kansas and then an assistant coach at the Air Force Academy and the University of North Carolina before accepting the head coaching position at the University of North Carolina in 1961. (13)

Still in the first part of the book, Smith first introduces the reader to the broad details of his philosophy in the second chapter, titled "Play Hard; Play Together; Play Smart." (14) "Hard meant with effort, determination, and courage; together meant unselfishly, trusting your teammates, and doing everything possible not to let them down; and smart meant with good execution and poise, treating each possession as if it were the only one in the game." (15) In this chapter Smith discusses how and why he taught his players his philosophy. (16) Smith recognized that occasionally his teams would have bad luck or face a particularly good team or player on their best night, but he believed that if his teams simply concentrated on those things within their control, then they would generally be successful. (17) Smith provides a more detailed description of his philosophy's three components later in the book in Parts Two, Three, and Four, but this early exposure provides a terrific introduction to Smith's philosophy. In fact, when coupled with the business perspectives in Part One, the authors' point is virtually complete, leaving little but a more detailed discussion to follow in the remaining chapters. The detailed discussions of the philosophies' three components later in the book actually produce one of the book's weaknesses--repetitiveness of concepts and anecdotes. (18)

In these early chapters, Smith comes as close as he ever does throughout the entire book to fully buying into Bell's thesis on coaching and business leadership by stating that

   [the co-author] believes that readers can take things from our
  [basketball coaching] philosophy and benefit from them, and I agree
  that could be the case. Whether you're leading a basketball team, a
  nurses' school, a small insurance office, or a large corporation,
  there are certain common denominators. Honesty, integrity,
  discipline administered fairly, not playing favorites, recruiting
  the right people, effective practice and training, and caring are
  foundations that any organization would be wise to have in
  place.... (19)

Also in these initial chapters Smith identifies one of the weaknesses in trying to apply his coaching philosophy to other business-related industries admitting that, "[m]aybe it was easier for me to lead my players, who wanted to be there, than it is for a business manager to lead members of her sales department who feel they have to be there." (20) The business reality that requires leaders to deal with experienced employees who generally have greater freedom to switch employers than a typical college scholarship athlete has to transfer universities is rarely recognized throughout the book and is one of its fundamental weaknesses.

This part of the book also contains the first of many perspectives written by a former player which sets the theme for all the other perspectives throughout the book. (21) The initial perspective strongly supports the authors' goal for the introduction, which is to establish Smith as a caring, brilliant leader who was interested more in molding each player's individual character than he was in building individual players. (22) Despite the enormous on-court successes of his teams, players, and assistant coaches, it is clear throughout the book that Smith is most proud of the fact that the vast majority of his players developed into outstanding citizens. (23) In fact, ninety-six percent of his players earned their undergraduate degrees, and more than thirty-three percent continued on to earn graduate or professional degrees. (24) There is little doubt that this success is largely based on the lessons he taught his players while at North Carolina. (25) The life lessons discussed in the personal perspectives, the passion with which they are written, and the near reverent awe the writers seem to have for Smith are common threads in the player perspectives sprinkled throughout the book. (26)

The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching

The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in

D. Final Thoughts

While the book contains several excellent leadership techniques that leaders in various industries should follow, the book does have several weaknesses. First, the foundational source for the book, Smith's basketball program, is not the ideal model upon which to apply the business leadership principles the authors want to develop because most leaders face a much wider variety of challenges than a college athletics coach. Further, except for the owners themselves, business leaders rarely have the autonomy or the authority that a head coach at a major university has to implement their leadership strategies. The coach holds virtually all the "cards" with regard to scholarships and playing time which allows him to influence and motivate players in ways not available to most leaders. (41)

Next, the leadership strategies required for a few hours a day over a six-month basketball season are somewhat different than the longer term strategies needed for a long-term, 365 days a year business. Finally, in the business application section i of each chapter's leadership principal, Bell appropriately uses numerous anecdotes from the corporate world to support each point. However, Bell rarely identifies the specific name of a leader or company in his examples, referring to them only in the abstract such as "a vice president of sales in a pharmaceutical company with large sales force ..., (42) and "I know a CEO that...." (43) These vague references prevent the investigative-minded reader from testing the validity of the Bell's assertions with regard to these anecdotes. (44)

Despite these weaknesses, the authors effectively translate Smith's coaching philosophy and leadership principles to a wide variety of business challenges. The authors cover several helpful leadership concepts such as identifying ways to effectively deal with the varying personalities, backgrounds, and agendas that the people in one's organization bring with them, as opposed to simply implementing a one-size-fits-all bureaucratic management system. Thought-provoking and entertaining, The Carolina Way's readers will be better equipped to handle their own personal leadership challenges. The reader will also come away with a tremendous appreciation and respect for Dean Smith as a leader and coach, but more importantly, one will acquire an appreciation of him as a human being who has positively influenced generations of young men.

The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching

The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in

D. Final Thoughts

While the book contains several excellent leadership techniques that leaders in various industries should follow, the book does have several weaknesses. First, the foundational source for the book, Smith's basketball program, is not the ideal model upon which to apply the business leadership principles the authors want to develop because most leaders face a much wider variety of challenges than a college athletics coach. Further, except for the owners themselves, business leaders rarely have the autonomy or the authority that a head coach at a major university has to implement their leadership strategies. The coach holds virtually all the "cards" with regard to scholarships and playing time which allows him to influence and motivate players in ways not available to most leaders. (41)

Next, the leadership strategies required for a few hours a day over a six-month basketball season are somewhat different than the longer term strategies needed for a long-term, 365 days a year business. Finally, in the business application section i of each chapter's leadership principal, Bell appropriately uses numerous anecdotes from the corporate world to support each point. However, Bell rarely identifies the specific name of a leader or company in his examples, referring to them only in the abstract such as "a vice president of sales in a pharmaceutical company with large sales force ..., (42) and "I know a CEO that...." (43) These vague references prevent the investigative-minded reader from testing the validity of the Bell's assertions with regard to these anecdotes. (44)

Despite these weaknesses, the authors effectively translate Smith's coaching philosophy and leadership principles to a wide variety of business challenges. The authors cover several helpful leadership concepts such as identifying ways to effectively deal with the varying personalities, backgrounds, and agendas that the people in one's organization bring with them, as opposed to simply implementing a one-size-fits-all bureaucratic management system. Thought-provoking and entertaining, The Carolina Way's readers will be better equipped to handle their own personal leadership challenges. The reader will also come away with a tremendous appreciation and respect for Dean Smith as a leader and coach, but more importantly, one will acquire an appreciation of him as a human being who has positively influenced generations of young men.

The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching

The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching

C. Part V: Lessons Learned

Failing to provide any significant "lessons learned," this part of the book should more aptly have been titled, Other Stuff Unrelated to the "Carolina Way. '" In fact, the whole part could have been discarded because it added little to the authors' thesis. The last chapter, titled "Hopes for the Future," is a particularly unnecessary and distracting chapter in this otherwise engaging book. In "Hopes for the Future," Smith rambles on about such varied topics as a proposition to pay college players a stipend, fighting the war on poverty, abolishing the death penalty, and improving the social status of teachers. (38) While all these may be valid subjects worthy of debate, their undeveloped placement in a leadership book is completely inappropriate. Unfortunately, following Smith's ramble, Bell decides to add several of his own unrelated, unsubstantiated, and unproven musings. Even when he actually references leadership principles in the last part of this chapter, Bell does not develop the brand new leadership topics he raises. (39)

While this part of the book is generally disappointing, one very valuable portion is the chapter on Smith's experience as coach of the 1976 Men's Olympic Basketball Team. Unlike his treatment of his job at North Carolina, where he viewed the process and individual development of his players as his primary objectives, his only goal as coach of the Olympic team was to win. (40) This chapter discusses the different leadership skills necessary to lead a makeshift organization to success in a very limited amount of time. This chapter is especially applicable for military environments, particularly in an age of transformation, where different teams of people are being put together at various times to accomplish critical, but often short-term, missions. While completely independent of Coach Smith's true "Carolina Way" philosophy, this is a critical chapter in the book because in many situations, such as combat or professional business, winning is the primary goal and Smith's general coaching philosophies do not address such a concept.

The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching

The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching

B. Parts Two, Three and Four: Playing Hard," Playing Together," Playing Smart

These three separate parts of the book form its core. These parts detail and fully develop how Smith executed his coaching philosophy. Each part is divided into chapters specifically focusing on one part of the overall concept. Among the most helpful chapters in these parts from a leadership perspective for the typical business, government, or military leader are the chapters on "Recruiting the Players," "Team Building Techniques," and "One-on One Meetings." (27)

In "Recruiting the Players," the authors emphasize the need to carefully select employees, focusing not only on each employee's abilities, but also on how each of their goals and attitudes will fit with organizational goals. "Hire smart, manage easy" and "hire slowly, ... fire quickly" are the themes of this chapter. (28) These concepts strongly support the authors' thesis because they have near universal applicability across the spectrum of leadership challenges. (29)

In "Team Building Techniques" Smith discusses rewarding players, praising performances that are beneficial to the team, and showing respect for all players who are trying their best for the team, regardless of the outcome of their efforts. (30) The practical benefits of these approaches are highly lauded in both the player perspectives and the business perspectives sections of the chapter. (31) The authors provide several examples of how these techniques can be applied to business in ways such as starting each meeting by praising individual efforts, large or small, that helped the team, (32) and by treating with greater respect those senior employees who are not part of the management team. (33)

Finally, in the chapter titled "One-on-One Meetings," Smith outlines his methods and reasons for holding one-on-one meetings with his players throughout the year. (34) The premises of this idea are that leaders do too much "doing" and not enough teaching, and that most employees are too hurried in their daily activities to get a good feel and understanding of the company's goals and missions. (35) The authors suggest that leaders should have monthly meeting with each employee. (36) The authors assert, generally, that by conducting regular one-on-one meetings, a leader can remain in-tune with employees, and the employees can remain in-tune with the leader's expectations. (37) Military leaders would be wise to recognize the value of Smith's practices and apply them to both mandatory and discretionary counseling sessions with the troops under their command or influence. In addition to the value of leaders directly communicating their expectations and performance assessment of their subordinates, such individual counseling sessions also provide an opportunity for subordinates to raise problems or concerns that they might not otherwise be comfortable raising in the more formal work setting. By discussing the concerns, the leader should better be able to further the organizations goals.

The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching

The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching
Introduction life skill coach

Play hard," play together; play smart. (3)

This simple, three-term phrase constituted Dean Smith's entire coaching philosophy during his remarkable thirty-six year career as the head basketball coach at the University of North Carolina. (4) Smith's philosophy of "play hard; play smart; play together" is presented in this book as the "Carolina Way." (5) Throughout the book, Smith strips down this already simple coaching philosophy and defines good leadership as simply caring about people. (6) This deeply held belief and practice of Smith's proves to be the message of The Carolina Way--even more so than Smith's coaching philosophy itself. The Carolina Way offers leaders, aspiring leaders, college basketball fans, and mere supporters of human decency an inside look at the means and methods Smith used to become a premier coach, teacher, and leader. As such, it is a highly recommended read.

Smith's thesis is that good leadership qualities are transferable from one occupation to another. (7) This thesis was apparently not one that Smith thought consciously of during his coaching career and seems mainly attributable to co-author Gerald Bell (8) and book contributor John Kilgo. (9) However, Smith generally accepts their idea and develops it throughout the book.

The authors use a compelling three-pronged approach to support their thesis. Each chapter begins with Smith detailing some aspect of his coaching philosophy, including personal anecdotes about his success or failure in implementing that particular aspect of his philosophy. Smith follows each of those entries with powerful and often emotional testimonials from former players or others associated with the program. (10) As Smith astutely points out, his players "were students in the classroom known as North Carolina basketball, and their observations provide the thread that ties the entire book together in a way that would otherwise be impossible." (11) Following the testimonials, Bell applies a business perspective to each of Smith's coaching philosophies. Though the book is primarily credited to Smith, the book is driven by this application of Bell's business perspectives to Smith's coaching philosophies.

The authors break the book into five parts--The Foundations; Playing Hard; Playing Together; Playing Smart; and Lessons Learned. The middle three parts of the book deal with the tripartite elements of Smith's coaching philosophy and are similar to each other in their structure. However, the first and last parts differ substantially in both their structure and focus and are reviewed independently from the middle three pans. Each part of the book has individual chapters and each chapter is presented in the three-part style discussed above--Smith's presentation of his philosophy in action, personal testimonials, and business applications and anecdotes.

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