Customer Reviews

The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've heard Jerry Bell speak before, so I was thrilled to see him collaborate with Dean Smith on this book. Bell frequently uses words like caring, honesty, integrity, and discipline on his lectures on leadership and it's obvious from reading the book that these were the cornerstones of Coach Smith's teams. I wish more business leaders would understand that there is a correlation between investing in their people and sustained success. So many companies look at employees as disposable commodities, so it's refreshing to hear two men who have achieved so much in their careers say that it starts with genuine care for your people. Smith's philosophy, though simple in word, is truly applicable to the business arena because it promotes thinking intelligently, working extremely hard, and a committment to a greater whole than just oneself. That approach, combined with the real concern for each and every member of his program, created the most successful coaching career in college basketball history. If more CEO's would adopt these principles in their companies, then their work environments would improve, their employees would be more reciprocal in their committment, and bottom lines would increase.
Kudos to Bell and Smith for a thoughtful book with an important message - good guys do win!

On the way to a conference in New Orleans, my flight from Raleigh to Charlotte was cancelled due to mechanical problems, and I was booked on a flight to D.C. As I boarded the plane with "The Carolina Way" under my arm, a gentleman seated at the front of the plane asked how I was enjoying the book. I explained that I had not yet started the book, so I could not give an answer. The gentleman followed me to my seat and introduced himself as Dr. Gerald Bell, the co-author of "The Carolina Way". Myself a Carolina fan, I was pleased to meet Dr. Bell, as he spent several minutes talking about Coach Smith, whom I have admired for over forty years, and the UNC basketball program, which is presently undergoing a much needed resurgence under Coach Roy Williams. Dr. Bell's contributions to the book tie Coach Smith's leadership philosophy to practical business applications by relating wonderful anecdotal references from Carolina's storied history to today's business situations. Surely, Coach Smith, given his ability to recruit top players, has been criticized by many for his failure to win NCAA championships in the manner of Coach John Wooden at UCLA, but winning two NCAA championships, winning at a consistency high level unmatched by any program without violating strict NCAA rules, and coaching top players that graduated at a +90% rate and have gone on to be successes in their chosen professions underscore the unique successes of Coach Smith's "system". Teamwork, integrity, loyalty, and hard work, are the cornerstones of the Carolina Way, and anyone in the position of managing, leading, or molding young people today would benefit from reading this book, corny as it is at times. This book is not just for Carolina basketball fans.

It's par for the course, but the slime still manage to advertise their stupidity in the face of excellence.

A leadership book that's one of a kind, missing the redundancy so prevalent in so many leadership books. The fundamentals are broken down into sections, such as:

Part Three:

Chapter 11: Teamwork
Chapter 12: Defining and Understanding Our Roles
Chapter 13: Why Unselfishness Works
Chapter 14: Team-Building Techniques

An excellent read, well off of the typical mundane management path that we've all seen and heard too many times.

A year or so after Dean Smith's retirement from coaching the Tarheels, I was waiting on a connection flight from Charlotte and noticed a man sitting alone in the corner, fartherest away from the ramp. He had his back to me, but he looked strangely familiar. I casually got up, walked closer to determine if this was someone I knew and whether or not I should speak. About 15 feet from his seat, I noticed that it was the Dean, sitting alone, with a pen and a yellow legal pad, diagramming plays all by himself. It sounds corny, but it happened and made an indelible impression on me. After all those years, and wins - more than anyone else in college basketball history - the notion that he still had more to learn, that in 35 years, he had not already diagrammed ever possible play, was incomprehensible to me. I wanted to say hello and tell my children later in life that I had met him, but I did not disturb him. Our plane arrived, we boarded, and he walked alone to his seat. I never met him. But I feel like I already knew him having watched him from my baby crib, up to the day he retired.

And reading "The Carolina Way" brought back many memories and reminded me of not only why I am a Carolina Fan but also why he commands such deep respect and admiration. He succedded the right way, never cutting corners, and believing in a system that was based on working hard, working together and being smart. You do NOT have to be a Carolina fan to enjoy and love this book. But if you are, you won' be disappointed, either!

Carolina fans will enjoy hearing from Coach Smith; he discusses all aspects of the Carolina basketball program, other than Xs and Os. Smith is generous with the program's history as well as his own, and it is wonderful to hear an icon of integrity and doing things right speak up. Additionally, there a few dozen topical reminiscences by past players; it is good to hear from them as well.

There is a business aspect of the book; after Coach Smith has held forth on a given topic (Team-building Techniques, e.g.), the reins are turned over to a business process expert (Gerald Bell) to tie the coach's basketball experiences to the business world. While there are a number of useful lessons to be learned, I thought this aspect of the book was a good bit less successful. The business advice to me seemed to be focused on a fairly narrow segment of the business world, and that is the big corporate segment where everyone is in a huge organization with a big teams, managers above and below, and apparently a budget for periodic self-inspection and retreat.. I know that model fits a lot of people, but it misses a whole bunch too. The practical advice had valuable moments but depended greatly on making a list of 10 things to do each quarter, three things to focus on this week, 9 points to emphasize this year, and so on. There would need to be a list of lists, for sure.

I will retain this book for reference, but 3 stars is all I can manage.

This book is great. I found it on a discount bin in Wal-Mart. I didn't really know who he was. I was young when he was coaching. I wish I could watch him when he was coaching. He seems incredibly wise, much more than any other coach. Through his examples, several practical leadership and team work lesson and expounded upon. You don't really need to be a fan of college basketball, or sports, to enjoy and glean some wisdom from this man. I am not much of a fan of basketball, but this book made it much more interesting!

My husband introduced me to this book. He is a huge Carolina basketball fan, but as he read the book, he realized the business perspective would be helpful to me. He began reading passages here and there from the book out loud to me. It only took a few passages for me to realize I had to read the entire book. Now, I take the book to every training class I lead and use some passage as an example to what we discuss in training. The business perspective is insightful, however, the most helpful part of the book is Dean Smith's sports perspective. Everyone can understand and appreciate a sports perspective when they may not be able to relate to a business perspective. This book makes it easy to get a point across to everyone in the class.

I highly recommend this book for sports fans, Caorlina fans, Dean Smith fans, as well as entrepreneurs and business owners.

A great book full of good examples from the basketball court on how to solve daily real world problems in your own life and business. The discipline and routine that coach Smith gave to his players are not magic tricks. They show you how hard work always pays out and how it gives us self esteem to overcome life's obstacles. The path that Dean Smith presents is not an easy one. Discipline, patience, intelligence and teamwork are the key ingredients of Smith's success formula. Not only that, he also tells us about his tricks he applied to overcome the difficulties that every individual player faced. There is a lot of creativity in his work. It's not only his hard work, but also his creativity that makes his approach enjoyable.

Really a book with greats tips to follow. Anyone who applies his approach in basketball to his life can expect tremendous results in his life.

I have enjoyed this book and have given it to friends and family on several occasions. This is not a book about basketball, but uses the sport to illustrate leadership priniples. Each chapter discusses a leadership concept and is broken into three parts- Coach Smith's insight, a player discussing how the concept affected him, and a business angle. This is easily in the top five books written about leadership!

This book is more than your typical sports book. Sure, it's filled with stories about games, seasons, and individual players. Each chapter starts out with Coach Smith explaining a particular aspect of his coaching methodology. A Player's Perspective follows outlining how the particular aspect and Dr. Bell relates the aspect to the modern workplace. This book is all about building teams.

The Carolina Way can be summed up by these words: Play Hard; Play Together; Play Smart. For example, Coach Smith talks about recruiting players that will fit into his system. Dr. Bell then takes those ideas one step further and relates the recruiting to hiring workers. Another example is Dean Smith held regular one-on-one meetings with each of his players to discover their goals in life as well as basketball. Dr. Bell then outlines how you can pattern employee reviews around these same principals.

I personally got a lot out of this book and plan on implementing some of the strategies in my own team.