Leadercast Flashback: Mike Krzyzewski
One of my favorite days of the year is the first Friday of May. For more than 10 years this has been the date for one of my favorite leadership training events, Leadercast. Each year I come away inspired with a notebook full of new insights to help me grow and successfully overcome the challenges that leaders face.
Make sure you take part in this event! Join more than 125,000 leaders from all around the globe May 7,2106. The year’s theme is, “Architects of Tomorrow”. This event will inspire you and encourage you in your growth as a leader and a person. You will learn at the feet of leaders who are known around the world for their accomplishments and leadership abilities.
This one-of-a-kind event will be broadcast live from Atlanta and simulcast into communities across the globe. For me details and to register check out their site: Leadercast.com
In anticipation of this coming Friday’s Leadercast event I am re-posting some of my favorite content from past events. Below is Mike Krzyzewski highlights from the 2013 event.
Head men’s basketball coach, Duke University and Team USA
- One of the key things as a leader is to create to close associations with other leaders.
- As a leader you can’t hold back, if you have something to say you need to say it.
- You can get sidetracked, but you have to complete your mission.
- You should try to get better everyday.
- Being Coach of National Team took him out of his comfort zone
A leader is one who puts his team in a position to be successful all the time!
- As a leader you need create a culture of success, Create an atmosphere where everybody is important, No job is too small that a leader is too big to do it.
- As a leader you need to Empower team members don’t delegate to them.
- The most important thing in leadership is communication.
- As a leader you must set a standard for your team. Example: when we talk to each look each other in the eye, no headsets etc
- Simple leadership, look each other in the eye when you communicate.
- Always tell the truth! AT West Point we had The Honor Code, don’t lie cheat or steal.
- If you have a team and you are wondering about whether your team members are being truthful you are not moving forward as you should because you are always looking back not sure if someone has your back or not.
- Our standard is to tell the truth and accept that you are being told the truth.
- What the truth does is that it always allows you take immediate action! You are not distracted or deterred by always trying to figure out what is actually going on, you can get down to business. Truth speeds up your effectiveness!
Trust: if you trust someone and they trust you 2 is better than 1, if you don’t have trust 2 is not better than 1!
- The ability to develop trust is paramount with any team’s success.
- I told the USA Team “Don’t leave your egos at the door, you is on the back of the jersey, we have to develop a collective ego as Team USA.”
Setting Standards vs. Having Rules: I told the team leaders (Kobe, Lebron, Camello, Kidd) we are going to talk about how we are going to live together, our team is not going to have any rules, we are going to have standards.
- If you have standards and you collectively own it you don’t need rules, you have to own the team as players.
- By setting standards vs. establishing rules we never had a guy late or bad practice in 7 years as Coach of USA. These standards were set by the team, therefore owned by the team. Therefore they established how we lived as a team and we didn’t need any rules.
Being an outstanding leader is an everyday thing!
1. Communicate
2. Develop Trust
3. Set Standards
- Don’t focus on winning, focus on creating a culture of success!
- Trust-if you don’t have it, 2 is worse than 1
- Do I live up to the standards I hold others to?
Grab Your Free
Leadership Reading Guide
©2025 Learning To Lead | Helping Good Leaders Become Great Leaders