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The Gold Standard: Building a World-Class Team by Mike Krzyzewski
As a leader, you do not select a team. Instead, you select a group of people and then work together to develop into a team. In other words, teams don’t instantaneously become, they evolve. To do so, you need time, goals, and competition.
You must develop a comprehensive understanding of who and what you’re facing. Your training and preparation are then based on this understanding.
Coach K notes, “Many have said that I coached the Olympic team differently than I coach my Duke teams. Of course I did. If I’m doing my job right, I also coach my Duke teams differently each season. Your team-building plan must be personalized and specific to your personnel, your competition, your goal, and your leadership style.”
Time to Choose Your People
Jerry Colangelo said it best: “Guys who play together can beat a group of all-stars on any given night.” Team over talent. Collective identity over individual ego. Coach Mike D’Antoni, one of the three National Team assistant coaches, put it best when he said, “You need to keep guys together, have them make a commitment. It doesn’t guarantee success, but it guarantees you a chance.”
In the basketball business, a great team is the one that can be unified on the defensive end of the floor. What are the core competencies that your team needs to accomplish your goal? The answer to this question will assist you in choosing the people your organization needs to go forward.
Leadership can be lonely. But you can fight that loneliness by finding kindred spirits and surrounding yourself with those people who will bring out the best in you.
When building a team, the members of that team need to be explicitly told what the parameters of their commitment are going to be, what is expected of them. The honesty and openness of your initial communication with these individuals lays the groundwork for the future of your relationship. In team building, you want this foundation to be one of trust and forthright communication.
For the 2008 Olympics, we believed the twelve players selected had incredible talent, and more importantly, we believed this team has excellent leadership, great versatility and balance, and very good chemistry, which are critical parts in building a great team. In fact, Coach K believed this team is a team all Americans could and would be proud of.
Time to Understand Context
As a leader, it is your responsibility to teach your team enough context to ensure that they all understand their place within it. This helps your team understand why you train in a particular way, lending credibility to the way you choose to prepare. It also brings seriousness to your endeavor by firmly planting your group in a history that existed before you and will continue long after you are gone.
Since we did win in 2000, we did not immediately recognize the need for change in our methods and training. Winning clouded our thinking.
Carmelo Anthony has said of his participation on that 2004 team, “It felt like we were thrown to the wolves.” And they had been. Confirming there was something structurally lacking, he continued, “We didn’t know what to expect.” Lesson learned. As Jerry Colangelo put it, “You can no longer beat great teams with just a group of all-stars.” International teams were able to play together instinctively. It was crucial that Jerry and USA Basketball had an understanding of this context as they put together a program that would allow us to develop instinctive play as well.
It is a mistake to automatically preclude from your team individuals who have been involved in a past failure. In fact, failure can be an essential step on the path to success. West Point taught Coach K that failure was not a destination. Because of West Point, he understood what it means to play for the three letters on the front of the jersey and not for the name on the back.
Time to Gain Perspective
No matter how important you believe yourself to be, there is always something bigger than you. As your team pursues its goal, it is vital that you maintain a sense of perspective.
While context gives you a sense of where your endeavor falls within the larger picture of your industry, perspective should provide a feeling of humility in the pursuit of your goal.
Colonel Bob Brown and Three Wounded Warriors addressed the team on July 22, 2006. Colonel Brown spoke first, writing two words on the whiteboard in the meeting room: selfless service. “What makes teams great is selfless service,” he said. “It’s putting the needs of someone else before yourself.”
Colonel Brown told us three things about selfless service: it’s about being a part of a cause greater than yourself, it’s what makes great teams and leaders, and it’s tough.
As you give your team more and more opportunities to feel, those emotions come more easily. Since that meeting with the wounded warriors in 2006, the U.S. team had heart, and it was becoming increasingly clear that they had one heart.
Your team should appreciate the fact that your actions and words off the court are still a reflection on the entire team, on your brand. Ego and humility are not mutually exclusive. You can have both. You should have both. To be a world-class champion, you have to have both context and perspective. You have to understand how big and how small you are, and be able to internalize both.
Time to Form Relationships
The relationships that a leader wants to see develop among his or her team are based on communication. Every successful team has one system in common and that is communication. Coach K emphasizes honesty in forming strong systems of communication.
In a team environment, the talent and expertise of the person next to you is not a threat, but an opportunity. Coach K knows that you have to really know someone in order to bring out the best in them. In a new group, allowing time for personal connections to develop is essential. As a leader, you should always try to put your team in a position to build this foundation.
LeBron James expressed it perfectly when he said, “You have to be a family first to be a team.” And being a family begins and ends with communication.”
The importance of face-to-face communication is a very simple concept, but those opportunities are becoming more scarce in our fast-paced and increasingly technological society.
What relationships can you form to help set a tone for your team? How can that outside support serve to strengthen you internally? Coach K points out that he uses the words “team” and “family” interchangeably. “My family is a team and my team is a family. When you can incorporate the two together—your team and your family—you create an opportunity for the relationships between everyone to grow even stronger.”
Take the time to form relationships. In granting your team members the time to bond, you establish a foundation of communication, trust, and respect in the way you deal with one another. When your relationships grow from this foundation, you also develop genuine care. If your team can develop this on a personal level, business operations will run more efficiently and you will have a much better chance of reaching your goal.
Time to Develop a Support System
It’s important to have people around that care about you. When you are trying to accomplish something special, having those close to you around allows them to share in your moments, which then become their moments, too. Your support system can become the other half of your team. This also helps the my team understand that they aren’t just playing for themselves.
Take the time to develop a support system. Allowing those who have helped you along the way to make you stronger in the moment brings about confidence. When people feel alone, they have the tendency to put up walls. When you feel alone, you act alone.
Time to Establish Standards
In developing teams, Coach K doesn’t use rules—he uses standards. Rules don’t promote teamwork, standards do. A major part of becoming a team, then, is the establishment and collective acceptance of standards, based on the team’s makeup and centered on your unique goal.
Leaders should remember that not all the good ideas have to come from the top, and they should be secure enough to change plans based on the input of the team.
Being unselfish and connected also means that each member of the team should be comfortable with their role. In concluding the meeting on standards with the U.S. Men’s National Team, Coach K invoked an analogy he commonly uses: the fist. Five guys playing as one, like a fist instead of five outstretched fingers, are stronger than any could ever be individually.
Gold Standards
Here were the Standards set by the U.S. Men’s National Team–what they agreed to hold each other accountable for:
- NO EXCUSES: We have what it takes to win.
- GREAT DEFENSE: This is the key to winning the gold. We do the dirty work.
- COMMUNICATION: We look each other in the eye. We tell each other the truth.
- TRUST: We believe in each other.
- COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY: We are committed to each other. We win together.
- CARE: We have each other’s backs. We give aid to a teammate.
- RESPECT: We respect each other and our opponents. We’re always on time. We’re always prepared.
- INTELLIGENCE: We take good shots. We’re aware of team fouls. We know the scouting report.
- POISE: We show no weakness.
- FLEXIBILITY: We can handle any situation. We don’t complain.
- UNSELFISHNESS: We’re connected. We make the extra pass. Our value is not measured in playing time.
- AGGRESSIVENESS: We play hard every possession.
- ENTHUSIASM: This is fun.
- PERFORMANCE: We’re hungry. We have no bad practices.
- PRIDE: We are the best team in the world and we represent the best country.
Take the time to establish standards. And take the time to write them down. These standards will define the character of your team. If you choose to have a standards meeting, remember how important it is to have multiple voices bring that meeting to life.
In putting together your standards, remember that it is essential to involve your entire team. Standards are not rules issued by the boss; they are a collective identity. Remember, standards are the things that you do all the time and the things for which you hold one another accountable. Once complete, your team can look at that list and say, “That’s who we are.”
Time to Cultivate Leadership
Great teams have multiple leaders, multiple voices. A leader has to recognize when he or she has the best feel for a given situation—and when that feel is better felt by someone else.
Often in team building, you can get someone on your team who is recognized as the most talented individual, and the leader may be envious of or feel intimidated by that person. A leader has to realize that he is not always the best, most talented, or smartest one in the room. But that leader must also realize that he or she darn well better have a great relationship with whoever that person is if the team is to be successful—a relationship without jealousy, built on trust and communication, and where you know that you can count on one another.
Coach K relayed an early discussion with Jason Kidd: We sat down to talk face-to-face, and I told Jason what I had planned for that evening’s team meeting. “I’m going to talk a little bit about what it means to be a champion,” I told him. “And this summer, for us to be champions, I think we need to be three things. First, we need to be unselfish—with playing time and in making the extra pass. Second, we need to be smart—taking good shots and always being aware of time, score, and fouls. And third,” I concluded, “we need to be aggressive—not just when we have the ball but in movement away from the ball. We need to hit the offensive boards and attack the passing lanes on defense.” I told him all of this because I wanted his input. “What do you think?” I asked. “I think that’s great. I think all those things are important. But can I make one suggestion?” he asked. “Certainly.” “I think we need to have an expectation of one another to be on time,” he responded. “It shows respect.”
People are far more apt to develop a trusting relationship if they are allowed to be themselves. Take the time to cultivate leadership. Recognize that yours is not the only voice that your team wants or needs to hear, and be unselfish with your leadership.
Try to develop an understanding of the different leadership qualities individuals on your team may have. The best leadership your team can have is a combination of your strengths with theirs. You make up for one another’s weaknesses. Don’t be intimidated by the talents of the other leaders among your team. Allow them to share your leadership. By cultivating your own relationship with your internal leaders, you can make a connection with them that ensures your group is unified in what you are doing and how you are doing it.
Time to Learn the Language
Tony Ronzone, Director of international player personnel, had an important message for us, “You have to know that the international players watch you guys very closely. They learned the game from you but they are very educated now, and they believe that USA Basketball has lost the love,” he told our guys. “They don’t believe that what we’re doing now is real. They think that in the heat of battle, we are going to revert to being individuals and that we are not going to play team basketball.” He ended with his most important message: “We can change that perception.”
Take the time to learn the language. First, make certain that your team is speaking the same internal language. Remember that your team is likely comprised of individuals from different backgrounds who talk about things in different ways.
Seek advice from people who know that language better than you; ask them to teach you and to help you find ways to simulate so that you can internalize that new language at a higher level.
Time to Adapt Internally
At our first meeting in the summer of 2006, Jerry Colangelo told our team, “Check your egos at the door.” Jerry was referring to a crucial concept of team building: the sacrifice of the individual ego and the establishment of a stronger, joint ego. International teams had been doing this for years.
If everyone simply adjusts to the style of the leader, you are not getting the most of what everyone has to offer. Instead, a leader needs to be a part of a mutual adaptation that forms a combination of the best of everyone.
You never want an individual to be so deferential to the team concept that they lose the part of their individual ego that makes them great. On our team we wanted to find the right mix of sacrifice and self-assurance that would allow each one of our guys to become Superman.
Your team will not be the best that it can be if everyone adapts to a single individual. When leaders make clear their willingness to change, it establishes an environment in which everyone can be comfortable adapting.
Time to Practice
Practice is when a coach exercises the most control over the improvement of his or her team. On the U.S. team, there were two things they talked about every single day: the gold medal and defense—the goal and their competitive edge. Those are two pretty important things for your team to always have on their mind.
Practice, then, isn’t just about playing the way you will in a game, it’s about communicating the way you will in a game.
Even when you are trying to bring a group of people together to act as one, personal time is important. You cannot forget to allow people opportunities to improve on their own, because individual improvement also means team improvement.
When people take charge of their own progression, they can become more vested and feel more ownership. Practice is not only about preparing your bodies and minds but cementing your relationships within the context of what you are trying to accomplish, relationships in which your communication will be at its best in the environment where you do business.
Take the time to practice. In fact, take the most time to practice. In practice, you are working not only to improve on your weaknesses but also to build on your strengths.
Time for Self-Assessment
In team building, self-assessment must take place both at the group level and on an individual level for each of the team members. This does not exclude the leader, whose individual self-assessment may be the most crucial of all.
Winning can mask your deficiencies. But if the job of a team’s leadership is to constantly self-assess, you have to be willing to look at yourself critically even in victory. This is the fundamental point of self-assessment: discovering whether and to what extent you are upholding the standards that you have set for your team.
Internal leadership is good for a lot of things, but the team leader is the one who needs to step up when it’s time for confrontation.
Take the time for self-assessment. Remember the standards that you and your team established and try to fairly evaluate whether or not those standards are being upheld. It’s easy to force yourself to assess when you lose. Easy and necessary. It is harder when you are winning. Hard, but equally necessary. Self-assessment is not a thing that you do once in a while; it is something that should be taking place all the time.
Time to Get Motivated
As a leader, it is your responsibility to put your team in the moment, to ensure that they understand what’s at stake and the level of risk and reward. One common mistake that leaders make is not motivating their best people. Some might think that superstars simply don’t need this effort from you, that because they are the best, they are self-motivated. But that’s wrong. Everybody needs to be inspired.
Another element of getting your team motivated is rallying support from the outside by broadcasting your group’s message. Of course, this starts with the obvious question: What is our message? Typically a group’s message is some combination of your goal and your standards: This is what we are going to do and this is how we are going to do it. Our USA Basketball team’s message was this: we want to win a gold medal and we want to do it in a way that brings honor to ourselves, the game we love, and the country we honorably represent.
Take the time to get motivated. Remember that motivation is not something that you simply hope occurs. It is something that a team’s leadership must do, must actively work for, on a daily basis. Use your imagination and creativity to motivate. Motivate from different sources. And know that it’s okay to form new traditions, ones that define your team.
Game Time
Game pressure can do one of two things: it can inhibit you, or it can excite you. The inhibiting kind of pressure comes as the result of outside expectations. And, as Coach K told the team in an early meeting, “We are not going to feel expectation; we are going to feel anticipation.” Anticipation takes that outside pressure away and allows your team to feel only the pressure of the game itself, the kind of pressure that excites and brings out the best in you and your team. The type of pressure you should relish.
One thing that Coach K learned from their reactions to these efforts was that the more mature your team is, the better they are able to embrace the emotion that accompanies group motivation. Especially with a group of men, it requires a high level of individual security to allow yourself to become emotional. These guys had it.
U.S. Basketball’s Golden Moment
Take the time to celebrate your team’s accomplishments. The Olympics are unique in that they provide nations with an opportunity, through sport, to both earn and give respect apart from all of the issues that cloud international relationships. In the past, basketball in the United States had promoted individualism. Now, we promoted team. Instead of garnering resentment, we garnered respect.
Kobe did a great job of summarizing the feeling when he said to the media, “What you saw today was a team. Everybody wants to talk about NBA players being selfish, being arrogant, being individuals. What you saw today was a team bonding together, facing adversity and coming out of here with a big win… . It’s an unbelievable feeling to win a gold medal for your country. I can’t begin to describe to you the feeling that we all feel right now.” Jason added to Kobe’s sentiment: “We had one ego and that is the team ego. We wanted to play as a team… . With all the great players and the egos we became one ego, a team ego, and that growth was a beautiful thing to see.”
There is no formula, no recipe, no easy step-by-step process to build a team. This story can serve only as a guide.
Take the time to choose your people, understand context, gain perspective, form relationships, develop a support system, establish standards, cultivate leadership, adapt internally, learn the language, practice, self-assess, and get motivated.
Then, don’t forget to celebrate. In celebration, you relive your moments together and your hard work is validated and rewarded by the way you feel. There is no better feeling than having been a part of a world-class team.
