Want to a Build a Winning Culture on the Court—or at the Office? Ask an NCAA Legend

Cultivating a vibrant culture isn’t easy—but the following suggestions, culled from Coach K’s many years of experience leading winning teams, can help.

Recruit Between the Lines
Before you can be an effective leader, you have to build the right team. So while you’re weighing a potential recruit’s skills and qualifications, share your values and standards to try to get a sense of whether the candidate will embrace them. Look beyond the areas of their background that slot neatly into the position you’re looking for, and consider the ways in which their extracurricular projects may have contributed to their skills and perspectives. “Great employees can bring talent and experience from a variety of sources, such as work history, volunteering, or personal backgrounds,” Coach K says.

Don’t (Always) Lead With Fear
Leaders should not seek to be feared or liked; they should aim to be respected. And to command respect, you must develop trust, lead with integrity, and tell the truth no matter what. That said, fear can be a good motivator under the right circumstances. Avoid using it to motivate your team, but consider using it—judiciously—when there’s a violation of standards.

Make a Habit of Motivation
Coach K found that even small gestures, like cracking a joke or putting on a rousing video, could motivate teams. “You don’t just wait for a big moment,” he says; “motivation should be like a habit.” Case in point: He liked to share a clip of American pop star Beyoncé warming up in her dressing room before a show. “She’s belting it out,” he says. “She’s not half stepping. She’s motivated before she goes on the stage.” During the show—i.e. the “big moment”—she likely experiences a swell of emotional motivation. For Coach K and his team, that emotional motivation would typically come during a game, but there were times when he’d spark a comparable response with a fervent speech or a poignant anecdote. Calibrating your motivation to any context is, Coach K says, “one of the beauties of leadership. You have an ever-changing landscape upon which to lead.”

Reorient Egos
In 2008, when Coach K was in charge of the U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team, he had the herculean task of wrangling the egos of some of the greatest basketball players in the world, including NBA legends Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. He decided the best way to get the most out of each player was to ask them to bring their egos into the arena instead of leaving them at the door. But rather than tap into their personal egos, they were urged to cultivate an ego for Team USA. “You’re not playing for the United States,” Coach K told them. “You are USA basketball.”

“The most interesting thing on Earth is a human being. The most important thing is a human being.” —Coach K

Meet Challenges With Empathy
When you’re dealing with friction among team members or lackluster performance, Coach K urges you to think about everyone’s insecurities, life obstacles—even their fears of being let go. An empathetic approach will help you better diagnose the root cause of any problem and craft effective solutions.

Breed Leaders
Try to develop leaders within each tier of your organization’s hierarchy, and promote them to more senior tiers once they’ve excelled in their current roles. (Coach K also believes it’s perfectly okay to stay in one tier; think of those individuals as specialists.) Identify burgeoning leaders and give those individuals the confidence to act as “captains” within a department or group. To determine who those people are, ask yourself: Who embodies the values of the organization? Who steps forward to get the whole team on the same page? Who actively develops their skills? Finally, resist the urge to micromanage. Give people autonomy and confidence to handle projects and issues on their own.