Business, Sports & Gaming
Define Your Core Values
Lesson time 16:03 min
Define the core principles of your organization: Learn how Coach K aligned his personal objectives with those of his teams through an impromptu “values meeting.”
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: Personalize Your Values • Put Your Values Into Action • West Point Performance
Preview
MICHAEL KRZYZEWSKI: As a leader, you, first of all, have to explain the mission of the group that you're leading. And in basketball-- what offense, what defense we're going to play. And a lot of people stop right there. But if you really want to get a deep team and a deep group and run a better offense and defense, you introduce values. To me, a value is a quality. It's an ideal. It's a way you act. It's something that becomes part of your character. It starts by having beliefs, which are principles that govern how you act externally and values, how you put those beliefs into action through your conscious and unconscious behaviors. Okay. Everybody, right in here. So you talk to your team, and basically, you come up with the values of your organization. We call them the values of our program. And it started out where I had five. And I used the analogy of a fist-- five fingers, five guys playing. Okay? It doesn't make any difference how strong or how good you are. If you punch like this, you might hurt somebody, but you're going to hurt yourself-- or if I only have three fingers together. And so basically, if you are value-based, the values that you have bring the five people together to form a fist. And those values are communication. We look each other in the eye. We tell each other the truth, all the time. The second one is trust. I value your word, and I believe you in an instant. The third one is care. I got your back. Go for it. I got your back. Don't hesitate, man. You know, I'm with you all the way. The fourth one is collective responsibility. When we win, kumbaya, man. We're all winning together. But when we lose, don't point a finger. Because then, you're not going to have a fist. We win and we lose together. That's collective responsibility. And you do not win all the time. And the fifth one is pride. I want everyone to have the pride of belonging to something bigger than themselves. I think every person would like to have that. Get those five going together, man, those five values. And you keep going after. And that's my goal with every team, and I've used that with every team I've coached. It's pretty simple to understand. It's not necessarily simple to do. To me, a value-based team or a value-based organization are the ones that stand the test of time. Somebody can win for a short period of time. But if you're not value-based, eventually, it catches up to you. The values that you have create the culture that is part of your program, part of you. And culture-based programs that have values are the ones that win. I know that many of you are thinking, well, this is a recipe. Like, if I don't have these values, I'm not going to be good. Listen, you determine what values are good for you and your program. They're just ideals, qualities, ways of living that you feel are pertinent to the group that you're in. You might have three. You might have 10. You determine that. ...
About the Instructor
Mike “Coach K” Krzyzewski is the winningest coach in men’s college basketball history. For the first time, he’s sharing the secrets to building an environment conducive to success. Learn how to read body language, deliver difficult feedback, and identify talent. Whether on the court or in the office, you’ll be confident exercising leadership strategies that influenced players like Kobe Bryant and Shane Battier.
Featured MasterClass Instructor
Coach K
12x “Coach of the Year” Mike Krzyzewski teaches how to motivate a team. Discover your innate leadership skills with drills to prepare for success.
Explore the Class