Mike krzyzewski quotes

During the season, your team should be led with exuberance and excitement. You should live the journey. You should live it right. You should live it together. You should live it shared. You should try to make one another better. You should get on one another if somebody's not doing their part. You should hug one another when they are. You should be disappointed in a loss and exhilarated in a win. It's all about the journey.

You should do things because of what your expectations are of yourself.

Leaders show respect for people by giving them time.

The worst thing we can do is put the (other) team in a one-and-one.

With me and basketball, it became part of me.

A leader's responsibility to his team is paramount. It overshadows even his own personal feelings at any given time.

Never let a person's weakness get in the way of their strength.

People want to be on a team. They want to be part of something bigger than themselves. They want to be in a situation where they feel that they are doing something for the greater good.

Never delegate. Always empower.

The person who has inspired me my whole life is my Mom, because she taught me commitment. She sacrificed.

Champions play as they practice. Create a consistency of excellence in all your habits.

In high school, in sport, I had a coach who told me I was much better than I thought I was, and would make me do more in a positive sense. He was the first person who taught me not to be afraid of failure.

Effective teamwork begins and ends with communication

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.

I never want to lead a team that is not allowed the freedom to pursue what's in their hearts. If you want your team to be fully committed, then you'd better be fully committed

Great rivalries don't have to be built on hatred. They're built on respect, on a respect for excellence.

My mom gave me unconditional support and unfailing love. You can't get any better than that. That's why I've never been afraid to lose.

Whatever a leader does now sets up what he does later. And there's always a later.

Confrontation simply means meeting the truth head-on.

It takes courage not only to make decisions, but to live with those decisions afterward

Always get back to your core principles.

Discipline is doing what you are supposed to do in the best possible manner at the time you are supposed to do it.

A basketball team is like the five fingers on your hand. If you can get them all together, you have a fist. That's how I want you to play.

Play and practice like you are trying to make the team.

Every season is a journey. Every journey is a lifetime.

Are you going to show integrity only when someone is watching you - or are you going to show it all the time?

My hunger is not for success, it is for excellence. Because when you attain excellence, success just naturally follows.

In leadership, there are no words more important than trust.

Leaders should be reliable without being predictable. They should be consistent without being anticipated

The truth is that many people set rules to keep from making decisions.

A leader may be the most knowledgeable person in the world, but if the players on his team cannot translate that knowledge into action, it means nothing.

I don't think we surprise people. We try to out-execute them.

In leadership, there are no words more important than trust. In any organization, trust must be developed among every member of the team if success is going to be achieved

In order to be a winner, you have to look for ways of getting things done and not for reasons why things can’t be done. People who live with excuses have things that can’t be done hovering around them all the time.

I believe a big part of leadership is about winning the moment.

Leadership is an ever-evolving position.

One of the worst things anybody can do is assume. I think fools assume. If people have really got it together, they never assume anything. They believe, they work hard, and they prepare- but they don't assume.

Throughout my life, my mom has been the person that I've always looked up to.

To me, teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one. You become selfless.

You develop a team to achieve what one person cannot accomplish alone. All of us alone are weaker, by far, than if all of us are together.

In our program, the truth is the basis of all we do. There is nothing more important than the truth because there's nothing more powerful than the truth. Consequently, on our team, we always tell each other the truth. We must be honest with one another. There is no other way.

You cannot merely expect culture to be a natural occurrence; it has to be taught and made a part of your everyday routine.

I always won in my imagination. I always hit the game-winning shot, or I hit the free throw. Or if I missed, there was a lane violation, and I was given another one.

Goals should be realistic, attainable, and shared among all members of the team

You have to work hard at staying in contact with your friends so that the relationships will continue and live on... Friendships, along with love, make life worth living.

Visualize a wagon wheel as a complete team. A leader might be the hub of the wheel at the center. Now suppose the spokes are the connecting relationships the leader is building with people on the outer rim of the wheel. If the hub is removed, then the entire wheel collapses. In a situation like that, if a team loses the leader, the entire team collapses.

You don't just be a team. You become a team. Through tough games you find that you need each other

Effort is fully replenishable. There is no need to save any of it. Leave every bit you have on the playing field

Making shots counts, but not as much as the people who make them.

Communication does not always occur naturally, even among a tight-knit group of individuals. Communication must be taught and practiced in order to bring everyone together as one

I've been so fortunate in my life that my family has never been jealous of my success. They have shown true love and commitment to me by being supportive. They shared in it.

I think leadership is never singular. In a good organization, it's plural.

I'm still not a great reader, but my wife is and my daughters are, and I envy them. I think I got into a bad habit of trying to do something all the time, instead of trying to sit down and take my time a little bit.

A leader has to show the face his team needs to see.

Our goal is not to win. It's to play together and play hard. Then, winning takes care of itself.

It's not like we have not had close games. We've just been able to win them, and as a result, the reality sometimes doesn't set in that you're weak in certain areas or you're not doing certain things well. ... When you win, sometimes it overshadows a poor performance.

Two are better than one if two act as one.

Don't worry about losing. Think about winning.

If you have talent with teamwork, you've got a chance to be a championship team.

I'm looking for players who make their teammates better. You do that with enthusiasm and passion.

I think you're not a human being unless you have doubts and fears.

Sometimes it's not bad to hurt. Sometimes you don't want things until you get hurt. We got hurt today, let's see what we do.

Growth creates complexity, which requires simplicity.

There are five fundamental qualities that make every team great: communication, trust, collective responsibility, caring and pride. I like to think of each as a separate finger on the fist. Any one individually is important. But all of them together are unbeatable

Courage and confidence are what decision making is all about.

Imagination has a great deal to do with winning.

Believe that the loose ball that you are chasing has your name wirtten on it.

I think some parents now look at a youngster failing as the final thing. It's a process, and failure is part of the process. I would like it if the teacher and the parents would connect more. I think that used to be, but we're losing a little bit of that right now.

When a leader takes responsibility for his own actions and mistakes, he not only sets a good example, he shows a healthy respect for people on his team

I love practice. It is when a coach exercises the most control over the improvement of his or her team.

Fun is to experience things you would not have been able to experience in any other setting.

The life expectancy of a team is about eight months. Then the next year, it's a whole new team.

When you are speaking to your team after a game, never talk about the kid who was the star of the game. Talk about what your other players did to help the team win. Be sure to spread the wealth... Then have individual meetings with one to three players to praise and reinforce. Make sure you touch them.

Talent is important. But the single most important ingredient after you get the talent is internal leadership. It's not the coaches as much as one single person or people on the team who set higher standards than that team would normally set for itself. I really believe that that's been ultimately important for us.

I don't look at myself as a basketball coach. I look at myself as a leader who happens to coach basketball.

When you are passionate, you always have your destination in sight and you are not distracted by obstacles. Because you love what you are pursuing, things like rejection and setbacks will not hinder you in your pursuit. You believe that nothing can stop you!

I have a rule on my team: When we talk to one another, we look each other right in the eye, because I think it's tough to lie to somebody. You give respect to somebody.

When I was in sixth grade, I wanted to become a priest.

Once you win a National Championship, how do you do that again? How do you get the passion to do that again? We won it again right away, the next year. A lot of it had to do with the fact that I didn't give myself an opportunity to enjoy the first one.

The team that trusts-their leader and each other-is more likely to be successful.

The only way you're going to grow is to be in difficult situations.

Only the mediocre are always at their best. If your standards are low, it is easy to meet those standards every single day, every single year. But if your standard is to be the best, there will be days when you fall short of that goal. It is okay to not win every game. The only problem would be if you allow a loss or a failure to change your standards. Keep your standards intact, keep the bar set high, and continue to try your very best every day to meet those standards. If you do that, you can always be proud of the work that you do.

A leader is someone who puts their people in position to be successful all the time

Good sound habits are more important than rules - use concepts.

Courage gives a leader the ability to stand straight and not sway, no matter which way the wind blows.

Encourage members of your team to take the initiative and act on their own.

It’s simply doing what you’re supposed to do as well as you can when you’re supposed to do it.

In all forms of leadership, whether you are a coach, a CEO, or a parent, there are four words that, when said, can bring out the best in your team, your employees, and your family. I BELIEVE IN YOU. Those four words can mean the difference between a fear of failure and the courage to try.

The truth is that many people set rules to keep from making decisions. Not me. I don't want to be a manager or a dictator. I want to be a leader-and leadership is ongoing, adjustable, flexible, and dynamic. As such, leaders have to maintain a certain amount of discretion

During critical periods, a leader is not allowed to feel sorry for himself, to be down, to be angry, or to be weak. Leaders must beat back these emotions

Almost everything in leadership comes back to relationships.

As teachers and coaches, we must remember that when mere winning is our only goal, we are doomed to disappointment and failure. But when our goal is to try to win, when our focus is on preparation and sacrifice and effort instead of on numbers on a scoreboard then we will never lose.

Each group and each youngster is different. As a leader or coach, you get to know what they need.

You can't defer if you're the person who's in the leadership position.

Confidence shared is better than confidence only in yourself.

When you first assemble a group, it's not a team right off the bat. It's only a collection of individuals

Don't let a single game break your heart.

Everybody wants to take responsibility when you win, but when you fail, all these fingers are pointing.

I have a plan of action, but the game is a game of adjustments.

Embrace the hell out of personal responsibility.

I don't think you play for other people's expectations, you know. You don't go and become a lawyer because your mother or father want you to, you don't become a coach because somebody wants you to.

If you set up an atmosphere of community and trust, it becomes a tradition. Older team members will establish your credibility with newer ones. Even if they don't like everything about you, they'll say, 'He's trustworthy, committed to us as a team.'

Friendships, along with love, make life worth living.

The thing I loved the most - and still love the most about teaching - is that you can connect with an individual or a group, and see that individual or group exceed their limits.

Defense is one man guarding the ball and four others helping him

We lost, and that's the main thing that went wrong.

There are always those times when you're going to be down. It's how you step through it that makes you the person you are.

I think coaching is confused at times as being an arrow that only goes to a player. Those players send arrows back to you, and that’s where a relationship is developed. I don’t make a player, and a player doesn’t make me a coach. We make each other.

The best teams are team in any sport that lose themselves in the team. The individuals lose their identity. And their identities come about as a result of being in the team first.

A leader has to be positive about all things that happen to his team. Look at nothing in the past as failure.

Pete Newell told me 'get as much information and learn as much about the game as you can, but use your own personality to teach it.'

Leadership is simple: Add value to people everyday.

In developing teams, I don't believe in rules. I believe in standards. Rules don't promote teamwork, standards do

That's what I do now: I lead and I teach. If we win basketball games from doing that, then that's great, but I lead and teach. Those are the two things I concentrate on.

Playing sport was somewhat frivolous, but I liked it. I rebelled a little bit, and wouldn't go to music lessons and things like that, but I would go and play ball. My parents learned to love it because they saw how much I got out of it.

With accomplishments comes confidence and with confidence comes belief. It has to be in that order.

I didn't miss any games, but Coach Knight came out and spent three days with my family in Chicago when my dad passed away. I came back and played and it was good therapy for me. Having a basketball family and a coach who understood and actually became like a father figure for that time was comforting to me, and I'm sure that will be comforting to Coleman.

You can see and you can listen, but you have to have moments in which you feel.

Sometimes in a defeat, you can set the stage for future victory.

You start developing a championship attitude by, first of all, telling kids that they are really good and that they have the potential to become better.

A team is a fist-not five fingers.

I try to see each new season as a new challenge because I have a new team to work with, new opponents to encounter, and often new ideas and theories to try

It's funny what happens when you become a grandparent. You start to act all goofy and do things you never thought you'd do. It's terrific.

Footwork is one of the primary prerequisites to becoming a great player

Don't do anything as an individual that will make you stand out from your teammates.