By Amber Van Schooneveld
At the Global Leadership Summit each year, we gather some of the top leadership thinkers from around the country. And in 2024, we were honored to have Mike Krzyzewski, known as “Coach K,” share his leadership insights with us. Mike Krzyzewski is one of the country’s most distinguished leaders, having been the head Men’s Basketball Coach for Duke University from 1980 to 2022.
He shared with us his motivational techniques, teamwork strategies and key values that helped make him the most accomplished basketball coach in history. Here are our favorite Coach K quotes from the Global Leadership Summit. We hope they inspire you to keep growing in your leadership!
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- “Leadership is the most fascinating profession in the world. And it transcends every part of our society.”
- “Leadership changes every day.”
- “You have to keep changing how you communicate. You have to adapt what music you know, what culture the people are coming from, what their attention span is.”
- “A big part of leadership is using humor.”
- “A leader does not get all the information, especially about the people he or she has the honor to lead. You have to get information from your team.”
- “Leadership is all about people.”
- “Accountability is becoming an endangered species. People are afraid to tell each other the truth.”
- “You make each other better by everyone being responsible.”
- “You shouldn’t want the people who work with you to work for you. I wanted my people to own it with me, and that’s the culture we built.”
- “Courage is saying or doing what needs to be said or done at the moment it needs to be said or done.”
- “Trust is the cornerstone for everything.”
- “Value-based teams and organizations live forever. How you teach those values changes because society changes. The values don’t change.”
During the Global Leadership Summit, we also had the opportunity to have the founding and lead pastor of Life.Church, Craig Groeschel, interview Mike Krzyzewski. Here are a few of our favorite insights and quotes from Coach K from that interview!
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- “Leadership is the continuous study of people.”
- “One of the most powerful things is to look into someone’s eyes and say, “I believe in you.”
- “Don’t just be any energy receiver. Be an energy giver.”
- “Become a plural pronoun team. No ‘I’ or ‘me.’”
- “Failure is the seed to growth.”
- “Learn to love preparation. I wanted to be worthy of winning with my preparation. When I lost a game I was worthy of winning, I didn’t feel like I’d lost.”
Are you looking to grow in your leadership skills? The Global Leadership Summit is the world’s premier leadership event. You will learn to lead where you are, no matter your role or context. Join us live in August to take your next steps as a leader!
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