I just recently finished reading one of the best books I have ever read. Naturally, I wanted to include it as the featured resource. The book is entitled, The Gold Standard: Building a World Class Team by Mike Krzyzewski (Business Plus, 2009).Coach K, as he affectionately called, is the coach of the Duke Blue Devils championship basketball team, and the coach for Team USA's gold medal winning 2008 squad. He just recently announced that he will continue on as coach for the 2012 Olympics as well.
In this book, Coach K uses his experience at bringing together Team USA as a case study for team building. Having read two of Coach K's previous books (Leading with the Heart and Beyond Basketball) I knew that this book would be a winner. However, this one went beyond my expectations.
The introduction set the tone for the rest of the book. Coach K starts out by asking one simple question, how do you build a team?
"You do not select a team, you select a group of people and then work together to develop into a team", Coach K writes. "In other words, teams don't instantaneously become, they evolve. To do this you need time, goals, and competition."
Throughout the rest of the book, Coach K lays out the various components that make up time, goals, and competition. The techniques and ideas he puts forth are both simple and common sense.They would easily transfer from the court to the office.
What makes this book interesting is that a college coach was able to bring together players like Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Jason Kidd, all superstars on their NBA teams. While not an easy task, Coach K's techniques were able to molding these men into gold medal winners. Something that all American's can be proud of.
In this book, Coach K uses his experience at bringing together Team USA as a case study for team building. Having read two of Coach K's previous books (Leading with the Heart and Beyond Basketball) I knew that this book would be a winner. However, this one went beyond my expectations.
The introduction set the tone for the rest of the book. Coach K starts out by asking one simple question, how do you build a team?
"You do not select a team, you select a group of people and then work together to develop into a team", Coach K writes. "In other words, teams don't instantaneously become, they evolve. To do this you need time, goals, and competition."
Throughout the rest of the book, Coach K lays out the various components that make up time, goals, and competition. The techniques and ideas he puts forth are both simple and common sense.They would easily transfer from the court to the office.
What makes this book interesting is that a college coach was able to bring together players like Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Jason Kidd, all superstars on their NBA teams. While not an easy task, Coach K's techniques were able to molding these men into gold medal winners. Something that all American's can be proud of.
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