Leadership Lessons From "The Dean"

The sports world, coaching profession and indeed many lost a wonderful leader last weekend. Dean Smith, the beloved head basketball coach at the University of North Carolina passed away quietly in his home in Chapel Hill surrounded by his family. Rest in Peace Coach.

I am fortunate to attend UNC during the late 70's and dreamed of wearing that uniform and playing for Coach Smith. He was a master at his craft and we loved him. He personified class, innovation, breaking the color line, respect for others, team play and doing the right thing even if it was against the mainstream. Living with integrity. He knew who he was and knew what to do. With all his successes on and off the basketball court, he never sought the limelight. It was all about others.

Smith was a terrific leader and having met the man many years ago, I find myself reflecting many of the same things John Baldoni and Thad Williamson recently wrote about Coach. The lessons he taught are of permanent, lasting value, for his and for any other generation.

1. "Smith managed to cultivate an organizational culture based on excellence, loyalty, and respect for not only everyone “in the family,” but everyone the organization touched. Assistant coaches, office staff, players, and managers all testify to this day they were and are part of something special."

2. "By his mid-30s Smith had developed enough internal spiritual strength to figure out how to navigate the competitive waters of college basketball without letting the pressure and competition consume him."

3. "Smith maintained a moral center on social and economic issues quite independent of what was popular at a given moment or which way the prevailing winds were blowing. Smith’s advocacy for civil rights in Chapel Hill and his move to racially integrate UNC basketball will get a lot of attention this week, and rightly so, but how many know that Smith also actively supported and endorsed the work of Sojourners, a Washington, D.C.-based evangelical organization dedicated to far-reaching social reform on behalf of the poor and marginalized?"

4."Smith’s core humility when dealing with others. The man’s famous memory for names and faces was, perhaps, a freak of nature. But the fact that he invariably asked you how your parents were doing and wished them well? That came from force of habit, deliberately honed and constantly practiced.""For as long as I can remember I have admired Smith’s moral courage and wisdom on his leadership on social issues that made him nearly unique among college coaches. To treat every single person with respect and dignity and as if they were really important, and to do so not out of a desire to look good, but out of a sincere conviction that everyone really is important—that is an accomplishment of far greater significance than any of the records that will be printed in Smith’s obituaries."

Thad Williamson interviewed Smith 2001, in the closing chapter of More Than a Game. Thad wrote these words about what Coach Smith’s life meant to all of us. I can’t do any better in this time of grief than to repeat them here:

“The fact is, it is possible for human beings to live life with moral meaning. Dean Smith is but one example of what is possible when a human being’s habits of dealing with other people are formed in a certain way, when an individual has strong, lifelong moral convictions that guide behavior, and when an individual happens to find an absolutely perfect fit between his or her own talents, capacities, and interests and an occupation, a fit that permits full human flourishing. The reason so many people have been touched by interactions with Smith is that thoughtful actions are so habituated in the man that, to him, such responses are simply second nature. To deny that this is possible is to put too low a ceiling on what human nature can accomplish, and indeed to let ourselves off the hook in taking responsibility for what kind of people we are and the kind of life we lead. There will probably never quite be another ‘Dean Smith’ as a basketball coach, at North Carolina or anywhere else. But there could be many, many more Dean Smiths in countless other walks of life—and there need to be.”

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Thank you to John and Thad for their words.

Which aspects of the Dean's leadership style will you focus on to put your performance and your organization on the fast track to optimal success? If you are looking for greater alignment with organizational vision, mission, values, and initiatives; increased trust and team effectiveness and collaboration and greater success, what are you waiting for? You can reach me at brad@aperiocoaching.net or on Twitter @bparcells.

In Latin, Aperio means to reveal, uncover, to make clear. Coaching is a powerful process that enables the client to reveal and illuminate their authentic leadership style via a sharp focus on who they are at the core.