Getting To Us
By Seth Davis
Seth Davis weaves his common theme of each leader’s "PEAK Profile” through the stories of some of the best coaches and leaders in the world. Davis provides some incredible inside access to some of the biggest leaders in sports.
Below are my notes and key hi-lighted passages from Getting To Us. (Italics = quotes from the book. Bold = my personal notes)
Each great coach and leader has a PEAK PROFILE made up of the following characteristics:
Persistence, Empathy, Authenticity, Knowledge
“The real secret is that there are no secrets. There is no magic key that unlocks the door to winning. Rather, the ability to get to US results from a lifetime of practice, the accumulation of a lot of small, important wins that accrue to the point where a coach can pass along his persistence, empathy, authenticity, and knowledge to his players.”
Coach Urban Meyer: Former Ohio State Football Head Coach
“I understand the player’s journey much more now, and the player’s journey now is more complicated. You know, when I first started coaching you dealt with the high school coach and the family. Now you’ve got social media and all kinds of pressures. If you’d have told me ten years ago I would need a sports psychologist, I would have said no, but you certainly need that now.”
Coach Tom Izzo: Michigan State University Men’s Basketball
“He grew up in a big family, and at the age of twelve he started working in his grandfather’s shoe store. Everything he ever needed to know about coaching, he learned working in that store.”
There is no wasted experience. Even “odd jobs” over time may have an application for future opportunities.
“Every year he complains that the schedule he put together is way too difficult for his team, but in the next breath he explains that his annual slugfests in November and December lay the foundation for his teams success in March. There is no pleasure without pain, and there is no winning without work.”
“By the time Izzo joined the Michigan State staff as an assistant his PEAK profile was well established. He had learned from an early age the importance of persistence, which was as simple as being where you were obligate to be, on time, every day, ready to work.”
Coach Mike Krzyzewski: Duke University Men’s Basketball
“I was a golden boy in my neighborhood growing up. I only did things I was good at. Then all of a sudden I’m at West Point and there are a lot of really good people and you have to do new things. I found out two things, These are rock solid in my foundation. Failure is not a destination, and you’re never going to do it alone.”
“Krzyzewski swears he never doubted his ability, never believed he was in real danger of losing his job, but on that night he was truly daunted by just how far his team had to climb. “Losing to Princeton isn’t good, but you can’t lose to them like that. You have your moments of weakness, but not in front of a group, and not in front of your family. Those building years are very lonely, but out of it, I think, comes toughness.”
“He doesn’t want his players to think line winners. He wants them to FEEL like winners. That means they need to see what he sees.”
“They know they’re going to get the truth from me all the time. He insists his players do the same for each other. Krzyzewski often says that he works to instill three systems - an offensive system, a defensive system and a communication system. His practices are a cacophony conversation. If the players stop talking, he will halt the action and remind them he wants to hear their voices.”
Coach Jim Harbaugh: University of Michigan Football
“Comfortable is not a word I have ever associated with sports and football.”
“A good coach or teacher can make the hard subject matter seem easy.”
“Harbaugh never saw the USD job as beneath his level. From the start he wanted to confer a big vision and he thirsted for ways to enhance his knowledge of what he had inherited.”
“The process of letting his mind go where it wants, focusing only on the things that truly matter, and casting off everything else as drag - that’s the way he brings his teams together. Harbaugh disdains the notion that there is some big secret to coaching, a neat little list of tricks that can be inputted into a spreadsheet.”
“People try to ask you, ‘Tell me the key thing.’ There is no ONE thing. It’s a thousand little things that are going to add up and make all the difference.”
Coach Jim Boeheim: Syracuse University Men’s Basketball
“We think of great coaches as being naturally extroverted, but Boeheim does not fall into that category. He does not get to Us by firing up his players with inspiring speeches or sitting them down for long conversations. Rather, he gets to Us by earning their confidence in the knowledge he has accrued during his lifetime spent playing, learning, and thinking about basketball.”
“The biggest thing about Coach is the fact that he can motivate and still teach. There’s no sugarcoating. You always know where you stand and what’s expected of you. If you’re seeking his approval, it’s not going to necessarily come.” - Gerry McNamara - former Syracuse guard.
“The hardest thing in coaching is to be flexible but not weak. Things are not always so black and white.”
Coach Geno Auriemma: University of Connecticut Women’s Basketball
“Since I can remember, I have never ever ever had any doubt that the role of women in the life of everybody that I knew was overpowering.”
“Coach Auriemma was never book smart, but he has great emotional intelligence. He sizes up rooms, analyzes situations, reads people, and reacts accordingly.”
“He was grossly unrealistic about how quickly his newbies would make the transition from high school. It was only a few weeks into the preseason but he was at his wit’s end. His meltdown was not rooted in anger. It was rooted in self-doubt. “I really questioned whether I was good enough to do this.”
Every coach or leader who ends up at the top, goes through seasons of self-doubt. We must remember the path to the top is full of setbacks, delays, and frustration.
“He doesn’t get to Us by teaching his players not to feel scared. Rather, he strives to convince them that the only way to persist through fear is by relying on each other.”
“Auriemma knows that there is no single system that gets a team to Us. What matters is whether a coach can tailor his tactics to his personnel, and then get his players to follow his instructions with total belief.”
Coach Brad Stevens: Butler University/Boston Celtics
“He is often called a genius, but that is not true. Rather, he is diligent and persistent and a synthesizer of information. He is thorough, meticulous, disciplined preparation, and the knowledge he accumulates during that process, is what empowers him to get his team to Us. It’s hard work but a labor of love.”
“His routine has evolved a little bit over the years, but the importance of having a routine that prepares him has stayed the same.”
Personal routines for performance are critical to develop. A lack of routine showcases a lack of discipline.
“Learning about servant leadership was a life-changing lesson in the art of authenticity.”
Stevens - “I remember thinking, This makes sense. Do you want to be around somebody who lifts you up, or somebody that breaks you down? That’s why whenever people ask me what’s your leadership style, my answer is, It should be you. Theres an authenticity that is needed for leadership. If it’s not real, then it’s not going to work.”
“He’s such a great communicator that he doesn’t have to scream or yell. He’s not going to hide the truth, but he’s going to do it in a way that builds you up and makes you want to get better.” - Former Butler University player, Ronald Nored.
Coach Dabo Swinney: University of Clemson Football
“Those great businesses out there, those great programs, they don’t plateau. How do you do that? Well, you have to constantly reinvent, reinvest, reset, learn, grow, change.”
“I watch a lot to prepare for these moments, but it’s not like I’m a savant. All I do is steal from everybody else based on how I watched other teams guard things. I mean, how many tricks can there be at the end of the day?”
“He is a meticulous planner who tells the same stories, uses the same phrases, and harps on the same messages, even if his guys have heard it all a thousand times.”
“Let’s don’t wait until it’s over to appreciate things. The moment we won that game was great, but the best part was the journey getting there.”
The journey is always better than the destination. The journey is what develops us, strengthens us and prepares us. The destination is only enjoyed briefly.