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It's How You Play the Game: The 12 Leadership Principles of Dean Smith
Dean Smith won 879 games during his legendary career as the basketball coach at University of North Carolina—making him among the winningest coaches ever. He also won the respect and admiration of those who worked with and played for him. What made him so effective both on and off the court? What set him apart as a leader?
Author David Chadwick, who played on championship teams for Smith, provides an inside look at how Smith led and influenced others so that they knew success not only on the basketball court, but everywhere else. In It’s How You Play the Game, he presents 12 principles that marked Smith’s approach to leadership, business, and life, including…
the team comes before the individual success requires a flexible vision positive words have power commitment to character is essential you can make failure your friend
Whatever your calling as a leader—whether in business, athletics, ministry, or elsewhere—this book will help you to play the game well and draw out the best from the people you lead.
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2015
8 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
About the author
David Chadwick
8 books5 followersLibrarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
David Chadwick has been the pastor of Forest Hill Church in Charlotte, North Carolina since 1980. He played basketball at and graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill, then joined a professional basketball league for three years in Europe. He has MDiv and DMin degrees from Columbia Theological Seminary.
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
David Chadwick has been the pastor of Forest Hill Church in Charlotte, North Carolina since 1980. He played basketball at and graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill, then joined a professional basketball league for three years in Europe. He has MDiv and DMin degrees from Columbia Theological Seminary.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 18, 2021
I didn’t really know who Dean Smith was until after he died. This book made me feel like I was one of the people in his circle, which is how I imagine Coach Smith was if you got the pleasure to meet him during his life. If I could have dinner with or interview one person dead or alive, it would be Dean Smith.
February 7, 2019
The founding class [November 17, 2006] of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame included five people: Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, John Wooden, Dr. James Naismith, and coach Dean Smith. On November 20, 2013, President Barack Obama awarded Smith the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He coached Michael Jordan when they won the National Championship in 1982. Smith's legacy was primarily from being the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels. But it was the WAY he coached that made ALL the difference. He really impacted things politically through his desegregation acts [recruiting the first African-American at the school--along with much deserved scholarships, integrating restaurants, helping some of his players buy homes in all-white neighborhoods, etc.]. I respect a LOT of what he did, although I wasn't a TRUE North Carolina fan growing up in Cincinnati [It broke my heart when North Carolina beat Cincinnati in the Elite Eight of the 1993 tourney by 7].
This book is written by a former player [David Chadwick] who is now a pastor. He shares personal stories and conducted DOZENS of hours of research to be able to include some hard-to-obtain facts about Smith's life, which was often difficult due to his humble lifestyle. In the book, it contains 12 leadership principles he lived by, which his players obtained through observing his ways. I particularly appreciated his chapter on failure, as there are some VERY REAL stories, quotes, and helpful hints as to responding to setbacks, disappointments, etc. I ended up recently sharing a lot of that chapter with my Varsity team last week at our end-of-the-season tournament. I'm not sure if they benefitted from it, but I KNOW I did. This book is worth the cost just for that chapter alone.
However, each chapter, to me, seems to have permeated throughout the rest of basketball culture that I have been around. I have yet to be around a basketball program that doesn't include any of Smith's influence-whether people know it came from him or not. So, in other words, this books CERTAINLY has some gems in it. Check it out!!!
This book is written by a former player [David Chadwick] who is now a pastor. He shares personal stories and conducted DOZENS of hours of research to be able to include some hard-to-obtain facts about Smith's life, which was often difficult due to his humble lifestyle. In the book, it contains 12 leadership principles he lived by, which his players obtained through observing his ways. I particularly appreciated his chapter on failure, as there are some VERY REAL stories, quotes, and helpful hints as to responding to setbacks, disappointments, etc. I ended up recently sharing a lot of that chapter with my Varsity team last week at our end-of-the-season tournament. I'm not sure if they benefitted from it, but I KNOW I did. This book is worth the cost just for that chapter alone.
However, each chapter, to me, seems to have permeated throughout the rest of basketball culture that I have been around. I have yet to be around a basketball program that doesn't include any of Smith's influence-whether people know it came from him or not. So, in other words, this books CERTAINLY has some gems in it. Check it out!!!
April 3, 2022
This book was written by David Chadwick, a former player at North Carolina under Dean Smith and now a pastor in Charlotte, North Carolina. Chadwick, who knew Smith for thirty plus years as a player, and then later as a friend before Smith’s death in 2015, tells us that Smith’s number-one priority was developing his players as people - teaching them how to play the game rightly on and off the court, and showing them how to be persons of integrity.
Chadwick writes that three different core values defined Smith’s leadership:
1. He placed people above everything else.
2. He believed the team is more important than the individual.
3. Personal integrity and character were very important.
From those core values, the author identified twelve principles that undergirded Dean Smith’s leadership. If read and practiced, these principles should help anyone become a better and more effective leader.
Throughout the book, the author applies Coach Smith’s leadership principles to leaders in general. At the end of each chapter is a “Inside Coach Smith” section, with personal insights about the coach. The author got permission from Dean Smith to work on the book and he interviewed many former North Carolina players for the book.
Here are the twelve leadership principles along with some of my favorite quotes about them:
Leadership Principle 1: Be Loyal
• That’s the reciprocal law of loyalty: If you are loyal to people, they will be loyal to you.
• In my opinion, reciprocal loyalty was the primary principle Coach Smith lived by. Loyalty was foundational to him.
• He put people first. His primary concern was their success, not his. His first priority was to serve, not to be served.
• He treated them the way he’d want to be treated—with compassion and care.
Leadership Principle 2: Provide a Family Environment
• He became a surrogate father to many of his former players.
• It’s impossible to calculate how much more productivity takes place on a team or in an organization when people feel like they are part of a family, and that they belong to one another.
• Leaders who want to be effective at managing the next generation will need to develop a sense of family in the workplace.
Leadership Principle 3: Be a Friend Forever
• Above everything else, he wanted us to be his lifelong friends.
• He was a father figure who became a close friend.
• The basis of this friendship started with the fact that he accepted us for who we were and respected us as individuals.
Leadership Principle 4: Put the Team Before the Individual
• In my opinion, this concept of team may be Coach Smith’s greatest gift to basketball, leadership, and society.
• Another way Coach Smith helped develop the team was by knowing the players and communicating honestly with each member of the team regarding their strengths and weaknesses.
• When criticism is thoughtful and sensitively delivered in a timely manner, it can have a positive purpose.
Leadership Principle 5: Be Flexible with Your Vision
• No great leader has ever reached any position of significant success without saying thanks to those who have helped him achieve it. As someone once said, we all stand on the shoulders of someone who helped us succeed.
Leadership Principle 6: Get Better, and the Team Gets Better
• At every opportunity, he emphasized personal responsibility and self-discipline.
• Essentially, he had only one rule: Don’t ever embarrass me, yourself, or the team.
Leadership Principle 7: Speak Positive Words
• A leader can’t give positive, encouraging words if he’s not a positive, encouraging person himself.
• A great leader has the ability to impart to his followers a positive attitude that makes them believe they can overcome any obstacle.
• No leader should ever underestimate the power of positive words.
Leadership Principle 8: Pass On What You Know
• Every great leader is also a teacher and mentor.
Leadership Principle 9: Be a Person of Good Character
• He understood that there are no shortcuts to character, and he believed that if he were to lose his character, he would lose his credibility.
Leadership Principle 10: Make Failure Your Friend
• Every outstanding leader knows this truth: We learn much more from our failures than our successes.
• Make failure your friend. Look at your mistake, learn from it, and move on.
Leadership Principle 11: Know Who Really is in Control
• Smith’s personal faith was always an important part of his life.
• Coach Smith saw coaching as a calling from God in the classic sense of the word vocation.
• Coach Smith saw his job as an opportunity to serve, not be served, and to give his life away to others.
• If you fail to understand Coach Smith’s faith, you cannot understand the principles by which he lived.
Leadership Principle 12: Commit Yourself for the Long Haul
• When you commit yourself to the long haul, people have the opportunity not only to hear your words but to see you live them.
Chadwick writes that three different core values defined Smith’s leadership:
1. He placed people above everything else.
2. He believed the team is more important than the individual.
3. Personal integrity and character were very important.
From those core values, the author identified twelve principles that undergirded Dean Smith’s leadership. If read and practiced, these principles should help anyone become a better and more effective leader.
Throughout the book, the author applies Coach Smith’s leadership principles to leaders in general. At the end of each chapter is a “Inside Coach Smith” section, with personal insights about the coach. The author got permission from Dean Smith to work on the book and he interviewed many former North Carolina players for the book.
Here are the twelve leadership principles along with some of my favorite quotes about them:
Leadership Principle 1: Be Loyal
• That’s the reciprocal law of loyalty: If you are loyal to people, they will be loyal to you.
• In my opinion, reciprocal loyalty was the primary principle Coach Smith lived by. Loyalty was foundational to him.
• He put people first. His primary concern was their success, not his. His first priority was to serve, not to be served.
• He treated them the way he’d want to be treated—with compassion and care.
Leadership Principle 2: Provide a Family Environment
• He became a surrogate father to many of his former players.
• It’s impossible to calculate how much more productivity takes place on a team or in an organization when people feel like they are part of a family, and that they belong to one another.
• Leaders who want to be effective at managing the next generation will need to develop a sense of family in the workplace.
Leadership Principle 3: Be a Friend Forever
• Above everything else, he wanted us to be his lifelong friends.
• He was a father figure who became a close friend.
• The basis of this friendship started with the fact that he accepted us for who we were and respected us as individuals.
Leadership Principle 4: Put the Team Before the Individual
• In my opinion, this concept of team may be Coach Smith’s greatest gift to basketball, leadership, and society.
• Another way Coach Smith helped develop the team was by knowing the players and communicating honestly with each member of the team regarding their strengths and weaknesses.
• When criticism is thoughtful and sensitively delivered in a timely manner, it can have a positive purpose.
Leadership Principle 5: Be Flexible with Your Vision
• No great leader has ever reached any position of significant success without saying thanks to those who have helped him achieve it. As someone once said, we all stand on the shoulders of someone who helped us succeed.
Leadership Principle 6: Get Better, and the Team Gets Better
• At every opportunity, he emphasized personal responsibility and self-discipline.
• Essentially, he had only one rule: Don’t ever embarrass me, yourself, or the team.
Leadership Principle 7: Speak Positive Words
• A leader can’t give positive, encouraging words if he’s not a positive, encouraging person himself.
• A great leader has the ability to impart to his followers a positive attitude that makes them believe they can overcome any obstacle.
• No leader should ever underestimate the power of positive words.
Leadership Principle 8: Pass On What You Know
• Every great leader is also a teacher and mentor.
Leadership Principle 9: Be a Person of Good Character
• He understood that there are no shortcuts to character, and he believed that if he were to lose his character, he would lose his credibility.
Leadership Principle 10: Make Failure Your Friend
• Every outstanding leader knows this truth: We learn much more from our failures than our successes.
• Make failure your friend. Look at your mistake, learn from it, and move on.
Leadership Principle 11: Know Who Really is in Control
• Smith’s personal faith was always an important part of his life.
• Coach Smith saw coaching as a calling from God in the classic sense of the word vocation.
• Coach Smith saw his job as an opportunity to serve, not be served, and to give his life away to others.
• If you fail to understand Coach Smith’s faith, you cannot understand the principles by which he lived.
Leadership Principle 12: Commit Yourself for the Long Haul
• When you commit yourself to the long haul, people have the opportunity not only to hear your words but to see you live them.
January 19, 2020
If you want to read an inspirational book from a player of Coach Dean Smith who became a pastor and a Dr. in theology, this is the book for you. The principles laid out are concrete pillars of How To Play of life, it really transcends basketball. Coach Smith stayed with the program for over thirty years, so he was in it for the long haul.
I enjoyed the book and was able to reflect on many of the lessons.
I enjoyed the book and was able to reflect on many of the lessons.
September 12, 2020
It was okay. Dean Smith sounds like an amazing person. He lived a great life and had a big impact on a lot of people.
June 26, 2015
This transcends sports and portrays the man.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews