Office Hours: Legends start with Legendary Coaches

I’ve had, known, and worked with many coaches in my life but none has been as legendary as

Coach Mike Krzyzewski, Duke basketball’s wildly famous and successful coach for 42 seasons. Some people love Coach K, others not so much. But regardless of how you feel about him, Coach K is considered one of the greatest coaches of all time—and that’s not just because his teams have won a LOT of basketball games. His players speak about the incredibly positive influence he had on them as players and as human beings. By all accounts, that’s what took him from a great coach to a legendary one.

Coaching, though, goes beyond sports. For example, what do Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Eric Schmidt all have in common? No, not their billions of dollars or reputations as legendary leaders in technology. They all had a coach— a personal, executive coach—to help them get to where they wanted to go.

Bill Gates has been very clear about his thoughts related to coaching. He said: "Everyone needs a coach. . . . We all need people who will give us feedback. That's how we improve." And it looks like a lot of leaders today agree with Bill Gates, as the human resources consulting firm Hay Group estimates that up to 40% of Fortune 500 companies utilize executive coaches for their leadership.

A number of years ago, I was offered a coach by my employer to help me process the results of a 360 evaluation. I declined. What was I thinking? My rationale was that I knew myself better than anyone else. How could a “stranger” successfully coach me? Frankly, this decision makes no sense to me now, since I’ve seen my role as a dean and faculty member to serve as a coach and mentor to countless students. Yet, I didn’t want what I felt they all needed. A bit hypocritical you might say? I’m not proud of this decision and have since wished the opportunity to be coached in that way would come around again. But it hasn’t.

So now my goal is to encourage as many people to take advantage of coaching offers, especially parents to enable their children to be engaged in a coaching relationship. It’s so important that we understand from a very young age that accepting help, advice, and support is a sign of strength, not weakness. We all need folks who will critique and support us, all at the same time. Anyone out there ready to be my coach?