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Rating: 
Summary: This is why we love and miss Dean Smith on the Sidelines!
Review: A year or so after Dean Smith's retirement from coaching the Tarheels, I was waiting on a connection flight from Charlotte and noticed a man sitting alone in the corner, fartherest away from the ramp. He had his back to me, but he looked strangely familiar. I casually got up, walked closer to determine if this was someone I knew and whether or not I should speak. About 15 feet from his seat, I noticed that it was the Dean, sitting alone, with a pen and a yellow legal pad, diagramming plays all by himself. It sounds corny, but it happened and made an indelible impression on me. After all those years, and wins - more than anyone else in college basketball history - the notion that he still had more to learn, that in 35 years, he had not already diagrammed ever possible play, was incomprehensible to me. I wanted to say hello and tell my children later in life that I had met him, but I did not disturb him. Our plane arrived, we boarded, and he walked alone to his seat. I never met him. But I feel like I already knew him having watched him from my baby crib, up to the day he retired.
And reading "The Carolina Way" brought back many memories and reminded me of not only why I am a Carolina Fan but also why he commands such deep respect and admiration. He succedded the right way, never cutting corners, and believing in a system that was based on working hard, working together and being smart. You do NOT have to be a Carolina fan to enjoy and love this book. But if you are, you won' be disappointed, either!
Rating:
Summary: Ignore the delusional "Grifterbob" clown...
Review: I have to give Dean Smith credit -- he's one hell of a salesman. The fact that so many people have bought into his hokum despite a truly dismal track record of on-court performance is impressive. As my old high school coach said, "My grandma could have coached Carolina to 5 National Championships by now." Somehow, Dean has managed to prevent some of the most talented teams in history from even making it the Final 4. Also, while Dean may pontificate about "loyalty" and "honor", here is a coach that would run off a bench scholarship player to free up a scholarship for the next season.Look, I'm a big college hoops fan and some of the antecdotes about the game were cool, but the reality is that Dean Smith is, at best, a decent college coach who doesn't know anything more about leadership than the McDonald's night manager.
Rating: 
Summary: The Underacheiving Way : Getting the Least from the Most
Review: I have to give Dean Smith credit -- he's one hell of a salesman. The fact that so many people have bought into his hokum despite a truly dismal track record of on-court performance is impressive. As my old high school coach said, "My grandma could have coached Carolina to 5 National Championships by now." Somehow, Dean has managed to prevent some of the most talented teams in history from even making it the Final 4. Also, while Dean may pontificate about "loyalty" and "honor", here is a coach that would run off a bench scholarship player to free up a scholarship for the next season. Look, I'm a big college hoops fan and some of the antecdotes about the game were cool, but the reality is that Dean Smith is, at best, a decent college coach who doesn't know anything more about leadership than the McDonald's night manager.
Rating:
Summary: This is a tough book to put down
Review: I'm biased because I'm a basketball fan, a Tar Heel fan, and a big admirer of Dean Smith, but this is one of the 2 or 3 best books I've read in the past 10 years. The entertainment value of the book is very high, especially if you love the game of basketball. Additionally, There are valuable lessons in leadership for coaches to be learned in this book, regardless of the sport one coaches. One of the primary goals of the book is to take Coach Smith's philosophies as they apply to basketball teams and, with the help of Dr. Gerald Bell, with whom he co-wrote the book, to transfer them to business "teams" for leaders in business. Most of those principles are easy to transfer, but some of them can be a bit of a stretch. Regardless, it's a great book. I give it the highest recommendations.
Rating:
Summary: CEO's, President's, VP's - Start your reading
Review: I've heard Jerry Bell speak before, so I was thrilled to see him collaborate with Dean Smith on this book. Bell frequently uses words like caring, honesty, integrity, and discipline on his lectures on leadership and it's obvious from reading the book that these were the cornerstones of Coach Smith's teams. I wish more business leaders would understand that there is a correlation between investing in their people and sustained success. So many companies look at employees as disposable commodities, so it's refreshing to hear two men who have achieved so much in their careers say that it starts with genuine care for your people. Smith's philosophy, though simple in word, is truly applicable to the business arena because it promotes thinking intelligently, working extremely hard, and a committment to a greater whole than just oneself. That approach, combined with the real concern for each and every member of his program, created the most successful coaching career in college basketball history. If more CEO's would adopt these principles in their companies, then their work environments would improve, their employees would be more reciprocal in their committment, and bottom lines would increase.
Kudos to Bell and Smith for a thoughtful book with an important message - good guys do win!
Rating:
Summary: Ignore the delusional "Grifterbob" clown...
Review: It's par for the course, but the slime still manage to advertise their stupidity in the face of excellence. A leadership book that's one of a kind, missing the redundancy so prevalent in so many leadership books. The fundamentals are broken down into sections, such as: Part Three: Chapter 11: Teamwork
Chapter 12: Defining and Understanding Our Roles
Chapter 13: Why Unselfishness Works
Chapter 14: Team-Building Techniques An excellent read, well off of the typical mundane management path that we've all seen and heard too many times.
Rating: 
Summary: Great!, if you're a Carolina fan...terrific if you're not!
Review: On the way to a conference in New Orleans, my flight from Raleigh to Charlotte was cancelled due to mechanical problems, and I was booked on a flight to D.C. As I boarded the plane with "The Carolina Way" under my arm, a gentleman seated at the front of the plane asked how I was enjoying the book. I explained that I had not yet started the book, so I could not give an answer. The gentleman followed me to my seat and introduced himself as Dr. Gerald Bell, the co-author of "The Carolina Way". Myself a Carolina fan, I was pleased to meet Dr. Bell, as he spent several minutes talking about Coach Smith, whom I have admired for over forty years, and the UNC basketball program, which is presently undergoing a much needed resurgence under Coach Roy Williams. Dr. Bell's contributions to the book tie Coach Smith's leadership philosophy to practical business applications by relating wonderful anecdotal references from Carolina's storied history to today's business situations. Surely, Coach Smith, given his ability to recruit top players, has been criticized by many for his failure to win NCAA championships in the manner of Coach John Wooden at UCLA, but winning two NCAA championships, winning at a consistency high level unmatched by any program without violating strict NCAA rules, and coaching top players that graduated at a +90% rate and have gone on to be successes in their chosen professions underscore the unique successes of Coach Smith's "system". Teamwork, integrity, loyalty, and hard work, are the cornerstones of the Carolina Way, and anyone in the position of managing, leading, or molding young people today would benefit from reading this book, corny as it is at times. This book is not just for Carolina basketball fans.
Rating:
Summary: Great!, if you're a Carolina fan...terrific if you're not!
Review: On the way to a conference in New Orleans, my flight from Raleigh to Charlotte was cancelled due to mechanical problems, and I was booked on a flight to D.C. As I boarded the plane with "The Carolina Way" under my arm, a gentleman seated at the front of the plane asked how I was enjoying the book. I explained that I had not yet started the book, so I could not give an answer. The gentleman followed me to my seat and introduced himself as Dr. Gerald Bell, the co-author of "The Carolina Way". Myself a Carolina fan, I was pleased to meet Dr. Bell, as he spent several minutes talking about Coach Smith, whom I have admired for over forty years, and the UNC basketball program, which is presently undergoing a much needed resurgence under Coach Roy Williams. Dr. Bell's contributions to the book tie Coach Smith's leadership philosophy to practical business applications by relating wonderful anecdotal references from Carolina's storied history to today's business situations. Surely, Coach Smith, given his ability to recruit top players, has been criticized by many for his failure to win NCAA championships in the manner of Coach John Wooden at UCLA, but winning two NCAA championships, winning at a consistency high level unmatched by any program without violating strict NCAA rules, and coaching top players that graduated at a +90% rate and have gone on to be successes in their chosen professions underscore the unique successes of Coach Smith's "system". Teamwork, integrity, loyalty, and hard work, are the cornerstones of the Carolina Way, and anyone in the position of managing, leading, or molding young people today would benefit from reading this book, corny as it is at times. This book is not just for Carolina basketball fans.
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