What does it take to create a great team?
Mike Krzyzewski knows.
"All of us together are stronger than we would be singularly," Krzyzewski, Hall of Fame head coach for the Duke men's basketball team, said during an interview with Working@Duke. "Before you're facing anything else, you're fighting human nature to go beyond personal wants and needs. There's empowerment and maturity in a willingness to put all that aside and focus on those around you."
One of Krzyzewski's biggest leadership lessons is known as "the fist," the idea that alone, one finger is vulnerable, but together, five clenched fingers can be unstoppable. Representing each finger, Krzyzewski believes in five key qualities to form a great team: communication, trust, collective responsibility, caring and pride.
What does it take to have successful work teams at Duke? Working@Duke solicited nominations from faculty and staff for employees who exemplify a Coach K teamwork fundamental. Here's how these five employees make a difference for Duke and their colleagues every day.
Gina Streaty, right, leads a monthly orientation for new hires at the Duke Clinical Research Institute. She said a big part of her job is to communicate why Duke is a great place to work.
Every month, Gina Streaty stands in front of a group of up to 25 new employees at Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) orientation and makes a pitch: Duke is the best place to work.
She's so devout on that stance, in fact, she has a presentation with dozens of photos and slides to lay out all the reasons why, from special events to the natural beauty of the campus.
"I want new employees to leave our time together as passionate about Duke as I am," said Streaty, program coordinator with DCRI's Human Resources. "They think they come here for their jobs and go home, but if they know our history, our opportunities and all the cultural depth of Duke, they'll want to stay here forever."
Most of all, Streaty believes that every employee at Duke - from service staff to President Richard H. Brodhead - plays an integral role in making Duke a world-class institution.
"The excitement, enthusiasm and sincerity that she reflects when speaking about her job and working on the Duke campus is quite contagious," said Jenny Rich, a safety surveillance associate at DCRI who started at Duke last December. "New employees can't help but feel that they found a job that they will retire with."
Streaty's enthusiasm is so strong, she did not miss a minute of 105 consecutive monthly orientations for new DCRI employees from January 2006 to October 2014, when she took personal leave.
"Anything I can do to communicate my passion for Duke, I'll do," said Streaty, who has worked at Duke 14 years. "My job is to make sure people know what they're connected to and what that means. If I do that well, we'll be the best team possible."
Chuck Hemric, left, oversees about 300 volunteers at Sarah P. Duke Gardens. That means building trusting relationships with each person.
If building a team is about relationships, then strengthening a team is about trust.
Just ask Chuck Hemric, director of volunteer services at Sarah P. Duke Gardens. He oversees about 300 volunteers who perform a range of tasks like planting flowers and leading tours at the 55-acre space.
"As a team, I can give some instruction, but it's about trusting our volunteers to hold each other accountable and perform their jobs well," said Hemric, a 31-year employee. "We empower volunteers, which helps them feed off each other's dedication and really builds a strong team."
Hemric took this to heart last year, when a volunteer was dealing with family issues that began affecting her work at the Gardens. He said the volunteer's mood and work ethic changed dramatically, so he spoke with her about spending less time at the Gardens to focus on what's more important. "Spending time on the front end of a problem gives you years worth of a relationship on the back end," Hemric said.
He cultivates relationships by staying in touch weekly or monthly with volunteers. For him, it can be as easy as an email about the latest tasks performed at the Gardens or as time-intensive as an in-person conversation to learn more about a volunteer's family, interests and more.
Building relationships creates comfort between Hemric and volunteers, which in turn allows his investment to create longstanding trust between him and others, Hemric said.
"Trust is a two-way street, so it's important to allow for individual freedom that brings creativity and growth," he said. "We all have the same goal of making the Gardens better, so it's about acknowledging our shared interest and the fact we're working toward the same result."
Dr. Ed Buckley, center, said that for him to successfully oversee educational planning at the School of Medicine, it requires a team approach with contributions from others.
Dr. Ed Buckley knows that a great team takes more than one strong leader.
Buckley, vice dean for education at the School of Medicine and the Joseph A.C. Wadsworth Professor of Ophthalmology and Pediatrics, has administrative oversight for all of the education and degree-granting programs for the School of Medicine.
"In our world of education, all our players are brilliant, successful individuals, and you're not going to get a lot done with just a top-down approach," he said. "What you have to do is build consensus and have a vision that everyone can buy into so we're all moving toward the same goal - no matter the outcome."
A big part of success is sharing it, he said, especially making sure colleagues receive credit for each of their unique contributions to a project, like when Buckley and about 75 other faculty formed a committee to enhance curriculum after the creation of the Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans Center for Health Education.
Discussions have enabled the use of "flipped classrooms" for teaching, where students study material outside of class, and then come to class to solve problems with their new knowledge. Faculty also focus on encouraging students to take on tasks as a team, which is more realistic to post-graduate work and allows for more active learning in class, Buckley said.
"It takes the collective wisdom of the group to come up with excellent educational opportunities, which are often unique, while making sure we meet the needs of all our students," said Buckley, who's worked at Duke for 31 years. "The more people who can make a substantial contribution, the more likely it's going to succeed, and we feel better about our work."
Melissa Neeley showed how she cared for her workplace by organizing an effort to have a new sign placed out front of the John Hop Franklin Center on Erwin Road.
For more than a decade, the John Hope Franklin Center along Erwin Road wasn't hard to spot, but it lacked signs to help visitors navigate their way.
Melissa Neeley wanted to do better.
"I see a lot in the details," said Neeley, operations manager for the John Hope Franklin Center. "I'm a doer."
And "do" she did. Neeley worked with Facilities Management to install a five-foot tall sign close to Erwin Road with the building's name and address, taking any confusion out of finding the center.
"Our building is part of our brand - it's a destination for international and interdisciplinary studies, people and events," Neeley said.
Neeley's caring qualities don't end with a building sign. She takes it upon herself to keep kitchens stocked with supplies like tea and coffee or Emergen-C when sick colleagues need a boost of vitamin C. She's also coordinated with LIVE FOR LIFE, Duke's employee wellness program, to set up exercise programs for yoga, walking and jogging and schedules annual visits from HealthCheck nurses.
"I take great joy in other people's successes, so if I can do something to help that, I will," Neeley said. "It's gratifying to know that I have value to others because that kind of connection is important to a successful workplace."
With the potential for thousands of fans to pass through the Schwartz-Butters Athletic Center, Celestina Torres shows pride in her work to keep the space neat and clean.
No matter the time of year, Celestina Torres is up before the sun, preparing to be on campus by 5 a.m. Along with a few coworkers, it's her responsibility to ensure the Schwartz-Butters Athletic Center is clean and tidy for visitors - whether it's a few passing through on a campus tour or the nearly 10,000 who may visit during a Duke basketball game.
Before many other Duke staff get to campus, Torres can be spotted hustling between trophy cases, Hall of Fame plaques and other sports memorabilia in Schwartz-Butters, where she cares for four different floors. Torres empties trash cans, vacuums carpets, cleans bathrooms and makes sure the concourse connecting to Cameron Indoor Stadium looks as good as possible.
"My job is important for my life," said Torres, a housekeeper specialist with University Housekeeping. "It makes me happy when people visit my building and I see their happy faces."
Torres, who has worked at Duke nine years, leaves every day around 1:30 p.m., but wants the appearance of her work to last until she's back on campus the next morning.
"I know my job is important to Duke, which is why it's important to me," she said. "When I hear from people they think my space looks nice, it makes me want to work harder. Working here means I'm a part of something big."
Regarded as one of the greatest coaches in basketball history, Mike Krzyzewski's resume is long, starting with becoming the first Division I men's basketball coach to reach 1,000 wins.
With each victory, he's built something bigger - a belief that teamwork isn't just needed to win basketball games, but also to build relationships that tie every person together.
Coach K talked with Working@Duke (W@D) about leadership and what makes a successful team.
Working@Duke: One of your most famous analogies for leadership is the idea of "the fist." Tell us about the origin of your analogy and what each "finger" represents when clenched together.
Coach K: I don't know how I picked it up exactly. It just kind of evolved over the years. The very first finger is communication. You communicate by telling the truth. If we can have eye-to-eye contact and tell the truth all the time, we're going to get another finger and that's trust. It's the cornerstone of any unit, any company, any family and any team. The third one is collective responsibility, the question of "are we going to win or are we going to lose together?" The fourth finger is caring. If I see that you're down, it's my responsibility to care for you and make sure that I try to get you up if you're hurt. The final finger is to be a part of something bigger than you: pride. You can give up something for you but if you're a part of something bigger than you, it's tougher to give it up.
Working@Duke: If great teamwork starts with strong communication and honesty, what's the best way to create that kind of atmosphere with people?
Coach K: I try to explain it as confrontation. People don't like the word "confrontation," but confrontation is meeting the truth head on. In any organization or relationship, eventually you have to meet the truth head on or else there are elephants in the room. Getting to the truth or getting to a comfort level where you can express the truth in an instant is important. If you can do that, you have a pretty good relationship or team. That's utopia as far as leadership is concerned.
Working@Duke: Why is it important to celebrate a victory, whether it's a little one or big one, when building a team and honing leadership?
Coach K: I think if success becomes mundane, why would you pursue it? There should be happiness to something successful - a big win, a championship, a birth in the NCAA Tournament - some level of happiness that's more than you normally have. You like that feeling because when you're in a team environment you're not happy alone, you're happy together and you want to keep pursuing that. On the other hand, you shouldn't like when you lose. The pursuit of being down is not a good pursuit. When we lose, we want to not like it.
Working@Duke: Are there employees at Duke that impress you with their drive to be leaders?
Coach K: There are leaders all over this campus. I would hope that every faculty member would look at teaching in a class as something to do with leadership. If they're teaching here, they're leaders in their field. They wouldn't be at Duke unless they're really good.
Working@Duke: You've often talked about the presence of mind to change leadership styles based on the team around you. Why is that important?
Coach K: It's not a preference - it's a necessity. During my West Point training I saw all sorts of leadership styles. A huge part of being a leader is being able to adapt to the people that a leader has the honor and privilege to lead. It's about seeing diversity within a team as strength. Differences are good, especially if you're bringing different talents to the mix, because things like age, race, gender and life experiences help us become who we are. Once we recognize these aspects of our personality, it's about adaptability to bring the best out of our team. That's leadership.
By Bryan Roth, Duke University Office of Communication Services.
