Book Review: The Captain Class
Walker, Sam. The captain class : the hidden force that creates the world’s greatest teams. Random House, 2017.
Mike Krzyzewski, who has won more games than any basketball coach in the history of the NCAA Division I, once wrote that while talent and coaching are essential, the secret to greatness is something else: “The single most important ingredient after you get the talent is internal leadership. It’s not the coaches as much as one single person or people on the team who set higher standards than that team would normally set for itself.”
This quote comes from the new book, The Captain Class, by sports reporter and Wall Street Journal editor, Sam Walker. In 2005, Walker began researching elite sports teams with a goal of constructing an objective formula for creating turn-around performance. After a decade of analyzing world class teams, Walker came to the same conclusion as Coach K: the most crucial ingredient in a team that achieves and sustains historic greatness is the character of the player who leads it.
Walker begins his book by explaining how he identified the world’s 16 greatest teams. Examining all 16 teams for the key to excellence, he concluded that it was not the coach, or the management, or the money or even the superstars. Each of the elite teams had one player (the captain) whose career book-ended the team’s period of excellence. The captain was the key.
The list of dominant teams and captains is international. American examples are Bill Russel of the Boston Celtics, Yogi Berra of the New York Yankees and Jack Lambert of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Walker describes seven traits of elite captains, including aggressive play, emotional control and use of non-verbal communication. Alpha captains also exhibit reckless and self-defeating behaviors, but ironically, the negatives only serve to strengthen the team.
Lively stories of players and captains, coaches and moments in sports history make up most of The Captain Class. Sports fans and business leaders are sure to enjoy this book. Non-sport fans will be surprised that they like it too. Recommended for anyone interested in leadership psychology.
© Meg Trauner & Ford Library – Fuqua School of Business.
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