Lead to Succeed: 10 Traits of Great Leadership in Business and Life

Learn how to be a leader from one of sports' greatest teachers, Rick Pitino.

As Rick Pitino says, great leaders aren't born great; they learn great leadership along the path of life. From the time Pitino first became a coach at twenty-four, he has been a student of leadership in all its forms, studying how great leaders from legendary coaches to American presidents to world humanitarians are able to inspire and motivate others. He discovered that all leaders, on the court and off, in business, politics, or civil rights, have certain qualities in common; these leaders share key traits that make people want to listen to them and follow them.

Now, in Lead to Succeed, Rick Pitino shares the ten traits of great leadership he discovered and has cultivated in himself, and shows readers how they, too, can become leaders in their business and personal lives. As the former coach of the Kentucky Wildcats who turned the team around from probation status to a 1996 NCAA championship, Pitino relates stories of this experience, and other leadership lessons from his career.

When Rick Pitino joined the Boston Celtics in 1997, he took on the biggest challenge of his professional life, becoming not only head coach but also president of the Celtics. In addition to coaching professional athletes with multimillion-dollar contracts, he was assuming a leadership role of an organization saddled with salary cap problems, limited talent, misfortune in the draft lottery, and bombarded by adversity on all sides. Facing these adversities, Pitino has relied on a leadership strategy based on his years of learning from leaders around him and from his own mistakes and successes.

Leading isn't about being a dictator; nor is it about people-pleasing. As Pitino shows in Lead to Succeed, leadership is about communication, consistency, and selflessness. In addition to illustrating how these traits apply in a variety of business situations, Pitino addresses these issues:

How you can be an effective business leader and still be honest
When it's best not to delegate
How the past can hurt you
How to get your team out of a slump

While Pitino has had great success with his players, he has also convinced thousands of people in companies across America that his leadership message applies in the workplace as well. Lead to Succeed is for anyone who wants to inspire and motivate others--be it your employees or colleagues, or members of an organization you belong to, or your family. A perfect book for executives, managers, and sports fans, Lead to Succeed can make great leadership within reach.