Firing Bob Knight: The Will To Win

Bob Knight, often called as “The General” is one of the distinguished basketball coaches in the United States who had a unique but controversial leadership style albeit being successful in terms of most wins in Division 1 basketball as well as a lucrative salary. After 29 years of remarkable career at Indiana University as a Coach, in September 2000, Indiana University’s president, Myles Brand fired him for his inappropriate behavior during zero-tolerance period.
Upon reading the article “Coach Knight: The Will to Win”, I believe firing Bob Knight was the right decision although Bob Knight led the Indiana Hoosiers to 3 national championships and number of Knight’s former players have gone on to coach in college (such as Mike Krzyzewski of Duke University) and in the NBA. Coach Knight’s leadership style was intimidating and abusive which instilled fear and discomfort among many of his students and other people around him. This created a negative atmosphere and affected the reputation of the University. HBR article “What Leaders Really Do” puts forth an interesting pointer for effective leadership: “Achieving grand visions always requires a burst of energy. Motivation and inspiration energize people, not by pushing them in right direction as …show more content…
As articulated in the Forbes article on “5 Ways To Refresh Your Leadership Style”: “If you are a good leader, you must continually reinvent yourself along the way. You should know where your leadership gaps lie and be courageous and wise enough to find ways to close those gaps by reaching out to your peers, colleagues, clients and ask them to respond to the following three questions about your leadership style: What Must You Keep Doing, What Must You Stop Doing and What Must You Start Doing. Coach Knight was reluctant to change his style even after he was fired by Indian University and joined the Texas Tech as a