Coach Mike Krzyzewski (better known as Coach K) recently became the winningest coach in college basketball Division I history. However, he almost didn't get the chance.

Coach K was nearly fired after his first three years at Duke University after going 21-34 in his second and third year, and 7-21 in the powerful Atlantic Coast Conference. The Duke athletic director was considering firing- Coach K's college basketball coach at Army, where both legends started their coaching careers. Knight told the A.D. he'd be making a big mistake - in Bob's colorful vocabulary.

Coach K stayed on and turned the Duke program around in his fourth year and went on to 11 Final Four appearances and four NCAA championships.

Similarly, I write in my new book - "The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real World" - about four Hall of Fame NFL coaches who started poorly. Tom Landry was 0-11-1 in 1960 and Jimmy Johnson 1-15 in 1989, both with the Dallas Cowboys. Chuck Noll was 1-13 with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1969 and Bill Walsh 2-14 with the San Francisco 49ers in 1979. They even got massacred in their second years. But management kept them on, and they were rewarded with 11 Super Bowl championships among them.

Face it; something set that new hire apart from the crowd. You had high hopes that his or her attributes would complement the rest of the team's, and he or she would simply hit the ground running.

Your mistake.

It wasn't necessarily a bad hire. But after the "job honeymoon" is over, your job as a manager is to make absolutely sure that he or she understands what you expect. You also have to be willing to provide the training and support needed as the person assumes more and more responsibility.

It's a common problem: A new hire starts out strong, only to slow down once the initial excitement of a new job begins to fade. If that happens to any of your brand-new employees, keep the spark alive with this advice:

• Address the problem promptly. Meet with the employee to review his or her early progress. Remind your new associate of all the reasons you hired him or her in the first place.

• Stay positive. You may be impatient, but when you deal with the employee's diminishing performance, concentrate on coaching, not disciplining. Ask questions designed to find out what the employee needs to improve.

Mackay's Moral: With good coaching, new hires can become superstars!

Harvey Mackay is the author of the New York Times best-seller "Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive." He can be reached through his website, www.harveymackay.com, by emailing [email protected] or by writing him at MackayMitchell Envelope Co., 2100 Elm St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414.