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Author Profiles
John Wooden (1910-2010), guided the UCLA Bruins to ten NCAA basketball championships over a 12-year period, including four perfect seasons and an 88-game winning streak. He was named ESPN’s “Greatest Coach of the 20th Century” and voted “#1 Coach of All Time” by The Sporting News. Sports Illustrated said it best when they said: “There’s never been a finer man in American sports than John Wooden, or a finer coach.” In 2003 John Wooden was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Steve Jamison is America's foremost author and authority on the life and philosophy of John Wooden. Mr. Jamison is a consultant to the UCLA Anderson Scool of Business’ John Wooden Global Leadership Program. He has collaborated with Coach Wooden on an award-winning PBS presentation as well as several books, including the classic book on teaching and mentoring, Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections.

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A compelling look inside the mind and powerful leadership methods of America’s coaching legend, John Wooden

Praise for Wooden on Leadership:

“What an all-encompassing Pyramid of Success for leadership! Coach Wooden’s moral authority and brilliant definition of success encompass all of life. How I admire his life’s work and concept of what it really means to win!”
--Stephen R. Covey, author, The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People and The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness

“Wooden On Leadership offers valuable lessons no matter what your endeavor. 'Competitive Greatness' is our goal and that of any successful organization. Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success is where it all starts.”
--Jim Sinegal, president & CEO, Costco

John Wooden’s goal in 41 years of coaching never changed; namely, to get maximum effort and peak performance from each of his players in the manner that best served the team. Wooden on Leadership explains step-by-step how he pursued and accomplished this goal. Focusing on Wooden’s 12 Lessons in Leadership and his acclaimed Pyramid of Success, it outlines the mental, emotional, and physical qualities essential to building a winning organization, and shows you how to develop the skill, confidence, and competitive fire to “be at your best when your best is needed”--and teach your organization to do the same.

Though he was better at it than almost anyone in American history, building a sports dynasty was never a goal for UCLA head coach John Wooden. Rather, it was Wooden’s passionate desire to teach his players how to become the best team they could be. To Wooden, “Competitive Greatness” was a tangible and teachable force.

One of the lesser-known aspects of Wooden’s career is the private notebooks in which he regularly recorded his observations, goals, and leadership concepts as they applied to basketball, success, and life. Wooden on Leadership draws from those personal notes to share practical and powerful leadership skills that anyone can use to improve performance and overcome self-imposed limitations.

Wooden on Leadership contains the best of Wooden’s observations, covering everything from teamwork (“It takes 10 hands to score a basket”) and self-control (“Emotion is the enemy”) to concentration (“Don’t look at the scoreboard”) and dealing with defeat (“Things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out”). Featuring pivotal moments in Wooden’s own leadership journey, it explores the 15 fundamental leadership qualities--building blocks--of his famous Pyramid of Success, illustrating their relevance in building a winning organization. Each chapter concludes with Wooden’s “Rules to Lead By,” point-by-point action steps covering the chapter’s key concepts. along with pivotal moments in his own leadership journey.

“On Wooden” summary sections throughout the book feature penetrating insights on Coach Wooden’s leadership methods from players and coaches who worked with him during his career, including All-Americans Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Gail Goodrich, and David Meyers and assistant coaches Denny Crum, Gary Cunningham, and Eddie Powell. As participants and contributors to Wooden’s legacy, their words provide a revealing and personal perspective.

Wooden on Leadership reveals the leadership wisdom of John Wooden. It presents the core concepts, methods, and beliefs that Wooden used to teach his teams how to attain Competitive Greatness, and true personal success.

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WOODEN ON LEADERSHIP

McGraw-Hill

Contents

Chapter One

"Ultimately, I wanted the Pyramid's 15 building blocks to define me as a leader."

Creating a written definition of success was a necessary exercise when I started out because many parents came to me to protest classroom grades or the roles I had assigned their sons on a Dayton baseball or basketball team (the bench, most often).

I was increasingly upset, disgusted at times, to hear parents howl about their child's grade or role on the team when I knew it was often the best the youngster could do. It was unfair to the child and, in fact, counterproductive. How would you feel having worked hard, studied diligently, and paid attention in class—done your best—only to be called a loser? Most individuals, young or old, would simply quit trying. I did not want those under my supervision to ever quit trying.

As a coach I also recognized that I'd be judged to be successful or not with a similar grading system—the percentage method—without regard to circumstance, situation, or anything else. This, as I have described, was exactly what happened in 1959–1960.

Had I helped those under my supervision come as close as possible to reaching their potential, doing their best? Had I done my best? These questions were not asked, even though they are the most relevant.

The behavior of those parents in Dayton prompted me to define, declare, and write down a fair and productive measurement of success—a grading system for all that truly does produce the best of which individuals are capable.

DIRECTIONS TO THE DESTINATION

Success—peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did the best of which you are capable—became the stated objective or destination for those I was teaching and coaching. A destination is meaningless, however, without directions on how to get there.

How do you achieve success? In 1933 I didn't have the answer. Moreover, I knew that just having the answer was insufficient. A method of instruction would be needed to help me teach the qualities I deemed necessary for success.

Consequently, I began searching for a teaching tool that was tangible—something you could see, study, and follow as clearly as a map. Those things we can see tend to be more meaningful and memorable than objects we just hear about.

Glenn Curtis, my high school basketball coach at Martinsville, Indiana, was an exceptional motivator who used everything from poetry to pep talks to stimulate his players. Occasionally, he would even produce an old cardboard poster on which he had drawn a ladder with five or six rungs.

Each rung represented some important tip he wanted members of the Martinsville High School basketball team, the Artesians, to keep in mind—footwork, for example, or hustle. At the top of his ladder, of course, was success as he and most others saw it, namely, beating another team.

Well, the ladder idea got me to thinking. It was a good start, but I wanted something more comprehensive and illustrative. And, of course, my definition of success differed greatly from Coach Curtis's.

I remembered reading about the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt while I was a student at Purdue. It was the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Built with blocks of red granite and pure limestone, some weighing up to 60 tons, the Great Pyramid was constructed on a massive foundation whose huge cornerstones were the biggest and most important of the whole structure.

Additional blocks, each carved with a specific purpose and position in mind, were then painstakingly ramped and hoisted into place, creating successive tiers—each one supported by what had come before.

There was a center, or heart, to the Great Pyramid, which then rose to an apex that towered 481 feet over the sands of the desert. For 4,300 years it remained the tallest structure on Earth. And despite its size, the Great Pyramid was built with such precision that, when it was completed after decades of labor, you couldn't slide a single playing card between its huge blocks of granite and limestone. Even in the twenty-first century it is considered one of the sturdiest and best-planned structures ever built. And I am not alone in this thinking. The great management writer and analyst Peter Drucker, when asked who were the greatest managers of all time, answered, "The builders of the great Pyramids."

An Egyptian proverb says, "Man fears time, but time fears the Pyramids." The Great Pyramid of Giza was built to last—and it did. The symbolism of all this effort seemed very practical to me.

THE REQUISITES OF SUCCESS

I soon adopted the pyramid structure as my teaching tool. At first, I didn't know how many "blocks" it would contain, what the blocks would consist of, or in what order they would be positioned. All I knew was that success would be found at the apex and that each block leading to the top would represent a personal quality necessary for getting there. The Pyramid's blocks and tiers would be my specific directions on how those under my supervision could achieve success by realizing their own potential, both individually and as part of a team.

Along the way, I came to see that it would also provide the directions for my own coaching—a leadership guidebook—offering a code of conduct for those given the privilege of leading others into the competitive arena.

However, first I faced the task of determining what individual characteristics were required to reach the top. I took this responsibility seriously, and during the winter of my first year as a teacher and coach began reflecting on what the answer was. What precisely did it take to become a success?

For many years afterward, I evaluated and then carefully selected the values necessary for success, as I defined it, as well as the location each would occupy in the structure. After much reflection, trial and error, and some soul searching, I chose 15 fundamental values as blocks for my Pyramid of Success. I believe they are prerequisites for a leader and an organization whose goal is to perform at the highest level of which they are capable.

I completed the Pyramid of Success shortly before leaving Indiana State Teachers College in Terre Haute for California and UCLA. Subsequently, as the new 37-year-old head basketball coach of the Bruins I began each season by introducing my definition of success and the Pyramid to arriving student-athletes—handing out mimeographed copies and reviewing it with them. A large poster of the Pyramid hung behind my desk in the office at Kerckhoff Hall.

YOUR OWN EXAMPLE COUNTS MOST

Most of all I attempted to demonstrate in my behavior—on and off the court—those qualities I hold so dear, the values within the Pyramid.

I believe there is no more powerful leadership tool than your own personal example. In almost every way the team ultimately becomes a reflection of their leader. For me, I wanted that reflection to be mirrored in the Pyramid of Success. I attempted to teach it mainly by my own example.

Was my Pyramid the reason UCLA won championships? No, there were many reasons. However, I believe the Pyramid played a very important part, just as it played a role in that 1959—1960 season, when we achieved success...