No.48 September 2006 |
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John Wooden and Steve Jamison
Wooden on Leadership New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005 ISBN: 0071453393 (Cloth, $22.95) John Wooden* is considered by many to be the finest college basketball
coach in American sport history. The wonder of Wooden’s amazing
success, 12 national championships, and a record 88 straight victories
during his illustrious career at UCLA, is that the goal of his coaching
was to develop excellent people, not just win basketball games.
The book by Mc Graw-Hill Publishing entitled Wooden on Leadership is about formulating a winning basketball team; however, it is also about how to construct and activate, and keep motivated a successful group in any endeavor or profession. The book is sprinkled with many detailed and hand written notes by Wooden to himself as well as many excerpts from the coach’s own personal diaries. These not only show the mind behind the man, but detail how any successful leader deciphers and acts upon the strengths and weaknesses of those under his direction and encourages them to achieve their maximum performance. Ethical decision-making is best when it is directed to a final goal. The message, do the right actions and deny yourself and you will go to heaven, is one way of instilling ethical morality. On a more earthly plane, these are the attitudes of self- development represented in Coach Wooden’s symbolic representation of the ladder of ‘right’ attitudes and actions represented in the book by his Pyramid of Success.
For instance, according to Wooden’s belief system, if one is industrious
and perseveres without self-interest, eventually one can contribute
to the common good. Having the right intent (the good of the team),
if accomplished with sincerity, will almost always lead to positive
actions in the direction of successful group achievement. As one moves
up his Pyramid, the goals become more self than group directed. It seems
that Wooden believes that the well acting (heroic) individual, at some
point in their development, needs to express his/her leadership through
personal initiatives. A group can have skills or poise, however, it
will take the combined effort of all involved to express these sensibilities
in action. His winning record has shown that one person of poise and
confidence, who has been part of Wooden’s ethical system, will
be synergistic with his teammates. It is fun to view Wooden’s
Pyramid as a self contained philosophical system of sorts. We can look
at his teaching (coaching) as a way to develop the ethical/moral person,
one who is group directed and can take the burden of leadership and
succeed for all. No wonder, when seen in this context, that winning
isn’t a far reaching enough real goal, that the “flow and
smoothness” of participating in a group of ethically trained teammates
is the just reward within itself.
I have been a collegiate and international cross country and track coach
for almost thirty years. When one has been coaching for a while, one
knows that the temptations to win at any costs are at every junction
of one’s career. A running coach doesn’t face the challenges
to win as say a Division I football or basketball coach, however, coaches
and administrators all face conflicting challenges. For the coach, it
might be what do you do when your best athlete breaks a rule, or a teacher
gives a grade that causes your star player to become ineligible? A manger
might suspect his top salesman to be fudging on his expense reports.
These are everyday dilemmas for coaches and business people at every
level of leadership and can be assisted by reading and digesting this
book.
The type of problems that face youth coaches came up during a recent
workshop with community track coaches in Atlanta. When a youth coach
told me of her dilemma of facing a parent not wanting her star sprint
daughter to run on a relay team because it might affect the performance
of her single event that followed, I felt her dismay. What does a Wooden
inspired coach do under these circumstances? Do you tell the mother
that her daughter can’t compete in her individual event unless
she shows team spirit in the relay? One of Wooden’s boxes in the
Pyramid of Success stresses team spirit, so, I guess the mother would
have to place her daughter’s individual ambitions below those
of her teammates. These are the questions of character and leadership
that face community leaders and youth coaches every day, in every circumstance
imaginable.
Many coaches and sport leaders have given in to circumstances because
they didn’t want to disturb a seemingly successful status-quo.
While we are not always proud of our decisions, with Wooden’s
suggestions and descriptive positive modes of behavior, we have something
to measure ourselves against. After reading this book, the question
will hang in our mind, what would Coach Wooden have done in similar
circumstances? This book provides some answers and encourages morally
correct decisions while pointing out that correct decision in building
character eventually results in championship success.
The book also relates some controversial actions taken by Coach Wooden during his career. For instance, it is assumed to be out of bounds for a college coach to pay for a player’s bail bond or take a player home for Christmas dinner. These are blatant violations of NCAA regulations, however, Wooden’s intense concern for the welfare of his players is of more significance and this is what eventually guides his decisions and principles beyond collegiate regulations. They won’t take his championships away at this point for the violation, however, by relating these personal decisions we see that Coach Wooden is a human being with sensibilities beyond following a rigid code of conduct, even if it is his own.
Wooden’s Pyramid of Success contains important tenets of his philosophy
of sport and life. It depicts his approach and formula for self-development
and human achievement. For Wooden, to have a player produce under pressure
doesn’t require 100 shots from each spot on the floor. The moment
of success results, rather, from a sequential building block of attitudes
that starts with basic personality traits and is aimed at forming a
basketball team or any unit into a ‘family’ of players.
What I like best about the Pyramid of Success is that the category of personality traits appears in the bottom first line of the pyramid design. In shows that to achieve competitive greatness, such as hitting a shot at the buzzer to win an important event, actually begins at an earlier phase of more primary personal values such as cooperation, loyalty and persistence. Therefore, the task of the youth coach is the most important of all—formulating a base of positive personality traits so that each young person can grow up to achieve their own styles of ‘competitive greatness.’
Two features of the book work especially well for the young coach hoping
to delve into the mind of Wooden, known by his admirers as the ‘Wizard
of Westwood’. Throughout the text are messages written to himself
in his own distinctive and measured script: goals for the upcoming year,
attitudes to get the most out of a player or team situation, ideas on
the importance of education, and small disciplines such as using a double
layer of socks to avoid bruises and rashes. Another interesting feature
is the description of Coach Wooden from the perspective of his players.
Through the years, it seems his orientation to self-development over
win at any cost has never changed. Players have said that he has pushed
them, disciplined them, forced them to endure and repeat a particular
workout or play a hundred times, but he never suggested to his players
that winning was of paramount importance. Wooden firmly believed in
building up the layers of self-hood through self-control to team spirit,
moving inexorably towards the pinnacle of the Pyramid. At the top of
the Pyramid is the cherished goal of competitive greatness, however,
the basis of this achievement is the more solid self-hoods of faith
and patience.
After reading Wooden on Leadership, I know coaches at every level will
be able to apply some of Coach Wooden’s perspective to their own
coaching and teaching situations. Corporate leaders and those teaching
leadership studies will also benefit from the wisdom of the book. By
understanding what it takes to excel as human beings, Wooden has shown
us what we need to do to become better business leaders, coaches and
educators. Wooden’s applied perception to success can lead to
a better society with leaders knowing the steps and underlying philosophical
persuasion necessary to grow their companies,
teams and families. * John Wooden is now 95 years old and still the Dean of Collegiate Basketball Coaches in the United States. In short, he is an icon. The University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) is one of the premier schools in Division I of the NCAA. His record of 88 straight wins and 12 national championships will never be approached. He was called the 'Wizard of Westwood’ because
Westwood is the area of Los Angeles in which UCLA is situated.
Mike Spino
E-Journal of Ethical Leadership RTM Institute for Leadership, Ethics & Character Kennesaw State University Phone: + 1 678 797-2000 E-mail: ileceditor@kennesaw.edu ![]() http://www.icsspe.org/portal/index.php?w=1&z=5 |