Known as “arguably the best basketball coach ever, with a record 10 national titles as the [head] coach of [UCLA basketball] and the distinction of being the first person to be voted into basketball’s Hall of Fame as both a player…and coach,” John Wooden is a great leader to take a look at and examine (Leadership Lessons). Coach Wooden believed that “leadership itself is largely learned [and] most of us have a potential far beyond what we think possible” (Wooden 4). Furthermore, John Wooden stated, “those who aspire to be leaders can do it [and] those who wish to become much better leaders can also do it” (Wooden 5). Coach John Wooden falls within the category of a much better leader and his leadership skills were learned through a variety of experiences. John Wooden’s journey to becoming a great leader can be traced back to the single most important person in his life, his father Joshua Wooden. Wooden stated multiple times that his father was “at the core of [his] philosophy of leadership (Wooden 6). More specifically, the “character and achievements of John Wooden can largely be traced to a piece of paper his father gave him on the day he graduated [grade school],” a “defining moment” if you will (Williams and Denney 26). Joshua Wooden handed a young John a small card with a seven-point creed to which he asked his son to live by. The seven points contained on the card were: “1. Be true to yourself. 2. Help others. 3. Make each day your masterpiece. 4. Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible. 5. Make friendship a fine art. 6. Build a shelter against a rainy day by the life you live. 7. Pray for guidance and counsel, and give thanks for your blessings each day” (Williams and Denney 26).
According to former assistant UCLA basketball coach Denny Crum, the seven-point creed “[had] served as a guideline for Coach Wooden his entire life, and he [honored] those guidelines to the best of his ability. They [were] a way of life for coach” (Williams and Denney 27). In addition to his defining moment and influence of his father, Wooden further learned his leadership skills when asked by a high school teacher what the definition of success was. Many of Wooden’s classmates stated achieving wealth, fame, power or status or even winning a championship, however Wooden himself “wasn’t comfortable with any of these descriptions” and began to think of what success really meant (Wooden and Carty 11). As Wooden started to form his idea of success, he looked to a few principles his father had passed along to his brothers and him when they were children. Joshua Wooden passed along the principles of “don’t try to be better than someone else” and “always try to be the best you can be” (Wooden and Carty 12). With these principles in mind, John Wooden eventually formed his own idea of success and stated “success is peace of mind that is the direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming” (Wooden and Carty 12). Wooden’s idea of success focused on one’s inner workings and taught success as something you earn by your actions against yourself rather than actions against others. John Wooden believed in competing against yourself rather than competing against others and by doing so, one would reach ultimate success. As John Wooden matured and earned the role of head basketball coach for the UCLA Bruins, he had built his definition of success on a foundation known as the “pyramid of success.” Wooden’s experiences and influences including his father and his search for the definition of success led him to create the “pyramid of success.” Wooden stated that, “ultimately, I wanted the Pyramid’s 15 building blocks to define me as a leader” (Wooden and Jamison 16). The 15 building blocks that Wooden refers to are as follows: industriousness, friendship, loyalty, cooperation, enthusiasm, self-control, alertness, initiative, intentness, condition, skill, team spirit, poise, confidence, and competitive greatness. By adhering to these building blocks and possessing faith and patience along the way, Wooden believed that those who followed the pyramid would reach ultimate success. Although the pyramid was well known for influencing UCLA basketball players, the pyramid can also be directly applied other aspects of life. For instance, in the business environment by “using the pyramid of success as a management teaching tool, one can transform the average business organization into a great, winning (and profitable) team” (Kaye). Satisfying his goal, the pyramid of success can absolutely define Coach John Wooden as a leader. As Coach Wooden began to form his leadership and teaching beliefs and principles, he constantly reminded himself that he “[had] lived [his] life to be a mentor—and to be mentored!—constantly” (Yaeger and Wooden 3). Wooden never wanted to stop learning and as mentioned earlier, continued to learn how to be a leader each and every day. He soaked in all the information he could and gained as much knowledge as he had access too. Additionally, he focused on mentoring and leading others, as he knew he was in a great position to teach young and impressionable minds about how to achieve success. Most famously, Wooden taught and “mentored” the likes of Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton, two extremely successful basketball players in their era. Alcindor, later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Walton looked to Wooden as one of the greatest influences, leaders, and mentors of their lives and attain much of their success to Wooden’s lessons on life, leadership, and achieving success. In addition to his strong beliefs on mentorship, Coach Wooden believed that “a leader in sports, business, or any other field of endeavor should possess and provide the same qualities inherent in a good parent: character, consistently, dependability, accountability, knowledge, good judgment, selflessness, respect, courage, discipline, fairness, and structure” (Wooden 80). Although these are great qualities to have and allow you to become a good leader, Wooden continued that they would not make you a great leader. A great leader “must have love in [their] heart for the people under [their] leadership” (Wooden 80). Wooden claimed that the same amount of love for each and every person under an individual’s leadership would make him or her a great leader. Wooden brought back this idea to his family values and believed a team should be treated like a family and a leader as a parent. Although John Wooden’s views and beliefs on leadership can be traced back to his defining moment with his father Joshua, many experiences over the course of his lifetime shaped him as a leader. Joshua Wooden forced John to question and learn to develop himself as a person and as a leader. He developed his own method and definition of success and created a leadership tool to reach success. John Wooden can be seen as one of the great leaders in history and his legacy as a leader is universally applicable.