Wooden On Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization is a 2005 work of sports nonfiction and philosophy by legendary basketball coach John Wooden (1910-2010). As the head coach of the UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) Bruins, Wooden won an NCAA (National Collegiate Athletics Association) record of 10 national championships, including a record of seven consecutively in 1967-1973. Because of his coaching success, Wooden has become an expert lecturer and author on the subject of leadership, sharing his unique approach to the game and effort-over-results philosophy. 

Wooden on Leadership is structured in three parts: “The Foundation for My Leadership,” in which Wooden describes his famous “Pyramid of Success”; “Lessons in Leadership,” in which he dedicates each of 12 chapters to different leadership tips; and “Lessons From My Notebook,” which features excerpts of notes, lists, and observations made during his career. Throughout the work, three primary themes emerge: Inclusion and the Greater Good as Fostered by Collaborative Teamwork, Ethical Leadership: Compassion and Reflective Practice, and Balance as a Counter to Performance Pressure. 

This guide refers to the 2006 McGraw-Hill edition.

Summary

In Part 1, Wooden lays out the foundation for his leadership style. It is rooted in his own definition of success and his “Pyramid of Success,” a diagram that he created for coaching in 1948. The pyramid of success consists of 15 building blocks representing individual characteristics required to achieve success. The five building blocks comprising the pyramid’s foundation—industriousness, enthusiasm, friendship, loyalty, and cooperation—are described in Chapter 1, while Chapter 2 examines the pyramid’s second tier—self-control, alertness, initiative, and intentness. The remaining three tiers are described in Chapter 3 and consist of condition, skill, team spirit, poise, and confidence; competitive greatness forms the pyramid tip or “apex block.” Also described in Chapter 3 are the characteristics of faith and patience, which Wooden positions diagonally along each side of the pyramid diagram to represent mortar holding the blocks in place.

Wooden discusses lessons in leadership in Part 2 of the book, with Chapters 4-15 each offering problem-solving tips for a specific issue. In these chapters, Wooden uses numerous anecdotes from his career to illustrate his leadership style. These cover numerous concepts: values, love for those around you, teaching, emotionalism, teamwork, attention to detail, time management, discipline and criticism, complacency, change, and fate and adversity. When examining these aspects of leadership, Wooden explains how each one can be transferred from the world of sports to organizations in other fields. Each of the 12 chapters in Part 2 ends with a short essay written by one of Wooden’s former players, illustrating Wooden’s practical application of the subject matter. These essays include contributions from Basketball Hall of Fame members Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Denny Crum, and Gail Goodrich.

The final section of the book, “Lessons From My Notebook,” is composed of excerpts from notes, observations, and lists from Wooden’s coaching notebooks over the years. He supplements these with later reflections and explanations. The notes range across diagrams of plays, practice schedules, private notes about team dynamics, and hand-written lists of team captain selections. In this final section, Wooden continues to provide anecdotes from his career illustrating his leadership style and to express how his lessons are transferable to leaders in business and other areas of life. In the Epilogue, Wooden pay homage to his father’s guidance and the profound impact that he had on his life and leadership style.