John Wooden: Leadership Bio – Carl Lonnberg, MGMT 671

John Wooden

“The Wizard of Westwood”

2 | John Wooden: Leadership Bio

John Wooden was one of the most successful and most heralded coaches in US sports history

1910 1948 1975 2010

Born in Indiana into a farming

familyDies at 99 of natural causes

19851932

Marries Nell Riley Wife Nell dies of cancer

Coached men’s basketball at UCLA

• Won 10 national championships in 12 years, including 7 in a row

• Won 88 straight games from 1971-1974

• Was named national coach of the year 6 times

• Had 4 “perfect” 30-0 seasons

• Was awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003

• Was enshrined in basketball Hall of Fame as player AND coach

• Had College Basketball MVP trophy named after him

• 1st ever 3-time college All-American

Accomplishments Honors

1942-1945

Served in Navy in WWII

3 | John Wooden: Leadership Bio

Like Total Leadership, Wooden believed that success across domains started with the Self

Wooden never spoke of winning or losing, just of doing your best

4 | John Wooden: Leadership Bio

Wooden’s “12 lessons of leadership” are simple, yet profound guide on how to act and treat others, and also align with Total Leadership concepts

1. Good Values Attract Good People – define your vision, know your core values, be authentic, bring others along with you

2. Love Is The Most Powerful Four-Letter Word – respect the whole person, identify your stakeholders, bring others along with you

3. Call Yourself A Teacher – bring others along with you, uncover underlying interests, experiments, serve their interests

4. Emotion Is Your Enemy – be authentic, respect the whole person

5. It Takes 10 hands To Make A Basket – identify your stakeholders, bring others along with you

6. Little Things Make Big Things Happen – experiments, life is a system you can change

7. Make Each Day Your Masterpiece – life is a system you can change, be authentic

8. The Carrot Is Mightier Than A Stick – uncover underlying interests, serve their interests

9. Make Greatness Attainable By All – bring others along, serve their interests

10. Seek Significant Change – experiments, life is a system you can change

11. Don’t Look At The Scoreboard – know your core values, be authentic

12. Adversity Is Your Asset – experiments, know your core values

5 | A super-sized revolution in retail

Wooden cared deeply about all four domains, and integrated them heavily

Family

• Wrote a love letter to his wife each month after her death for the rest of his life; never remarried

• Set aside all the earnings from his post-coaching speaking career to fund college payments for his grandkids

Self

• Defined success across domains as being an internal goal of constantly striving to perform to the best of your capabilities

• His initial life philosophy came from his own father, he developed it further and taught it further to his players, his community, and the work

Community

• Most proud of the fact that almost all his students graduated to successful careers in basketball, medicine, law, religion, education, etc.

• Through his work and his love of teaching he built relationships with countless players who fiercely respect and admire him

Career

• Saw himself as a teacher in his players lives, saying “you couldn't tell whether you had a successful season until 20 years or so after they've graduated.”

• Worked with his children to re-work his teachings into a children’s book called “Inch & Miles” in order to make them more accessible to other children

6 | John Wooden: Leadership Bio

Lessons Learned

• Huge overlap exists between the course and Wooden’s teachings• Both start with self-understanding and hard work

• Move on to understanding who important people around you are, and experiment to see how you can best engage them

• “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail”• The amount of work in this class has led me to better understand what is

truly meaningful to me, and why

• Knowing this, my experiments are more successful than previous tries

• You should respect the process and work to be your best every day• I was wondering if the process of my experiments mattered since I was

having successful outcomes even if I skimped on the process I had set

• Wooden’s emphasis on constant excellence shows me I am not reaching my potential and not bringing people along as much as I could

• Most importantly, do not be discouraged by a big, scary, unfamiliar undertakings – do the small things well and success can follow

7 | John Wooden: Leadership Bio

Famous John Wooden quotes

• “Be quick, but don’t hurry”• “Perform your best when your best is required. Your best is

required every day.”• “If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time

to do it over?”• "You can't live a perfect day without doing something for

someone who will never be able to repay you.”• "Make each day your masterpiece. Now you're not going to

make great improvement in one day. But if you miss out one day, you've lost a little bit.”

• "Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”

• “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail”