Page 122 - How to Create a Winning Organization

Wooden on Leadership
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On my first day of practice, Coach Wooden sat us down
and told the players to take off our sneakers and socks. He did
the same. Then he went through his careful demonstration
showing us how to eliminate wrinkles, creases, and folds in our
sweat socks. We’d usually wear two pair of socks, and he
showed how to smooth them out one pair at a time; tuck ’em
in from the toe on down, kind of squeeze out the wrinkles and
folds. Very precise. He wanted those socks to be smoothed out
all the way up the calves.
There were some funny looks around me, but Coach was
not willing to take any chances on details he deemed impor-
tant to performance. So he taught us how to do it right.
That attention to detail was in everything he did—the way
he planned practice, ran practice, evaluated practice and games.
It applied to details of travel, equipment, and food. Absolutely
everything that could affect performance got taken care of.
Here’s something else that set him apart from 99 percent
of the other coaches: Coach Wooden never thought he knew
everything. In spite of the fact that he’d been winning cham-
pionships every year—four or five of them when I got there
as an assistant coach—he wanted to keeping learning, im-
proving as a coach and leader.
I had spent a few years coaching at the junior college level
when I joined him as an assistant in 1968. I brought with me
some experience and my own ideas—which he welcomed.
Those he liked we put in during practice. If they worked, fine.
If not, we took it out.
He never thought his way was the only way. He continued
like that right up to his final game. We used to have disagree-
ments, really argue over things, and people would ask him
about it. Coach would say, “I don’t need ‘yes men.’ If they’re
going to yes everything I do, I don’t need them around.”