Page 126 - How to Create a Winning Organization

Wooden on Leadership
108
or theatrics before, during, or after practice and games. For every
artificial emotional peak they might create, a subsequent valley, a
letdown, is produced.
Instead, absolute intensity—intelligently directed and applied—
was my objective. I achieved that goal with increasing regularity as
I matured as a teacher, leader, and coach. I never wanted to seem
out of control. I worked hard to avoid ever looking riled up or de-
jected. I consciously paid attention to my posture and wanted it to
be the same in a preseason game as in a national championship
game. And following either, I wanted to conduct myself in a man-
ner that would not reveal to an observer whether UCLA had out-
scored an opponent or not. Even my dear wife, Nellie, said she
usually couldn’t tell from my expression.
I wanted those under my leadership to see me always on an even
keel—intense, of course, but even. How could I ask others to con-
trol themselves if I couldn’t do it? And emotional control is a pri-
mary component of consistency, which, in turn, is a primary
component of success.
I demanded intensive effort—“positive aggression,” I called it—
with the goal of producing ongoing improvement rather than try-
ing to get everybody excited and fired up about some arbitrary peak
in performance. I wanted to see fervor during UCLA basketball
practice and games, intensity that didn’t boil up and over into
emotionalism.
Good judgment, common sense, and reason all fly out the win-
dow when emotions kick down your door. Unfortunately, this usu-
ally happens in times of turmoil or crisis when you and your
organization can least afford it. Thus, I explained to our players,
managers, trainer, and assistant coaches that there was to be no ex-
cessive exuberance when we scored against an opponent at an im-
portant juncture nor excessive dejection when an opponent scored