Page 136 - How to Create a Winning Organization

Wooden on Leadership
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teach the talented USA players that “we” is more important than
“me” and may have done very well to have secured a bronze medal.
The nature of professional basketball today is rarely about team
play; rather, it features spectacular individual performance—the
360-degree dunk, driving the ball the length of the court with great
speed, dazzling dribbling, and more. It’s all very entertaining to
watch, but has little to do with creating the most effective, pro-
ductive, and successful team.
Entertainment itself was of little importance to me in coaching.
Piggy Lambert, my coach at Purdue, however, did explain the one
advantage of having a team that fans found entertaining to watch:
If you’re not winning many games, they’ll keep you around a little
longer than a coach whose losing teams are dull. Nevertheless, en-
tertainment for the sake of entertainment was not a priority for me.

UNDERSTAND THE BIG PICTURE

On the first day of each new season—October 15—15 players
along with assistant coaches, our manager, trainer Ducky Drake,
and I would gather together for our official team picture. The pho-
tograph was a study in equality. No individual on the team got spe-
cial treatment or more space in the picture because of talent,
seniority, past contributions, press clippings, race, or religion. You
couldn’t tell an All-American player from the player who occupied
the far end of the bench. The head coach took up no more space
than a student-manager in charge of handing out towels.
In our official photograph, the star of the team is the team. And
that’s exactly what I wanted the players to remember when the