Page 204 - How to Create a Winning Organization

Wooden on Leadership
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ters and every member of the organization counts. In this atmo-
sphere, everyone knows that the team’s success rests, in part, on
their efforts to seek personal greatness.
Whether Doug and Conrad were as great as Kareem Abdul-
Jabbar and Bill Walton and others doesn’t matter. It goes to my fa-
ther’s advice: Don’t worry about being better than someone else,
but never cease trying to be the best you can become. Doug and
Conrad did that.

It is most valuable for a leader to understand and teach that
greatness is attainable by everyone who is a part of the organiza-
tion. When you unleash the desire in those you lead to attain their
own personal greatness—day after day, month after month—you’ll
find unexpected talent springing up all around you, just as I did
with Conrad and Doug and very many others. A winning organi-
zation, a successful team, is made up of many individuals, each of
whom, in his or her own way, has attained personal greatness.
Who’s the greatest? is always the wrong question to ask. How
many of those under my leadership have achieved personal greatness?
will always be the right one. That’s what matters most; that’s what
creates a great organization.