Page 23 - How to Create a Winning Organization

Introduction
Those who aspire to be leaders can do it; those who wish to be- 5
come much better leaders can also do it. I know, because this has
been true in my own life. Whatever coaching and leadership skills
I possess were learned through listening, observation, study, and
then trial and error along the way.
In my opinion, this is how most leaders improve and progress.
For me, the process of learning leadership continued for 40 years
until the day I walked off the court for the last time as head
coach—March 31, 1975—following UCLA’s tenth national cham-
pionship. In truth, my learning continued even after that.
Nevertheless, coaching was not something I set out to do grow-
ing up. It’s fair to say that my primary objective back on our fam-
ily farm was to beat my older brother Maurice (“Cat”) in a race
around the barn or any other competition we thought up. Most of
the time I lost, because my brother’s nickname was accurate: Mau-
rice was quick as a cat. Nevertheless, the two of us loved to com-
pete, which meant we were no different from you and just about
everybody else, then and now.
Americans, perhaps by nature, are most competitive. In sports,
business, and almost all areas of life they not only ask Who’s number
one?, they want to be number one and constantly compare them-
selves against that standard: “Am I the biggest? The best? The fastest?”
However, for most of my life I have believed these are the wrong
questions to ask oneself. This comes mostly from what I was taught
by my dad back on the farm in Centerton, Indiana, population 49.
The principles and values I learned back there stuck with me and
became the compass that I’ve followed—or tried to follow—for
more than 90 years. My devotion to what he taught as well as my
belief in its importance and practicality remains as strong today as
ever. Stronger, in fact.
Whatever I accomplished as a leader came mainly from what he
accomplished as a father and teacher.