Page 234 - How to Create a Winning Organization

Wooden on Leadership
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This was a goal I never sealed in an envelope and filed away. It
was a goal that had nothing do with looking up at the scoreboard,
but rather with keeping our eye on the ball. It’s one of the reasons
I never talked about winning to our players. When you start think-
ing about winning, you stop thinking about doing your job.

RULES TO LEAD BY

Identify Team Goals,Then File Them Away.
As leader, it is most challenging to keep yourself and your team from
becoming distracted by future challenges, opportunities, rewards,
and consequences. I rarely mentioned the upcoming opponent in my
comments to the team during the week. The same was true of the
standings or playoff possibilities. All that existed in the future. Im-
provement exists in the present, not the future.

Give Full Respect to Each Competitor.
While I seldom altered our practice or game plan based on the com-
petition, I wanted players to have respect for the abilities of all op-
ponents. I never took any game or opponent for granted. The same
should hold in business. Respect all; fear none. This is not easy to
do. When you’re down looking up, fear is natural. When you’re up
looking down—leading the competition—respect for all is often
most elusive.

Long-Term Success Requires Short-Term Focus.
This goes to the heart of my “don’t look at the scoreboard”
imperative. It is key to my leadership methodology. Focus on
improvement—now. Not tomorrow; not next week. Let’s get it
done today.