Page 54 - How to Create a Winning Organization

Wooden on Leadership
36
INITIATIVE
A basketball team that won’t risk mistakes will not outscore oppo-
nents. The same is true for any organization. Fouls, errors, and mis-
takes are part of the competitive process in
“Boldness has genius,
sports, business, and elsewhere. Don’t live in
power and magic within it;
fear of making a mistake. In fact, Coach
They can’t be revealed until
Lambert at Purdue summed it up like this:
you begin it.”
“The team that makes the most mistakes
—Goethe
usually wins.”
He was talking about the next block of the Pyramid: Initiative.
The kinds of mistakes he was referring to are not the result of care-
lessness or sloppiness but the result of assertive action based on
proper assessment of risk. In sports, action often must be taken in-
stantaneously to capitalize on opportunity. In every organization,
time is of the essence when opportunity knocks.
Many leaders instinctively behave like a young college basket-
ball player who picks up three quick fouls in the first half and be-
comes tentative and timid. A coach will sit this player on the bench
before he can hurt the team.
The tentative business leader, however, stays in the contest, to
the eventual detriment of the group. Hesitancy, indecisiveness, vac-
illation, and fear of failure are not characteristics I associate with
good leadership. I told our team many times: “Be quick, but don’t
hurry.” By that, I meant to make a decision, take action; decide
what you’re going to do and do it. Keep this word of caution in
mind: “Failure to act is often the biggest failure of all.”
Initiate quickly but not carelessly or in a hurried manner that
makes a miscue more likely. I applied this same advice to my own
actions.
Do not be afraid of mistakes, even of failure. Use good judgment
based on all available information and then use Initiative. The leader
who has a fear of failure, who is afraid to act, seldom will face success.