Page 64 - How to Create a Winning Organization

Wooden on Leadership
46
ENCOURAGE LEARNING THROUGHOUT
YOUR ORGANIZATION

The best leaders understand that to successfully compete at
any level requires continuous learning and improvement. Un-
less the leader communicates this up and down the line—and
puts mechanisms in place to ensure it gets done—your team
will not be at 100 percent in its performance level.

The best leaders are lifelong learners; they take measures to cre-
ate organizations that foster and inspire learning throughout. The
most effective leaders are those who realize it’s what you learn after
you know it all that counts most.
I recognized this fact quickly when I began my career as a bas-
ketball coach. While I understood the fundamentals necessary for
playing the game, I had little understanding of the second part of
my job, namely, the ability to teach the fundamentals of basketball.
Once I recognized this, I set out on a journey to educate myself to
become a better teacher. That, in turn, made me a better leader. I
wanted to be able both to get open and to shoot. I wanted my skills
to be as complete as possible.

TEAM SPIRIT
In the process of learning to become a better leader, one of the most
important things I learned was something that transcended the Xs
and Os on my chalkboard. That “some-
“The star of the team is
thing” became the final block in the center
the team.”
of my Pyramid.
Coach Lambert called it unity, a good word, but I wanted a
more expressive description of this valuable quality so directly