FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2008
Wooden Leadership
Final Four time brings thoughts of
legendary UCLA coach John Wooden. ESPN named him Coach of the Century, for reasons basketball fans know: ten NCAA titles, seven of them in a row. The Wizard of Westwood is now 97, recently released from the hospital and a rehab center after
breaking his wrist and collarbone.
It's hard to think of this man as fragile. It's much easier to think of him as players
Bill Walton and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar do: a remarkable teacher whose lessons resonated for a lifetime. Abdul-Jabbar even honors Wooden on a recent post in his
LA Times blog.
And if you haven't seen
ESPN's extraordinary multimedia presentation "
Forever Coach" that marked Wooden's 95th birthday, check it out. I guarantee you will see the impact that a transformational leader makes on the lives of others. (Get out a hankie, too. It will tug at your heart, even if you know zero about hoops history.)
I had the opportunity to host a live TV interview program with coaches John Wooden and
Al McGuire, back in their heyday, the '70s. I'm not one of those broadcast journalists who saved every tape -- and now I regret it. I wish I could show you that program and those two personalities together. UCLA's Coach Wooden -- understated, paternal, professorial; Marquette's Coach McGuire -- frank, street-smart, and possessed of a language all his own. (Here's a wonderful
ESPN guide to translating McGuire-ese.) I remember McGuire treating Wooden with a special deference, and the two men just having a wonderful time talking basketball with a live audience.
Wooden often talked about leadership, too. In fact, his
personal Web site could serve as a mini-course for aspiring leaders in any field. (It's also an awesome multimedia show.) Wooden's "
Pyramid of Success" and his maxims are timeless. Here are some he shared in a
UCLA Magazine article:
- There is no clock-watching when a leader has respect.
- Pride is a better motivator than fear.
- Fairness is giving all people the treatment they earn and deserve. It doesn't mean treating everyone alike.
- Mistakes occur when your thinking is tainted by excessive emotion.
He had another favorite quote that applies to newsroom leaders in today's changing times. Here, on SuperVision, our Poynter mini-channel for leaders, just click and I''ll explain:
