BOOK REVIEW: Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organisation

by John Wooden

A lifetime of leadership lessons from a legend. This book of wisdom is timeless.

John Wooden coached more NCAA championship basketball teams (10) than anyone else in history. He coached four teams that went undefeated. He coached teams that won 88 straight games. Yet, coach John Wooden never talked about winning; he preached success.

"Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable."

The first part of this book outlines Wooden's Pyramid of Success -- 15 principles that must be adhered to in order to achieve success.

The second and more substantive part of this book offers lessons in leadership culled from a lifetime of on-court and off-court experiences. Here are just a few of John Wooden's leadership gems:

~ "When you start thinking about winning, you stop thinking about doing your job."

~ "Confidence must be monitored so that it does not spoil or rot and turn to arrogance."

~ "How you practice is how you play -- in sports and in everything else."

~ "I believe effective leaders are, first and foremost, good teachers. We are in the education business."

~ "I believe in the laws of learning: explanation, demonstration, imitation, correction when necessary (and it usually is), then repetition."

~ "The are no big things, only a logical accumulation of little things done at a very high standard of performance."

~ "An organization -- a team -- that's always looking up at the scoreboard will find a worthy opponent stealing that ball right out from under you."

~ "In a competitive environment, there is never enough time. As such, a leader must be skillful -- a master -- in using time productively and teaching others to do the same."

~ "I had Intentness for 28 years as a coach at the high school and college level -- intent on doing my best to help others do their best. In my twenty-ninth year of coaching, something remarkable occurred: UCLA won a national championship."

John Wooden lived 99 years. This book is a masterwork of a century of success.