Leadership in Literature and Books Post #1: Wooden on Leadership

Erika bought me a Kindle for my birthday, and despite my initial doubts (they have books on computers now?), I’m really enjoying it so far. I especially like the feature that allows you to highlight passages, save them, and share them instantly via facebook. But without the context of the whole book, sometimes those passages ring kind of hollow.

As an undergrad freshman, I was debating between concentrating in English or a technical subject. Even though I’m really happy with the path I took, I kind of miss the literary analysis and essay writing that I used to do my early schooling (nerd alert!). One of my old essay strategies was to view a book through a certain thematic lens – especially when the theme was kind of subtle and spread out over the book.

A theme I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is leadership. In my new job, I am trying to resist the temptation to get so caught up in the execution of day to day operations that I lose sight of my longer term goal to develop as a leader. I think reading can really help me do this, and writing about it is a way I can internalize the lessons from the books I read. So writing these posts will help me digest leadership themes in books explicitly about leadership, like the one I’ll write about today, and in general literature. I’ll try to use the MIT Leadership Framework to guide my posts.

So what better way to start this chain of posts than to write about John Wooden? An earlier version of his book, Wooden on Leadership, was recommended by the LGO leadership committee during plant trek, and I just got around to reading it now. Wooden was the coach of the legendary UCLA basketball teams from 1948-1975, and at one point his teams won 10 national championships in 12 years. Since I don’t follow college basketball too closely, I didn’t think it would be relevant or interesting, but this book was actually very readable and full of thoughtful, useful and practical ways to think about leadership in the workplace.

Wooden himself is actually kind of an inspiration to my current effort in this blog, because he was a high school English teacher before he was a basketball coach, and his book and even his reproduced original coaching materials are peppered with quotes from classic literature. Clearly, he was very thoughtful on observing leadership themes in literature, and hopefully I can do the same.

Wooden on Visioning

Wooden’s vision stemmed directly from his very clear definition of success:

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

The careful wording of success, and its focus on an individuals capability, allowed Wooden some latitude to think about and treat members of the team differently:

A player who is working hard and productively for the group shouldn’t receive the same treatment as someone who is offering less. And while each and every person on your team fills a role and performs a function, some of these roles and functions are filled by people much harder to replace than others.

Wooden admits he treated his star players differently than the role players – he was more lenient with them when they broke rules he didn’t consider associated with his “basic principles or values,” and he gave them more playing time. However, his definition of success helped him manage potential team controversy as a result, because under his definition anybody could be a successful, as long as they gave their best to maximize their potential in their given role. He advertised and gave a clear path to achieving this vision early on, and this helped build team-spirit.

I struggle a bit with the applicability of his definition a bit in terms of the workplace, mainly because I think it is a lot more difficult to figure out people’s natural potential when you don’t have things like tryouts and observable attributes (like height) don’t really matter. I don’t put a lot of stock in degrees – some of the smartest people I’ve met never finished high school, and some of the dumbest people I’ve met went to Harvard and MIT. It seems to me that Wooden’s vision doesn’t allow for the flexibility often required in the workplace to challenge and develop people.

This definition, however, was the foundation of many of his entire leadership program. In fact, he partly created his famous “pyramid of success”, shown below, based on this definition.

Wooden's Pyramid of Success

Rather than delve into the details of the pyramid now (I wholeheartedly agree with all of them), what I found more interesting was how Wooden used it from day to day. Every year, Wooden gave a paper copy of the pyramid of success to every member of the team on the very first day, and a blown-up version of it was framed on the wall in his office. In this way, his vision of success was extremely visible and well communicated from day 1.  As he said,

In order to make sure that your values are on full display, you may need to do some “advertising” of various kinds. Deeds count more than words, but words count too.

It was this clear communication of success and empowerment of every one of his “workers” to achieve it which demonstrates Wooden’s mastery of the visioning component of leadership.

Wooden on Relating

MIT recommends thinking about relating to people as composed of three parts: inquiry, advocacy and connecting.

Wooden addresses inquiry in his tenet of cooperation. He says

An effective leader understands that it is a sign of strength to welcome honest differences and new ways of thinking from those on your team as well as others.

He goes on to say that dictator-style leaders, while potentially effective, are not as effective as those who ask for and welcome feedback. However, he also draws a line very clearly:

I note, however, there is one similarity between a prison guard and a leader: Both have the final word. When a decision is made, it must be accepted by those on your team, or they must be encouraged to find another team.

Based on his stories and reflections from former players, I can imagine he was quite intimidating to approach as a player in terms of offering suggestions. However, he seemed to actively elicit feedback from his coaches, who he clearly respected, in private. In this respect, he seems to have some nuance to his inquiry – using it mainly with his lieutenants, while maintaining a more authoritative style with those at the bottom of the totem pole – his players.

In terms of advocacy, there is no question Wooden was an advocate of his beliefs. The aforementioned pyramid of success, the detailed 3×5 notes he distributed to his coaches on the fine points of every practice, right on down to the correct way players were to put on socks. The very fact that he published a book speaks to his comfort with advocacy of his beliefs. I would call him an enlightened micromanager in this respect:

Get as specific as possible for each of your direct reports. Don’t make the mistake of overemphasizing results…instead focus on those actions that an individual needs to take in order to most effectively and productively execute his or her assignment.

Finally, Wooden spent a lot of time in his book talking about connection, specifically how he connected with his players. Specifically, he emphasized several times that he felt it was inappropriate to be “buddies” with his team:

Making friends was not the responsibility or the goal of leadership, and I cautioned the team of this.

If this sounds like Wooden considered being the leader to be kind of lonely, he admits that it was:

That’s just one of the many things that makes leadership, at times, a solitary profession. You are the person charged with making the final, tough choices, while everybody else has the option of sitting on the sidelines, complaining about it.

However, while he says that friendship is not appropriate between the leader and the followers, he says that love for those who you lead is critical. Wooden clearly views the relationship between leader and follower as very similar to that of parent to child. In fact, he says:

At some point, later than I’d care to admit, it became clear to me that the most productive model for good leadership is a good parent. A coach, teacher, and leader, in my view, are all basic variations of being a parent…for me, leadership is a sacred trust.

The “leader as parent” idea influenced Wooden’s behaviors on and off the court. He considered there to be no boundary between his professional and personal life, at “appropriate times” inviting players to dine at his home with his family, and inviting them over for holidays if they could not go home for them.

It appears to me that the leadership as parent model can fail, especially when there is either a small or  negative age gap with one’s direct reports, as can often occurs in the workplace as opposed to in college basketball. Nonetheless, I think his overall point is well taken in that a leaders should truly care about his or her teammates, not just in terms of work output or metrics, but in terms of their overall personal well being, and this model should be adapted as appropriate to the particular setting and people involved.

Wooden on Sensemaking

Wooden’s philosophy on the importance of sensemaking reflects his background as a high school teacher.

The best leaders are lifelong learners; they take measures to create 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 the most.

He links the concepts of “continuous learning” and “continuous improvement”, and says the most competitive organizations do both.

Clearly, Wooden posits that he best leaders are also lifelong learners. But how does Wooden advocate leaders to go about their sensemaking? Despite the fact that he was considered the best coach of his era, he still relied upon the advice from other coaches, some of whom he considered mentors:

Mentors are available at all stages of your leadership life – early, middle, and late. Seek them out and listen; absorb their knowledge and use it.

He also brought a sense of discipline to his own learning. For instance, he tried to learn one new thing about the game of basketball during every offseason. He also was notorious for his meticulous record-keeping. He would review his records and notes from every practice on a regular basis, using them to continuously modify and refine his approach to practices, each of which were detailed down to the minute and designed to comprehensively and methodically build his team’s skills.

In terms of relating what he learned to his followers, he would explicitly assume the role of a traditional teacher. In fact, much of his sensemaking revolved around how to become a better teacher:

I believe effective leaders are, first and foremost, good teachers. We are in the education business…I believe the same is true for productive leaders in any organization.

This pedagogical philosophy to sensemaking is consistent with his philosophies in other areas, reflecting a traditional, top down style of leadership.

Wooden on Inventing

Wooden’s inventing was closely tied to his sensemaking approach, namely his philosophy of continuous learning and improvement. By his own admission, he was not known as a very creative coach in terms of plays or in-game strategy. He was not concerned with innovation or even competitive strategy – he did not even scout opposing teams; instead, he was obsessed with perfection of his own team development process. Thus, his inventing activity was mainly confined to continually experimenting with ways of organizing that learning process.

His inventing process was highly reflective and retrospective. He relied upon his meticulous records of practices, dating back decades, and were reviewed on a yearly basis. He would rely on small experiments – a tweak here, a tweak there – to the practice schedule, and then reflect on the results. Notably, these tweaks were generally not in terms of subject matter – in his mind, there was only one correct way to play the pivot  - but in terms of the organization structure. For example, he may change the week or minute at which he instructed the correct way to pivot from year to year. In this way, he had a a very detailed and refined picture of exactly who, what, when, and how it came to teaching how to play UCLA basketball.

Wooden’s Signature Style

Wooden had a clear understanding of, and would often audit, his own leadership style. Three elements of his style stand out in particular: the importance of moral authority, his attention to detail and his focus on the process.

While he never explicitly said so, he wrapped his own leadership in the cloak of those moral truths that transcend any particular religion (but happen to hew closely his own Christian faith). What he called “moral condition” – an unteachable trait – included possessing virtues like “friendship”, “honesty”, “character”, “faith”, “self-control” and “love”, and these are critical to being a good leader. When he caught himself acting in contrast to those virtues, such as when he realized he was addicted to cigarettes (lack of self-control), he would make a change (i.e. quit smoking). Many times in the book, he emphasized the idea that the leader must embody everything they teach, especially self-control. Thus, physical fitness, personal habits and appearance, language, and other aspects of one’s personal life including, by extension, personal relationships were all fair game in terms of establishing one’s leadership position.

The choices you make in your personal life affect your professional life. They are not two separate entities, and leaders who act as if they are will likely bring difficulties upon themselves.

The second aspect of his personal style, mentioned on by nearly every former player in the memoirs sprinkled throughout the book, was his strict attention to even the smallest details. For example, he was famous for spending nearly an entire practice at the beginning of the season instructing his players how to properly put on athletic socks. In his book, he explains that this seemingly obsessive compulsive attention to detail served two greater purposes. Specifically, that in a game as competitive as Division 1 college basketball, it is this attention to detail that by definition separates the champions from the contenders.

Self-control in the little things leads to control of bigger things.

Secondly, it demonstrates to his players his belief that there is only one correct way to perform every action. This belief seemingly runs counter to prevailing theories, but he make one important caveat

When it came to free throws, I was willing to wait until the shooters started missing free throws before I taught them how to shoot correctly. Once they started missing, it was easy to get them to change.

The third aspect of his personal style, and perhaps one of the more translatable features of his example to business, was his laser focus on process, rather than results. He ends the introduction to the book in this way:

We live in a society obsessed with winning and being number 1. Don’t follow the pack. Rather, focus on the process instead of the prize…The score will take care of itself when you take care of the effort that precedes the score.

The one exception to this rule was when he would sit down during the offseason and develop his strategy. During this session, he said he would always start with the final goal – winning the national championship. Then, he would work his way back down to the details of each practice. In this way, the rest of the season was simply about executing.

In subtle ways, this view influenced many other aspects of his signature leadership style. For example, he was not known as a particularly inspiring speaker. He rarely gave rousing speeches during halftime, for example, or rant and rave when the team lost (unless he felt they gave less than 100%). This was because he felt the score during the game was simply a function of the team’s preparation up until that point and random error which included things like the talent level of the other team.

In sum, Wooden was strong in all four leadership capabilities, and had a signature style that made a strong impression on players in terms of not only their play on the court, but their personal lives as well. His lessons are especially relevant in this age of scoreboard watching through quarterly profits, data overflow, and moral and ethical decline in business. As a model, one certainly can not go wrong trying to emulate him, even though most will probably fall short.

Other “actionable” random quotes

On recruiting/hiring

I’ve often said that as a leader I’d rather have a lot of talent and little experience than a lot of experience and little talent.

When hiring, be diligent in discerning what the individual’s motives are; be alert for those who express a sincere desire to join and contribute to your team and show some understanding of who and what your organization is all about. Recruiting should be a two-way street.

Good values are like a magnet – they attract good people.

If you don’t care what kind of person you have on your team so long as they help the team win, I question whether you’ll attain consistent and long-term success.

Be cautious about taking on “reclamation projects” regardless of the talent they may possess. Have the courage to make character count among the qualities you seek in others.

On staff development

Get as specific as possible for each of your direct reports. Don’t make the mistake of overemphasizing results (for example, “increase sales by 15 percent”). Instead, focus on those actions that an individual needs to take in order to most effectively and productively execute his or her assignment (for example, spend 20 percent more time with customers, make five more calls per week, or take a course in presentation skills).

Coach Lambert at Purdue summed it up like this; “The team that makes the most mistakes usually wins.”

Remind your most ambitious people that they must have patience, and if proficiency at their current job continues unabated, their chance will come, often when least expected.

I wanted each player to be eager to sacrifice personal interests for the good of the group.

Tips for personal/leadership success

As a leader, you must be filled with energy and eagerness, joy and love for what you do.

First, do not betray yourself. Second, do not betray those you lead. This is Loyalty.

In my own life I tried hard to keep my job, coaching basketball and for many years teaching English, from taking over other areas of life such as family and friends. I strongly believe a good leader has the correct priorities and seeks good balance. Endlessly working 24 hours a day, seven days a week is an imbalanced set of priorities and eventually hurts your performance in all areas. When you hurt yourself, you hurt your team.

Never lie, never cheat; never steal. Don’t whine; don’t complain; don’t make excuses

If you only remember one thing from this book, the following point is perhaps it: The star of every successful team is the team.

The best way to achieve dreams is to ignore them. The best way to attain long-term goals is to put them in an envelope. My first goal and priority was never long term, it was very short term: helping the team improve right now in practice.

Arrogance, or elitism, is the feeling of superiority that fosters the assumption that past success will be repeated without the same hard effort that brought it about in the first place.

I believe that personal greatness is measured against one’s own potential, not against that of someone else on the team or elsewhere.

Personal greatness for any leader is measured by the effectiveness in bringing out the greatness of those you lead.

When you say you’ll do it, do it. Dont’ give your word unless you intend to keep it. A leader whose promise means something is trusted. Trust counts for everything in leadership.

On teaching

Remember that a good demonstration tops a great description

Uncontrolled emotion or mercurial displays of temperament erode a leader’s stature

On criticism/praise

Many managers and coaches take for granted that people who work with them know how their efforts help the organization. This is often not the case, especially for those in lesser roles.

Acknowledging top produces does not always have to be done publicly. It is often more effective for a leader to praise their outstanding performance when others are not around.

Frequent and gratuitous praise removes the great value of a sincere compliment. Leaders who dole it out with little thought sacrifice a most powerful motivational ally – the pat on the back.

An individual who knows exactly what the penalty is for a particular act can subconsciously measure the risk against the reward. That person may decide the risk is worth it.

Leaders need leeway in dealing with different individuals and situations. Those who use suggestions and teachings rather than being locked into a long list of rigid rules can develop far more productive relationships with members of the team.

When difficulties arose and strong action – or words – were called for, I made it a policy to criticize in private, not in front of others. The rebuke was done without rancor. I was stern, but I did not get personal – no insults, no berating, no anger, no emotion.

Criticism is most effective when made in a positive environment, when something good has occurred.

I made it clear early on in the season that only the leader gives criticism. I insisted that players never criticize or razz a teammate. The effects of criticism – player to player, employee to employee – can be extremely destructive to the group.

Coach solved the problem by telling the player who had blown up and walked off the court that he was suspended. However, he then informed the suspended player that our whole team would be allowed to vote on whether or not to let him return. This allowed everybody to save face. It also empowered the team, because it felt like we got in on the decision. Of course, we voted to let him back.

Recognition for individual productivity certainly has a place in your list of potential award categories. But it must be valued equally with awards for “improvement”, “attitude,” “contribution to the team”, and other acts that strengthen the organization.

On management consultants (had to do this…)

Diagrams don’t win championships