Wooden on Leadership Quotes

“You are not a failure until you start blaming others for your mistakes”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“Little things make the big things happen”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“I thought treating everyone the same was being fair and impartial. Gradually I began to suspect that it was neither fair nor impartial. In fact, it was just the opposite. That’s when I began announcing that team members wouldn’t be treated the same or alike; rather, each one would receive the treatment they earned and deserved.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“A strong leader accepts blame and gives the credit. A weak leader gives blame and accepts the credit.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“there are no big things, only a logical accumulation of little things done at a very high standard of performance.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“The heights by great men reached and kept, Were not attained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night.” –Henry Wadsworth Longfellow”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“The teams that compete at the highest level love the thrill of the contest. They may have winning in their heads, but they have a love for the effort and struggle in their hearts.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“Work without joy is drudgery. Drudgery does not produce champions, nor does it produce great organizations.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“Good values are like a magnet, they attract good people.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“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.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“Never lie; never cheat; never steal. Don’t whine; don’t complain; don’t make excuses.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“As a leader you must be sincerely committed to what’s right rather than who’s right.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“The two qualities of Friendship so important for a leader to possess and instill in team members are respect and camaraderie.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“To my way of thinking, when you give your total effort—everything you have—the score can never make you a loser. And when you do less, it can’t somehow magically turn you into a winner.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“don’t worry about whether you’re better than somebody else, but never cease trying to be the best you can become. You have control over that; the other you don’t.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“Gail, the game is 40 minutes long. The opponent has the ball approximately half the time. That leaves us 20 minutes with the basketball. “We have five players. In my system balance is important, so each player should handle the ball about the same amount of time. That means you will have the basketball for approximately four minutes per game. Gail, what are you going to do for the team during those other 35 minutes when you do not have the ball?”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“Despite the fact that he was more talented than those who played ahead of him, I kept him out of the starting rotation as an incentive for Sidney to become a complete team player. When he came to understand and accept my philosophy, that the best players don’t necessarily make for the best teams and that personal statistics matter only to the degree to which they enhance overall team performance, Sidney changed dramatically for the better.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“It began with my own firm belief that a player who made the team great is better than a great player.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“There was no ranting or raving, histrionics or theatrics before, during, or after practice and games. For every artificial emotional peak they might create, a subsequent valley, a letdown, is produced. Instead, absolute intensity—intelligently directed and applied—was my objective.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“A leader who is ruled by emotions, whose temperament is mercurial, produces a team whose trademark is the roller coaster—ups and downs in performance; unpredictability and un-dependability in effort and concentration; one day good, the next day bad. This is a pattern I sought to avoid at all costs. I would not accept inconsistency—the pitfalls of repeated highs and lows.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“THE SWISS ALPS HAVE majestic peaks and scenic valleys. Peaks and valleys belong in the Alps, not in the temperament—the emotions—of a leader.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“Fundamentals, condition, play together as a team. That’s all he did—simple as that. So simple.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“No written word nor spoken plea, Can teach your team what they should be, Nor all the books on all the shelves, It’s what the leader is himself.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“In 1947 we got invited to a big national tournament. One problem: They prohibited blacks from playing. One of our teammates, Clarence Walker, was black. Coach Wooden turned down the invitation. He wouldn’t leave Clarence behind. It happened again the next year. We got the same invitation. Again, Coach turned it down. This time the tournament backed off. They changed the rules. Only after that would Coach accept the invitation. The Sycamores got to the finals before losing to Louisville. Our whole team went; everybody played, including Clarence. You don’t leave somebody in the family behind. At least, Coach Wooden didn’t. His concern for us went way beyond basketball. We were part of a family.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“Great organizations are marked by an extraordinary bond within. For me, that bond included genuine love, and I didn’t feel awkward about it. I put my heart into my work and those with whom I worked. Teams with a sense of family have uncommon strength and resiliency. A good family—whether in life, sports, or business—involves love. (A reminder: It also involves good structure, sensible discipline, and personal sacrifice.)”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“With regard to policy, effective leadership recognizes that there is a time to be flexible and a time to be firm. Recognize the difference between rules that can be waived occasionally and those that go to the core of your philosophy. For example, my dress code had repercussions beyond the individual; replacing steak with beans and yogurt didn’t. Knowing the difference is often most challenging. However, a good leader knows what time it is: Time to be flexible? Time to be firm?”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“That’s when I began announcing that team members wouldn’t be treated the same or alike; rather, each one would receive the treatment they earned and deserved. This practice may sound discriminatory or suggest partiality, but it is neither. 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 those roles and functions are filled by people much harder to replace than others. It would be naïve to suggest that a superstar in your organization—a top producer—won’t receive some accommodations not afforded others. This is not a double standard but rather a fact of life. Those small accommodations, however, must not apply in areas of your basic principles and values or they will soon be replaced by the perception that favoritism and special treatment are the norm.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“Winning at any cost can be very costly—fatal, in fact. A good set of values is part of successful leadership and great organizations. Be wary of those who will do anything to win. This is not the attitude of a great competitor, but rather of a competitor who is greatly flawed. Find those who love the battle and play by the rules.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“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. I’ll go further than that: If you don’t care about the code of conduct held by those you lead, you’re not a good leader.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“The document highlights the importance of effort, stating that a player who has done their best has done everything, while doing less than one’s best is considered a failure.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization