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

“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

“The great competitors I have played for, coached, and admired have shared a joy derived from the struggle itself—the journey, the contest. They have done so because only in that supreme effort is there an opportunity to summon your best, a personal greatness that cannot be diminished, dismissed, or derided because of a final score or bottom line. Competitive Greatness is not defined by victory nor denied by defeat. It exists in the effort that precedes those two”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same . . . That’s Poise: not being thrown off stride in what you believe or how you behave because of outside events.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“A willingness to be selfless suggests a begrudging aspect of doing what is required for the team. I wanted each player to be eager to sacrifice personal interests for the good of the group. To me, there is all the difference in the world between willingness and eagerness. Thus, I changed that single word in the definition. Team Spirit—an eagerness to sacrifice personal interests or glory for the welfare of all—is a tangible driving force that transforms individuals who are “doing their jobs correctly” into an organization whose members are totally committed to working at their highest levels for the good of the group.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“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 most. I recognized this fact quickly when I began my career as a basketball 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.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“It starts with control of your emotions, but it also extends to having the resolve to resist the easy choice, the expedient solution, and, at times, temptation in its various and alluring forms. Description A torn piece of paper with typed text discussing self-control and leadership. The text emphasizes the need for a leader to maintain complete emotional control and think clearly at all times. It mentions that a leader can still be a fighter while supporting their team. The text advises disciplining when necessary but stresses fairness and avoiding grudges to maintain respect. It concludes with a reminder to keep poise at all times.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“Hard work and enthusiasm are contagious. A leader who exhibits them will find the organization does too.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“The ultimate role of the Pyramid was not to produce championships; championships were a by-product. Rather, it provided directions for reaching one’s own ultimate level of excellence as a part of a team or as leader of the team. The Pyramid didn’t guarantee that UCLA would outscore an opponent, only that our opponent would face individuals—united as a team—who were fully prepared to battle hard and compete at their highest level. The score would take care of itself.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“I also believe those student-athletes under my leadership came as close to reaching 100 percent of their potential as some of the later UCLA teams with perfect 30–0 seasons. The 1959–1960 group just didn’t have the extreme level of talent the championship teams possessed. However, I do not judge success based on championships; rather, I judge it on how close we came to realizing our potential. Consequently, in looking back at all 27 years I coached the Bruins, I wouldn’t put another season ahead of 1959–1960 for what we achieved in that regard. I have great pride in what we accomplished that season.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“When it’s over, I want your heads up. And there’s only one way your heads can be up—that’s to give it your best out there, everything you have.” This is all I ever asked of them because it was all they could ever give. And I required the same in every single practice I ever conducted, nothing less than their best effort. I gave the same. Many cynics, then and now, dismiss what Dad taught me about success as being naïve or impractical. But I have yet to hear the cynics and skeptics describe what more you can give beyond your best. 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. When you truly accept this philosophy, it changes everything: your preparation and performance and your ability to withstand hard setbacks and defeats as well as the challenges imposed by victory. It redefines how you measure success and makes it achievable in every situation you and those in your organization face, whether good or bad.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“I gradually disciplined myself and later the teams I taught, coached, and led—the Dayton, Kentucky, Greendevils, the South Bend Central Bears, the Indiana State Sycamores, and the UCLA Bruins—to focus on and worry about only those things we controlled, namely, getting as good as we could get, striving to reach the ultimate of our capabilities both mentally and physically. Whether that might, or did, result in outscoring our opponent—“winning the race”—was something I didn’t lose much sleep over. I tried hard to teach those under my supervision to do the same, to understand that success was within their reach, regardless of the score, standings, or opinion of others (especially the opinion of others).”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“You might find it easy to pay lip service to this concept, but it is most difficult to fully embrace it—to truly believe that the quality of your effort is the first measure of success, not the final score, promotion, salary, or all the rest. It is difficult but not impossible.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“How you practice is how you “play.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“Be a realistic optimist and remind yourself that things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

“When you say you’ll do it, do it. Don’t give your word unless you intend to keep it.”
― John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization