Leadership Lessons from UCLA's John Wooden

Patience, faith, and empathy put the great coach at basketball's apex. Here are Wooden's life lessons for today's business professionals

He is arguably the best basketball coach ever, with a record 10 national titles as coach of UCLA's basketball team and the distinction of being the first person to be voted into basketball's Hall of Fame as both a player—he was a three-time all-American at Purdue University—and coach. But John Wooden, 98, describes himself as a teacher. "I miss the practices," he says, sitting in a wheelchair not far from a folding chair covered with a UCLA cushion, similar to the one he sat on while directing the Bruins through their glory days. "Teaching players during practices was what coaching was all about, to me."

Wooden retired after the 1975 season (during which UCLA won its 10th title), ending his coaching tenure with a 664-162 won-lost record over 29 seasons. Since then he has lectured and written six books about leadership and life. In The John Wooden Pyramid of Success, he outlines the life lessons he taught his players, which he says can be applied to business professionals who today face the worst crises of their careers. Among the tenets of Wooden's pyramid of success: "Ability may get you to the top, but character keeps you there." Another: "Control of your organization begins with control of yourself. Be disciplined."

Last year, UCLA's Anderson School of Management established its John Wooden Global Leadership Award and made Starbucks (SBUX) CEO Howard Schultz its first honoree. The school's second award will be given on May 21 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel to American Express (AXP) CEO Kenneth I. Chenault.

Los Angeles Bureau Chief Ron Grover interviewed Coach Wooden (he's simply called "Coach" by those who know him) at his home in Encino, Calif., whose walls are filled with letters from U.S. Presidents, team photos of his championship squads, and the cover of Sports Illustrated, which in 1973 named him Sports Man of the Year. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow:

Does it take the same kind of leadership to run a business that it took to coach a basketball team?

I think that in any group activity—whether it be business, sports, or family—there has to be leadership or it won't be successful. You have to get people to work together, to acknowledge each other, to take an interest in them and in their world.

My players know that I was interested in them and their families and [wanted to know] if there were any problems. I worry that business leaders are more interested in material gain than they are in having the patience to build up a strong organization, and a strong organization starts with caring for their people.

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