Wooden's Wisdom | Leadership Resource Center

Issue 609 - "Replace Fear With Initiative" (Liz Wiseman)


Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 12	Issue 609
Craig Impelman Speaking \| Championship Coaches \| Champion's Leadership Library Login
"REPLACE FEAR WITH INITIATIVE" (LIZ WISEMAN) John Wooden Video Clip (56 sec.): Coach Wooden is asked: "Please tell us about the poem-How to be a Champion." Liz Wiseman is a bestselling author, researcher, and elite leadership coach. In her New York Times bestseller, Multipliers: she researched over 150 leaders worldwide. In her book she identifies a quality that great leaders have in common with John Wooden: They create an environment where team members are eager to take initiative and are not afraid to make mistakes. Coach Wooden said: "The people who don’t make mistakes are the people who don’t do anything." In his book Wooden On Leadership with Steve Jamison, Coach describes how this attitude applies to leadership and business: "A basketball team that won’t risk mistakes will not outscore opponents. The same is true for any organization. Fouls, errors, and mistakes are part of the competitive process in sports, business, and elsewhere. Don’t live in fear of making a mistake." In fact, Coach Wooden learned this very important lesson from his college coach, Piggy Lambert at Purdue, who summed it up like this: "The team that makes the most mistakes usually wins." "The kind of mistakes he was referring to are not the result of carelessness or sloppiness, but the result of assertive action based on proper assessment of risk." Coach sums it up this way: "Mistakes come from doing, but so does success. The individual who is mistake-free is also probably sitting around doing nothing. And that's a very big mistake." Do you create an environment of fear or initiative? Click here for personal development exercise: Issue 609. Click here for Printable Poetry: Issue 609. Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman www.woodenswisdom.com Follow @woodenswisdom	COACH'S FAVORITE POETRY AND PROSE The Cookie Thief A woman was waiting at an airport one night, With several long hours before her flight. She hunted for a book in the airport shop, Bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop. She was engrossed in her book, but happened to see, That the man beside her, as bold as could be, Grabbed a cookie or two from the bag between, Which she tried to ignore, to avoid a scene. She read, munched cookies, and watched the clock, As the gutsy "cookie thief" diminished her stock. She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by, Thinking, "If I wasn't so nice, I'd blacken his eye!" With each cookie she took, he took one too. When only one was left, she wondered what he'd do. With a smile on his face and a nervous laugh, He took the last cookie and broke it in half. He offered her half, as he ate the other. She snatched it from him and thought, "Oh brother, This guy has some nerve, and he's also rude, Why, he didn't even show any gratitude!" She had never known when she has been so galled, And sighed with relief when her flight was called. She gathered her belongings and headed for the gate, Refusing to look back at the "thieving ingrate." She boarded the plane and sank in her seat, Then sought her book, which was almost complete. As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise: There was her bag of cookies in front of her eyes! "If mine are here," she moaned with despair, "Then the others were his and he tried to share!" Too late to apologize, she realized with grief, That she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief! Valerie Cox
For more information visit www.woodenswisdom.com