Wooden's Wisdom | Leadership Resource Center

Issue 98 - Be Quick But Don't Hurry


Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 2	Issue 98
Craig Impelman Speaking \| Championship Coaches \| Champion's Leadership Library Login
BE QUICK BUT DON'T HURRY This Maxim of Coach Wooden's was probably the one he most frequently used at basketball practice. It has great application to all phases of everyday life. Andy Hill, author of the book Be Quick- But Don't Hurry, put it this way when he spoke at the first John R Wooden Course: This phrase applies not just to sports, but to every phase of your life. It applies to our expectations of anything we hope to accomplish and how quickly we can expect to get there. Impatience and unrealistic goals will sabotage a talented group of individuals in any workplace. Set your sights too high and expect immediate attainment of your goals, and invariably, you will never reach your destination. It is vital to focus on things that you can actually control, like your own effort, as opposed to external things over which you have no control. Leaders should strive for quickness in their work. Most people are naturally hesitant and the Wooden approach was to remove all hesitation from the game. If you can remove hesitation from your game you will be well on your way to being a better leader and your organization will run more efficiently. Andy further identified four key pointers to remove hesitation: avoid delays, avoid maybe, move on from mistakes and follow your instincts. Coach commented on the importance of quickness as follows: You have to know what to do but you have to be quick to do it or you might not get to do it at all. I think that's important in most everything. Don’t hurry. You make mistakes when you hurry. Be under control. I want quickness under control. Otherwise, you'll have activity without achievement. I don't care for activity without achievement. Coach believed that quickness in proper execution was necessary. He believed that quickness was a result of preparation and often cautioned that failure to prepare is preparing to fail. If you hurry and make mistakes it is simply activity. As Coach often said don't mistake activity for achievement. Be quick but don't hurry and as you prepare to take action, consider the question Coach Wooden posted on the team bulletin board: If you do not have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over? Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman www.woodenswisdom.com Twitter: @woodenswisdom	COACH'S Favorite Poetry AND PROSE Patience Taught By Nature 'O DREARY life,' we cry, ' O dreary life ! ' And still the generations of the birds Sing through our sighing, and the flocks and herds Serenely live while we are keeping strife With Heaven's true purpose in us, as a knife Against which we may struggle! Ocean girds Unslackened the dry land, savannah-swards Unweary sweep, hills watch unworn, and rife Meek leaves drop year]y from the forest-trees To show, above, the unwasted stars that pass In their old glory: O thou God of old, Grant me some smaller grace than comes to these But so much patience as a blade of grass Grows by, contented through the heat and cold. Elizabeth Barrett Browning
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