Wooden's Wisdom | Leadership Resource Center

Issue 672 - "Good People Are More Important Than Good Ideas" (Daniel Coyle and John Wooden)


Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 13	Issue 672
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"GOOD PEOPLE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN GOOD IDEAS" (DANIEL COYLE AND JOHN WOODEN) John Wooden Video Clip (2 min. 16 sec.): Coach Wooden is asked: "Were your high standards ever challenged by your players?" Great leaders lead for proficiency and creativity. In his book The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle worked with Ed Catmull, the president and co-founder of Pixar, one of the most successful creative cultures of all time. Since 1995, Pixar has made seventeen feature films, which have earned an average of more than half a billion dollars and won thirteen Academy Awards. Catmull made it clear to Coyle the key to successful creative leadership: "There’s a tendency in our business, as in all businesses, to value the idea as opposed to the person or a team of people, but that’s not accurate. Give a good idea to a mediocre team, and they’ll find a way to mess it up. Give a mediocre idea to a good team, and they’ll find a way to make it better. John Wooden was clear about who he wanted on his teams. Team members understood that valid self-analysis means improvement. "The best way to improve the team is to improve ourselves." Team members were open minded. "It is what you learn after you know it all that counts." "Be most interested in finding the best way, not in having your own way." Team members were more interested in the team’s success than personal recognition. "It is amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit." Team members were not afraid to make mistakes. "The people who don’t make mistakes are the people who don’t do anything." Team members did not require the approval of others to value themselves. "The goal is to satisfy not everyone else’s expectations, but your own." Lastly, John Wooden had a direct expectation for his team members: "Never be selfish, jealous, envious, or egotistical." Who’s on your team? Click here for personal development exercise: Issue 672. Click here for Printable Poetry: Issue 672. Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman www.woodenswisdom.com Follow @woodenswisdom	COACH'S FAVORITE POETRY AND PROSE Greatness We can be great by helping one another; We can be loved for very simple deeds; Who has the grateful mention of a brother Has really all the honor that he needs. We can be famous for our works of kindness — Fame is not born alone of strength or skill; It sometimes comes from deafness and from blindness To petty words and faults, and loving still. We can be rich in gentle smiles and sunny: A jeweled soul exceeds a royal crown. The richest men sometimes have little money, And Croesus oft's the poorest man in town. Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959)
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