Motivate Your Team! Cheer Up A Friend! Inspire Yourself!
Motivate Your Team! Cheer Up A Friend! Inspire Yourself!
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| Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 13 | Issue 730 |
| Craig Impelman Speaking | Championship Coaches | Champion's Leadership Library Login | |
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"DO YOU WANT HIM ON THE TEAM OR NOT?" (ACCOUNTABILITY) Every time one of us went to Coach Wooden to complain about a difficult player, he never began with discipline, strategy, or consequences. Coach always asked the same question:
"Do you want him on the team or not?"
I got that question from Coach whether I was asking him about a disgruntled basketball player, unhappy salesperson or an effective but difficult to deal with manager.
Dozens of coaches who visited him got that same question.
And the moment he asked it, everything changed.
We would walk into his home ready to vent about attitude, inconsistency, stubbornness, or body language. We thought we were coming for a lesson on accountability. What we got instead was a lesson on decision-making.
Coach understood something leaders sometimes overlook:
You cannot decide how to hold someone accountable until you decide whether you want them on the team or not.
If the answer was no, the accountability was simple: remove them.
If the answer was yes, then Coach would help us work backward to create a plan that protected:
This wasn’t soft accountability. It was flexible accountability — accountability that adapts to the person without lowering the team’s standards. Accountability to teach not punish.
Coach modeled this constantly.
On the 1964 championship team starting forward Jack Hirsch called Coach Wooden "John," not "Coach." Coach Wooden let him do it — because it didn’t affect his performance, character or team play. Hirsch was unhappy about the number of shots he was getting compared to Gail Goodrich, so Coach gave him a little something back.
Bill Walton wanted long hair. Coach Wooden didn’t lecture him; he simply said:
"I respect your right to stick up for what you believe in and we’re going to miss you." When Walton got a haircut, it was his choice.
This was the same principal President Eisenhower used with Nikita Khrushchev during the Cold War: Eisenhower never embarrassed Khruschev in front of his country. Never take away a person’s dignity. Always give them a graceful way out.
Accountability without dignity becomes control.
Accountability with dignity becomes leadership.
The greatest basketball coaches ever: John Wooden, Phil Jackson, Red Auerbach — all understood the same truth:
Keeping great talent engaged is harder than just disciplining them.
If you want someone on the team, your accountability must match their value without compromising your standards. If you mistreat the people you want to keep, you won’t keep them.
When we walked into Coach’s home, we wanted an answer.
What we got was responsibility.
Before you decide how to hold someone accountable, you should decide:
Do you want them on the team or not?
Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman
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Show Me I would rather see a Mason, than hear one any day, Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959)
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