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"COMPETITIVE GREATNESS STARTS WITH ACCOUNTABILITY"
John Wooden Video Clip (1 min. 28 sec.): Coach Wooden is asked: "What talents did you look for in a potential player?"
Nicole Lawrence shared this wonderful perspective on how to achieve Competitive Greatness:
"Competitive greatness is the ultimate outcome of our daily habits. By relentlessly pursuing excellence and holding ourselves accountable to the highest quality of work to protect our firm’s reputation as trusted advisors while delivering unmatched value."
I think there is an interesting connection in Nicole's quote between daily habits, accountability and Competitive Greatness.
Coach Wooden defined Competitive Greatness as:
"Be at your best when your best is needed. Enjoyment of a difficult challenge."
There is no mention of winning.
That was intentional. Coach knew we don't completely control outcomes. What we do control is how well we prepare for them.
"Failure to prepare is preparing to fail." — John Wooden
His UCLA practices were a good example.
Coach expected things to be done correctly. Every drill had a purpose. If a player made a mistake, Coach corrected it and they moved on. There wasn't much drama attached to it.
The important part was that this happened every day.
Coach wasn't trying to create Competitive Greatness when UCLA reached the Championship Game. He was developing the habits that might allow his players to perform at their best when they got there.
And that required accountability.
At first, the accountability might come from the coach:
That's not right. Here's how we do it. Try it again.
Eventually, however, it had to come from the player.
A player needed to recognize when his effort wasn't what it should be, when he wasn't prepared, or when he hadn't done something correctly.
In other words, the player had to learn to coach himself.
Jocko Willink, a retired Navy SEAL officer and leadership author, teaches the same idea through what he calls Extreme Ownership.
"Take responsibility. Take ownership. Lead by example." — Jocko Willink
I think that's where Nicole's idea about daily habits becomes especially important.
We sometimes think of accountability as something that happens after something goes wrong. Someone makes a mistake and we "hold them accountable."
Coach Wooden seemed to look at it differently.
Accountability happened before the result.
Did I prepare properly?
Did I give my best effort?
Did I pay attention to the details?
Did I correct something when I knew it wasn't right?
Those are small things. But when they're repeated, they become habits.
"The best way to improve the team is to improve ourselves." — John Wooden
And habits have an interesting quality: we take them with us.
The preparation we do on an ordinary Tuesday is the preparation we have available when an important opportunity arrives.
The attention to detail we practice when nobody is paying attention is the attention to detail we have when everybody is paying attention.
Competitive Greatness, then, doesn't suddenly appear in the big moment.
The big moment simply reveals the habits we've already developed.
That may be the most useful connection in Nicole's statement.
Holding ourselves accountable doesn't mean expecting ourselves to be perfect. Coach Wooden certainly didn't expect his players to never make mistakes.
Jocko Willink describes personal accountability this way:
"Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame." — Jocko Willink
That doesn't mean everything that happens is our fault. It means we begin by looking at ourselves: What could I have done better? What did I miss? What can I correct? What will I do differently next time?
It means noticing what we can do better, correcting it and trying again.
Do that often enough and it becomes a habit.
And perhaps Competitive Greatness is simply what those habits look like when our best is needed.
Reflect on this idea of Competitive Greatness. How are you doing? Write it down. Share it with someone on your team.
Yours in Coaching,
Craig Impelman
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COACH'S FAVORITE POETRY AND PROSE
There is no finer sensation in life than that which comes with victory over one’s self. It feels good to go fronting into a hard wind, winning against its power; but it feels a thousand times better to go forward to a goal of inward achievement, brushing aside all your old internal enemies as you advance.
Vash Young (1889–1965)
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
Self-knowledge is best learned, not by contemplation, but action. Strive to do your duty, and you will soon discover of what stuff you are made.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)
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