Wooden's Wisdom | Leadership Resource Center

Issue 201 - You Are Honored for Giving, Not for Receiving


Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 4	Issue 201
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YOU ARE HONORED FOR GIVING, NOT FOR RECEIVING In Coach Wooden’s book with Steve Jamison, Coach Wooden's Leadership Game Plan for Success, Ray Regan recounted how his high school basketball coach handled a player who was not interested in giving: We had a showboat on our team, a player who was always yelling for the ball, and then once he got it would keep it until he took a shot. Then he’d start yelling for the ball again. One day, during a five-on-five scrimmage, Coach Wooden decided to teach the showboat a lesson about teamwork. Coach took the four of us aside and said to pass the basketball to our teammate the ball hog. Then we were told to run immediately to the middle of the court, all four of us, sit down, and let the showboat play the other team all by himself. It was Coach’s way of showing this guy that everybody helps everybody or nothing gets done. On Coach Wooden’s basketball teams, the student managers who handled the equipment were recognized and respected for their contribution. Coach put it this way: I never wanted the players to feel that the managers were servants. Managers are there helping; they are part of it like the players and coaches. In his book My Personal Best, with Steve Jamison, Coach talked about his approach with the players: There was no "first" team or "second" team. A team begins to deteriorate when the leader allows some of its members to be viewed as second and third-class citizens by others. There were starters and nonstarters, yes, but there were no class divisions associated with this. Whether it’s a basketball team or a business, a good leader should recognize (honor) the contributions (giving) of everybody, not just the top producers. As Benjamin Franklin said: A person wrapped up in themselves makes a very small bundle. Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman www.woodenswisdom.com Twitter: @woodenswisdom	COACH'S Favorite Poetry AND PROSE I Envy Not In Any Moods I envy not in any moods The captive void of noble rage, The linnet born within the cage, That never knew the summer woods: I envy not the beast that takes His license in the field of time, Unfetter'd by the sense of crime, To whom a conscience never wakes; Nor, what may count itself as blest, The heart that never plighted troth But stagnates in the weeds of sloth; Nor any want-begotten rest. I hold it true, whate'er befall; I feel it, when I sorrow most; 'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. Alfred Lord Tennyson
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