In Superfreakonomics, Levitt and Dubner refer back to the “father” of the 10,000 hour rule, K.
Then I learned more about how to spend the 10,000 hours in “deliberate practice” from Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin. I first learned of the 10,000 hour rule - it takes 10,000 hours to get really good at/to truly master any skill –from reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Take a good luck at Coach John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success. I think it will make you want it be a better leader, and a better person. It reminds us all of the starting point, the basics, the true essence of leadership. But this one should be close to first on any leadership reading list. I have read a lot of books on leadership. Any threat to such unity must be dealt with, and quickly… Team unity, organizational unity… these are critical. Unity: No matter how talented any one player is, when that person undermined team unity, the team suffered.
In a recent presentation of this synopsis to a group of leaders within an organization, I began with Peter Drucker’s three foundational questions:Īnd then, I referred to the process of answering these three questions as the business basics – the business fundamentals. The question “What are the basics?” needs to be revisited time and time again. (And his former players would remember this, and refer to it, for a lifetime). Without learning this true fundamental, players developed too many blisters. A well-organized leader can get more done in two hours than a poorly organized coach gets done in two days.įundamentals: what are the basics? For Coach Wooden, he literally started every season with a meticulous lesson/demonstration on how to put on your socks.
You “expand time” with proper organization and execution – an hour becomes longer than 60 minutes. He believed that a two hour practice, well-planned and run, was more valuable than any longer practice that was not organized well. And lower stamina means a little less energy to do our work, and definitely makes it harder to maintain our focus.Ĭoach Wooden ran tight practices, planned to the minute. And every extra pound lowers our stamina just a bit. In revisiting Wooden on Leadership, I learned again that what matters is basic, simple… His pyramid is legendary, but his approach is pretty fully revealed in that simple formula above.Ĭonditioning: Coach Wooden wanted his player to still have their energy and focus in the last minutes of each game. Bush awarded the medal to Coach Wooden in 2003). When she receives her honor, that will increase the number of basketball coaches on the list to two – Coach Summit and Coach Wooden. She won 8 national championships with the Women’s team at Tennessee, but, sadly, her career was cut short with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Pat Summitt may be the only true peer to Coach Wooden (or, maybe, Coach Wooden may the the only true peer to Coach Summitt). Recently, President Obama announced that the great Women’s Basketball Coach Pat Summitt would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor bestorwed by a president.