The Ten Principles of Leadership I Learned from Coach Wooden

Principle 1: Know the Jobs of Those Under Your Direct Supervision
Swen Nater

Vince Lombardi, the great coach of the Green Bay Packers, once said,

Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.”

A perfect example of that is Abraham Lincoln. He had relatively little military experience before he became president—just a few months in 1832. However, by getting away from The White House and out to the battlefields with his generals, where he learned their jobs, he became one of our greatest Commanders in Chief.

During the Civil War, he routinely walked from the White House, next door to the Army telegraph office to hear the first news from the battlefields. But that only whetted his appetite for knowing what was really going on. As Commander in Chief of the armed services, Lincoln felt the responsibility to lead and he knew he could not do so from The White House. There were problems to be solved and that meant hard work. He needed to go to ground zero where the problems were, learn what his generals were doing, and make the necessary adjustments. 

It wasn’t easy travelling by steamer and railroad to over 15 battlefields, the first of which was The First Battle of Bull Run, July 23, 1861. The Union Army had been defeated and Lincoln wanted to find out why. After meeting with his generals, he made a change. Other daunting trips included Fort Monroe, Antietam, and four trips to southeastern Virginia to meet with General Gant. Not long after going to Gettysburg, he replaced General Meade with Grant, perhaps his most significant decision.

Just as Abraham Lincoln knew little about being a general prior to being president, Coach Wooden knew little about being a post player when he became a coach; he played guard in college. However, when joining UCLA, I was surprised how knowledgeable he was about the position. I learned later, he had studied up. Coach made me a better rebounder. I was already pretty good when I entered UCLA, leading all California Community College players with a 16.4 per game average. However, when Coach taught me his three rebounding principles—Assume every shot is missed, Get your hands up, and Go get the ball—I was able to take it to the next level.

When acquiring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then Lewis Alcindor), he picked the brains of coaches that had success with tall players and also great post players like Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell. But he also learned post play by watching and listening to his players. For example, Bill Walton convinced Coach to add the lob play to the offense.

Abraham Lincoln and Coach Wooden knew the first principle of effective leadership: Understanding what those under their supervision did. The key word here is “understanding.” You are a leader only if people are following and, when a manager demonstrates he or she understands what it’s like to do the jobs of the workers, and learns how those jobs are done, they will follow him or her anywhere. 

Vince Lombardi was right. Leaders are not born; they are made and it takes hard work. Any manager should know the jobs of his or her employees to the point where he or she can teach it. I work for Costco, a Fortune 500 company. Our CEO, Jim Sinegal, said it well,

If a manager doesn’t understand that 90% of the job is teaching, he or she doesn’t get it.