Review By Rolf Crocker

In October 2004 edition of the NewsLine, I reviewed a book called “Beyond Success” by Brian Biro, with a Forward by Coach John Wooden, the iconic UCLA Men’s Basketball coach who led his team to an unprecedented 10 NCAA titles.  That book focused on Wooden’s ‘Pyramid of Success’, which he developed over 20 plus years before even winning his first NCAA title.  Needless to say, when I saw this month’s book on the shelf, I had to get it.  There’s nothing like getting it straight from the source!

Wooden on Leadership by John Wooden and Steve Jamison (©2005 McGraw Hill Books) This book is the real deal from Coach Wooden himself.  It is impossible to overstate the contribution that Coach Wooden has made (and continues to make at age 92), not just to college basketball, but as Hall of Fame and former UCLA player Bill Walton says, to living life.  Wooden on Leadership is broken down into three parts.  Part 1 is a complete breakdown of his “Pyramid of Success” – how he developed it over decades, why each block is where it is, and how each block builds upon the one before to define true teamwork and true leadership.  This alone is worth the purchase price!  Part 2 contain Wooden’s “Lessons in Leadership”, built around statements he made famous, such as “Good Values Attract Good People”, “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece” and “Little Things Make Big Things Happen”.  Part 3 contains actual excerpts from Coach Wooden’s Playbooks from over 45 years of coaching.  At the end of each chapter, you’ll find an article called “On Wooden”, where former players and coaches who worked with Coach Wooden such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Denny Crum, and Fred Slaughter (among others) describe in their on words what it was like to play for Coach Wooden and the life-changing lessons they walked away with.  Even though everyone knows John Wooden as Coach, he has always seen himself first and foremost a Teacher.  Let Coach Wooden add to your arsenal of how to build and keep a winning team.  Your team will thank you for it!  5 Stars!

I have had a unique opportunity over the last several months to travel around the country and teach board members and industry professionals on a variety of subjects.  I have been amazed and heart-warmed at how many of you have come up to me and said, “Hey Rolf – I love the Book Report!  I read it every month and have purchased many of the books you write about.”  My number one goal in doing this is to expose industry professionals to books which contain ideas and concepts that will add value to their personal and professional lives.  James Autry, in his book “The Servant Leader” has a list he calls “5 Ways of Being.”  Number 5 on that list is something he picked up as a child from his grandmother who would say, “Jimmy, make yourself useful - do something!”  This column is my attempt to do just that – to be useful.  Thank you so much for the encouragement and positive feedback.