Team Leadership Culture

The Sporting News recently honored UCLA Legend, John Wooden as the greatest coach of all time. Coach Wooden ended his acceptance speech with these words: “Love is the most important thing in the world.”

While Coach Wooden did indeed love his players, he is known best for building some of the greatest sports team in history. So, what’s love got to do with it? Love is, in fact, the foundation and essential element for building great teams.

Unfortunately, our English language shortchanges the word love. In Greek, there are at least three words that get translated into our word love. Two of these Greek words signify the emotional feelings and affection we might feel for a lover or a brother. However, the third word is an action verb. It’s not about what we feel, it’s about what we do. This is the type of love that coach Wooden was talking about.

Wayne Hastings and I identify seven main elements of this action-oriented love in our new book, Team Trust. They include:

• Patience


• Kindness


• Lack of envy


• Humility


• Is not rude


• Does not anger easily


• Keeps no records of wrong

• How can we develop patience when we’re always right?


• Kindness, when mixed with pride, comes across as demeaning or patronizing.


• Pride is the root of envy and rudeness.


• Proud people feel anger when things don’t go their way.


• Proud people tend to nurse grudges and keep a record of perceived wrongs.