What is your name? John Wooden asked.
"Cori Close," the nervous 22-year-old replied.
"How do you spell that?" Wooden continued.
"C-o-r-i," Close said, puzzled.
"That's how my great-granddaughter says it!" Awesome! Come in! Wooden said with a smile.
It was the start of a dreamlike mentoring relationship between the longtime iconic coach of the University of California Los Angeles men's basketball team and a new assistant on the UCLA women's team. Every Tuesday for a decade, Close would travel to the legend's home to learn about life, basketball and everything else from Wooden, a 10-time national championship winner who many consider the greatest coach of all time.
“Honestly, he meant so much more to me than to me,” she says. “He taught me how to be a better coach and a better leader, but ultimately just a better person.”
Close Wooden's simple, proven teachings for climbing the coaching ladder. An assistant to the Bruins, at her alma mater, University of California, Santa Barbara, then Florida State University, Close returned to Westwood, Calif., as head coach of UCLA in 2011. br />Although Wooden passed away before she saw Close realize her dream of becoming a head coach, she is now fulfilling her legacy through her own mentorship, teaching her winning principles – including the famous pyramid of success – to her players today. today. Predictably, it's working:Close's team moved up to the Sweet Sixteen from the NCAA Tournament last year and are a favorite for a deep tournament run this spring.
"If I could see it now, I would just say, 'Thank you, Coach. ""
"If I could see it now," she said, "I would just say, 'Thank you, Coach. Thank you for your example and your teachings. Thanks for spending time with me. »»
In this interview, Close reminisces about her relationship with Wooden and the mentorship lessons she is implementing today.
Related: John Wooden's Legacy is a Practical Guide to a Successful Life
What is the most important lesson Coach Wooden taught you?
The greatest lesson for me occurred after his died [in 2010], after I didn't have it day to day. Now I realize how deep all his lessons go because I haven't forgotten them yet. I think of him almost every day. Obviously, it accentuated coaching women's basketball at UCLA, but even though I coached elsewhere, after 15 years of regular contact with him, his lessons are forever etched in my memory.
Given your relationship with him - a coach all over the country would have killed - what attributes do you think great mentors should possess?
Coach Wooden was a great mentor because he lived what he taught. He was a brilliant teacher. He knew how to communicate in a way that really touched your heart, and then he really loved you unconditionally. He was so nice, despite myself, sometimes I didn't get the lesson right away.
When you're trying to mentor, teach, or invest in other people's lives, he doesn't It's not about whether it suits you, whether they get it right away, or whether they resist at first. The reality is that this may not concern you at all. When trying to be a transformational leader, always invest in the other person to respond as you want them to. He did it so well. His principles were so solid and consistent that even if the receiver didn't quite treat him right or made mistakes, it didn't matter. That wasn't the goal. It wasn't about him. It was about making a difference in the lives of others.
JUAN LAINEZ / MARIN MEDIA / CAL SPORT MEDIA
Mentoring is a two-way street. How have you, as a mentee, added value to the relationship?
The best way for a mentee to add value is to have a teaching heart and be a person of gratitude. That's what was so amazing with Coach Wooden. He was wildly successful and yet he is extremely humble, eager to learn and eager to grow until his last days.
My own mentoring experience feeds me. It fills my cup when I see a student or mentee soaking it all up, absorbing what I'm trying to put into their life. It energizes the teacher when you see a quest for excellence or a desire to learn, a proactive approach to growing. It is therefore vital to have this unquenchable desire to learn and grow.
Wooden stressed the importance of becoming a well-rounded person above all else, this character should always come before wins and losses. How has this approach affected you?
I think one of the ways Coach Wooden modeled was to emphasize the only things that made real sense in his coaching career. His success as a teacher was measured by who his players became and who they impacted.
That's something I've tried to get our players to think about. Because 50 years from now, what are the only things that will still be there after those four years of college? Banners hang only in buildings, rings gather dust, but who you become and who you touch in those four years will be with you forever. Coach Wooden modeled this. You never heard him brag about what his players were doing in the NBA. But you heard him say, "One of my former players brought his kids over and it was so cool to see him become a dad!" or "I went to one of my old gambling churches" or "You wouldn't believe what this person is doing in business".
The more you feed the root, the more fruit you will have. People do it in reverse order. They define success by points and rebounds, wins and losses, championships or not. But it's in the wrong order. As I invest myself in people and help them develop habits of excellence, a mindset of growth, a mindset of gratitude and being a lifestyle giver, then they will become top basketball players. And then we will become a better team. It's something I've seen Coach Wooden celebrate all the time. And his teams won more national championships than anyone else at the time.
When you pour into heart, personal habits and character, it also pours out onto the field.
En relationship: John Wooden:The Difference Between Winning and Succeeding
When you met Coach Wooden each week, it was early in your career. Since then you have had great success. What did Wooden teach you about staying grounded?
I think a big part of Coach Wooden's ability to stay grounded was his faith. He said, "Drink deep in good books, first and foremost, the Bible." I think he spent a lot of time there and his faith was an anchor. Jesus was the ultimate example of having all power in his mind and having all humility. For Coach Wooden, that's where he found that consistent humility. Because compared to the sacrifice Jesus made, winning a few basketball games doesn't seem that important.
As a leader, I'm tempted. It's so easy to not only try to control your ego, but to wonder what people think of you. You are going to be tempted by recognition, tempted to define your identity in terms of wins and losses or who you are as a leader. It's easy to mislead your identity.
At the end of each day, our players write in a journal – their “what went well” journal. At the top they write, "Basketball is what I do, not who I am. "Because it's so easy to think I had a great game so I feel good or I had a bad game so I feel bad. It's the same in leadership:if they approve of me, I feel good; if I get a lot of criticism, it's hard. There will always be that healthy tension there, but Coach Wooden was so masterful because his identity was wrapped up in the right things.
AP PHOTO / MICHAEL OWEN BAKER
You worked through the Pyramid of success with your team and use it as a guide to build your program. Why do you think this is so important and effective for success?
I think it's simple. It's visual. It is easy to teach through; it is difficult to live. It took Coach Wooden 15 years to develop and modify the pyramid. It's not like he just sat down and wrote the book and sent it over there. It was hours and hours of thoughtful criticism, tweaking, and fine-tuning. People forget that it took UCLA 16 years to win their first championship. It was not a magic bullet. He developed this through tons of experience, thought, trial and error, and self-assessment. It's something that came from a very wise man over a great period of time with very great attention to detail. Why try to find something shiny when I already have something tried and tested?
You've implemented many of Wooden's most notable techniques, including bringing in one of his alumni players, Rafer Johnson, to show your players how to put on their socks and shoes, just like Wooden did at the start of each season. How do you as a mentor hope to keep your legacy alive?
I don't care about my own legacy, to be honest. Coach Wooden didn't care either. That's what made him so powerful. The inheritance he wanted was just to pay out to the people. He wanted his legacy to be that he treated everyone very well. And then hopefully they would treat other people just fine.
He often joked, "Why do people want me to sign my own name on things?" He thought that was the dumbest thing. But he would do it anyway. Anyone who contacted him or wrote him a letter, he would respond graciously, because it was not about what he thought. It wasn't about him. It was about making a difference in others.
Related: Creed in 7 points by John Wooden:"Help others"
So I can pay forward by not doing everything for me. Because it's not about me, it's about each individual life. These are the managers. This is UCLA custodial staff. And with athletes, it's person-student-athlete, in that order. It's not about me. And I hope my legacy is that other people don't care.
COURTESY OF UCLA ATHLETICS
When you face personal challenges, how do you stay consistent, strong and available as a leader?
There is a myth that leaders should act like they have it all together and they need to be strong all the time for everyone. I remember talking to Coach Wooden and telling him about some of his darkest days after his wife died.
When you have days off, you need to be authentic with the people you lead. Admit your own difficulties. This generation needs to know that the leader is human. Coach Wooden, in his toughest days, was so ahead of his time because he wasn't trying to wear heavy armor. He wanted to be cohesive, but he also wanted to be organic and authentic. It is important that leaders feel the freedom to be honest and real.
Conversely, Coach Wooden was able and willing to be so real and authentic because he was also consistent with his principles . Although your feelings may be one-sided, you still make the difficult choice. Your commitments must be greater than your feelings. Because Coach Wooden's commitments always trumped his feelings, it allowed him to be free, real, and consistent.
As a mentor to your players today, what gives you trust that you are doing a good job?
When you build something, as you climb through the levels of the Pyramid of Success, you will never stop investing in the bottom – the foundation. But as you progress, it's really fun when it's not taught by the coaches. When the culture of the program begins to protect and teach it itself, then it becomes taught by peers as much as it is taught by leadership.
One of the most rewarding things about coaching of this particular team at UCLA is that I really started to see it. They are ready to protect the culture; they are prepared to hold each other accountable. They are ready to teach it. And then I become a facilitator as opposed to a teacher.
The top of the pyramid is the greatness of the competition. What does that look like to you?
When you train at UCLA, it's obviously to win more national championships than anyone else. We always start with habits and the by-products are those victories. But that's only one aspect. The definition of competitive greatness truly allows our players to perform at their best when their best is needed. And it's both in the games, to hope to win a national championship, but it's also how to balance their time, how to be an excellent student as well as an excellent athlete. It's about building character habits that will allow them to impact their community and feel like contented individuals who know how to leave their own mark of service on their own areas of passion.
Related: How John Wooden Led His Teams to a Victorious Life
This article originally appeared in the March 2017 issue of SUCCESS magazine.
