John Wooden's Leadership Pyramid and the Four Phases of Depth

In this article I wish to connect some principles taught in John Wooden's book with the master strategy in community building called DEPTH. Let me start with defining two very important concepts:

1. John Wooden's definition of Success - "Success is peace of mind that is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming."

2. Driving DEPTH - This is the master strategy in networking/community building. This includes going house to house by rotating a simple pattern with new prospects resulting in 1 of 2 things; a partner or a client. This is the master strategy because it ties into Robert Kiyosaki's 3 keys to wealth of long term vision, delayed gratification and the power of compounding. This is meant to be done first as an individual, then as a team.

Next I will go through the 4 phases of making this all happen. This should give you, the leader, perspective as you build your teams and direction so you can lead the way in maximizing your potential using the pyramid above while spreading your work ethic for others to duplicate. By the way, in most businesses, the tendency is to either quickly hand off responsibility to the new guy and manage or take all the glory yourself as the "star of the show." On The Team, the culture is for a leader to take responsibility for growth at the bottom of his/her teams and give away all the credit to the people up above.

Addition Phase 1 - Get a grip:
-Utilize your team approach techniques.
-Leaders are wanted to take responsibility to make the bottoms grow.
-Don't leave steps to new guy.
-Rotate each of the 5 steps your self with each person.
-Look for the hungry (hungry better than "Sharp").
-Connect and build the relationship with the hungry student.
-Some of this will feel like wasted time - but this is how you build traction.

Addition Phase 2 - Building momentum:
-Progress begins to occur.
-This leads to excitement.
-Numbers begin to grow, i.e. open attendance, cd count, seminar ticket count.
-Feels like a breath of fresh air.

Multiplication Phase 3 - Sustaining momentum:
-Takes discipline not to get cocky
-To sustain, push harder. Open the windows all the way!!
-Excitement leads to results - Side legs begin to happen.
-Consistency, not fanaticism, is required.
-People think they're better than they really are, stop selling themselves short.
-Creates lasting belief, they begin to see themselves as you see them.
-Give away the glory, edify, don't strut, be invisible by giving spotlight to others.
-Numbers begin to multiply - even when you're not there.

Exponential Phase 4 - Explosion:
-Results have prospered in to belief.
-Side legs are exploding.
-Hungry people begin to blossom in to great leaders.
-Side legs sprout side legs, that sprout side legs, which leads you to big leaders.
-Because you sustained consistent leadership at the bottom...every one else within the structure has a chance to rise to their personal greatness because you didn't kill them by robbing them of belief by taking away momentum.
-Start to break strings of Power Players down in depth and in side legs.
-Numbers explode to 50 or more new system counts a week.
-One hour leveraged at the bottom, multiplied times however many in line between you and them becomes exponentially powerful.

I love this quote from Wooden which totally applies to driving depth, "You have little say over how big or how strong or how smart or rich someone else may be. You do have, at least you should have, control of yourself and the effort you give toward bringing out your best in whatever you're doing. This effort must be total, and when it is, I believe you have achieved personal success."

In the words of Chris Brady, "Don't compare yourself to the big leaders and think they must be better than you, because they probably just sustained when you didn't."

**Important Points to Remember:
-Falling off the wagon at any phase leads back to getting a grip (phase 1).
-The perception is that managing is easier. This is NOT true. It's easier to just LEAD YOURSELF.
-Learn the basics...YOU rotate the pattern at the bottom; love on people while you do it; be on fire about a dream and stay consistent at it.
-As soon as you let go, side legs will begin to shrink, attitude wains and ultimately the tap root begins to die back.
-Lead yourself because the speed of the group is always the speed of the leader. No one jumps from a moving train.

Continued in part 2...