Pyramid Tribute: Cooperation, Doug Erickson (Director of Basketball Administration - UCLA)
Erickson has been a fixture with the Bruins since 1992. As Director of Basketball Administration, he is responsible for all internal operations and is heavily involved with the day-to-day operations of the team. This includes dealing with budgetary issues, team travel, film and video, meals, ticketing matters, and supervision of team managers.
Most importantly, he had the tremendous fortune of serving as UCLA's liaison to Coach Wooden for many years... and now shares his personal thoughts about his experiences with Coach Wooden and how they relate to the 'Cooperation' block of the Pyramid of Success.
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In
my 18 years at UCLA, I had the honor to spend countless hours with
Coach Wooden. Whether bringing coaches or friends to his
condominium in Encino, dropping of the thousands of pieces of mail
received at the UCLA Basketball offices, or bringing over books,
memorabilia and Pyramids of Success for him to sign, Coach was
always generous, cooperative and giving of his time. Cooperation is
something he taught me each and every time I was with him.
Coach Wooden always listened to the ideas of others and valued others opinions on any topic. He never made you feel like he was the only one with good ideas. I sat through countless discussions with him on topics like basketball, politics, history, poetry and baseball. He always told those that asked him for advice, "I do not give advice, I simply make suggestions." It was always amazing to me how great a listener he was, when everyone always knew he was the wisest one in the room.
Coach Wooden believed that the greatest success was built upon everyone working together for a common goal. He spoke about this concept of Cooperation, not only to his teams, but also when he spoke to big corporations and businesses that asked for his counsel on how to improve their organization's ability to succeed. The best leaders promote an environment of sharing ideas, tasks and credit when things go well, along with leaders accepting the blame when things do not work out.
The teams that played under Coach Wooden were successful due to his unique ability to get tremendous individual talent to cooperate with one another in order to achieve success. Coach took such pride in the fact that so many of his players have gone on to be successful in the business world due to their ability to work with others.
- Doug Erickson
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