Issue 720 - "2025: Cooperation: Seven Levels of Collaboration (Level Five)"


Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 13	Issue 720
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"2025: COOPERATION: SEVEN LEVELS OF COLLABORATION (LEVEL FIVE)" John Wooden Video Clip (1 min. 39 sec.): Coach Wooden is asked: "What are some of the more gratifying moments you had in your career?" This is the fifth of a seven-part series on The Seven Levels of Collaboration. The first three levels, The Intimidating Non-Collaborator, The Unintentional Non-Collaborator, and The Placating Non-Collaborator—were negative examples. With Level Four: The Sincere Collaborator, we shifted to the positive. This week: Level Five: The Proactive Collaborator. Level Five: The Proactive Collaborator The proactive collaborator is different from the sincere collaborator. The sincere collaborator asks what you think. The proactive collaborator requires you to share your thoughts. Whether you’re introverted, extroverted, or ambivert, your voice is expected. Their conversations often begin with "What do you think?" and continue with follow-up questions before offering their own opinion. Input isn’t optional, it’s part of the culture. Coach Wooden explained it this way: "The assistants were free to disagree… I think a yes-man as an assistant is absolutely no good at all. You need someone who is going to take issue. I wanted them to have ideas of their own and yet, at the same time, know that only one can make the final decision… when you disagree, don’t be disagreeable about it." Coach Wooden’s assistant coaches described Coach this way: "Yes, I was free to disagree; in fact, he encouraged me to speak my mind." – Eddie Powell "He was always looking for help, comments, and any kind of disagreement." – William Putnam "We were free to disagree. He did not want yes-men." – Gary Cunningham This is proactive collaboration—expecting others to contribute and creating an environment where they must. Steve Jobs summed it up perfectly: "It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do." Do you require the people you lead to bring ideas to the table—or are you still doing all the talking? Click here for personal development exercise: Issue 720. Click here for Printable Poetry: Issue 720. Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman www.woodenswisdom.com Follow @woodenswisdom	COACH'S FAVORITE POETRY AND PROSE Success and Failure I do not think all failure's undeserved, And all success is merely someone's luck; Some men are down because they were unnerved, And some are up because they kept their pluck. Some men are down because they chose to shirk; Some men are high because they did their work. I do not think that all the poor are good, That riches are the uniform of shame; The beggar might have conquered if he would, And that he begs, the world is not to blame. Misfortune is not all that comes to mar; Most men, themselves, have shaped the things they are. Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959)
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Issue 720 - "2025: Cooperation: Seven Levels of Collaboration (Level Five)"

Level Five: The Proactive Collaborator