John R. Wooden, Stephen R. Covey and Servant Leadership

The aim of this stimulus article is to examine the notion of servant leadership with respect to legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, and to compare his coaching philosophy which is expressed in his Pyramid of Success to the philosophy of management and self-help guru Stephen Covey as indicated in his best-selling book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and related works. Both Wooden's Pyramid of Success and Covey's Seven Habits can be understood in terms of virtue ethics. Wooden has been regarded as a servant leader and Covey has promoted the notion of servant leadership. Drawing on autobiographical and biographical work on Wooden, it is argued that Wooden may be better thought of as a paternalistic leader rather than a servant leader.