The Socks

Picture this… I’m in junior high school, I might be 13 or 14 years old, and I go to an overnight boys’ basketball camp. The John Wooden basketball camp, the legendary John Wooden. On the very first morning of the first day there’s probably 500 kids like me all sitting in this auditorium.

Out comes John Wooden, he brings in a stool and he sits in front of all of us and he says the first thing we’re gonna learn to do is learn how to put on our socks. We’re looking around like “are you kidding me with this?” I can tell you that my M.O. was “yeah right”, I just kind of had this “punk mentality”- I knew it all. Then he kind of pauses, like I am sure he has done many times before, because I think he sensed the skepticism.

He says “I have to tell you all the story about a kid who came to UCLA. He was 18 years old, from San Diego. He was the number one recruit in the country but he had these very sloppy behaviors and quite a few bad habits. He was the number one prospect but he would roll out of his dorm late, he would show up, throw on his practice uniform, and just throw on his socks. On the very first game of his collegiate career he couldn’t play because he had blisters all over his feet. The blisters were a direct result of him not putting his socks properly”.

Then he paused and he said, “Does anyone know who that was?”, and we’re just kind of sitting there staring at him. He said “That was Bill Walton and I had to teach him how to put on his socks and everybody should learn how to put on socks so we don’t get blisters. It’s about rituals and disciplines.”

After his story we were all thinking, “OK, what do we need to do?” We all start putting on our socks. I wasn’t definitely not the best sock putting on’er of all time. But here’s the thing, if you watch me now- my socks are perfect. You know the line? The seam that goes across the tip of the toes? That’s always aligned perfectly in my socks because John Wooden’s lesson has stuck with me even to this day, 30+ years later.

I’m pretty sure that there’s 500 kids from that auditorium and probably thousands of others who put their socks on properly the same way because they heard it from John Wooden. Everybody knows John Wooden is this legendary coach, this legendary leader and why did people follow him?

But I learned after spending time with John Wooden, and his players would all testify to this, he would never just tell people what to do. He would always share why they needed to do that. The way he shared that was through experiences and stories. I still remember that story about Bill Walton and it sticks with me to this day because stories stick.

When we go out in the world, whether it’s with our children, significant others, employees, colleagues, prospects or customers we all want to convey stuff to the world or people follow us and we say things that lead to people taking action. We all want to have that ability.

Take a moment to pause and instead of telling people what to do, think about telling them why they should do it and why there’s no better way than doing that with a simple little story.

Originally published at Storyleaders.