In addition to John Wooden’s ability to inspire greatness through casting a vision, his unique leadership style also included building community through effective listening, humility, and fairness. The first step of building a team-focused community is built on the leadership trait of effective listening. John Wooden believed that if you want people to listen to you, you have to truly listen to them. Effective listening is an active listening, not the type of fake listening where one just waits for his or her turn to say something. Instead, this type of listening involves listening to everything, both the good and the bad and thinking deeply about what is being said. John Wooden listened to the advice of those under him, both coaches and…show more content… Humility is an essential trait for any leader, as it shows followers that you are dedicated to the cause and not self-glorification. This has a way of building a strong community between members of a team. Wooden believed it was the leaders job to divert praise to others but it was also the leaders job to accept responsibility for the failures of the group (Wooden: A Lifetime 109). Another essential part of Wooden’s humility was that he realized coaching was not about him, but rather it was about his student athletes and their success. Early on he understood that great players, not great coaches, win games and therefore always deflected the attention of the press away from himself and onto his players. Equally important, John Wooden would humbly accept the blame for the failure of his team. One example would be the toughest loss in UCLA history, which came during Bill Walton’s senior year. In this game UCLA lost to North Carolina State in the NCAA semifinals. There were hundreds of reasons why they lost but at the end of the game, Wooden told reporters that the loss was attributed to his failure to call a timeout and make adjustments at the end of the game (Hill 113). By exhibiting humility, Wooden was able to more effectively lead he players and build a stronger team focused