Leadership

A Few Leadership Thoughts on the “West Point Way”

By Brian Williams on August 12, 2019

Cory Dobbs, Ed.D.
The Academy for Sport Leadership

The following is an excerpt of an interview conducted by Dr. Cory Dobbs, President of The Academy for Sport Leadership. Dr. Dobbs interviewed leadership expert, Dr. Joe Leboeuf, management professor at Duke University.

Joe Leboeuf, Ph.D. teaches at Duke University in the Fuqua School of Business. A graduate of West Point, Dr. Leboeuf teaches courses on leadership development and organizational culture. Dr. LeBoeuf’s expertise focuses on leadership education, leader development and organizational culture. LeBoeuf, a retired Colonel, is a lead educator/consultant on a 9 month study of the leader and character development system at the United States Air Force Academy; assessment of current process with recommendations for change grounded in emerging leadership and character development concepts and theories.

1. What is the essence of the “West Point Way”?
  The heart and soul of the West Point Way is building leaders of courage and character willing to walk the “high moral ridge” in service to the nation. These leaders will place their personal interests, and if necessary their lives, secondary in the service of others, whenever and wherever our National Command Authority dictates. This character and leader development process is the foundation of the 4-year Military Academy experience, and frames and guides the behavior of all members of the leadership, faculty and staff. It is the core guiding principle.

1. Can student-athletes learn to lead?
  Absolutely, students can learn to lead. It is the premise upon which the Service Academies build their programs. It is clear that one can learn the knowledge, skills and behaviors that are associated with effective leadership. The foundation of this learning is the crafting of crucible experiences that move the learners outside of their comfort zone and create the conditions for effective leadership learning and leader development.

What one or two military leader development activities do you feel are most relevant to student-athletics?
The essence and power of leadership in the military is in the collective — the team; the willingness to place the needs of others, and the team ahead of the self. The US military is the best at building effective teams. Intense developmental experiences like US Army Ranger and Sapper School, the Navy SEAL training program, and the Marine Corps Force Recon are the finest team building experiences in the world. Participants learn to put others before self, and learn the power of collective activity to accomplish difficult tasks that simply cannot be done by folks working alone. The military services does this the best. We have applied Army team building activities here at Duke with the men’s and women’s basketball, soccer and lacrosse programs contributing to great success, to include two national championships in the last 2 years.

About Dr. Cory Dobbs and The Academy for Sport Leadership

Dr. Cory Dobbs, founder and president of The Academy for Sport Leadership, is an accomplished teacher, author, speaker, and coach. Dr. Dobbs has long passed the 10,000 hour threshold for expertise in the areas of leadership and team building education. The Academy’s curriculum is in use by 1000’s of schools and colleges across the U.S. Dr. Dobbs has taught at Ohio University, Northern Arizona University, and Grand Canyon University. Dr. Dobbs most recent contribution to the coaching profession is his breakthrough concepts of Teamwork Intelligence. A prominent coach recently declared, “Cory Dobbs is a clear voice in a sea of noise, bringing much needed passion and intelligence to the process of team building.”

“Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will care.” -Your Student-Athlete The world of coaching is changing. In Coaching for Leadership you’ll discover the foundations for designing, building, and sustaining a leadership focused culture for building a high-performance team. To find out more about and order Sport Leadership Books authored by Dr. Dobbs including Coaching for Leadership, click this link: The Academy for Sport Leadership Books

The Death of Loyalty

By Brian Williams on August 12, 2019

Nothing Sabotages Loyalty Like the Blame Game

Cory Dobbs, Ed.D.
The Academy for Sport Leadership

*Note: This article is to be shared with your student-athletes. Hold a brief discussion after your players have read the article.

Loyalty is the heart and soul of any meaningful relationship. A sports team provides the perfect platform for loyalty. Giving of one’s self to others is the foundation of loyalty. Many of our greatest experiences in life can be found in our relationships. At its core, loyalty is about reliability. And in the team setting reliability is a necessary ingredient for success.

Loyalty is found in the physical, intellectual, emotional, and social support we provide others. It is the bond of loyalty players have to teammates that forges a coherent team. It is players willingly committing to each other and going out of their way to ensure someone else’s needs are met.

However, getting along with others doesn’t mean the obligation to endure wrongful actions.

The Blame Game
Nothing destroys a relationship faster than blame. When you shift fault to another you cast yourself as a victim. In the court of victimhood what you want is the other person to be wrong and you to be right. No doubt, you feel you have real justification in your specific situation.

When you wrongfully blame others, you lose the right to loyalty. You’ve sacrificed a relationship to “save face,” to “look good,” or to simply hide a weakness. This is not loyalty. It is betrayal.

Let me state it plainly: Playing the blame game is wrong. Blame fuels conflict. It feeds the fire of dissension. It divides people. It can—and will—destroy your team. The blame game makes a mockery of loyalty. Blame is an act of selfishness.

Funny thing, most people that blame others look for at least one other person to align with them, to be an accomplice in the blame game? When a team member complains about what someone else “did to me” (such as a coach not giving you enough playing time), do others look to eagerly rush in and agree with the victim? Should one “cover” another’s back in the name of false victim-hood? After all, “she’s my friend and that’s what friends do for one another.”

These are not real friends. A real friend would say, “Cut the blame game and quit complaining about what “they” did to you. What did you do? What can you do to fix it?” Now that’s a loyal friend. This kind of honesty is what a loyal friend would do.

You need to be honest and direct, willing to confront teammates that violate team norms. Say what you need to say in a manner that shows your intent to solve the problem. Your objective is not to fight, but rather to make a positive impact toward a positive resolution. Your goal shouldn’t be to prove someone wrong, or to make you look good. Rather, your solution should be to cooperate and work toward a common purpose.

If you find yourself playing the blame game, understand that you are limiting your growth psychologically and relationally. Every time you choose to blame someone for a setback or for something negative that’s happened to you, you miss the opportunity to learn how to overcome adversity.

Confidence in one’s teammates is what makes for a tight-knit team. A team of loyal teammates offers a clear way to win. So when blame rears its ugly head, look instead for the courage to build up the moral muscles necessary for growing your commitment to others. Pledge to remain loyal and do the right thing.

And, a second short article from Dr. Dobbs

The Problem with Listening

In their classic Harvard Business Review article Listening to People, Ralph Nichols and Leonard Stevens get right to the point: “It can be stated, with practically no qualification, that people in general do not know how to listen.” Larry Barker and Kittie Watson in Listen Up declare, “Each of us has the power to decide how and when to listen.” Management expert Margaret Wheatley asserts, “I believe we can change the world if we start listening to one another again.” William Isaacs, MIT professor and senior lecturer in the MIT Leadership Center, reminds us that, “Listening requires we not only hear words, but also embrace, accept, and gradually let go of our own inner clamoring. As we explore it, we discover that listening is an expansive activity.”

Why do so few people listen to hear?
Think about it: The listener controls the conversation. Here’s a helpful exercise: Write down the many ways in which the listener controls a conversation. I think you’ll be surprised!

About the Academy for Sport Leadership
Our goal is to continuously create, modify and shape new programs based on research and practice. Our Coaching for Leadership and Teamwork Intelligence programs prepare top-notch coaches with the mindset and skill set to optimize student-athlete involvement, engagement, and performance.

About Cory Dobbs, Ed.D.

Cory Dobbs is the founder of The Academy for Sport Leadership and a nationally recognized thought leader in the areas of leadership and team building. Cory is an accomplished researcher of human experience. Cory engages in naturalistic inquiry seeking in-depth understanding of social phenomena within their natural setting.

A college basketball coach, Cory’s coaching background includes experience at the NCAA DII, NJCAA, and high school levels of competition. After a decade of research and development Cory unleashed the groundbreaking Teamwork Intelligence program for student-athletics. Teamwork Intelligence illuminates the process of designing an elite team by using the 20 principles and concepts along with the 8 roles of a team player he’s uncovered while performing research.

Cory has worked with professional athletes, collegiate athletic programs, and high schools teaching leadership and team building as a part of the sports experience and education process. As a consultant and trainer Dr. Dobbs has worked with Fortune 500 organizations such as American Express, Honeywell, and Avnet, as well as medium and small businesses. Dr. Dobbs taught leadership and organizational change at Northern Arizona University, Ohio University, and Grand Canyon University.

Are You a Leader of Character?

By Brian Williams on June 10, 2019

Cory Dobbs, Ed.D.
The Academy for Sport Leadership

Time and again, through my own eyes and those of student-athletes, I have seen the impact of poor leadership. Leadership from the ranks of the players and leadership from the coaching staff, when not actions of character, almost always turn out badly. Teams underperform, players drift from the team, coaches ratchet up bad behavior and the result of poor leadership—characterless leadership—destroys opportunities for members of the team to grow, develop, and enjoy their sport.

Today’s most effective coaches do more than win games; they imbue their program with character. Indeed, they lead with character.

Simply put, leaders of character take serious four universal practices: tell the truth, keep your promises, give forgiveness, and treat others as you want to be treated. When coaches and student-athletes commit to these four behaviors, they are viewed as people of character. These traits are respected and admired. Together, they illuminate “leadership character.”

Sports are supposed to infuse participants with character. Indeed, the first requirement to be a coach is to be a person of character. If this sounds like a tough stance on who should coach, it is. Coaches have traditionally been valued for their teaching skills, decision making, and the best always strive to understand and empathize with their players. Great coaches believe that student-athletes have an intrinsic value beyond their contributions on the playing field. But the distance between a great coach and a good coach is quite wide.

No matter what the final record for the season happens to be, if poor leadership, from the coaches or the players, is a part of the process, the experience for each and every participant is sure to be one of disappointment. It’s likely to have included many frustrations for the participants and at times created disillusionment, anguish, and sadness. Characterless leadership is simply that impactful.

Peter Block, author of Stewardship, has defined stewardship as “holding something in trust for another.” In sports, that something the coach holds in trust is the student-athlete’s experience. The coach committed to the growth and development of players recognizes the tremendous responsibility to do everything within his or her power to nurture integrity, hold players accountable to one another, guide them to own their mistakes, and teach the young student-athlete to let go of the past.

Based on all my years coaching, and observing (research from the outside looking in) coaches and student-athletes, I find the coach capable of humility and deep self-awareness to be the one most likely to have leadership character. The capacity to bring out the best in people demands character. The mark of a great coach—teacher—is that he or she lives and models the four universals of telling the truth, keeping one’s promises, letting go of others’ mistakes, and empathizing with others.

And, a second article from Dr. Dobbs:

Pumping Iron: Not-Invented-Here

Today every student-athlete lifts weights. But this hasn’t always been the norm. If you look at the black-and-white photographs of athletes from the 1960’s you’ll see mostly underdeveloped physiques. Weightlifting began on the fringes in the 60s, and mostly in the form of machines for training. At that time, most coaches assumed that weightlifting would harm an athlete’s fine motor skills. So weight training remained on the periphery.

But then, a movie released in 1977 exploded on the scene and overnight created the strength industry. A little-known Austrian bodybuilder, Arnold Schwarzenegger, breathed life into competitive bodybuilding. Hollywood saw an opportunity and acted quickly. Pumping Iron, a docudrama, focused on Schwarzenegger and his dedication to lifting weights to build a Mr. Universe body, triggered a movement that spilled over into almost every sport on the planet.

A fatal flaw of sports has been to shy away from training and operating methods that don’t originate within the field of the sport. This bias is revealed in the aversion to things not-invented-here. Not-Invented-Here is the automatic negative perception of something (such as an idea or belief) that does not originate in one’s field. Have you read Moneyball? Data analytics and those that wanted to explore their value were rejected, until the Oakland A’s on-the-field success proved this new way of building a team. Today, if you look closely, you’ll see that data analytics have found a comfortable place in the world of sports.

Here’s a short list of ideas about Not-Invented-Here. Google each and learn a little more.

-CTE (see Dr. Bennet Omalu and Concussion the movie)
-Free Agency (see Curt Flood)
-Sport Psychology (see Thomas Tutko)

-Great Performers are Made, not Born (See Anders Ericsson)

-A Leader in Every Locker (see Cory Dobbs, Coaching for Leadership)

-Karl Dunker, (see Functional Fixedness)

Let me encourage searching for ways to improve your players, programs, and organizations by any means necessary. Don’t approach improvement and innovation with a fixed-mindset and get caught in the trap of rejecting something because it was Not-Invented-Here.

Cory is the Founder & President of The Academy for Sport Leadership. A former basketball coach, Cory’s coaching background includes experience at the NCAA DII, NJCAA, and high school levels of competition. Cory has worked with collegiate athletic programs and high schools teaching leadership and team building as a part of the sports experience and education process.

Three Reasons Every Coach Needs a Mentor

By Brian Williams on November 29, 2018

Submitted by Dr. Cory Dobbs of The Academy for Sport Leadership. Dr. Dobbs is a regular contributor on coaching for leadership to The Coaching Toolbox.

Three Reasons Every Coach Needs a Mentor

Most coaches enter the profession with a vision on building a career. Simply stated, anyone who is building a career will need help along the way. Experienced coaches, current and former, can serve effectively as mentors. But a mentor needn’t be an ex-coach. Sometimes the ex-coach as mentor can undermine growth and development by spending too much time on “this is how I handled it.” All coaches can benefit from the wisdom and insight of others. The energy and growth from relevant learning interactions can be a career game-changer. Here are three important contributions that mentor relationships can provide:

REFLECTION
Learning from others further down the career road can be intimidating at first. Yet, what feels like a big deal initially, may not be a big deal in the larger scheme of things. It’s important to know what to sweat and what to forget–when it’s okay to let something roll off your back and when you should stop and reflect more deeply. Great mentors have a better view of the broad landscape. Effective mentors excel at asking questions, specifically the types of questions that lead you to reflect on your performance, behavior, and goals as well has how to learn from your mistakes and successes.

PERSPECTIVE.
Mentors can help you make sense of your current situation; the small things as well as developing expertise from your experiences. They don’t tell you what to do. Instead they use questions to teach you how to think constructively on your own. In the process, they help you realign your perspective with the reality of the situation, to provide you the smoothest, most natural path forward in a way that is authentic to who you are.

ENCOURAGEMENT
There is an old saying that “nothing succeeds like success.” This means success bread success, that you have a better chance of being successful if you’re successful. This is only partly true. We may gain confidence from our successes, but it’s our failures that develop our leadership muscle and offer the most powerful insights. When you are expected to learn from your mistakes, it’s important to be able to view that process in a positive light–to see how valuable and rich hard-won lessons can be. Every coach needs positive energy to move forward in their career. An effective mentor will help you build self-confidence step-by-step, through victory and defeat, success and failure, and all the challenges that emerge along your coaching journey.

Dr. Cory Dobbs is an accomplished researcher of human performance–a relentless investigator of team building and leadership behavior. A skilled researcher, Cory actively engages the process of naturalistic inquiry seeking in-depth understanding of social phenomena such as leadership and team building in their natural setting. A “teamologist,” Dr. Dobbs is an author, speaker, teacher, trainer and a consultant.

The Catalyst for Creating Culture

By Brian Williams on August 23, 2018

These three short and impactful articles were submitted by Dr. Cory Dobbs of The Academy for Sport Leadership: Dr. Dobbs is a regular contributor on coaching for leadership to The Coaching Toolbox.

Conversation: The Catalyst for Creating Culture

A good conversation produces good teamwork. Great conversation produces great teamwork. Good conversations build good relationships. Great conversations build great relationships. Great relationships build great teams.

Conversation is perhaps the most taken-for-granted aspect of life. Conversation, the thinking goes, is natural, and as such, we become skilled communicators the more we talk. This is simply a myth. While we continually experience poor conversation and poor relationships, and we know it is directly connected to conversation—the way we talk to each other—we are slow to change our conversational practices.

Conversation is the catalyst for creating your team’s culture. It’s likely a good time to review your personal, staff, and team’s conversational habits and practices.

Do You Know the Affect You Have on Others?

“I was a hothead,” confides Jason Williams, a moderately successful coach. “I used to take my emotions to the extreme—I’d take everything to heart and react adversely. I knew my emotional incompetence affected my relationships with my coaches and players. If they didn’t see things my way, I’d throw a fit. It was my way or no way. I couldn’t see it from their perspective. I simply wasn’t willing to compromise. If I was upset with something or someone, I couldn’t move on.”

A sensitive matter for each of us is the psychodynamics of self-protection and self-promotion. Quick check: How often do you think, feel, and address an adverse or challenging situation with I, me, or my? Do you hide behind your position?

How about intimidating others? Where do you get your feedback on personal and professional growth? Do you encourage or discourage honest feedback?

When we become aware of how we affect others and the experience we create with them, we have a chance at improving our ability to lead and influence those around us.

Another quick check: Think of a time when you lost trust in a leader. How did you feel? How long did it last? Did the leader do anything to regain your trust?

Think of all the relationships in which you have the opportunity to influence the thinking and behavior of others. Take the process and practice of Self-Awareness serious and you’ll increase your influence.

The Role of Reflection in Growth, Change, and Resilience

When an athlete suffers an injury, particularly one that requires a lengthy rehab, they can see it either as a traumatic event or an opportunity to learn and grow. How the athlete “perceives” the event, how they frame it, is how they will experience their circumstance.

Events such as an injury or a tough loss are not a traumatic event until we experience them as traumatic. Three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt advised that some of the most significant growth he’s experienced has come as a result of the process of recovery—treatment, reflection, rehabilitation. In particular, the time to reflect allows the athlete a huge window of opportunity to observe and reflect on the injury to be sure, but every bit as much to reflect on the process of growing as an athlete and as a person.

One of the central elements of resilience is perception, what psychologists call an “internal locus of control. The person with an internal locus of control believes they, not their circumstance, affect their achievements. The resilient student-athlete sees himself or herself as the orchestrator of their own fate.

Researchers do believe that those with an external control—those that blame others or life events for failure—can learn to change the way they perceive events in their life. With hard work and great coaching they can learn to reframe traumatic and adverse events as positive ones and become more resilient.

About Cory Dobbs, Ed.D.

Mattering and Marginality

By Brian Williams on July 27, 2018

A Pre-Season Note to the Student-Athlete

Dr. Cory Dobbs, The Academy for Sport Leadership.

People want to matter. Every member of your team has a yearning to matter. Unfortunately it’s almost guaranteed that a teammate or two, on your team right now, feels like they don’t matter.

Mattering is a motive. When we feel that others depend on us, we know we matter and respond accordingly. When others are interested in us, we feel like we matter and enjoy the benefits of their attention. And when others are concerned with our future, we feel like we matter and appreciate their guidance.

Mattering matters. Mattering is a powerful influence on our actions.

Do you promote mattering or do you keep people on the periphery? Draw a series of three concentric circles, expanding from small to large (you know, like waves moving outward), on a piece of paper. Place your name in the middle circle. In the next circle outward place the names of those on your team that you spend more time with. Then on the outermost circle place the names of those you spend little time with. This outer circle is the margin. These are teammates that might matter less to you. Do the same for playing time: Starters in the inner circle, bench players in the outer circle—on the margins. Often the patterns (of status?) reveal an in-group and an out-group, with those in the out-group excluded from close interpersonal relationships with those in the in-group.

Marginality matters too. It’s just that living life on the margin sucks. When we marginalize others they’re likely to feel like they don’t matter. In fact, they’ll probably tell you they know they don’t matter. Those on the margins usually have ample evidence that informs them that they don’t matter. They come to see the world from a perspective that they have little to contribute. And this is very dangerous.

Like mattering, marginality too is a powerful influence on our actions.

When I speak to college teams I always ask the group of student-athletes if there was someone on their high school team (their senior season in high school) that did not play in games. Or if they did play, it was the “marginal” minutes when the outcome of the game was already determined thereby the playing time didn’t really “matter.” I’ve yet to find a group of collegiate student-athletes that isn’t curious as to why the last player on the bench was glad to be there. It’s common to hear, “Ya, I’m not sure why they stuck around.”

Chances are, college or high school, you’ve got players on your team that are of lesser talent, perhaps “marginal” talent at best to qualify to be on the squad. It’s easy for the star player to see that he or she matters. They know that others depend on them, are interested in helping them, and are concerned with their future. Their contributions to the success of the team are quite visible. They matter. And of course they should.

We get that.

However, why is it others don’t matter? Do you really want to marginalize people?

Sports participation involves many diverse interpersonal relationships. Whether you are a top player or a role player, you come into contact with many people. Developing quality interpersonal relationships with all of your teammates is a valuable team goal. When you relate to others in a positive way, they’ll feel like they matter. And mattering does matters.

So, here’s the big question you need to answer. Ask yourself “what in my world am I willing to notice?

So often, those that are marginalized go unnoticed—that’s why they’re on the margins.
If you want to accomplish something worthwhile this year, make sure no one on your team goes unnoticed. Set the standard. Let others know they matter.

New to the Second Edition of Coaching for Leadership!

We are pleased to announce a new chapter to the second edition of the best-selling Coaching for Leadership. The chapter, The Big Shift: Unlock Your Team’s Potential by Creating Player-Led Teambuilding, connects the previous edition of this book to its origin, as well as to the future of team sports. The new chapter sets forth a practical and applicable agenda for change and improvement. The reader is introduced to seven vital elements of change; seven shifts of traditional mental models that lead to the new core principles necessary for creating a player-led team culture. Click here for more information about Coaching for Leadership

“Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will care.” -Your Student-Athlete The world of coaching is changing. In Coaching for Leadership you’ll discover the foundations for designing, building, and sustaining a leadership focused culture for building a high-performance team. To find out more about and order any of the Sport Leadership Books authored by Dr. Dobbs including Coaching for Leadership, click this link: The Academy for Sport Leadership Books

About Cory Dobbs, Ed.D.