Leadership

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

In 1953 New Zealand mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary and his Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest—the first to do so.  Conquering Everest was and is one of man’s greatest challenges.  The grinding mental, emotional, and physical aspects of the climb along with intellectual problem-solving are the heart of the challenge.

In 1996, Rob Hall and Scott Fischer led a commercial expedition team attempting to climb Everest.  Hall and Fischer were considered expert climbers, both having scaled the summit of Everest.  The two highly talented climbers were hired by a motley crew of inexperienced hikers who made the trek to Nepal to attempt the climb under the guidance of the esteemed Hall and Fischer.

Jon Krakauer, a journalist, was a member of the climbers joining Hall’s team.  As it turned out, Krakauer ended up chronicling a tragic expedition in which five people lost their lives, including Hall and Fischer.

The two leaders, very experienced and somewhat arrogant, “rightfully” behaved authoritatively.  Both Hall and Fischer issued and demanded adherence to their rules for a safe and successful climb.  Krakauer recorded a self-confident Hall reminding his team “I will tolerate no dissension up there.  My word will be absolute law, beyond appeal.”

One team member recalled, “Rob had lectured us repeatedly about the importance of having a predetermined turnaround time on summit day…and abiding by it no matter how close we were to the top.”

Knowing the descent from the summit to be perilous, the leaders invoked a two o’clock rule.  The Sherpa’s, guides and clients all understood that if a climber had not reached the top by two o’clock in the afternoon of “summit day” they were to obey the order and turn around and abandon their bid for the summit. Yet Hall and Fischer would go on to ignore the safe-guard and not retreat down the slopes upon the clock hitting two.

Fischer kept climbing, though exhausted and suffering tremendously, touching the top at 3:45.  He continued to climb, every step perilous to his declining health, though he would never let any of his team to do so under similar conditions.

Krakauer’s book of the expedition, Into Thin Air, exposes the autocratic nature of Hall’s leadership.  Hall had a pecking order and no one was to question his decisions.  As Krakauer recorded, “Passivity on the part of the clients had thus been encouraged throughout the expedition.”  And the Sherpas and guides too were afraid of Hall’s rebuke, unsure of the consequences of displeasing him.

The Idiosyncratic knowledge and unique skills of Hall and Fisher were not enough to overcome the blizzard they encountered on their way back to Camp IV. Having scaled Everest they were in grave trouble.

The vulnerabilities inherent in self-reflection lead us to develop mechanisms to bypass or minimize the embarrassment or threat that we might experience when we scrutinize our thoughts, feelings, and actions.  My sense is that both Hall and Fischer never really had to answer to anybody but themselves, believing self-reflection to be something for the other guy.  After all, why do you need to question your assumptions and behaviors if you’re successful? And the more successful, the less likely you are to self-reflect.  Bragging of their conquests and boasting about their track records led them to believe they were above their own rules—those were for the novice.

I’ve seen it time and time again, coaches that dismiss the practice of self-reflection tend to create cultures that turn out to have unintended and unpredicted side effects that degrade the environment.  These coaches fail to recognize or respond to value conflicts, often violating their own standards.  It is striking that many coaches choose to overlook the practice of self-reflection.

Thankfully what you do is not a matter of life and death.  However, deep inside your coaching bubble you might just find walking your talk difficult at times.  Contrary to the popular thought that all coaches are grounded in reality, it ain’t always so.  Like Hall and Fischer we all have times we simply ignore our rules.

Here’s where the rubber meets the road: the following seven questions require you to turn off the noise for fifteen minutes daily and sink your mind into your walk and your talk for the day.  If you are serious about self improvement, just like you ask your student-athletes to be serious about improvement, then adopt this process as a daily routine.  Learning to lead ourselves, just like leading others, is a truly a life-time project—our own Mt. Everest.  My guess is that after a solid month of performing this after action reflection you’ll seamlessly work your way into doing reflection-in-action.  Remember, reflection is all about growth and development—yours and your players.

Daily Self-Reflection Questions

What did I say I would do today that I didn’t do?

What did I do today that will affect team cohesion?  (positive and / or negative)

How did I relate to the players today?

What did I do today that is not something I’m proud of doing?

How did I lead the players today?  Coaches?

How did I follow the players today?  Coaches?

Based on what I learned today, what will I do tomorrow?

“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

About the Author

Dr. Cory Dobbs is a national expert on sport leadership and teambuilding and the founder of The Academy for Sport Leadership.  A teacher, speaker, consultant, and writer, Dr. Dobbs has worked with professional, collegiate, and high school athletes and coaches teaching leadership as a part of the sports experience.  He facilitates workshops, seminars, and consults with a wide-range of professional organizations and teams.  Dr. Dobbs previously taught in the graduate colleges of business and education at Northern Arizona University, Sport Management and Leadership at Ohio University, and the Jerry Colangelo College of Sports Business at Grand Canyon University.

by Bob Starkey.  This article was originally posted on his blog.  You can see the original post and all of his other great coaching resources that he has posted at: The Advantages of a Leadership Council

If you ever heard Coach Don Meyer speak, he would at some point ask you,“who’s running your locker room?”  It is in incredibly important question.  While coaches have an opportunity to lead their team during practice sessions, team meetings and games, it is all the time away from the coaches where leadership is most valuable.  I learned this at LSU while coaching Temeka Johnson who did an amazing job of leading our team the 21 hours out of the day when we weren’t around them.

The locker room, or anyplace away from the court and the coaches, can be a place to strengthen and secure your culture, or it can be a toxic area that create cancers within your team. They key is being able to find the right team members, educating them on leadership, and then giving them a venue to which they positively effect their teammates.

We are not talking about “captains” necessarily.  As Coach Meyer would also point out, “you can pick captains, but you can’t pick leaders.”

Coach Mike Krzyzewski says, “The single most important ingredient after you get the talent is internal leadership. It’s not the coaches’ as much as one single person or people on the team who set higher standards than that team would normally set itself.”

The key is getting the players to buy in to the culture and philosophy that you as a staff feel is essential for growth and success.  To do that, you need to create at atmosphere of ownership for the players.  As Tom Izzo says: “A player-coached team is always better than a coach-coached team.”

One of my staff responsibilities at Texas A&M is to head up our “Leadership Council.”  It is a group of our student-athletes that meet weekly to discuss the elements of leadership and how we can best apply them to improving our team.  Often we spend time working on basketball skills as coaches — shooting, passing, dribbling and rebounding — but not leadership.  I often hear coaches talk about how they lack leadership on their team and I always respond, “are you teaching it?”

I got the idea of having a Leadership Council watching and studying how Nick Saban, then the head football coach at LSU, created one and utilized in his program.  I’m a big believer that leadership is a best executed with a group of core leaders as opposed to a single person.

This biggest part of our Leadership Council is not me preaching but me listening a lot.  We have six members this year on our council and my number one goal is to create ownership of our culture with our team.  It’s their vehicle…they have the keys…now where and how are we going to drive it.  Their voice, thoughts and ideas are critical to developing successful leaders — not just for our basketball team but for later in life.

Our objectives with the council include:

#1 To develop and improve upon our leadership as individuals.

#2 To create a leadership culture that will positively impact our team.

“Leadership isn’t a difference maker, it’s THE difference maker.” -Urban Meyer

Last year’s council included Taylor Cooper, Alyssa Michalke, Curtyce Knox, Jasmine Lumpkin, Anriel Howard and Danni Williams.

And our council last year was been outstanding.  The previous year we had lost three starters — all who spent some time in the WNBA.  We lost the SEC 6th Person Player of the Year and our top post player off the bench.  Coaches and sportswriters alike pegged us to finish in the lower half of the SEC.  Terms like “rebuilding” were used often.  Yet there we were finishing in the top half of the SEC, winning two games in the SEC tournament, owner of 21 regular season victories and a dance ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

And a big reason had to be the job our council has done in communicating with our team and providing a great example.  The season can be a grind and the response of a team to the difficulty and adversity that is face is essential.  We talk about making sure that our leadership council wins the locker room.  The leadership is magnified significantly AWAY from practices and games.

We meet weekly in our conference room with the letters “Leadership Council” above us.  In the past, we have had individual photos of each member of the council.  This year, we exchanged that for a team photo with the quote “Life’s most urgent question is what are you doing for others,” by Dr. Martin Luther King.

Learning to lead is not an easy thing to do.  It takes time and understanding of what goes into it.  The reason most reject opportunities to lead is because of the great responsibility that comes with it.

We tell them to follow the words of Jim Rohn: “Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better.  Don’t wish for less problems, wish for more skills.  Don’t wish for less challenge, wish for more wisdom.”

The first thing we do each year is create a Mission Statement.  This year our council came up with the following:

By serving selflessly as leaders, setting an example worth following, and establishing a positive culture, we will develop strong, confident leaders capable of overcoming adversity and challenges in pursuit of their goals.

One of the things we do each we is discuss passages from “The Daily Reader” by John Maxwell.  I am always blown away with each our student-athletes and what they bring away from the daily reading that they choose to share.

Last year we asked our council to then go into detail about how we can put our mission statement to work and, lead by Alyssa, they came up with the following:

Serving Selflessly as Leaders

◄Listen and understand the needs of our teammates

◄Provide mentorship and guidance to underclassmen and new-comers

◄Praise our teammates in public, while saving criticism for private conversations

◄Always put others first, no matter the situation

◄Setting an Example Worth Following

◄Have a positive attitude at all times

◄Body language, tone, execution during practice, etc.

Take coaching and criticism well

◄Use it as an opportunity to grow and develop into a better person and player, not a chance to talk back to a coach or teammate

◄Exhibit a strong desire to improve with every rep, every drill, every practice

◄Encourage and support our teammates who are facing adversity

◄Behave appropriately, respectfully, and maturely at all times, including road trips, study hall, team dinners, etc.

◄Be respectful and appreciative to those people serving us (managers, practice players, coaches, waiters, staff, etc.)

◄Be a quiet professional, but know when to speak up to make a point

Establishing a Positive Culture

◄Hold each other accountable to high standards, knowing that our example and our choices carry considerable weight

◄Call each other out when we’re not practicing well, when we miss a team function (weights, study hall)

◄Challenge and push each other to become better individuals first, better athletes second

◄Be firm, fair, and consistent, both when praising and holding our teammates accountable

◄Don’t encourage, tolerate, enable, or cause behavior that is detrimental to our team

Developing Strong, Confident Leaders

◄Challenge others to step outside their comfort zone in pursuit of personal development and improvement

◄Set an example of strength, confidence, and maturity when faced with challenges

◄Provide opportunities for others to showcase their strengths and abilities

◄Of course, as in the game of basketball itself, game plans are important but they are insignificant if not followed by execution.

What an amazing document!  I’m proud of them for their vision but more importantly for their effort they’ve put forth in executing that vision and then following through with their execution.

Thank you Leadership Council for a job well done — and more importantly, leaving a legacy for this year’s group.

In the words of Mahatma Gandhi: “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

This article was written and submitted by J.P. Nerbun of Thrive On Challenge Sports

Forget about setting uncontrollable mid-level goals this season. Instead make the necessary commitments to build a transformational culture that values people.

Commitment 1: Be authentic and vulnerable with your team.

Start the process to become a transformational coach AND open up with your team about the journey you are setting out on.  Buy “Transformational Leadership” by Joshua Medcalf and Jamie Gilbert or “Inside Out Coaching” by Joe Ehrmann. Don’t just read one of these books, but fully engage with the activities they outline to help you become a transformational coach. And then be authentic and vulnerable by sharing with your team (coaches and players) that you are setting out on a process to become not just a better coach, but a better person. Explain how transformational coaches use their platform to help mentor and serve the people in their care. By sharing your journey with them throughout the season they will gain a greater respect for you and be more more apt to forgive you when you do fall short and make mistakes as a leader. Model the transformation and openness you want to see in others!

Commitment 2: Read and journal together as a team.

Purchase a book and a journal for every member of your team, then commit 20-30 minutes at the end of every practice and game to read and write as a team. Jon Gordon says, “A team that reads together grows together.” Spend 5-10 minutes reading aloud and then have THEM discuss what they learned from the reading. If you need recommendations for books suitable for this exercise please contact me. After the team reads, everyone gets out their journals and does a success log or a what went well diary. Everyone writes down 5 things that they did well in their practice, 1 area of improvement, and 1 thing they learned. “10 Minute Toughness” by Jason Selk outlines the many benefits of this activity. We need to train our minds to see the good not just the bad, and THEN focus on learning and growth.

Commitment 3: Stop using conditioning as punishment.

Stop using running or other physical conditioning as punishment. Instead start to use it to develop mental toughness and create positive associations with conditioning. Mistakes should be embraced as part of the learning process, not reprimanded or punished. Conditioning our players hard and then getting them to execute when tired helps build mental toughness. One activity you can employ to change the negative connotations with conditioning is what I call a GUT CHECK. Put everyone on the line and have them run a sprint. Whoever comes in last stands on the sideline to cheer everyone else on. Continue until only one man is left standing. The team cheers and praises the people who run the most and give their best. You will even start to see other players continue to keep doing the sprint because they start to value  conditioning!

Commitment 4: Use boundaries and consequences to develop self-discipline.

The best discipline is self-discipline. People will not develop self-discipline if they never experience consequences for their actions. So stop yelling and using conditioning to discipline, it only motivates through fear. Henry Cloud’s book “Boundaries” discusses the importance of this principle to building healthy relationships. Motivate through love, not fear. Set a really high standard for their attitude, work ethic, and respect for others. When they fail to be striving towards or living up to that standard, encourage them. If they continue, let them know they have lost their opportunity to get better and send them home for the day. Instead of reinforcing a culture of entitlement, most of them will come to actually appreciate the boundaries and develop greater self-discipline.

Commitment 5: Give your players a voice at every opportunity.

Talk less, listen more. Use questions! Stop with the pre-game and halftime lectures going on about what they need to do! For example, instead of huddling together with your coaching staff at halftime and “making adjustments”, go ask your players what is going well and what adjustments they think need to be made. You can still help steer the focus of these conversations, and they will be much more engaged and committed if they are allowed to speak up.

Commitment 6: Stop chasing talent and start investing in grit.

Stop determining your lineup, playing time, or even cuts based on the talent level of a player. Start rewarding and valuing players with the traits you claim to believe to be the most important. Angela Duckworth’s book “Grit” discusses the naturalness bias. Research shows leaders believe they value strong workers over the naturally talented, but when it came to actually selecting people, they favored the “naturals”. What do you believe is most important for your team to reach your potential? Attitude, work ethic, respect, body language, selflessness? Start to favor with actions, not just words, the people who display a commitment to the process and the character traits you claim to value.

You can check out his Podcast “Coaching Culture” on iTunes.

Visit the coaching forum at or subscribe to his email list for more resources at thriveonchallenge.com

Jane Albright

Former WBB Coach University of Nevada

By Dr. Cory Dobbs

The coach-athlete relationship can be an intense interconnection that ignites change in both parties.  In the case of Jane Albright and her players this certainly holds true.  Albright doesn’t necessarily set out to change her student-athletes, but it happens because of the ways in which she goes about building relationships.

Relational leadership begins with a fundamental belief that people are more important than processes, strategies, and tactics.   The best leaders truly care about people.   And while it might be a cliché, it’s true that when people know they’re cared for, they willingly bring the best of their talents and gifts to a relationship.  More than most of us realize, care and concern for others can make all the difference.

Jane Albright is deeply committed to providing her players opportunities for personal growth and development.   She walks alongside them, helping them attain their goals no matter what challenges emerge.

Coach Albright deploys a simple model that serves to shape her coaching practice and  the growth and development of her players.  This simple model holds her accountable for coaching the whole person; it’s kind of a balancing mechanism to ensure she doesn’t overdevelop the athlete at the expense of the student or the person.

 “To me, coaching is about more than knowing the game, the X’’s and O’s.  It’s about how you use the game to teach life lessons to a young person.  We want to put our players in a position where we develop them as athletes, as students, and as people.”

“We want to try to develop each of our players in all three areas.  They’re going to be a student for four years, an athlete for four, but they could get injured tomorrow and they’re no longer a player.  We honor the fact that they’re going to be a person far longer than the other two.  Oh, we want to win, but this model keeps us grounded in winning in every phase—student, athlete, and person.”

This framework helps Albright articulate a set of values for the team.  It provides a template for talking through life events and encourages her coaching staff and players to apply the values in their choices and actions.  And finally, this straightforward model serves as a guide for Albright in critical reflection of the values to make sure they are appropriate for the team and the individual.

SETTING THE TONE

Building a high performance team is only possible with committed partnerships—an extraordinary relationship in which leaders and followers commit to the success of each other.   When this happens both leader and followers understand that the team’s performance requires deep commitment to shared purpose and goals, yet, done so while honoring the uniqueness of each individual player.

“Many years ago I asked John Wooden ‘how will I know if I’m good at this.’  He smiled and said ‘Jane you won’t know for about twenty years.’”

Leaders make a real difference in this world when they are willing to build vibrant and positive relationships. An imperative of team leadership is that the leader has to set the tone for the quality of relationships.  If she doesn’t care about the quality or well-being of relationships, everybody catches on quickly.  But if she cares deeply, everybody is quick to recognize that too.

“I haven’t had to suspend a lot of players, but in the early years of my coaching I had to suspend a young lady.  I sat with her to talk through why we had to suspend her.  She thought she was getting suspended for getting caught. That if she hadn’t been caught there wouldn’t have been any consequences.  That was a huge lesson for me, walking her through why it was wrong.” 

“What she was taught growing up shaped her thoughts on right and wrong.  I learned that how I define ethical behavior is not how someone else might; that not everyone was brought up under the same ethics.

Leading by and with purposeful values is a practical and philosophical imperative because it builds the type of trust that builds loyalty that builds enduring relationships.  A leader must be able to anticipate, recognize and empathize with the varied wants and needs of her team members.  This only happens when trust is the foundation of relationships.  It takes great courage to invest one’s self in understanding others.  But when you do trust emerges.

Teams succeed and sustain success when trust flourishes.  In his book, Trust, political scientist, Francis Fukymaya says that trust functions as a form of social glue binding people and organizations together.  But that trust does not stem from authority, rather from one’s words and actions.

“I use the game to teach life lessons.  Knowing the game is of great importance, but I use it to teach life lessons. But to successfully teach life lessons my players have to trust me.  I have to live my life by values.  They have to see that or my lessons won’t mean anything.” 

John Wooden was the ultimate example of leading by one’s words and actions.  Coach Wooden modeled this in every relationship.

“Years ago I asked Coach Wooden ‘How did you win all those games?’  He chuckled and said ’Jane, I had better players.’  I’m sure that’s not why, it’s certainly not the only reason.” 

“You do have to have people who can produce, and you do have to provide ways for them to produce.   I do believe you have to have a baseline of talent, but also character and attitude are factors in a team’s success.  I think that’s why Coach Wooden chuckled.”

CONNECTING TO PURPOSE

To build a great team you need to invite people who are very different from you—skills, abilities, perspectives—to contribute and help grow the team members and develop the team.  And in Coach Albright’s world she willingly extends trust to those in support positions, allowing different voices and perspectives to serve her team.

“To keep players aligned with our mission, vision, and values you have to use a lot of people to do that.  We have a support system made up of other’s within the university.   I think it takes a whole village to raise one of these athletes.  It can’t be just me.”

You have to willingly look in the mirror and rigorously examine your motives for asking others to follow.  Often, the mirror is another person.  Through relational dialogue we open ourselves to understanding others, and being understood by others.

“I help my players understand that I don’t get to write ‘your’ story for you, you do.  You may not value things that I do, and likewise I may not value things you do.  As individuals writing their own story they don’t have to agree with each other on personal things, but they have to agree to respect one another. 

“For example, my faith may be important to me, but not to you.  However, you have to respect my faith and I have to respect that you don’t have a belief system like mine.  I let them know that I’m not going to change them as individuals.  But we have to have team values and team standards that we all agree to.”

In today’s workplace teams are a fundamental way of organizing people to get things done.  Sports teams, like businesses and other types of organizations, orient their activities to pursue or achieve a stated purpose.  The primary difference is that businesses direct their activities toward earning money, while a sports team directs its activities toward winning contests.

Albright finds purpose in serving her players, helping them mature and grow as a person.

“For me the purpose of leadership is to create a culture where individuals can thrive and reach their potential.  Sometimes you put them in situations where they’re scared and help them through that…help them go to places [physically, emotionally, and mentally] that they’ve never been and do things they’ve never done.”

A traditional way of thinking about coaching is to emphasize the importance of achieving results.  Results matter.  But how you achieve those results is the focus of Albright’s coaching.

“We’re not a sorority, we are an athletic team and our goal is to win games and compete at the highest level.  That’s what we train for.  However, success—winning and whatever else we consider success—is the by-product of doing the right things and doing so with character.”

When you have a purpose, and that purpose is clear, then everyone is more likely to connect emotionally and socially.  Purpose provides an emotional and motivational connection that is often overlooked, yet it has enormous influence on the team experience. The bottom line is motivation

In today’s workplace teams are a fundamental way of organizing people to get things done.  Sports teams, like businesses and other types of organizations, orient their activities to pursue or achieve a stated purpose.  The primary difference is that businesses direct their activities toward earning money, while a sports team directs its activities toward winning contests.

Albright finds purpose in serving her players, helping them mature and grow as a person.

“For me the purpose of leadership is to create a culture where individuals can thrive and reach their potential.  Sometimes you put them in situations where they’re scared and help them through that…help them go to places [physically, emotionally, and mentally] that they’ve never been and do things they’ve never done.”

A traditional way of thinking about coaching is to emphasize the importance of achieving results.  Results matter.  But how you achieve those results is the focus of Albright’s coaching.

“We’re not a sorority, we are an athletic team and our goal is to win games and compete at the highest level.  That’s what we train for.  However, success—winning and whatever else we consider success—is the by-product of doing the right things and doing so with character.”

When you have a purpose, and that purpose is clear, then everyone is more likely to connect emotionally and socially.  Purpose provides an emotional and motivational connection that is often overlooked, yet it has enormous influence on the team experience. The bottom line is motivation comes from working with people we care about and doing things we’re passionate about.

 “These are the values that we use in everything we do as a team.  We call it All the Right STUPH.”

S-servanthood
T-thankfulness
U-unity
P-passion
H-humility

STEWARDSHIP

Legendary football coach Bill Walsh, attributed a good deal of his success to what he called the “Standards of Performance.”   Walsh said, “It was a way of doing things, a leadership philosophy that has as much to do with core values, principles, and ideals as with blocking, tackling, and passing.”  Walsh considered these “organizational ethics” to be crucial to a team’s ongoing success.

Like Walsh, Albright too asserts a sense of organizational ethics.  She does it by establishing what she calls the “Negotiables and the Non Negotiables.”

“For our team setting we have what we call “negotiable” and “non-negotiables” that are a part of our standards and expectations.  We have them in basketball and in how we run our team.  So for basketball a negotiable might be how many days this week are we going to practice, and how long to practice.  So we can talk about such things—they’re negotiable.” 

“ Non-negotiables would be like we’re going to sprint back on defense, not sometimes but at all times.  Those are the kinds of things that we’ve determined are non-negotiable.  Graduation is a non-negotiable.  It’s a standard and an expectation that we’ve all agreed to.  We’ve agreed that honesty is a non-negotiable.  If they’ve agreed to the things we consider non-negotiable then I can hold them accountable.  I’ll say ‘did that align with what we’re trying to do as a team?’  They’ve already bought in because as a team they’ve agree that that is our standard.”

Leaders are stewards.  Great leaders are great stewards.  Stewardship is based on a simple but profound idea: that people are responsible for the world and should take care of it.

Coach Albright is a steward.  She has a robust conviction for helping take others to the limits of their potential.  In order to perform stewardship you have to help others see the value of taking care of their world.  As the leader you have to help others understand what the team is trying to accomplish, why we’re here, and where we’re going.  That’s not always as easy as it sounds.

“We tell them the person is first, the student is second and the athlete is third.  They stand on all three, but we prioritize treating them as a person.  We work to develop them to their potential in all three areas.  So, again, if graduating is non-negotiable and as a student you’re failing I might say ‘don’t come to practice’ or not take them on a road trip letting them know they need to take care of the class.  And they can’t say anything about it.” 

“Years ago while I was coaching at Wisconsin I had a young lady ask me if she could pledge her sorority on the same day of a game.  It was really important to her that she go through the sorority rush.  We were traveling to play Iowa that night and she asked if we’d fly her the next day to Columbus for our game with Ohio State.   I wanted to say ‘Are you kidding me?  What world do you live in?’  But I couldn’t say it.  I had to honor my commitment to her as a person first.  I said ‘Absolutely’ and we flew her to Ohio to meet up with the team.”

EARNING TRUST

Every generation has its share of social, political, religious, and business wrong doings—events of ethical lapses that lead to a national wake-up-call.  That said, the pervasiveness of reckless unethical behavior in recent years has been astounding.

Study after study reveals the sad fact that increasingly people distrust organizations, the government, leaders, and people in general.  The world today is one in which distrust dominates and dishonorable dealings and public scandals are the norm.

On a daily basis we seeing lives affected by poor judgment and indiscretions of those we trust to lead.  People have grown cynical and weary of organizations and the leaders running them.  Former Harvard Business School professor and author Shoshana Zuboff says, “The chasm between individuals and organizations is marked by frustration, mistrust, disappointment, and even rage.”

No doubt about it, leaders today are on the hot seat.  More and more we are looking for leaders to provide moral and ethical courage—to stand for positive values, fulfill commitments, and demonstrate moral leadership.  We want, and desperately need, leaders that can create an ethical climate by prioritizing transparency and accountability.   People will flock to leaders that are authentic and ethical, that live up to their values and lead with a bent on serving others.

Coach Jane Albright is such a leader.  She is comfortable setting the example she would like to see her players live by.

“Great leadership starts by being who you say you are.   As a team we talk about values and character all the time.”  “We take stories from the national news and discuss such things as unethical behavior as a team.  I want the players to think about how to learn from others mistakes.  Not to judge them, but to learn lessons and then apply them.”

It is virtually impossible to earn trust if you aren’t honest.  In fact, research consistently shows that followers expect honesty from their leaders.   Leadership writers James Kouzes and Barry Posner write, “If people are going into battle or into the boardroom, they first want to assure themselves that the person is worthy of their trust.”  So, if you show people through your words and actions that you have their best interests at heart, they just might trust you.

“What matters is the person behind the action.  My role as a leader is to be an example to my players.  A person of character.  They need to see character in my action and hear character in my words.  They need to see it, hear it, and then do it.”

The truth is that what goes on at the top trickles down through the organization.  Earning trust, and this is no little thing, requires being truthful—in all aspects of your actions and communications.  The leader must set the moral tone.

 “I strive to tell the truth to my players.  I try to do it in a way that they will accept it.  I do have to be truthful and that means saying things they might not want to hear, but doing it in a way that they will accept it.   It may be a lot easier to sugar coat things because none of us like conflict, but they expect me to be truthful.

“They expect trust from me.  They expect consistency in how I behave as a leader.  They expect communication, and love from me.  Sometimes that’s a tough love.”

“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

This article was written by Cory Dobbs, Ed.D., President of The Academy for Sport Leadership.  The Academy for Sport Leadership is a leading educational leadership training firm that uses sound educational principles, research, and learning theories to create leadership resources.  The academy has developed a coherent leadership development framework and programs covering the cognitive, psycho-motor, emotional and social dimensions of learning, thus addressing the dimensions necessary for healthy development and growth of student-athletes.

ABOUT COACH JANE ALBRIGHT

Jane Albright is one of a select group of coaches to reach the 500 win mark as a collegiate head coach.  She began her collegiate coaching career as a graduate assistant to Pat Summitt at the University of Tennessee from 1981-83. She assisted with UT’s first NCAA Final Four team in 1982. After Tennessee, she spent one season as an assistant coach at the University of Cincinnati in 1983-84 before earning her first opportunity as a head coach at Northern Illinois.

Albright went on to become the winningest coach in Northern Illinois history with a 188-110 record in 10 years from 1984-94, Albright’s Huskie squads turned in five 20-win seasons and four NCAA Tournament bids. Northern Illinois also won three conference championships and had three runner-up finishes during her tenure.

Albright had tremendous success in turning around the program at the University of Wisconsin. She left the University of Wisconsin as the winningest coach in Badger history with a 161-107 record (.600) from 1994-2003, Albright led Wisconsin to seven postseason appearances in nine seasons, including five trips to the NCAA Tournament. Her 1999 team was the runner-up in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament, while the Badgers won the WNIT in 2000.  After leaving Wisconsin, Albright coached the Shockers of Wichita State University for five seasons.

About The Academy for Sport Leadership

The Academy for Sport Leadership is a leading educational leadership training firm that uses sound educational principles, research, and learning theories to create leadership resources.  The academy has developed a coherent leadership development framework and programs covering the cognitive, psycho-motor, emotional and social dimensions of learning, thus addressing the dimensions necessary for healthy development and growth of student-athletes.

The Academy for Sport Leadership’s underlying convictions are as follows: 1) the most important lessons of leadership are learned in real-life situations, 2) team leaders develop best through active practice, structured reflection, and feedback, 3) learning to lead is an on-going process in which guidance from a mentor coach helps facilitate learning and growth, and 4) leadership lessons learned in sport should transcend the game and assist student-athletes in developing the capacity to lead in today’s changing environment.

Written and Submitted by Adam Bradley
Founder & President, Lead ‘Em Up

Coaches want to win and in many cases, coaches ‘need’ to win.

The pressure, desires and urgency are all there and because of that, coaches make decisions that’ll impact today. Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. We need to win now.

Unfortunately with leadership training, the process is cumulative. You see growth over time, little by little and the “time” will vary from player to player.

Coaches pour into their players despite the possibilities of never seeing and personally experiencing the fruit of their labor. Sometimes the light doesn’t go off for the player until a year after they’ve left their program. Perhaps longer. That’s not always the case but in many cases it is.

If you implement a full-court press, you’ll be able to see some form of resemblance to the press by the end of practice. On the flipside if you’re coaching your player to lead and live a certain way, that message may take longer to be received. But should we not still teach it?

The ultimate win is not on the scoreboard; it’s in the lives you impact. It’s in creating tomorrow’s leaders. Our job as coaches is to help produce champions on and off the court. It’s not always easy to do because of the pressure to win on the scoreboard, but it’s well worth the time and effort.

Here are 3-tips to help allow you achieve the ultimate win:

1 – Recognize small things as big things

We often overlook many of our successes in leadership development because they don’t present themselves in large ways. We find ourselves looking for that Hollywood scene where the team is in trouble and our quiet, reserved player breaks out of their shell, rally’s the team and becomes the heroic leader that saves the day. When we fail to see that, we think we’re not making progress. That’s not how it works.

Your player’s growth in leadership occurs in small ways. Remember, it’s cumulative, it’ll start small and it’ll be a series of small things that when put together show a major change and establish momentum.

For example, this past Spring I spent the season as the leadership coach on a local Varsity baseball team. One exercise we do in Lead ‘Em Up is an exercise called “Head Down, Look Up – Race to Erase.” It’s an exercise designed for our players to help each other’s confidence and better rebound from their mistakes.

The situation was this: it was the bottom of the 5th inning and we were up 8. In Maryland high school baseball if you’re up 8 after 5 you win. We put our star pitcher in to close it down. Unfortunately we allowed 3 unearned runs that inning after the centerfielder misplayed a fly ball. At the end of the inning, the pitcher started making his way to the dugout when right before he got to the first base line, he stopped and turnaround to greet the centerfielder and give him a fist pump and tap on the helmet simply telling him “it’s all good, we’ve got this, lets keep going.” The pitcher exemplified exactly what we had discussed a few days priors about “racing to erase” any frustrations, negative emotions in our teammates when they make a mistake.
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I can promise you, NO ONE in the entire park that day saw what I saw, despite the magnitude of the situation. Here was a player who had many challenges throughout the year, take a moment to turn their focus off of them, recall something he was taught and serve his teammate in a major way. He showed control over the moment, not allowing the moment to have control over him. He didn’t possess this ability early in the season.

This behavior was praised and repeated by the pitcher in future games. This behavior was also repeated by the teammate who received the embrace from his pitcher.

This small thing… was actually a BIG thing. When you’re coaching your players in more than just the X’s and O’s, you’re winning; you just have to look harder for the wins.

2 – Hold onto the sentiments from alumni

Most youth and high school players have a difficult time communicating their feelings which means they don’t communicate their appreciation for what you’re doing, enough. I see time and time again alumni come back to the program a few years removed with a much greater sense of maturity and communicate their appreciation.

Your players come back and remarkably remember small details of things you said or did in practice and games. They begin to show their gratitude for what you did for them and the impact and experience you provided. Every coach I know loves receiving this feedback and almost always comments that they “wish they knew the player cared this much back then.”

Don’t glance over this. This is important. Your players felt what you were doing, at the time you were doing it, despite not having the maturity to communicate it. You pouring into them is filling them up. In a young players world, there are a small number of individuals who have the ability to influence over them, you’re one of them. Don’t take that responsibility lightly.

3 – Remember your journey

I am so thankful so many coaches in my life were willing to make that sacrifice and intentionally try to develop me in more ways than just the game. Think back to your journey; did coaches pour into you and did it take some time before you truly “got it?” I’d imagine so.

I wish I could’ve been the person I am today back then so they wouldn’t have felt like they were spinning their wheels to get me going. I’m just thankful they kept spinning.

Coaches – teaching the game and X’s & O’s is critical and essential to your success. You teaching them life, leadership & character is essential to their success. Let’s be thankful we “get” the opportunity to be one of the influencers in our players’ lives.

Have fun and Lead ‘Em Up!

You can find out more about the program and Sign-up to receive a free preview of a weekly session you can use with your team today at this link:
Lead ‘Em Up

Coquese Washington: The Relational Leader

By Dr. Cory Dobbs

COQUESE WASHINGTON
HEAD BASKETBALL COACH PENN STATE, 2007 – 2019
Currently assistant at Oklahoma

In his best-selling book, First things First, organizational expert Stephen Covey opens with an essential leadership question:  “If you were to pause and think seriously about the ‘first things’ in your life—the three or four things that matter most—what would they be?”

Coquese Washington, assistant women’s basketball coach at Oklahoma, has thoughtfully answered this demanding question.  As a coach of a major college women’s basketball program, a former professional player and collegiate student-athlete, Washington has pulled resources from her vast experience to bring together a set of principles that, while not necessarily complex, are very practical.  Stressing a family approach to team building and a leadership focus on excellence, Washington is clear on her “first things.”

For Washington, relationship building is exalted as one of the most important factors in driving performance and ultimately the success of the team.  In the interest of putting first things first, Washington establishes the relationship building process at the very beginning—recruiting the right people to join her program.

“Relationship building starts right away.  For us relationship building begins in the recruiting process.  We put a lot of effort into identifying what kind of players we can coach well.  There’s a certain type of player I can coach well, given their temperament, personality, and such things as what’s important to them.  We try to do a great job identifying players that can come into the Penn State culture and thrive in the larger community—and in our women’s basketball community.  It’s imperative that we bring in players that are a good fit for the culture here.”

These days the demands on leaders can be crushing.  To survive, many leaders simply look to fill positions with people qualified to perform the work, not necessarily a fit with the organization’s culture.

The problem with hiring only for skills and ability rather than for fit with culture is illuminated in the dynamics of the team building process.  When personalities clash, rather than click, and the culture of your team won’t inspire cooperation and collaboration, you’re likely to end up with a dysfunctional team.

“We have a humorous way of looking at recruiting to our culture.  We say we don’t like to manage drama, so we don’t recruit drama.”

Ultimately, team dynamics will determine the environment in which work happens, and to a large extent, the quality of a team’s results.  For success to be experienced everyday interactions must meet a test: Is the way we communicate together helping or hindering the team’s ability to make progress?

“For us, relationship building—developing relationships—is every bit as important as the game.”

It’s evident, that for Washington, it is the quality of relationships woven into the fabric of teamwork that makes all the difference.  The inherent tension that exists as individuals work to become a team is accounted for and used to develop positive and enduring relationships.

“For me communication is about connecting and building strong relationships.  To connect with my staff and my players I try to communicate in a manner that is respectful and honors who they are.  It’s important to be respectful and honorable even when I disagree or we have different viewpoints.”

Washington’s family approach reduces the complications of bringing together unique personalities and skill sets.  At Penn State, it is the unity that multiplies the strength of the individual.  The team lives together, works together, and wins together.  One thing is clear, unity matters.

A DEEPER LEVEL OF LEADERSHIP

There are basically two ways to execute one’s leadership practice.  One way is that of an order-giver order-taker exchange.  In this relationship the employee serves the interests of the boss.  The other way to execute the practice of leadership is for the leader to serve her followers.  Either way of leading requires aligning actions and values.  The difference lies in the values the leader is aligning.

“Being a leader to me means helping others achieve their goals.  It means being a resource—providing resources or knowledge to help others reach their goals and dreams.  Sometimes it’s setting a vision for the person, and other times it might be serving as an example.”  “You can serve as a model, demonstrating how to do things.  I learned a great deal from Muffet McGraw (women’s basketball coach at Notre Dame).  She provided me an example of how to be a working mom in this business.  We didn’t sit down and have meetings on how to be a mom.  I watched how she lived it.  She provided an example for me to model.”

Relational principles of leadership do not depend on what sector you work in.  In today’s world of work, people want to matter.  They want leaders to improve the team’s performance while raising the quality of life inside the team.  Sport psychologist and leadership writer Jerry Lynch says, “To be a good coach, mentor, and teacher you must be a good student and learn what needs to be known from the student (the athlete) in order to teach them what they must learn.”  Lynch also says that “the way to be a success is not just to win games but to win relationships.

“I can coach and mentor better when I know the person—know who they are.  I want to get to know them.  I’m spending a lot of time with them because I want to know what’s important to them.  What makes them laugh and cry, and what drives them.”

To anyone who cares to lead, whether as coach or a corporate manager, it should be obvious that building positive relationships is one of the foundations for building high-performing teams.  Too often we ignore our common sense when it comes to leading people.  If you want high performance, high commitment, and high involvement, put people first.  By developing deeper levels of relationship with those around us, we create an encouraging environment that shapes our future in a healthy and positive way. 

“So when we get into a rut in practice or a game, I’m going to get on them.  I’ll be very demanding—but never demeaning.  I will express displeasure at the lack of effort or focus or communication on the court. Because we have a strong relationship they trust me, and I trust that they’ll take my coaching as a way to correct problems and get better.  Again, I’m demanding, not demeaning.”

Washington’s commitment to relationship building is highlighted by her willingness to time to get to know her followers and, likewise, them getting to know her.

“We invest a lot of time in one-on-one meetings.  We do this so the players have an opportunity to give me their feedback in a safe environment.  I try to be very mindful of providing them an opportunity to give their opinion without any judgment.  Relationship building is something I’m always looking to do.”

LIVE TOGETHER

Management consultant and organizational expert Margaret Wheatley advises, “Relationships are all there is.”  She says, “We humans want to be together.  We only isolate ourselves when we’re hurt by others, but alone is not our natural state.”

In Western societies, the urge to set one’s self apart from other, to be different, is a compelling force.  However, this sets up a familiar contradiction of human nature.  That is we want both to belong and to stand out from the crowd.

To say that living together is a challenging endeavor does not undermine the desire to live together.  People will act in their self-interest until they see that cooperation with others is beneficial.  Teaming together, then, demands cooperation.  And the nature of cooperation is built on trust.  Washington knows the way to build a high-performing team is through trust.

“Trust for us is a big word.  We talk about it frequently.  I ask my team all the time, “Do you trust me?”  It goes back to the relationship we built before they ever stepped foot on the campus.  They know they can trust me, and because they trust me they allow me to coach them.”

Trust starts when you extend it and communicate openly with your team.

“I frequently tell our team, you can count on me to be honest with you all the time and tell you the truth.  Because they know me and trust me, they can make the appropriate and necessary decisions and changes.”

“We have some really honest conversations.  Players tell us what they want, together we locate where they are and then discuss what we have to do to bridge the gap to get them where they ultimately want to go.”

You also need to make sure your employees are able to build trust with one another.  You do this by establishing a social climate of respect.

“I try to be respectful in my communications at all times.  I’m working on becoming a better listener. I think it’s important to understand what others are saying, but just as importantly what they mean.  And what they mean by what they’re not saying.”

“I tell our players that how you talk to each other matters.  The words you choose to use in conversations with each other really do matter.”

“Words have a huge impact—Huge!   Trust for us is a big word.  We talk about it frequently.  I ask my team all the time, “Do you trust me?”  It goes back to the relationship we built before they ever stepped foot on the campus.  They know they can trust me, and because they trust me they allow me to coach them.”

Trust starts when you extend it and communicate openly with your team.

“I frequently tell our team, you can count on me to be honest with you all the time and tell you the truth.  Because they know me and trust me, they can make the appropriate and necessary decisions and changes.”

“We have some really honest conversations.  Players tell us what they want, together we locate where they are and then discuss what we have to do to bridge the gap to get them where they ultimately want to go.”

You also need to make sure your employees are able to build trust with one another.  You do this by establishing a social climate of respect.

“I try to be respectful in my communications at all times.  I’m working on becoming a better listener. I think it’s important to understand what others are saying, but just as importantly what they mean.  And what they mean by what they’re not saying.”

“I tell our players that how you talk to each other matters.  The words you choose to use in conversations with each other really do matter.”

“Words have a huge impact—Huge power.  So why don’t we use words to uplift, empower, and encourage one another.  And not use words to belittle, demean, or tear people down.  We have that choice every time we speak.”

 “So if we choose our words wisely when communicating with the one’s we love, care about, and spend time with—we’re going to build a heck of a team.”

Rarely can you get the results you want without trust.  Yet, it takes a while to build trust.  Trust is about how people relate to each other.  But it’s also about the outcomes of relationships.

“These young women have to be nurtured, taught how to become adults.  We show them how to become championship students, players, and championship women.  We want them to become leaders who can go into their communities—no matter where it is—and make a difference.”

WORK TOGETHER

It happens all the time.  Teams with members deeply committed to each other out perform teams with superior talent.  For these teams, the whole greatly exceeds the sum of the parts

What brings these teams victory is that team members are selfless—focused on doing what’s best for the team.  They work together to win, submerging ego, statistics, and other personal gain for the opportunity to win as a team.  The coach is at the center of this; getting everyone and everything into alignment, ensuring that the team and its members get the support they need.

“To compete for championships we don’t need someone secretly harboring resentment toward a teammate.  We don’t want a player privately thinking ‘I hope she gets hurt’ or ‘I hope she has a bad game so I can play.’  We want to take that out of the mix.”

“With my staff I want companionship and camaraderie.  A cooperative group that doesn’t care who gets the credit.  We’re not into titles.   We all roll up our sleeves and get the job done.”

Shared values build trust and link team members together.  They establish a team’s identity and support its mission.  Shared values provide guiding principles that everyone on a team can aspire to put into practice every day.  When team members are truly in alignment with one another they create a culture where everyone can go home at night knowing the team is healthy and in good shape.

“We want harmony and camaraderie in the locker room.  We don’t want players feeling like they have to compete with someone else.  When that happens we don’t develop the chemistry we need to develop a competitive team.”

What do leaders have to do differently to build and lead effective teams today?  It’s the smart coach that takes advantage of the individual strengths of her players to develop a strong team.  A wise leader takes stock of what she has and develops and adjusts her plans accordingly.
“We really put a heavy emphasis on the fact that players are not competing with one another.  We want them competing against their best effort and what they’re capable of doing.”

“We recruit complementary pieces.  Everybody has a role.  Players are recruited for a specific purpose.  They are never in competition with anyone on the team.  They’re always competing against themselves, regardless of the position they’re playing.  They don’t compete against each other; instead they complete each other.”

WIN TOGETHER

The success of today’s best business leaders depends not only on inspiring and engaging employees, but finding ways to guide team members into powerful and productive relationships; the kind of relationships where one plus one equals three.

Rather than simply issuing commands and asserting power, outstanding leaders utilize influence to gain commitment and agreement.   Further, leaders like coaches, figure out how to build the next level of capability.  They do this by connecting team member aspirations to opportunities for development.  They know how to enable and support individual and team growth—and they make both enjoyable.

Today, you have to unmask yourself to your people in ways leaders never had to before.   People want leaders that demonstrate real- life vulnerabilities while relating in an authentic manner.  In the past leaders were formal and distant, removed from their people by a hierarchical-based facade.

That’s changed: your employees expect to relate to you in a more informal, egalitarian way—kind of like a family.

“A core value for us is excellence.  We strive for excellence in everything we do.  Another core value is family.  I don’t have a Penn State basketball family and a personal family.  We’re all one big family.  My children come to practice and travel with the team—as do my mom and my husband.  Family is really important to me.  We operate as a family.  We care about each other as family.”

A recent study conducted by the Center for Creative Leadership sought to identify what distinguishes an effective leader from an ineffective leader.  After carefully sifting through mountains of data the CCL found one primary difference: effective leaders truly care about their people.   The most effective leaders are adept at showing they care by listening, publicly expressing positive emotions along with a deeper understanding and acknowledgement of how others are feeling.

“They know what to expect from me.  They know that what happens on the court does not impact how I feel about them and care about them off the court.  There’s nothing they can do on the basketball court that can cause me to love them less.”

Washington, like the effective leaders in the CCL study, understands that caring is best done one-on-one.  This means knowing what each member of your team needs to make her feel valued, appreciated, and unique.  Caring is a highly personal thing.  It’s different for each individual.

“I challenge the players all the time.  I can do this because I know they’re goals and dreams.   They allow me to challenge them.”

“We tell our players that the responsibility of earning playing time is on them.  Tell me what you want—where you want to go—and we will help you map out the road to get you there.  Then you need to put in the time and effort.  You’ve got to decide if you’re willing to put in the work to get where you want to go.”

People want to work for leaders they admire.  At the root of this admiration is showing people you care about their insights, their thoughts, their opinions, and appreciate all their sacrifices for the team.

“It’s important that we give the players opportunities to give their opinions and share their thoughts.  We ask frequently, if not daily, what they think of things.”

“In our team meetings we ask what they think.  I try to validate and honor their perspectives, even if I disagree.”

“I get feedback when I make decisions for the team, for the program.  Some might be minor decisions—others major.  I give them the opportunity to find their voice.  Not only to speak up, but to listen and negotiate and compromise.  These skills are critical to the development of a championship team.”

Effective leaders create strong cultures by putting people first.  They realize that the path to success boils down to deep, close, and trusting relationships creating competitive advantage through people and relationships.  This is the key to winning in basketball and in business.  And this is Coquese Washington’s playbook for victory.

“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

This article was written by Cory Dobbs, Ed.D., President of The Academy for Sport Leadership.  The Academy for Sport Leadership is a leading educational leadership training firm that uses sound educational principles, research, and learning theories to create leadership resources.  The academy has developed a coherent leadership development framework and programs covering the cognitive, psycho-motor, emotional and social dimensions of learning, thus addressing the dimensions necessary for healthy development and growth of student-athletes.

About the Author

Cory Dobbs is the founder and president of The Academy for Sport Leadership, a national leader in research‐based curriculum for coaches and student‐athletes. Dr. Dobbs is a college educator, a coach to successful coaches (helping coaches attain a higher level of success), and an accomplished human performance specialist whose expertise is in the field of leadership, team building, and creating a high‐performance culture in the arena of team sports. Cory blends social‐personality, psychology, and applied social psychology, which means he studies how people’s thoughts, behaviors, and preferences are influenced by both who they are and the situations they’re in. He uses Teamwork IntelligenceTM to help teams explore how the mix of perspectives brought by their individual members influences their work together.

The Academy for Sport Leadership’s underlying convictions are as follows: 1) the most important lessons of leadership are learned in real-life situations, 2) team leaders develop best through active practice, structured reflection, and feedback, 3) learning to lead is an on-going process in which guidance from a mentor coach helps facilitate learning and growth, and 4) leadership lessons learned in sport should transcend the game and assist student-athletes in developing the capacity to lead in today’s changing environment.