Monthly Archives: June 2011

Networking For Introverts: It’s Not As Bad As You Think

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In the past, I’d always said “networking” just like that…while using air quotation marks. It was something I just didn’t look forward to and didn’t enjoy. “Networking” seemed like a synonym for going to a party and having people look over my shoulder to find someone better than me to talk to. But alas, Charmelle Green opened my eyes to the truth at the Women’s Leadership Symposium. Apparently, and this was news to me, you don’t have to be a complete phony to “network”. So, if you’re like me and don’t enjoy talking to strangers for the sole purpose of using their status to increase yours, then keep reading!

4 reasons that networking is better than a hot poker in the eye…and other things I learned at the WLS

When we approach someone at a seminar or happy hour, we should approach them because we genuinely want to know them…not because we want something from them.
Be a worker. If we want people who are in positions of power to notice us, then we’ve got to be a step ahead…she says “get known” as a hard worker. I suppose we shouldn’t toot our own horns about how hard we’re working or else we’ll get the dreaded “brown noser” label.
In terms of our resumes, we should talk about how we’re going to lead people, manage money, develop people…rather than only a list of accomplishments. Charmelle talked about how her experience didn’t necessarily reflect that she was qualified for the job she holds now. But there are commonalities among most leadership positions and that’s how we should sell ourselves. She says that we shouldn’t “let our resumes pigeonhole us”, but talk about transferrable skills.
Reach out to people who have knowledge that you don’t have, which goes back to number one…genuinely wanting to know someone for who they are instead of who they can introduce you to. Awesome!

So, networking isn’t awful, it can actually be a genuine and authentic exchange that won’t leave you feeling like a used car salesman.

The other things I learned? Check them out below!

Part 1: 3 Steps To Becoming A Successful Leader
Part 2: These 3 Little Letters Could Hold The Key To Your Success As A Leader
Part 3: 3 Keys To Building Collaboration Within A Competitive Culture
Part 4: 5 Steps To Land Your Dream Job
Part 5: Leading Yourself: 5 Steps To Put Your Future In Your Own Hands

Leading Yourself: 5 Steps To Put Your Future In Your Own Hands

Coaching career, Leadership

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“A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.”—Rosalynn Carter

Like any speaker worth her salt (especially a speaker who’s the founder of a leadership group), Kathleen McQuiggan came to the Women’s Leadership Symposium armed with her list of things that will make us all better leaders. Kathleen is the founder of Catalina Leadership. Her focus was on the one person that we’ve actually got complete control over: ourselves. As she said, “you have to lead yourself before you can lead others”, so let’s check out the tips she has for those of us who want to control our future.

Secret sauce. Basically, it’s what makes us…well, us. For example, part of my secret sauce would be that I write about coaching and team dynamics. It’s the part of your story that differentiates you from others who do what you do. The new phrase for it is “personal branding”. She says that focusing on our strengths is the key to finding our secret sauce.
Defining your goals and objectives. That’s pretty straight forward, right? You know the deal…write ‘em down, put ‘em in view, make ‘em happen.
Be an expert. I think this is a tough one in athletics because it seems like the game (whatever your game is) is always evolving. So maybe I would change this one to know as much as you can and never stop learning. That doesn’t sound as good as “be an expert” though. As Kathleen says, whatever your business is, know it inside and out.
Who is on your team? These are the folks that she thinks should be on your personal “team”: Mentors, people who can help you your next career moves and serve as a guiding post. Critics, people who will show you how you’re perceived. Advocates, people who will vouch for you and speak on your behalf based on knowledge of your work. Sponsors, there’s been lots of talk about sponsors lately. They’re supposed to be infinitely better than mentors because they’re willing to stick out their necks to make sure you get a job. They’re typically more senior, more established, and have way more clout than you do. Note to self: Go get a sponsor!
A self-assessment. Kathleen used a great quotation to highlight this one. “If you don’t know where you are, a map won’t help.” Give yourself a good, honest once over and figure out where your career is and then develop a plan to get where you want to be.

I suppose doing all of this stuff will ensure that you are a confident leader for your team. The added bonus will be that you’ll be able to lead your career in the direction that you’d like it to go!

Part 1: 3 Steps To Becoming A Successful Leader
Part 2: These 3 Little Letters Could Hold The Key To Your Success As A Leader
Part 3: 3 Keys To Building Collaboration Within A Competitive Culture
Part 4: 5 Steps To Land Your Dream Job
Part 6: Networking For Introverts: It’s Not As Bad As You Think

5 Steps To Land Your Dream Job

Coaching careerCoaching career

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Do you like your job? Do you like going into the office every day? I’m lucky because I get to coach volleyball and I think that’s the bee’s knees. Early on I decided that this is the thing that I love to do, so I knew I had to figure out how to get paid to do it. Do you want to figure out how to do the same thing? I heard Molly Fletcher at the Women’s Leadership Symposium and she’s got a book just for you! It’s called, Your Dream Job Game Plan: 5 Tools for Becoming Your Own Career Agent. Molly is an engaging and energetic speaker and I laughed at some of the techniques that she used to become a female sports agent for major men’s athletics. We got the book for free as part of attending the symposium. I haven’t read it yet, so this is from my notes.

5 ways to ensure job satisfaction

Have awesome passion. She had a lot of good one-liners in her talk, but this one really stood out to me: “When you get in front of people, just get them to like you enough to take your call in a couple of days.” That’s good, huh? Asking for a job is one thing, but being passionate about what I do? Now that’s easy!
Have fearless energy. I will legitimately talk to anyone about coaching and how I think it’s the most amazing job ever. I’ll also wax poetic about the intangible benefits of sports as long as folks will listen. Molly says that this type of urgency sends a message to those around you about how important something is to you.
Have an incredible game plan. This one was really good! She says that we should treat business connections like dating situations. You aren’t ready to marry a guy on the first date…and that potential employer may not be ready to hire you at the first meeting. It may take time, but if it’s your dream job, it’s worth the time and effort, right?
Be able to execute. So you told the college president if he hired you, you’d have the most sought after coaches on your staff…no coaching staff would be better? Well, um, you’d better go do it then! Molly says there are two critical moments in any business relationship: the first is when you do the thing you’d promised at the very beginning and the second is celebrating big moments. Like when those hot shot coaches you hired win national championships.
Create choices for yourself. This is the sweet spot of anyone’s career…freedom. I haven’t reached this place myself, but I’ve been around folks who are so respected and so good at what they do that their career options are literally limitless. They choose which speaking opportunities to accept. They turn down large amounts of money to show up at events because it cuts into their family time. In essence, they’re in charge of their career…not the other way around.

Your dream job is out there waiting for you…go get it!

Part 1: 3 Steps To Becoming A Successful Leader
Part 2: These 3 Little Letters Could Hold The Key To Your Success As A Leader
Part 3: 3 Keys To Building Collaboration Within A Competitive Culture
Part 4: Leading Yourself: 5 Steps To Put Your Future In Your Own Hands
Part 6: Networking For Introverts: It’s Not As Bad As You Think

3 Keys To Building Collaboration Within A Competitive Culture

Team chemistryTeam chemistry

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When coaches talk about why we love coaching, I can’t imagine you’d ever hear one of us say, “Because I love when my players complain about playing time.” Or, “I love coaching because my team hates one another and we all dread going to practice.” We don’t love the less positive aspects of coaching, but those are sometimes the reality of things. As John Steinbrecher said at the Women’s Leadership Symposium: “part of being a leader is dealing with the bad stuff.” John is the commissioner of the Mid-American Conference. I’ve shared with you what two other folks on his panel gave as their keys to being a good leader (see the links below to read those posts), but his focus was a bit different. It was on the tough stuff. Here’s a quote that I loved:

“One of the challenges of leadership is to navigate the competitive and collaborative cultures.”*

Isn’t that the essence of the coach’s job in terms of creating a true team? By their very nature, teams are competitive. But in order to accomplish corporate goals, folks who are competing with one another for playing time must collaborate. So what’s a coach to do?

3 ways to ensure collaboration can coexist with competition

Value competition. And not just against other teams, but within your own team. I talk in depth in my ebook, Coach Dawn’s Guide To Motivating Female Athletes, about selling your team on competition. If your only goal is to pit your players against one another in practice situations and let them “fight to the death” over a playing spot…well, you can expect some antagonistic relationships. In my opinion, the smart leader (that’s you, Coach) will show their players that being a good teammate means pushing their team to be the best they can be. So the competition within practices doesn’t come from a selfish place, but a very caring one.

Give everyone a role. The unfortunate part of this plan is that not everyone will like the role they’ve been assigned. Some folks’ role will be team leader. Others will be that of a starter. Some of your team will be given the role of “first off of the bench.” I’m sure you can see where this is going, that last group will be your reserves…or bench players. I’ve always said that where there’s a team, there’s someone who’s unhappy with their place on it. You can’t make everyone happy, but hopefully you can help them empathize with one another.

Be open to change. After saying all of that, you’ve got to create an atmosphere where your players they have legitimate chance to change roles. This means that your non-starters have to believe that you’re constantly evaluating and that they have a chance to move up the food chain. Conversely, your starters need to understand that their positions aren’t set in stone and that every day you will assess whether or not you’ve got the correct grouping of folks out there to make victory more feasible.

I believe if we do all of these things, with open communication, collaboration on a common goal can exist within an immensely competitive environment.

*Notice I have direct quotations from the speakers? Yep, I warned you that I’m super nerdy when I go to seminars and conventions and whatnot.

Part 1: 3 Steps To Becoming A Successful Leader
Part 2: These 3 Little Letters Could Hold The Key To Your Success As A Leader
Part 4: 5 Steps To Land Your Dream Job
Part 5: Leading Yourself: 5 Steps To Put Your Future In Your Own Hands
Part 6: Networking For Introverts: It’s Not As Bad As You Think

These 3 Little Letters Could Hold The Key To Your Success As A Leader

Coaching career, Leadership

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Join me over the next few days as I discuss leadership from the viewpoints of conference commissioners, athletic directors, and entrepreneurs I had the joy of listening to at the Women’s Leadership Symposium.

Everyone’s got an opinion on leadership…and I love it! I hope I never get to the point where I think I’ve got all of the answers. As long as I’m living, I plan to be a coaching nerd that is always seeking to learn from those who’ve been in the game longer than I have. Sue Willey is one of those folks. She’s the Director of Athletics at the University of Indianapolis and was on a panel at the Women’s Leadership Symposium. Clearly, leadership isn’t a black and white issue. It’s not like everyone’s style of leadership will fit with you and your personality. Check out what Sue had to say and try it on for size…you might like it!

Leaders are VIP’s and get people all pushing in the same direction, here’s how:

Vision: As a leader, we’ve got to have an idea of how we want each player to improve as well as how to improve the program as a whole. After all, how can we expect our athletes to follow us if they’re not sure what the plan is? We should talk to our teams about the history of the program so that they’re proud of who and what they’re representing, then we should inspire them about how they are impactful for the future of the team. I love selling my team on “leaving it better than you found it” and then detailing how they can do it.

Integrity: This is a word with a lot of meaning. I’ve written about it a few times, check out this post “10 Ways To Manage With Integrity” to read some of my thoughts on the subject. It basically comes down to your moral code, whatever that is, and how well you stick to it. Will you treat your star players the same as those who will never get off of the bench? Will you bad mouth another coach in order to get a prized recruit? Will you fudge the numbers to make sure that your budget is balanced? Student-athletes come equipped with BS detectors and they’ll certainly pick up on yours right away. Be a person of your word and you should be fine.

Passion: This job is too hard not to love it, plain and simple. Recently, I was talking to someone who was thinking of leaving a private sector job to get into coaching…she wanted to “give it a try”, she said. I gave her a wary look and informed her that coaches coach. We coach when things are great and when things are bleak. We coach when we’re fired up and when we’re bone tired. We coach when we’re on a winning streak and when we’re on an unfortunate losing streak. We coach when we don’t even want to, when we’d rather just stay in bed…we coach. You don’t try coaching (as a career, at least), you love coaching. You live coaching. You believe in coaching. Your passion will translate over to your team and they’ll follow you to the end of the Earth, because they believe in you.

So are you a leadership VIP?

Part 1: 3 Steps To Becoming A Successful Leader
Part 3: 3 Keys To Building Collaboration Within A Competitive Culture
Part 4: 5 Steps To Land Your Dream Job
Part 5: Leading Yourself: 5 Steps To Put Your Future In Your Own Hands
Part 6: Networking For Introverts: It’s Not As Bad As You Think

3 Steps To Becoming A Successful Leader

Coaching philosophy, Leadership

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Join me over the next few days as I discuss leadership from the viewpoints of conference commissioners, athletic directors, and entrepreneurs.

As a certified coaching nerd, I love going to conventions, seminars, clinics…whatever. I attended the Women’s Leadership Symposium in May and will bring you some of the highlights. If you get a chance to attend, you should. They’re regional events so that the costs can be kept low, but still very informative.

Anyhoo, there were lots of speakers of course and the first I’m going to talk about today is Jon LeCrone. Jon is the commissioner of the Horizon League and was part of a panel discussion. He talked about what good leaders should give to others so that they can act on the leader’s behalf:

Priorities: Delegating is a big deal the higher up the food chain you get…at least that’s what I’ve heard! A good leader will delegate assignments with goals and priorities so that the person can be successful.
Faith: Defined as giving complete trust and having confidence in someone. A good leader will delegate a task and not micromanage that poor person to death. You’ve given them their task with the appropriate priorities…now you’ll leave them to be amazing.
Resources: A good leader knows that awesomeness can’t operate in a vacuum. Once the task has been delegated, the leader will make sure they have the appropriate resources (manpower, financial, access to higher ups, etc.) that will ensure success.

Once you’ve mastered the art of delegating effectively, you are on your way to becoming a success! Here are Jon’s three steps to becoming a successful leader:

Engage (about me): Imagine your team at the beginning of the season. They’re nervous and excited about the possibilities the season will hold for them and their teammates. You walk into the room and look at their eager faces and you have a choice. At that moment, you get to set the tone for the entire season. If there’s ever a time for you, as the leader, to be engaging…that is it! Show them the passion you have for your sport and for the team. It’ll be contagious.
Share power with others (about others): I really like this one because leadership isn’t about the leader, but about everyone. Can you be a leader if no one follows? Recognizing leaders within your team (and acknowledging them) is huge. So is empowering your assistant coaches. I think you get more buy in when others feel like they have a voice.
Strive for excellence (about behavior): As Aristotle (and Shaq!) said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Excellence isn’t something we talk about, meet about, or write about in our team handbooks…it’s something we do. Every day. Consistently. If we want our teams to be good, then we’ve got to constantly demand excellence. Not just at the beginning of the season when everyone’s fired up, but in the middle and at the end when everyone’s dragging.

Leadership is as much about others as it is about us. Delegating not only helps the leader, but also the person who’s coming up and trying to learn the business. I enjoyed Jon’s talk on leadership, I hope I’ve done him justice!

Part 2: These 3 Little Letters Could Hold The Key To Your Success As A Leader
Part 3: 3 Keys To Building Collaboration Within A Competitive Culture
Part 4: 5 Steps To Land Your Dream Job
Part 5: Leading Yourself: 5 Steps To Put Your Future In Your Own Hands
Part 6: Networking For Introverts: It’s Not As Bad As You Think

5 Signs You Are A Wimpy Coach

Coaching careerCoaching career

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As I’m sure all of you can attest, coaching is about more than just coaching. You’ve got to be on top of your athletes’ grades, venture out into the campus community, serve on various committees, and be an administrative assistant (for yourself!) to make sure all the i’s are dotted and t’s crossed. Beyond that, you’ve got to always be ready for the mythical alum/donor/person-with-a-lot-of-money-who-wants-to-give-it-to-your-program to show up. The well prepared coach is ready for the call from their athletic director saying, “Come down to my office with a list of your program needs.”

But for every well prepared coach, there’s a wimpy coach. The wimpy coach is afraid to rock the boat, so they are afraid to ask for things that would improve their program. Are you worried that this may be you?

Check out this tongue-in-cheek description of the wimpy coach, based on an article from bnet.com, 7 Signs Of A Wimpy Boss.

You’re a wimpy coach if…

Your peers whack you around. As you walk up and down your hallway, every other coach has two full-time assistants, brand new equipment, and a gigantic recruiting budget. While your program has a part-time assistant making peanuts, equipment from the Stone Ages, and a recruiting budget that won’t let you even rent a car.
You avoid confrontation. Even though you notice all of those things, you won’t schedule a meeting with your boss…you won’t even do a pop in! Worst of all, when the head honcho asks you how things are going, you say, “Great!”.
You like the status quo. Your boss knows that they’ll never have to worry about you storming into their office demanding “more”. When you were in college, the players drove the vans to competition, so what’s wrong with your team doing that now? Plus, who wants to go to the bosses office and ask for a coach bus like every other team has?
You’re always the victim. If you actually stood up for your program and for your team, you wouldn’t get a chance to play the victim…and that’s your comfort zone! And the added bonus? You have a built in excuse for when your team doesn’t perform! Just pick one: we drove to the competition, our uniforms are outdated, we don’t get enough per diem for meals, yada, yada, yada.
Everyone’s lost respect for you. While you’re thinking you’ve played the victim card to the hilt, everyone else in the department wonders when you lost your fire. They feel bad for your assistants and your players, because they deserve more. Your unwillingness to advocate for your team not only hurts the quality of their experience, it lessens everyone’s respect for you.

Though this is an exaggeration, I’m sure there are coaches out there who may be a bit like the wimpy coach described above. The Bible says that we don’t get stuff because we don’t ask for it…so go and ask! The answer may be no, but you’ll never find out until you ask.

Step Away From The Computer: Why Unplugging Will Keep You Sane

Coaching career, Work/Life balance

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Coaching is stressful…our jobs are a bit ridiculous when you really sit down and think about it. So we’ve got to be intentional about creating time for ourselves and for our family and friends. I read this great article over at bnet.com called, “How to Have a Healthy Digital Diet”, and I thought you guys would enjoy hearing some of the high points. I think that as crazy as our jobs are, we’re adding more stress onto ourselves by our addiction to technology. Let’s look at some ways we can decrease our stress and create some great relationships as a result!

6 ways to cut down on the feeling of stress in your life

Don’t send emails to the guy in the next office. We all know that context can’t be received via email, just like we all know that we’re super busy. But are we really so busy that we can’t take time to walk down the hall and chat with a coworker? Even if it’s just a follow up to an email that you sent. Making a real connection could turn him from just a coworker into an ally.
Monitor your website distractions. Luckily I haven’t been bitten by the YouTube bug…I check it out and leave right away. Same with Facebook and Twitter. It’s too easy to get sucked in to seeing what folks have tweeted or updated. Because of that, I have a strict no Facebook policy while I’m at work. If I notice that someone has asked me something directly, I let them know that I’ll get back to them after work.
Use time management programs. Eek, these are scary! There are apparently programs that will track how much time you spend on various websites and give you a report at the end of the day. I don’t need written proof that I’m bopping around on J. Crew while I’m making recruiting calls!
Don’t leave “tech turds” on the table. I love that phrase! You know those folks that sit down at the dinner table and promptly plop down their cell phone, face up, so that everyone knows just how important they are. All it does is keep everyone from really connecting because our faces our on our phones rather than our dinner companions.
Spend more time in real relationships. How many couples come home and hop on the computer, giving their partner a cursory glance when they walk in the door? Too many I fear. How about we agree to take thirty minutes when we get home and actually talk to one another? Crazy talk, right?
Set limits on cell phones and emailing. Most calls and emails aren’t urgent. Now I do keep my phone on just in case someone from my team or from work calls late at night. I figure it’s truly an emergency if I’m getting a late night call…it’s worth me picking up. I’m not telling you not to call your mom back because you’re trying to wean yourself off of the phone. I’m just saying that work is work, home is home…and maybe we could do a better job of keeping the two separated.

How hard to you think it’d be to go without Facebook, or Twitter, or your cell phone? What if you didn’t use any of that stuff after 8 pm…could you do it?

8 Ways To Critique Without Crushing Your Team’s Spirit

Coaching strategy, Mental game, Personality tests

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It happens to all of us. We say one thing and our team hears another thing altogether. Here’s an example:

Me: Susie, if you take one more step and face your target, your pass will be right on the money.
Susie hears: You’re a horrible volleyball player.

Me: Betsy, you’re on the right track, just be sure to communicate with your teammates so that they know what you’re going to do.
Betsy hears: Not only do I think you’re a horrible volleyball player, your teammates hate you too.

If either of those scenarios sound a little too familiar, take heart. According to an article in Psychology Today titled, A Chic Critique (April 2011), “people react strongly to criticism no matter how it’s delivered.” That being said, I’m sure none of us is out to squish our team’s spirit like a proverbial bug. Let’s look at how we can critique without being critical.

8 Rules To Effectively Deliver Negative Feedback

Always lead with questions. I may not lead with a question, but somewhere in my feedback, I usually ask if they understand what I’m asking of them. The article says that the hard part about criticism is that it threatens that person’s membership in the group. So asking questions shows them that they are part of a group effort. Something as simple as, “Do this. Does that make sense?”, is a typical exchange in our gym.
Never give criticism unless it’s been invited. In my mind, by virtue of being on a team, they’re inviting criticism. Turns out that I’m onto something! “When a teacher grades a student, a coach gives a pep talk, or a parent guides a young child’s efforts, there’s a tacit agreement that praise and correction will be part of the exchange.”
Make sure you are seen as having the authority to give corrective feedback. Have you ever had a freshman give a senior some advice on how to perform a skill better? Even if their advice is great, the senior probably won’t receive it because the freshman has no authority yet. If you’ve got one of those “helpful” freshmen, you should probably pull them aside and have a little chat with them.
Distinguish whether a demand reflects your needs or is a valid critique of what they’re doing wrong. I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes I want my team to do something because it’s my preferred method of operation. My general statement is, “there are a million ways to skin a cat…either way you end up with a cat without skin, so let’s try it my way.” Sure, that sounds gross, but it gets the point across. I’m not saying that the student-athlete is doing something wrong per se, just not the way I’d like them to do it.
Never give feedback when you’re angry. Easier said than done, right? If there’s someone on your team that drives you crazy, let them become your assistant’s pet project. I’ve even been known to tell my assistant to listen to my corrective statements during practice. Like, “Katie is working my last nerve today, please make sure that I’m not picking on her at practice.” Hopefully this keeps Katie from being a puddle of tears in the locker room.
Know who you’re talking to. As the article says, “Narcissists take any criticism as a personal attack; the insecure lose all self-esteem.” I’m constantly beating the personality test drum, and that’s because I think it’s a great way to find out how your team is motivated.
Know yourself. Personally, I’m less outwardly sensitive to criticism. Of course it still stings and of course I’d rather receive a steady stream of praise, but I like to receive my criticism without all of the frills. But everyone isn’t like me and some people really need to hear the frills before they can process the criticism. Knowing that others aren’t like me will keep me from completely crushing the more sensitive folks on my team.
Expect defensiveness. The article says that we tend to “simplify the world by making it bipolar”. So when you don’t tell Susie she’s the most amazing player in the whole, wide world…well, of course you are saying that she’s terrible. The good news is that this is just the initial reaction and you can expect a change in behavior to follow. You can also train your team about the proper response to your feedback. Do you want them to look you in the eye while you’re talking? Do you want them to respond with a “yes, Coach.” Be sure to let them know!

I enjoy Psychology Today, they’ve got great articles. A lot of our jobs as coaches is to figure out how to motivate our teams and I always find a gem in each magazine. I hope this one reminded us all about anticipating how our criticism will be received by our teams.

Click here and you can get Coach Dawn Writes articles emailed directly to your inbox! It’s free and easy…and I promise I won’t give your email to anyone else.

You Should Know About: The Alliance of Women Coaches

Coaching career, Female athletesCoaching career, Female athletes

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So here’s the deal. Women aren’t coaching. I know you’re thinking, “well, you’re coaching Dawn…and you’re a woman.” Okay, let me rephrase that: women aren’t staying in coaching. I wrote about the statistics of women in athletics in my post, 3 Ways To Keep Females In Coaching And Athletics Administration, you should go check it out! But this blog is about intangibles…and those are hard to measure. Though that doesn’t make them any less real. And what The Alliance of Women Coaches has found is that women are feeling lonely, are paid less, and subject to more inequalities in the world of athletics than men. Check out what some of their research has shown…

What the female coaches are saying:

They often are the only female coach or one of a small number and feel isolated.
They struggle with life/work balance decisions.
They are not as willing to apply for new positions if they have to uproot their families.
They are not as confident applying for open positions as men who are less qualified.
Many don’t feel comfortable with recruiting and fund-raising.
They are subject to negative recruiting.
They have limited knowledge of Title IX history and requirements.
They don’t know how to deal with gender inequities.
They are subject to homophobia.
They don’t feel they are given the resources that they need to be competitive.
They are paid less than their male counterparts.
Many have had no formal coaching training; they may have been athletes at the school where they were hired to coach, and then receive little or no mentoring or professional development.
They would like to feel more connected and supported.

So what to do? Join The Alliance of Women Coaches! Forward info on to female coaches that you know…spread the word! It’s important to me that my student-athletes see strong female leadership (within the coaching and administration ranks) so they can see themselves taking my place one day. It’s so important to me that I’m on the Board of Coaches for The AWC.

I love James Brown, but it’s not a man’s world in athletics anymore. The Alliance of Women Coaches is around to make sure that women are welcome, comfortable, and secure in the world of athletics.

I’m on the computer too much, I’ll admit to that…there’s so much information out there and I want to soak it all in. I enjoy reading about coaching and seeing what other folks are doing. Over the next few days, I’ll highlight four websites that you may not have heard about, but deserve way more love! Coach & Athletic Director, Women Talk Sports, ESPN W, and Alliance of Women Coaches.