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
