Cory Dobbs, Ed.D.

Founder, The Academy for Sport Leadership

A TEAM LEADER FACILITATED ACTIVITY

NOTE: This exercise is designed to be facilitated by a student‐athlete team leader. Have all members of the team read the short narrative and then answer the questions that follow.

Fearless Followership

Pursuing a Higher Standard of Leadership and Followership

Imagine going to your school’s health office for a visit because you’re experiencing dizzy spells. Before you’ve had a chance to describe your symptoms, the doctor writes out a prescription and says, “Take two of these pills two times a day, and call me next week.”

“Excuse me, but—I haven’t told you what’s wrong,” you say, trying to articulate your condition. “How do you know this will help me?” “Why wouldn’t it?” says the doctor. “It worked for my last patient.” Confused by the doctor’s message and not wanting to offend her you just go along with the doctor’s directive. Rather than confront your doctor you take a sheepish approach and figure that you’ll just wait until later when not in her presence to sort things out.

In this scenario the leader is the doctor with you in the role of the patient. As a patient you are expected to follow the doctor’s directions. To question her is to question her legitimacy and authority. However, as you can see in this scenario, this presents a problem for you as your needs of the moment were neglected.

The traditional stereotype of the follower is of someone that is unwilling or unable to play a significant role in the direction a group desires to go. It is then assumed they are better suited to follow someone willing to provide direction. Generally, the role of followership has a negative connotation. Merely conceptualizing a follower “conjures up images of docility, conformity, weakness, and failure to excel” (Chaleff, 1995). Our culture tends to label followers as passive individuals lacking the “right stuff,” or someone without drive and ambition. However, effective leadership doesn’t happen without dynamic and committed followers.

Followership is important in any discussion of successful team leadership for several reasons. First, leadership and followership are fundamental roles that all athletes will move into and out of depending on the circumstances. It’s a given that as a team leader your primary role is that of a follower of your coaches. Second, just as you expect to influence the attitudes and actions of teammates you should be open to being influenced by teammates. Third, many of the characteristics that are desirable in a team leader are the same qualities possessed by committed and productive followers. Finally, the nature of the leader-follower role in team sports involves you being open to influence and change just as you look to influence and change teammates committed to common goals.

To succeed as a team leader it is essential you appreciate and respect your teammates as followers. One way in which you can do this is to embrace fearless followership. Fearless followership is the courage to take a bold stand and demonstrate the initiative to engage with teammates in an extraordinary way. A fearless follower will challenge a teammate who threatens the cohesiveness, values, or goals of the team. That is, the fearless follower is willing to hold teammates—including a team captain—accountable for team norms, standards, and expectations. Both leaders and followers have got to encourage active and attentive followership and build the relationships needed to move the team forward.

Think of it this way, if you and I agree that team captains should lead with integrity shouldn’t we expect followers to follow with integrity. If a team member falls short of expectations—including team captains—teammates must be comfortable calling them on it, but by letting them know the team needs them. In other words, not attacking the teammate but bringing them into the collective aspirations of the team. Together, team leaders and followers striving toward a collaborative relationship based on fearless
commitment to each other will create a more cohesive team capable of achieving team goals.

Followers want to be:
Accepted Connected Trusted Cared about
Supported Valued Respected A friend
Followers don’t want to be:
Rejected Disconnected Judged Neglected
Disrespected Not Valued Left out A foe
Exercise: Team Leader to Facilitate
Appoint one or two member’s of your team to facilitate a conversation regarding the
following:

The facilitator asks: What do you do when a teammate is:

• Unfocused
• Coasting
• Feeling superior
• Undisciplined
• Not coachable at a crucial moment
• Showing disrespect for teammates
• Making excuses
• Showing a lack of respect for competitors
• Has failed to keep a commitment

*This is a leadership tool created by 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

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

A former basketball coach, Cory’s coaching background includes experience at the NCAA DII, NJCAA, and high school levels of competition. While coaching, he researched and developed the transformative Becoming a Team Leader program for student-athletes. Cory has worked with professional athletes, collegiate athletic programs and high schools teaching leadership as a part of the sports experience and education process. Cory cut his teeth as a corporate leader with Fortune 500 member, The Dial Corp. As a consultant and trainer Dr. Dobbs has worked with such organizations as American Express, Honeywell, and Avnet.

Cory has taught a variety of courses on leadership and change for the following universities:

Northern Arizona University (Graduate Schools of Business and Education)

Ohio University (Graduate School of Education / Management and Leadership in Sport)

Grand Canyon University (Sports Marketing and Sports Management in the Colangelo School of Sports Business)

Visit www.corydobbs.com to read Cory’s leadership blog.

Team captains and leaders are extremely influential to any sports team. Their influence can greatly help the team and sometimes their actions can tear a team apart. in the video below sports psychology expert Greg Dale discusses how to help your team leaders with the struggle between being liked and being respected. The clip is a sample from a Championship Productions video. For more information about developing your team leaders click the link The Coach’s Guide to Developing Great Team Captains and learn about a variety of coaching strategies you can implement when it comes to maximizing your squad’s leadership potential, chemistry, and overall success.

The YouTube video has sound, so please make sure the sound is on and that you have access to YouTube. (many schools block access)

The article provided by Coaches Network

By Dr. Wade Gilbert

Much was written last April about Jordan Spieth’s record-setting performance at the Master’s golf tournament. At only 21 years old, Spieth broke multiple scoring records and became the first golfer in 30 years to lead the tournament from wire to wire (first day to final day).

However, it was what he did in between shots that impressed the world more so than his athletic prowess. He is being lauded as the future of American golf not just because of his golf ability, but equally as much for the type of athlete he represents. Spieth has won over sponsors, fans, and competitors alike because of his humble and respectful attitude, competitive drive, and willingness to learn.

According to his coach, Cameron McCormick, Jordan has always embodied these characteristics. McCormick reports many examples of how Jordan was willing to adapt and follow coaching suggestions all along the journey from 12-year old sensation to the reigning Master’s champion.

Jordan Spieth is a prime example of that most highly sought athlete by every coach—the coachable athlete.

Coaches spend considerable time and energy trying to find, and build, coachable athletes because they are eager to learn, fun to work with, and in the case of team sports they make their teammates better.

In my classes we often do an activity where I ask coaches to identify and rank characteristics of the coachable athlete. After preparing their list I then have them compare their list with a list generated in a national survey of over 100 college basketball coaches. The list includes the following nine characteristics, ranked in order from most important to least important:

• Willingness to be coached
• Willingness to sacrifice for the team
• Acceptance of criticism
• Acceptance of individual role
• Positive response to discipline
• Attentiveness
• Respect for authority
• Selflessness
• Agreeableness with coach

Notice that ‘willingness’ and ‘acceptance’ rank at the top of the list. Coachable athletes approach their sport with a willingness to do whatever it takes to improve performance. They also are eager to receive feedback and open to making adjustments. For athletes who play on teams, this is most evident when athletes eagerly accept new roles or new positions on the team, instead of complaining or challenging the coach.

Although I have found that most coaches agree with the list, there seldom is consensus on the order of the list. For example, two of my students asked their former coaches to comment on the list. The coaches included Margie Wright, college’s all-time winningest softball coach, and Brian Reynolds, who has coached his swim teams to 33-time national collegiate championships.

Interestingly, both of these legendary championship coaches rated ‘selflessness’ as the number one characteristic of a coachable athlete.

What these exercises illustrate is that taking time as a coach to reflect on how you define a coachable athlete is more valuable than the list itself. As you evolve and grow as a coach your list will also surely become more fine-tuned. The most coachable athletes for each coach will likely be the ones who model the coach’s core values and program philosophy.

Take a moment and think about the athlete characteristics you would put on your list. Then ask yourself how you model and teach these qualities to your athletes. Wouldn’t we all benefit from passing along a more coachable athlete to the next coach in the athlete’s journey?

This article is adapted from an article on the Human Kinetics “Coach Education Center” website.

 by Dr. Cory Dobbs, The Academy for Sport Leadership

Location Matters
Several years ago I was field testing a leadership development program with the San Francisco Giants Rookie League team headquartered in Arizona.  During spring training I read an article in the local newspaper highlighting the movement of Jeff Kent’s locker.  The article explained that Kent moved his locker to be mixed in with the rookies and inexperienced players.

Kent, a seasoned veteran and all-star player at the time, was acting in the role of team leader.  Hall of Fame baseball player Maury Will said “You’re not going to get followers just because you say you’re the leader.  The followers come because they have respect for you, and they have respect for him.”

I once heard leadership expert Warren Bennis tell of his experience in the dorms while attending MIT.  Seems Bennis observed that the floor leaders in the dorms tend to be those in rooms closest to the common shower or bathrooms.  Bennis suggested that the students in these rooms tended to interact with other members more often because of their room location.  These students were most likely to leave the door open as an invitation to conversation.

Competence or Excellence?  It’s a Matter of Deliberate Choice
In Gita Mehta’s novel, A River Sutra, the daughter of a master musician tells of her experience learning from her father:

My first music lesson extended several months.  In all that time I was not permitted to touch an instrument. . . . Instead my father made me sit next to him in the evenings as the birds were alighting on the trees.  “Listen,” he said in a voice so hushed it was as if he was praying.  “Listen to the birds singing.  Do you hear the half-notes and microtones pouring from their throats? . . . Hear?  How that song ended on a single note when the bird settled into the tree?  The greatest ragas must end like that, leaving just one note’s vibration in the air. . . .

Still an entire year passed before my father finally allowed me to take the veena across my knees. . . .  Morning after morning, month after month he made me play the [scales] over and over again, one hand moving up and down the frets, the other plucking at the veena’s strings, until my fingers bled. . . .

I had been under my father’s instruction for five years by now.  At last my father felt I was capable of commencing the performance of a raga. . . . 

The father understood that excellence is a deliberate choice and guided the daughter along a path that nurtured her understanding and appreciation for the process.  Shouldn’t we do the same?  Or is doing just enough, enough?

Scrimmage: A deliberate practice
Deliberate: Intentional.  Do you provide a space where your players can practice leadership?  That would be deliberate, if you do.

To Say It is Not to Do It
“Step up!” said the coach.  “Sure thing coach.  But whadda ya want me to do?”

Taking the Long View
We live in a society that has become increasingly short-sighted.  Today, a lack of vision permeates the life of most Americans and seemingly all young people (and perhaps it always has).  Pot shot?  Not really.  Ask your student-athletes to tell you how much time they’ve spent thinking about their lives ten or twenty years from the present.

We talk all the time about changing the lives of our student-athletes.  Yet rarely do we examine how effective we are in instilling life lessons.  Sure, some players return a couple of years later to thank us for teaching them a thing or two.  Simply put, in certain respects we hardly ever see the long-term effects we have on our student-athletes.

I’ve run into many ex-athletes in the corporate world.  In far too many cases I’m not able to tell the difference between them and the non-athlete at the next desk.

It’s Simple, Really, If You’re Serious
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel chain is serious about empowering each employee to make a difference.  Everyone in the organization—bellhops, valet, and maids—can spend up to $2000 to fix a guest’s problem on the spot.  No approval necessary.  Now that’s serious commitment to excellence.

When was the last time you gave valuable resources (such as practice time!) to your student-athletes to solve a problem on the spot?

Why a “real world” example?  Aren’t we supposed to be preparing students for the real world?

The Bystander Effect
In 1964 Kitty Genovese was attacked in the middle of the street near her building in New York and again in her building.  The attack was witnessed by many, though no one tried to stop the attack.  She yelled for help.  Yet no one called the police.

Such acts of apathy have been coined by social scientists the “Bystander Effect.”  When people in a crowd look and see that everyone is doing nothing, then doing nothing becomes the norm.

When witnesses in the building were questioned by police after the incident about why they remained silent and did not take action, one man spoke for all the witnesses.  According to a New York Times article at the time, he answered, “I didn’t want to be involved.”  And neither did the others who witnessed this crime.

Okay, so a player on your team violates a team rule and you don’t know about the incident.  However, team member’s do.  And they don’t tell you nor do they confront the teammate.  The norm has quickly become doing nothing.  The players are creating an apathetic culture of going along to get along.

The Honor Code
Norms are important.  Not because they generally sit at the end of the bar drinking beer, but because they shape behaviors.  The purpose of an honor code is to foster commitment to the ideals of an institution or team and to shape interpersonal interactions.

A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, nor tolerate those who do. –West Point

Can you imagine, and it takes imagination on this one, what life would be like if every member of your team lived this code.

Small Nudges Can Lead to Big Changes
Change the context and change the attitudes and actions.  According to Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, authors of Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness, people “can be greatly influenced by small changes in the context.”

The idea of “nudge” is that there is “no such thing as a ‘neutral’ design.”  Thaler and Sunstein elaborate on how “choice architects” organize (and thus influence) the context in which people make decisions.  Context does influence behavior.

A little push in the “right” direction can have a huge systemic impact.  Isn’t that what the invisible hand of an honor code does—nudge people to do the right thing.

Practice nudgery.

Your Move
Imagine yourself in a chess game where after every half-dozen moves, the arrangement of the pieces stays the same but the capabilities of each piece changes.  Isn’t this what happens with your team?  Random thought?  Not really.  The point is…

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 an accomplished researcher of human experience–a relentless investigator always exploring “how things work.” He is the founder and president of The Academy for Sport Leadership and A Leader in Every Locker and has written extensively on leadership development of student-athletes.

A Team Leadership Exercise

“That’s Outside My Boat”

Leaders Focus on Objectives, Not Obstacles

Cory Dobbs, Ed.D.

Founder, The Academy for Sport Leadership

Years ago a young reporter assigned to the “minor” sports of the Olympic Games-rowing, canoeing, and kayaking—set out to uncover how the champions in these events mentally prepared for success. Considering these athletes participated in outdoor sports he began by asking what they would do in case of adverse conditions caused by rain, strong winds, or choppy waters—all obstacles certain to happen at some time during their events. To his surprise the response, was always the same: “That’s outside my boat.” After hearing this from athlete after athlete the reporter realized that a focused perspective was their guide to
inner excellence.

The Olympians’ intense internal focus served to eliminate distractions—those things that were out of their control—thereby allowing them to concentrate on those things they could control. These premier athletes chose an attitude of optimism over pessimism, of responsibility over irresponsibility, and of problem solver over victim of circumstances. They focused on results, not on obstacles.

Attitudes are important. Your outlook on life is the lens through which you see the world. When challenges and adversity hit you or your team, and they will, you have an opportunity to decide what to focus on. Your focus can and will influence your teammates. When your teammates are frustrated or uncertain about a course of action, they will look to you as a guide to their decisions and actions.

The Olympian rowers exemplify how focus on objectives, not on the obstacles, is the key to championship performance. The major point is that everyone has the ability to choose their attitudes and develop a positive state of mind. Players with poor attitudes are going to be unhappy and quick to blame their circumstance or other teammates for failure when confronted with trials and tribulations. Many choices of attitudes exist, and the one’s you and your teammates choose matter.

Obstacles are always a part of the competitive sports environment. Effective team leaders accept this fact and focus their attention on what they know they can do, regardless of the external context. Committed team members know and accept the vital role of problem-solver as a responsibility of team leadership. And being an effective problem solver requires leaders to know when a problem is outside the boat.

The high-performing team leader recognizes the importance of helping his or er teammates to manage the journey. The first step toward focusing your teammates on the objectives is reinforcing team member commitment to the team’s objectives—its vision, mission, and goals. And when obstacles arise, become an active change agent helping teammates adjust their attitudes and refocus their energy. Whether in calm or troubled waters, champions overcome obstacles by focusing on objectives.

Case in Point

On January 15, 2009, one man’s focus saved the lives of one hundred and fifty-five passengers aboard a fallen airplane. Captain Chesley Sullenberger was the pilot in command of Flight 1549 departing from New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Upon takeoff the plane ran into a large flock of birds that disabled the plane’s engine. With urgency as the driving force, Captain Sullenberger quickly surveyed the landscape, looking beyond the obstacles of the moment to formulate a resolution to the pending tragedy he was facing. While everyone else focused on the obstacles, Captain Sullenberger had his eyes fixed on the objective. He did the unthinkable: he landed the monstrous Airbus A320 on the
Hudson River.

Sullenberger was concerned only with what he could control. He focused on what was happening inside his aircraft. His training, like the Olympians, equipped him to adapt and adjust his course of action to meet the objectives of the situation.

Team Discussion Questions

What are some reasons people focus on obstacles?

How does the physical environment influence teams and their dynamics?

What steps can be taken to prepare for obstacles?

Why is “perspective” important in competitive sports?

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

A former basketball coach, Cory’s coaching background includes experience at the NCAA DII, NJCAA, and high school levels of competition. While coaching, he researched and developed the transformative Becoming a Team Leader program for student-athletes. Cory has worked with professional athletes, collegiate athletic programs and high schools teaching leadership as a part of the sports experience and education process. Cory cut his teeth as a corporate leader with Fortune 500 member, The Dial Corp. As a consultant and trainer Dr. Dobbs has worked with such organizations as American Express, Honeywell, and Avnet.

Cory has taught a variety of courses on leadership and change for the following universities:

Northern Arizona University (Graduate Schools of Business and Education)

Ohio University (Graduate School of Education / Management and Leadership in Sport)

Grand Canyon University (Sports Marketing and Sports Management in the Colangelo School of Sports Business)

Visit www.corydobbs.com to read Cory’s leadership blog.