Sport and the Growing Good

Katie Ahrens Smith is the Vice President of Policy and Compliance at the Big Ten Conference. She’s got a rich history of campus level leadership and offers a unique perspective on different leadership roles and on the interaction between institutions and the conference office.  1.        Why Katie entered athletic administration. 2.        What is the Senior Woman Administrator in an athletic department? Variance by institution. 3.        What does a campus-level sport administrator do? 4.        How does a campus-level sport administrator interact with the conference office?  5.        Olympic sport oversight committee at the conference. 6.        Ways that Katie is growing in the conference office role. Situational leadership. 7.        Impacts of the growth of volleyball on the game, the experience of the student-athletes – and the leadership work surrounding it all. 8.        The impacts of the Big Ten Network on a new generation of athletes. 9.        What is the policy and compliance team at the conference doing amid an era of rapid change in the college sports world. 10.  Katie’s keys for communication. Be accurate. Prepare. Listen.

A key charge for coaches is bringing their teams together to form a collective identity. Team identity formation is a complex process that can shape the group’s journey in profound ways. In this session, Coach Jackson offers some insights on team identity formation. 1.        What is worth noting early in an NBA season. 2.        Setting the tone for a new season: Speaking with the team about pressure. 3.        Visualizing the new season ahead. What did Coach Jackson visualize? Pre-mortems. “How do we incorporate new people into the system? We start with their habits. How to build skill sets…Doing that goes through some basic drills to get your body in shape.” 4.        What intangibles do you look for in getting the individuals you want for your system? Looking at how individuals handle mistakes. “We used to watch players’ demeanors on the floor.” 5.        Dennis Rodman’s impact upon team identity: “He was going to extend the effort.” 6.        Off-seasons can create individuals who are isolated or even egotistical. “As a coach, you want to get that taken care of. To make them part of the group.” 7.        Functional diversity. Valuing different roles on the team. 8.        The “dark night of the soul.” Leading teams through difficult times. 9.        A team bonding through its punishment by the coach. 10.  Building incremental evidence of a team’s identity. 11.  Punctuated equilibrium. Rapid and radical identity change of a group. 12.  Group identity formation being impacted by the competition. “It’s a standard that your group has to live up to.” 13.  Responding to the Pistons’ intimidation attempts. “We’re standing our ground. We’re not going to be intimidated by you. But we’re not going to make a big issue out of it … We’re peaceful Warriors. We’re going to contest you and resist you. But we’re not going to stand up and get in a brawl. That’s not necessary… Those are little things that you see as a coach that you’ve got to have some resolve and some ideas about how you want to present yourself as a team.” 14.  Identifying the “essence” of our opponents and ourselves. Pressure as a key construct in one’s essence. Talking to players, “How do you feel about pressure?” The coach has to be able to discuss this. A team must be able to “join together to collaborate under duress to be successful.” 15.  Being able to sell what you’re going to teach. 16.  The coach as “horse rider” metaphor. Understanding the student and how they best learn. 17.  John Wooden: “My coaching was done in practice.” Players led the way during games because they’d been coached. 18.  What did Coach ask prospective players? “How do you see yourself fitting in with our group?” This question gets perspective on the player and how they understand the team. 19.  Meditation routine with teams. Body check. Breathing. “One breath, one mind.” 20.  Understanding teams deeply in order to get through difficult times.

A.J. Edds is the Vice President of Football Administration at the Big Ten Conference. He plays a central role in guiding the sport throughout the year – including communicating with internal conference colleagues as well as coaches and administrators at each institution. 1. Coaches who AJ admired over the years. Rick Wimmer (at Greenwood High School). Kirk Ferentz (at Iowa). 2. “We exist to serve our members.” Officiating, internal operations, scheduling, championship administration, media, fairness, etc. 3. A.J.’s roles in shepherding football in the conference. The importance of communication. 4. Communicating with football coaches and helping them work together productively. “Off-line consensus-building.” 5. Working with coaches: “I’m a better employee because of the expectations of the guys.” 6. Getting to know each of the coaches as people in order to best collaborate with them. 7. Technology changing the work. Replay center. IPads. Wireless coach-to-player communication. 8. How the central location of the conference’s replay center allows for greater consistency. How collaboration plays out on a given review. 9. Being both thorough and efficient in review process. 10. A.J.’s aspirations for the sport of football.

Becky Pany is the Senior Vice President of Sport Administration at the Big Ten Conference. She works closely with campus and conference partners to ensure that the conference offers a fair and robust sports experience.  1.        Back injury that allowed Becky to serve as a student coach and ultimately an internship and role in the athletic department at IU. 2.        Being a utility player. Learning from a variety of roles. 3.        The work of a campus-level sport administrator. A “bridge” between the program and the department (and vice-versa). Note: this is a critical and increasingly challenging role in the era of resource reallocation in college athletics. 4.        Roles as conference VP of sport administration. “Arbitrator of fairness.” 5.        The dynamics of working with coaches. Competitors and collaborators. Annual business meeting for each set of coaches. “They come together and work through all operational aspects related to their sports.” Talking through and standardizing championship manuals. 6.        How the governance process plays out for policy and rules changes. Coaches provide recommendations and then the ideas move through the chain of governance. 7.        Collaborating on complex matters like scheduling and team travel amid conference expansion. Example: how does a school’s academic calendar shape their scheduling and travel possibilities? 8.        Technologies that assist with putting schedules together. 9.        Routines with the SWAs on each campus. 10.  Values that guide her work. Fairness. 11.  Continuing to learn through relationships. Listening.

Laura Anderson is the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer at the Big Ten Conference. She draws from a rich diversity of professional and personal experiences to lead the conference through a period of rapid change. 1.        Leaders who Laura has learned from. Empathy and concern for the team. Trust. 2.        Her professional background. Accounting. “How to go into a place and learn everything you can about it.”  3.        Working in a volatile industry. Drawing from a diverse set of career experiences. 4.        Main responsibilities as CFO. Overall financial operations. 5.        Big Ten’s non-profit status.  6.        Big Ten as “central repository” and advocate for various services for the conference institutions. 7.        Money flows through Big Ten office and to the schools. Investing the money to maximize the money even for short time periods. 8.        Everyday routines. Talking “a hundred times a day” in the office with a colleague. Meetings with other senior leaders at the conference office. Conversations with campus contacts. 9.        Interactions with campus athletic department CFOs. Regular individual conversations and times when everyone comes together at the Big Ten office. 10.  Key phases of the year. Financial audit. 990 tax form. January budgeting and planning. March and April roll-out to governance structure. 11.  Technology and AI. Data protection. 12.  Communicating strategically with diverse constituents. 13.  “To be successful in a finance role, you need to be a people person.” 14.  Humility. Adaptability. Grit. Personality.

Kerry Kenny has worked at the Big Ten Conference for 17 years, holding multiple positions leading up to his current role as chief operating officer. In this role, he collaborates with the commissioner and many others in leading the conference through a rapid period of change. 1.        Lessons learned playing basketball for Lafayette University. “I showed up every day.”  2.        Attributes that Kerry looks for: note-taking and listening; authenticity, credibility, accuracy, positivity. “They may not be the most outspoken, but when they do choose to speak, they have credibility.”  3.        Having a positive attitude.  4.        Knowing the names of others as a sign of respect. 5.        Kerry’s strengths. Hand-written notes. Being intentional with every interaction. Learning about others. 6.        Kerry’s key components of work: 1) being “the best #2” for Tony; 2) managing the office day-to-day; 3) point person for television and media deals, HR, scheduling, etc. 7.        What prepared him: exposure to different parts of the operation over the years. “I’ve sat in their seat.” 8.        The importance of the conference’s physical office space: replay center, meeting spaces, everyday office spaces. 9.        Importance of geography: “Chicago holds a special place in Big Ten lore.” 10.  Office’s convenient proximity to the airport. 11.  The importance of face-to-face conversation – both planned and unplanned. Creativity. Collaboration. Camaraderie. 12.  Continued learning. Staying on the cutting-edge.  13.  Routines with external partners.  14.  Nuance, skill, and discretion in communication. Being an “information merchant.” Understanding how much information to offer in a given conversation. Separating the personal from the professional. 15.  Mental preparation and “re-setting” before important conversations. Understanding who you’re talking with.  16.  “KYP.” Know your personnel. Know your plan. Keep your poise… 17.  Discipline as a leader.  18.  Stories that illustrate what is unique about the Big Ten. 

1.        Mentors who were influential for Anil. 2.        Early experiences in name, image and likeness. 3.        Experiences as General Counsel at the University of Oklahoma. 4.        “Always be curious.” 5.        Responsibility of the General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer. 6.        Working with diverse constituents on a daily basis. 7.        What he looks for: People who get things done. Generalists. 8.        Providing value for conference constituents. 9.        Routines with campus-level general counsels. 10.  Conveying complex things to a generalist crowd. “It’s generally not the best plan that wins the day, but the best communicated one.” 11.  “My job is to tell you what you need to know if I was in your shoes.” 12.  Knowing when to act and when to wait. 13.  A leader who Anil admires.

Fred Krauss carries out a range of leadership roles as Director of Policy for the Big Ten Conference. He shared insights about how he collaborates with diverse partners in his everyday work.  1.        A Master’s thesis on Monday Night Football. 2.        Studying sports gamblers in Las Vegas on route to a Ph.D. 3.        Going to Law School at night. 4.        Sports Management program at UMass. 5.        Networking to get a job at the Big Ten. 6.        Director of Policy: Working with conference institutions to make sure they are well-informed and heard. 7.        What is the “Joint Group?” Governance that plays out across two groups: Administrator’s Council (Athletics directors and Senior Women’s Administrators) and Faculty Athletics Representatives. (Refer to figure below) 8.         What is the “Senior Women’s Administrator” role? 9.        The routines of the Joint Group. Regular meetings. Policies and deliberations. Close relationships. 10.   Council of Presidents and Chancellors. The Conference’s “board of directors.” 11.  Fred’s trick for doing the work: “Staying organized!”

Tony Petitti leads the Big Ten Conference during a period of significant change in college athletics. We addressed a range of questions including: What are his daily routines? Who does he collaborate with? What is unmanaged change and how does Tony engage it? 1.        Self-awareness in making the transition into his area of leadership. “The most important change” in Tony’s career. 2.        The value of “being on the ground” in his work.   3.        Always listening and having enthusiasm. “People gravitate to people who care.” 4.        The best athlete strategy.  5.        “Give people more” to do. Reward them not with just compensation, but “with more work.” 6.        “The best thing you can do for a young person is to widen their skillset.” 7.        Questions to consider: What you do. Who you do it with. How much you make. The third is least important. 8.        Keys to making sense of the college sports environment: Listening. 9.        Why it’s important to have a meaningful connection with the SEC. 10.  Unmanaged change. “If you’re a leader and you’re trying to run your organization and most of the change is happening outside of your decision-making, that’s a problem.” 11.  Working with Presidents and Chancellors. Getting them the information they need so that they can make decisions. Having group calls but also individual check-ins. 12.  Being highly transparent and sharing information. “I’d rather share more.” 13.  “Working for the Presidents and Chancellors but with the Athletic Directors.” 14.  30-40% of his calls are spontaneous, unplanned. 15.  Tony’s advice to aspiring leaders: Show that you care. Listen. Have broad interests and skills. Connect yourself to good people. 

Coaches and leaders are charged with getting their teams to buy-in to the systems they’ll run together. How can coaches garner buy-in? 1. Reviewing metacognition. Ways to get there — reflection, feedback, mindfulness meditation, prayer. 2. Having unattached NBA coach give feedback and analysis of his team throughout the season. 3. Having a mentor or two who gave coach advice. 4. The importance of practice in implementing systems. 5. “We are decidedly subjective as human beings — we see things through our own lens.” 6. Coaches need to be purposeful about how we portray ourselves to the group. John Wooden: Coaching in games is mostly adjustments — you don’t want to inhibit performance. 7. Systems as ways of “making sense” of what our teams do. 8. What are the first steps that a coach takes in being a salesperson for their system?  9. Metaphor to think about sense-making and systems: Mann Gulch fire of 1949. Norman MacLean. 10. Anticipating a 10:00am fire. Not giving due respect for the moment. How should we frame a season, an endeavor we’re undertaking with our group? Be physically capable. Use the system to guide the teaching. Repetition within the confines of the system. Teach the skills that are useful for in the moment under pressure. “For the want of a nail, a war was lost." 11. Implications of yelling: “Drop your tools!” “What is a smokejumper without his tools?” (Pulaski)  12. "You have to break bad habits and implant new habits, which requires repetition. So you have to create meaningful repetition.”  13. First steps in getting buy-in to the system. Sometimes it’s the stars (MJ, Kobe). Other times it’s others who have influence who can be key influencers in getting buy-in to the system. Boundary spanners. “Every team has that unspoken leader." 14. Improvising within a system. “A good system allows for skills that people might possess that are extraordinary.” 15. Benefits of a system: refer to Sport and the Growing Good episode #133. 16. “In an emergency, it’s much better if a decision comes from a group.” Give the team voice and authority. 17. Onboarding veterans onto a team. Having a designated person who helps them learn it. Using multiple methods. 18. Telling a player, “I see you as a leader.” Are leaders born or made?  19. “Lone wolves need to submit to the system."