Journal 11, Week 4

A discussion with a loved one about leadership

This happens fairly often in my home life. My wife leads the Winthrop University volleyball program and I lead the Northwestern High School tennis program. We both love the work we do and feel very rewarded at the impact we have on young people's lives.

I devoured the Wooden book that was assigned for this Leadership class. I am infatuated with Wooden's Pyramid of Success and have been trying to implement it into my daily coaching methods. It is not easy and I'm sure Coach Wooden would agree. Our society puts so much emphasis on winning that it is hard to discuss being successful without having an exceptional win-loss record. Currently my wife's team is 5-5 and mine is 2-2.

Our most recent conversation about leadership was in regards to quotes in the paper made by Withrop's men's soccer coach after a 5-3 win against a smaller and less talented team. Coach Posipanko was clearly dissapointed by his team's defensive efforts. His comments were harsh toward the team's ability to stay focused defensively and to step up to make plays for the team. None of his quotes commented on the offensive efforts that lead to the 5 goals.

I was dissapointed that the offensive production was not mentioned by the coach. I felt that those players or the offense in general deserved some credit in doing it's job. I certainly understand where Coach Posipanko was coming from though. When his team plays a higher level of competition, they cannot allow team breakdowns to allow 3 goals. The higher competition will not allow his team to excecute on offense like it did against this lesser quality opponent.

My wife thought the comments were completely appropriate. Despite the offensive production, the entire team needs to know that the focus of all team members needs to be on the defensive end. Her team struggles with similar trouble on defense with inconsistent effort both mentally and physically so she could easily relate to the frustration.