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Kicking the Milk Under the Fridge
We’ve all been there. Stuck in the chaos with no playbook. But what truly makes the difference? It’s how leaders respond after the black swan hits. Think about Penn State, FIFA scandals, US Figure Skating, or even your favorite professional sports league. How they handle the fallout can make or break the organization. The keys…
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Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
This past NFL season was more entertaining than ever. A couple of weeks ago, the Rams beat the Bengals in Super Bowl XLI. It was a good game, at the end of a historic postseason where every game was close. There was more parity than ever before throughout the season, fans were back in the…
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Toxicity and Receding Mental Health in the 2022 Winter Olympics
Since the beginning of sport, international competitions such as the Olympic Games have represented so much more than the athletes competing. A handful of contestants bear the weight of a country on their shoulders during these events. This can often lead to high-performance athletes destroying not only their bodies pushing the physical limits, but also…
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The Soul of Sports: Optimistic Coaching
In the course of reviewing titles for my school library, I have come across a book written by Darrin Donnelly called “Relentless Optimism” This little gem tells the tale of Bobby Kane and his encounter with the legendary and inspirational coach Wally Hogan. As an Australian, I’m not very familiar with these men but in…
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The Cruelest Devil: Lessons from the Tragic Fall of Matt Harvey
If you’ve followed the news of late, the once heralded baseball phenom Matt Harvey, had to testify in a Texas courtroom last week about his own history of drug use and his sharing of prescription painkillers with teammates. One of those teammates, Tyler Skaggs died at the age of 27 in 2019, and Harvey, who…
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Values
Values in any sports organization are extremely important. Values of the organization show coaches, staff, and athletes what is important for the organization. CEO, presidents, GMs, and coaches’ values show what they believe, what they have learned, and who they are. With all of these different values, from so many different people, how does an…
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Has Ethical Responsibility Been Left Out in the Cold?
The principles of ethical leadership include honesty, justice, respect, community and integrity, these are of foremost importance in any environment and are perhaps even more important than having knowledge of the sport in which an individual is leader. The ability to navigate complex situations and be guided by well-honed perceptions of ethical responsibility is paramount and…
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Early Greatness: Is It Bad For Mental Health?
Greatness, no matter how long, sticks with a man. (Yes, I used the Gene Hackman reference from The Replacements again) But what is seldom thought about is, “What about greatness at an athlete’s early age?” I believe these situations have more potential to crush an athlete than potential to help them. (Except for the most…
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Quicksand
Quicksand is a serious issue, and not one of folklore. It has been around since sports began in our civilization. It does not matter what level or type of sport that is being played, quicksand can happen anytime…and sometimes at the worst time. Mikaela Shiffrin qualified for multiple events in this Olympic Games. She is…
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Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together?
The Beijing Olympics are underway, and I have settled into my usual Olympic stance. I ask myself questions. Do I care? Should I boycott? What is the Russian Olympic Committee? I’m curious, so I watch. Maybe something great, like the Miracle on Ice, will happen. These Olympics are different for a couple of reasons. First,…
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Owning Your Role: How To Build A Team And Accept Help
Toughness and camaraderie in Sport Team Culture comes down to whether one is either “The Leader,” “The Soldier,” or “The Supporter.” Everyone plays a role. Leaders, soldiers, and supporters – they all create “The Team.” No-one can truly thrive without the other executing their job. These roles stem from the human psyche; we naturally fit…
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Mean Girls
I was reading a social media post about bad behavior in relationships and I was astounded by the statement “boys will be boys”. Is this perhaps a sterling example of poor or toxic behavior being normalized in society? Thomas Roulet, a professor of organisational theory at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School warns that…
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Recovery After an Extremely Toxic and Abusive Culture
Is your organization at rock bottom? There is no trust, little communication, people are scared and confused, employees are bracing for the worst, employees and athletes trust nobody, and athletes are looking elsewhere because of the toxic culture that you have identified and are now trying to change. If your organization is in this position,…
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Toxic Leadership In Work Settings
As our culture in sports starts to refine itself we gradually begin to fade away from traditional standards and start introducing new and fresh ideas. When a coach comes in a new setting and isn’t willing to adapt the specific culture of the team, organization, or sport we see a downfall in the organization. What…
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Clouds around the Olympic Rings: The Opening of the Beijing Winter Games
The Olympic Winter Games opened in Beijing in the midst of gathering clouds. Whether these clouds are a prelude to coming storms or will merely block the metaphoric sunshine of global peace, understanding, and transformative competition that the Olympics hope, on their best day, to be remains to be seen. That this could go either…
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Drawing A Line In The Sand: Athletes Do Not Stop Fighting, They Challenge Each Other
When I was in the 5th grade at Hatfield Elementary School (Uniontown, PA) I met a lifelong brother and the truest of friends, Joseph Spinuzza. The first thing we did was have a rubber-band gun fight (We were 11 years old) … the second thing that we did as friends was have a boxing match.…
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Retiring from Perfection
This week is a celebration. The Greatest of All Time, the GOAT, has decided to retire from professional football. After winning 243 NFL games, including seven Super Bowls, and passing for 84,520 yards and 624 touchdowns in his 22-year career, Tom Brady will focus his time and energy on other things that require his attention.…
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Leading Change
Combining my studies, my job, this crazy condition we find ourselves in globally, and the topics I explore for Culture in Sports, I have found that the most prevalent unifying issue is the constancy of change and how we manage it. The culture of an organisation can be made or broken by the ability to…
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Empathy and Greatness: The Altruistic Lifestyle of a Great Coach
“Greatness, no matter how brief, stays with a man.” (A quote from the great actor Gene Hackman at the end of the superb Sport drama The Replacements, yeah I am indeed “fanboying” that performance) But what is greatness? Is it a Division-1 athlete who excels and wins a National title? Is greatness a professional athlete…
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Not a Circus Show
The San Francisco 49ers are on a roll. They are piling up wins with the greatest of ease, just like the man on the flying Trapeze. This month, they have been traveling from town to town in pursuit of reaching the Super Bowl. From Los Angeles to Dallas to Green Bay, they have taken their…
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Sometimes It Is Just Not a Good Fit
Sometimes it is not just a good fit and that is okay. Russell Westbrook was recently benched by the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers and all reports point to Mr. Westbrook’s poor play. While it may be frustrating for Westbrook, fellow players, coaches, and the fans that his performance has been far from stellar,…
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Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act: The precedent will be set, but will it be the right one?
History was made last week. Well, history is made every week, but on January 12th, the United States Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York filed the first ever charges under the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act of 2019. Shortly thereafter, the FBI office in El Paso, Texas took Eric Lira, a self proclaimed “Naturopathic…
