Carl Martinez,
Athletic Director,
Whittier Christian High School,
La Habra, California
Leave your feet. In sports, this phrase describes the athlete who is completely “sold-out” to giving 100 percent effort—the football player diving to catch the out-of-reach football, the basketball player throwing his body into the crowd to save the ball, or the softball player sliding into bases headfirst at full speed.
In athletic administration, leave your feet describes the leader who is completely “sold-out” to giving 100 percent effort in effectively leading a school’s athletic program. With a desk overflowing from schedules and eligibility forms, a good athletic director still consistently takes time out to listen to a coach’s triumphs and trials. Seeking out an athlete at lunch to say “Great job!” is another trademark of an effective leader. Most importantly, this athletic director is the one who takes full ownership for the vision and direction of an athletic program.
Leave your feet leadership serves as an effective model within administrative circles of the academic world. We as athletic directors have a unique opportunity to emulate the effort and enthusiasm seen in top-performing athletes. With Jesus Christ as our example, we can apply leave your feet leadership principles to make any department thrive. Setting this style of leadership into motion in our schools begins with two primary principles:
Vision:
All individuals who coach and come in contact with your athletic department should know and clearly understand the department’s vision. Whittier Christian High School strives to use athletics to develop young men and women of character. We are very interested in winning; however, we are even more interested in developing the best students, citizens, friends, and future spouses and employees through the life lessons of athletic competition.
As the athletic director, you must assure that your voice be continually one of direction and encouragement to coaches, perspective coaches, athletes, and parents. It is your responsibility to ensure that all coaches understand the goals of the athletic department. You can accomplish this task through continual communication in athletic department meetings, practice visitations, and effective printed materials. Communicating vision must be a daily priority. This past spring I traveled to Stanford University to discuss athletic administration with Michael Izzy, the assistant athletic director. Although Stanford is known for its extremely high academic standards, the school also excels at the Division I level. I asked Izzy why he believes Stanford’s athletic program has experienced such great success. Without hesitation he said, “Through communicating the vision continually.”
Establishing a common vision requires focus. Providing a philosophy of student athletics for all coaches will help concentrate their efforts and help build accountability. The philosophy section in our athletic handbook opens with the following sentence: “Whittier Christian’s interscholastic athletic program focuses on developing the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of the student-athlete.” During the daily grind of practicing and the excitement of playing before the home crowd, we are given the opportunity to instill lifelong values in our athletes. These values will help young people withstand the triumphs and trials they will face in their lives.
Vision is realized through your athletic department’s goals, which come out of your philosophy. You will accomplish only what your staff specifically sets out to achieve. The goals of your department fuel your success. At our high school, we strive to attain the following eight goals:
- To develop and motivate athletes to reach full athletic potential
- To work with others
- To develop a positive attitude toward themselves, teammates, and coaches
- To develop a sense of true commitment and dedication
- To develop sportsmanship
- To develop in our athletes a desire to be successful
- To develop leadership skills
- To develop desirable personal health habits
Obviously, your department’s goals need to be customized to fit your program. The point is to have them and communicate them clearly. With a focused staff and clearly communicated goals, vision will flourish, and so will your athletic program.
Servant Leadership:
The second key to the leave your feet leadership style is fulfilling your role as a servant. Our foremost purpose as administrators is to serve our Lord because He is our ultimate boss. Colossians 3:23 points out, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." This principle applies even to the chaotic world of athletic directors.
Jesus set the example of our service to others. He said that “whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve” (Matthew 20:27–28). We as leaders have been commanded to be full-time servants of others. Students are the reason our programs exist, and we must never forget that they represent our first concern. We continually need to ask how our decisions will affect athletes. At our respective schools, athletics can represent a significant part of the overall student culture. It is our job to provide an athletic program that creates school pride while providing opportunities to instill values and life skills.
We need to remember that we are also servants to our coaches. We cannot accomplish everything. Our coaching staff members are the department’s philosophy and goals in motion. They are mentors on the field and court, and their wisdom and leadership impact lives. Students, during their sport seasons, they spend more time on average with their coaches than they do with their own parents! Because of the commitment and investment of coaches, they are the ones who will receive phone calls years later from former students, thanking them for their example. Serve your coaches; they represent your most valuable assets in the athletic program.
In order to become an athletic director who instinctively leaves your feet, you must first establish and communicate the department’s vision and then lead boldly as a servant. A noted author on leadership, Max DePree (Hickman 1998), shares pearls of wisdom when he writes, “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor.” All of this might sound obvious, but a time will come when it gets blurry. It may be the day when at 3:30 P.M., the bus transporting the baseball team is lost, the confirmed umpire for your home softball game is nowhere to be found, and the receptionist informs you that there are two parents in the lobby with a concern. All of us know that these times happen. It is then that we must take a deep breath and remind ourselves that we are the Lord’s servants and that He will provide the strength and wisdom necessary to leave our feet. Did I mention that you also have to get to the opening ceremony of the boys tennis match in 15 minutes to say the prayer and that the match is off campus?
Reference
Hickman, Gill Robinson, ed. 1998. Leading organizations: Perspectives for a new era. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.
Leave Your Feet 6.2