On Becoming a Leader Reaction

According to Warren Bennis, there are many ingredients needed to be a good leader.

First is to have a guiding vision. I agree, you have to have an overall vision of where you want to progress.

Second is passion. I agree with Bennis that this is super important. If you don’t have a passion for something, than why bother doing it. If I didn’t have passion for sports or Bearcast, why bother being a part of it?

Finally, the third ingredient is integrity. He says you need to have self knowledge, candor, and maturity. I certainly agree, but I can boil it down into a more generic term. You have to be a nice person. You can’t lead if people think you are a douchebag, plain and simple!

Another part I found pretty interesting was the difference between managers and leaders.

For the GM position, I don’t want to be a manager. In some instances I’ll have to, but I want to be a leader. I want to innovate, I am original, I will develop (but also maintain), and I KNOW I will focus on people, I’ll inspire trust, have both long term and short term goals, I’ll ask what and why, and most importantly, I’ll do the right thing.

I’m not training for this job, there isn’t a GM of College Radio class I can take to learn how to do the job. I’ve had years of schooling and years of leadership experience to prepare me for this task. That’s what Bennis is saying. Leaders are born, not made.

Another interesting point is that good leaders, don’t spread the blame. Look. I’m a sports guy, I’ve learned this over the years. Good leaders always place all the blame on themselves. Don’t play the blame game.

That is how its done boys!

In hockey, they often say that goaltenders carry teams in the playoffs. Certainly the Montreal Canadiens have that in Jaroslav Halak who has been their best player for the eighth seeded Habs, but don't slouch on their other players.

This is how a team with good leadership in the front office, and in the locker room performs when it counts. The Habs have been through a lot this season. Turmoil began when they performed poorly during the start of the season, and lost defensive leader Andrei Markov, and continued throughout the season when GM Bob Gainey stepped down and Pierre Gauthier stepped in. They had to fight hard to even get in the playoffs, only one point better than the New York Rangers.

Nobody gave them a chance to beat Alexander Ovechkin and the best team in hockey. They did.

Nobody gave them a chance to beat Sidney Crosby and the defending champs. They did.

Really though, it's more than just leadership that makes them a good team. Throughout the playoffs, they wanted to win, they wanted the cup more than any other team. Their effort is supreme.

Contrast the Canadiens to that of the Cavaliers last performance against the Celtics in Game 5. Lebron displayed poor leadership and skills on what could potentially be the biggest game, and maybe the last of his career in Cleveland. There is no way that Habs fans boo them, even if they lose in the Conference Finals because nobody gave them a chance to get here. They are showing supreme effort and teamwork. They are trusting each other, and playing at an extremely high level.

Teamwork 101 Reaction

Loyalty. First thing that stood out to me was Loyalty. I am a very loyal person and I continually get upset with the Free Agency because it seems like players don't show loyalty to their teams. I'm the type of guy that would take a hometown discount to stay at a place if it meant bettering the team. A great example of loyalty was the Detroit Red Wings team in the 1990's. Sergei Federov and Steve Yzerman BOTH took paycuts to allow the Red Wings to bring in new players and eventually compete for more cups. That is loyalty!

One quote I liked was Loyalty fosters unity, and unity breeds team success.

I think I've talked about this person before, but our resident story topper in Emedia needs to take a lesson or two from this book, and the section about becoming more selfless and promoting someone other than yourself, she should take a look at. The world doesn't revolve around any one person, and really thats what friends are for! I consider everyone in a director position friends. We will be competing for spots, and if one of them get selected for a position that I wanted, I'm not going to be mad. They are all my friends, and I know all of them will do a good job. I think Duane and Steve could do just as good a job as Dylan and I did this year in the Sports Department. I'm not worried about Bearcast Leadership. I think we have a good group that will help make the station better, interviewing tonight.

The part about building a team, I really think the most challenging, but important step, is empowering team members with responsibility and authority. This certainly cultivates leaders, but you have to be right, otherwise empowering a power hungry person to lead can lead to disaster. This goes along with identifying weak links in leadership.

I liked this book. It really goes in depth to what being a good leader is, and means. I'll certainly take lessons from this book, and carry them with me throughout my life. John C. Maxwell is a pretty smart guy!

Call HIM Captain

So I thought it'd be interesting to show that it doesn't matter how old you are, or who is around you that a young adult can be a good leader amongst a team of veterans. For this example, I'm going to look at the teams left in the playoffs and their captains and assistant captains.

#4 Pittsburgh Penguins

C- Sidney Crosby - Age 22

A- Evgeni Malkin - Age 23

A- Sergei Gonchar - Age 36

#8 Montreal Canadiens (opt for an extra assistant captain as opposed to captain)

A- Brian Gionta - 31

A- Hal Gil - 35

A- Andrei Markov - 31

#6 Boston Bruins

C- Zdeno Chara - 33

A- Patrice Bergeron - 24

#7 Philadelphia Flyers

C- Mike Richards - 25

#1 San Jose Sharks

C- Rob Blake - 40

A- Dan Boyle - 33

A- Joe Thornton - 30

#6 Detroit Red Wings

C- Nicklas Lidstrom - 40

A- Henrik Zetterberg - 29

A- Kris Draper - 39

A- Pavel Datsyuk - 31

#2 Chicago Blackhawks

C- Jonathan Toews - 22

A- Patrick Sharp - 28

A- Duncan Keith - 26

#3 Vancouver Canucks

C- Roberto Luongo - 31

A- Ryan Kesler - 25

A- Henrik Sedin - 29

A- Willie Mitchell - 33 (hurt right now)

So there is a list of these teams, and it's interesting because teams that you would consider a "young" team, tend to have younger captains. The Penguins and the Blackhawks jump off the page for their young leadership. At the same time, only one team that you would consider an "old" team had a young captain, and that would be the Flyers Mike Richards. There are a lot of older candidates for that gig, but it belongs to Richards. It's interesting to see that they don't have any assistant captains on that team, even though they have a few guys who have been captains elsewhere.

The other interesting scenario is Vancouver, because their Captain is their goaltender. Goalies are not allowed to wear the C, so that is why they have an extra Assistant Captain right now. Luongo is the leader of that team, but on the ice, (when not hurt) Willie Mitchell is the acting captain. Right now it is Henrik Sedin who takes over those duties.

This is what I want to have in bearcast. Not every leader has to have a director title to feel like they can be vocal in changing Bearcast. We need to distribute leadership so everyone has the same feelings that I do about our station.

Call me Captain

Throughout my 22 years, I've known of one thing, and that is hockey. I know the in's and out's to the sport and can recite players names, numbers, positions, best players on teams, goalies, trophy winners, etc... As I've said (and argued with you before) that hockey is the ultimate team game. Baseball, Basketball, and in some instances Football are too individualistic sports, they can't be the ultimate team game. For baseball in particular, its all individuals. There is little to no camaraderie in baseball because everything is measured in individual stats. Pitchers = Wins, Losses, Saves, ERA; Batters = BA, HR, 2B, 3B, etc... (only team stat would be RBI's I suppose) and the same thing happens to fielders = errors, put outs, etc...

Basketball is very similar in that individuals dominate the sport. As the Cavaliers have proved, Lebron can get them into the playoffs, now you have to have a good team to get in the finals, but I think there are a lot of teams with owners who are happy with one decent player, and a bunch of nobody's on the court giving their fans no hope...I"M TALKING TO YOU CLIPPERS!

College is the same way too, because I think all of these "star" players are ready to jump ship after one year. It's a joke. They don't care about the logo on the front, but the name on the back. John Wall doesn't care about the state of Kentucky basketball right now, he cares about his stats and his draft stock and the dollar bills that are coming his way. If you are good, the dollar bills will be there after your time at Kentucky is up.

Football is certainly more of a team game than the other two, but still, football has a lot of ego. Very few players in the league are willing to do anything for their team, and a lot of them, especially wide receivers, are considered divas. They all want the ball all the time, even when it isn't practical to throw.

So now I come full circle back to hockey. Hockey is certainly measured in statistics, but it goes deeper than that. There are very few players that one would call "a puck hog" and you'll see a lot of players willing to give the puck up to a teammate. Even the greats like Sidney Crosby realize that you have to be able to set your teammates up, because you can't do it all yourself. That similar situation happened to the best player, Alex Ovechkin, this year in the playoffs. He thought he had to do everything, shooting any chance he got, and look where the Capitals are now! They are golfing after the first round, after losing to a #8 seed.

The Penguins, the last cup winner, have a good team. They had a tremendous offense, a great defense, and a decent but inconsistent goaltender. One of the reasons that makes hockey the ultimate team game is this...personal sacrifice. Do you know who Rob Scuderi is? If I were to tell you Scuderi single handedly kept the Penguins alive in that series would you believe me? It wasn't Crosby, wasn't Malkin, wasn't Fleury, but Scuderi. It's true. Scuderi will never get the credit he deserves, but he layed his body on the line, blocking countless number of shots and saving game 6 to force 7 for the Penguins. Only Scott and myself give this man the credit he deserves.

So is that okay with Scuderi? Absolutely. He gets no credit and gets the oldest trophy in sports; every young hockey players dream is to hoist the cup, and he achieved his goal.

So personal sacrifice is important, but roles are the most important reason why hockey is the ultimate team game.

There are so many roles in hockey: grinders, power forwards, playmakers, snipers, danglers, offensive defenseman, stay at home defenseman, fighter, star, butterfly goalie, stand up goalie, hybrid goalie, back up goalie, agitator, etc...

To be successful you have to have many of these roles on your team. The Cup winning Pens did! Fleury was playing out of his mind in net, and played the butterfly style. Their top line of Crosby, Guerin, and Kunitz was really balanced. Crosby was the star playmaker, Guerin was the power forward sniper, and Kunitz was your grinder on the line, and that line was extremely successful last year. Then a defensive line with Scuderi, our stay at home defenseman, and Sergei Gonchar, our offensive defenseman, was as balanced as they come.

Fighters are equally important because fighting isn't just for entertainment of fans, its about sticking up for teammates and creating momentum. The most important unwritten rule in hockey is don't go after our star player. Here is a perfect example. Drury, our star player gets a cheap shot check from a punk. That sets our head coach Lindy Ruff on a mission, he has to send a message. In hockey, the home team (in this case the Sabres) have the last change, so the Senators put their guys out, and the Sabres can then change lines to match up one last time...take a look and I'll talk more about this.

So, pretty exciting huh! So to recap, Lindy puts his first line out there...not fighters, which Bryan Murray (coach of the Sens) matches with his top line full of stars. Lindy than pulls his line off and puts his fourth line, full of fighters and agitators on the ice, essentially tricking Murray into putting his star players in harms way. Look at #22 Adam Mair in the blue, goes immediately after their star Jason Spezza. Look how many white jerseys surround him after he starts wailing on Spezza. Look at the goalies, Biron and Emery get involved. Emery is a fighter and a tough customer, but Biron was fighting way out of his league (as you can tell). Look at how every man has to grab another guy. They may not be fighting, but they don't want their teammate to get ganged up on. Then look at the coaches, fighting on the bench. (Ironically, the guy that is in the middle with the mic, is the Sabres all time leader in fighting majors and penalty minutes) I can't make everything out, but Lindy is quoted as saying "Don't go after our f*****g Captain." That entire elaborate 3 minute spur of the moment plot was for one reason, to send a message that their goons taking cheap shots will not be tolerated by the Buffalo Sabres any longer. The Senators haven't messed with the Sabres like this sense that incident. Thats what a real, ultimate team does, they win, and they stick up for each other.

Some parents think hockey is to violent a sport and that they aren't good role models, but I'll tell you something, fighters ARE ultimate role models, and the ultimate team players. Those guys are A. usually the nicest guys on the team off the ice B. always help the community C. they do an important job for the team! They know their role, and they know their job, and it's an honour to do that for the betterment of the team.

Hockey is the ultimate team game. Every players goal is not to score the most goals, but to hoist that beautiful silver cup on the last game of the year.

Can't Spell Teamwork with an "I"

So here is my reaction to the Teamwork 101 reading.

First off, the very first quote is wonderful. "One is too small a number to achieve greatness."

So profound, and so very true. No one person can achieve everything by themselves. Lets examine some of the greatest people to achieve greatness.

Bill Gates: Worked with others to develop Windows. Partnered with many to create great products such as that Xbox 360 I can't give up in Media Depravation day. Team Player.

Wayne Gretzky: Nickname "The Great One". 1,963 assists to teammates. Captained some of the best teams. Team Player.

Peter DePietro: Created major websites such as Clinton Foundation and Barnes and Noble to name a couple. Created these as part of the team. Team Player.

Whether you are the Richest man in the world, best player at a sport, or a University Professor who knows his stuff, to achieve greatness, we have to be team players.

Another part that I think was really interesting. was the "Why do we Stand Alone?" section. I love nearly everyone in my major, but there are a few that suffer from these qualities that make them a bad team player. The analogy of the spinning plates, and the more plates you spin, doesn't increase your talent, but increases the chance of a plate falling. I can't stand Big Ego's, and while sometimes I'll joke and pretend I have an ego, in reality, I go out of my way to make sure that I don't have a big ego, cause I hate those people. I'm a pretty outgoing person to, so where Maxwell says he has problems relating to the less outgoing folk, I understand what he's saying. What's the harm in saying hello?

"Working together with other people toward a common goal is one of the most rewarding experiences of life."

Playing hockey with my teammates...my friends...is one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Winning a rec league championship means something, because we come together, united for one cause, communicate effectively and play efficient and at a high level to win. Talent won us games. We had a few games where we were just off, and our goalie wasn't playing well, but we had a few guys who could score and they won us games. Teamwork is what won us championships.

I go back to one of my best, and favourite (inline) hockey memories. So, I was subbing as a goalie for some friends who had a double header. We had 4 players and me, the goalie against a full team. No players got rest, and it was a constant barrage of shots that I had to face (one of the teams, my dad was the goalie of), and we had one player who was a good scorer, and two great defenseman. We communicated and came together and ended up winning both games. Everyone was shocked that four players with no rest, and a goalie (who is AWESOME) won a double header with only an hour rest in between games. I probably stopped 100 shots that day. I trusted my defenders to block shots, I trusted my offense to score, and they trusted me to give them the opportunity to win by keeping the biscuit out of the basket.

The three questions, What is my dream?, Who is on my team?, and What should my dream team look like? are very important too. Establish what you want to accomplish, assemble a team, and assemble the team that fits the dream. Maxwell says, "It's better to have a great team with a weak dream, than a great dream with a weak team."

As far as Bearcast goes, the chapter about developing leaders is really important to me, and to my vision of how Bearcast should be run. We need to find people who exemplify important qualities, and put a higher stake in them so that they can take over as leaders. I think I've done that this year with the Sports Director position. I know that if I'm not selected as a director next year, that our sports department will be in great hands, because I have a large stake in both Duane McDonald, and Steve Bohne. Their are pluses and minuses for every candidate, but I really think Steve has shown that he is a person Bearcast should want to have as a leader. This year was harder to schedule because our team was smaller, and too many people had internships and are graduating. Steve was really my go to guy all year long. Never had a problem doing games, filling in for people, and I can count on him to teach the new guys (by vocal leadership, and by example) of how we are run. Just yesterday, during his show, Steve was wearing a hoodie and jeans....certainly not Bearcast Sports dress attire, but I knew Steve was money, and he didn't disappoint, because he had brought kakis, a golf shirt, and shoes with him to look good, and comply with our self imposed dress code. I certainly think that we have some great candidates for directors next year, and I think Steve would make a great one! That being said, I know without a doubt in my mind that Duane would be a great director. He too exemplifies any and every quality you could think of. I can't say enough about Duane. I tried convincing Duane last year to apply, and even went as far as telling him that if I were making the decision, I would take him over Dylan, Scott, and myself. Nobody has a bad thing to say about Duane, and everyone respects him. He's a hard worker and a tremendous leader. One thing is certain, our Sports department will continue to grow and work harder, and become better with the leaders we have, and maybe the leaders we will have!

I finally agree with an author from our required books! After thinking that Mark Ramsey knew nothing about radio (especially satellite radio), I love Maxwell. I think he is spot on and I really believe everything he says. I don't know if this is how I'm supposed to feel, but when I read these words and I feel like I innately know the words in this book.

Leadership Experiences in my 22 Years

In 22 years, I think I have a good idea of what a good leader is. I was first exposed to my leaders, my parents, in January of 1988. When I was younger, I used to think leaders meant being bossy. As a young 5 year old, I of course, thought my parents were bossy, but with age I've come to realize that leadership is much deeper than any single word.

I had many different role models throughout my childhood from my parents, to sports superstars, to personalities. One interesting thing, is that during my lifetime, I don't think I've seen a good leader, as the leader of our country. When we learn about the Presidents of the US, we learn how great leaders Washington and Lincoln were, but really, I never thought they were that great of leaders. They both had tremendous accomplishments, and are a huge part of the history of the world, but to say they were the best leaders that the USA has ever had, I think is overkill. As far as politics goes, my role model has always been, and will always be FDR. I took a shining to him when we first began to learn about the 1920's to 1950's in seventh grade. Why? Simple. FDR took over a country at an extremely tough time in our country, and made us better. Was it he, himself who made us better? No, he had a team, and he had the people following him, he just lead the country. He was a responsible leader because he did what was necessary, including leading by example (something I think is super important). FDR did not want to be filmed in his wheel chair because he felt it made him appear weak, and as the representative of the USA, made the US look weak. He fought through all of the pain, of standing at podiums for an extended time, and made sure he was walking when he made appearances, to lead the country by showing his strength. I'm sure the people didn't know at the time, but we do now, that he was in bad shape, yet still was the most effective president the USA has ever known.

On the reverse end of the spectrum, there was another leader around that time who used leadership, and his charisma, to manipulate people. One of the most evil humans ever to walk the earth, Adolf Hitler, was a tremendous leader, but was not a responsible leader. I mean...he convinced Germans that the Jewish people were evil and the reason for no jobs for Germans. He displayed all of the qualities of a good leader, passion, vocal, led by example (until his death), and ruled for the people (except he did manipulate many people) but just had a terrible, disgusting message.

Politics aren't necessarily my thing though, but being born in the Northeast, I was fortunate enough to be blessed by being a fan and participant of the best sport in the world. No other sport can touch the leadership qualities that hockey players have, and when you play hockey, you really learn quickly how to be a leader, and who can be a leader. From a very young age, I was a Captain of Assistant Captain of many of the teams I played on.

I've always thought great leaders have many qualities. I don't think you could list every quality, because each leader is a little different, but they all follow a few basic rules (in my opinion).

1. Lead by example

-A good leader shows the people what they should do, or how they should perform. Practice what you preach basically.

2. Vocals

-A good leader needs to be vocal. That doesn't mean be mean, or degrading, or appear like a know it all, but a good leader can speak his/her mind

3. Timing

-A good leader knows when to be vocal, and when to step back. Usually when s/he steps back, thats when leading by example pays off, because other people step up and practice what the leader has been preaching, either by actions or vocals.

4. Rule for the People

-A good leader wants to please the people, and give the people responsibility, or a stake in the big picture

5. Perform at a high level

-The only way people will believe you, is if you perform at a high level. A good leader should want the extra responsibility, the weight on the shoulders, and perform at a high level.

6. When the "Game" is on the line, Give me the Ball

-When everything is on the line, the leader wants the ball.

In 22 years, I think I've got a pretty good idea of what it means to be a good leader, and in 22 years I think I've displayed those qualities in schoolwork, job, and sports.