The Net Effect [THE SERVANT LEADER]

The
Net
Effect
Enduring Insights on Leadership and Team Building from Outstanding Coaches Cory Dobbs, Ed.D. The Academy for Sport Leadership www.sportleadership.com [THE SERVANT LEADER] Leadership is a relationship. Yet, far too often leaders feel compelled to use their power to get others to do things for them. The servant leader, however, is a servant first—a leader who has the desire to serve as her first priority. The servant leader makes sure the most pressing needs of others are taken care of. Such leadership almost always inspires tremendous loyalty, commitment, and outstanding performance. Leader Profile
The Servant Leader: Jenny Boucek
Cory Dobbs, Ed.D.
The Academy for Sport Leadership
Yet most people will tell you few
leaders are adept at the human side of
leadership. Here’s the catch: people bring
their lives to work. As much as some leaders
want to dismiss this human factor, they do so
at their own peril. Simply, the human side of
leadership is all about relationships, and
healthy relationships demand we embrace the
total person.
Great coaches know how to bring out the best
in those they lead. As you will see, Jenny
Boucek’s ability to capture the hearts and
minds of her players creates a sense of
loyalty and trust that moves players to
passionately follow her. To make a lasting
difference it matters how well you work with
others—how you serve others.
Jenny Boucek
ASSOCIATE HEAD COACH
SEATTLE STORM, 2010 – Present
Successful leaders are aware that leadership
is really as much, if not more, a relational
process as it is about vision and mission. For
these leaders business is about more than
simply getting people to perform tasks
effectively. These leaders are caring
stewards of people.
It may seem hard to believe today, but there
was a time not too long ago when people
were treated as “hired hands” or as a “cog in
the wheel.” However, this outmoded
approach to managing people has fallen into
disfavor.
Boucek has been involved in the WNBA
from its very beginning; first as a player, now
as a coach. Boucek began her coaching
career as an assistant with the WNBA’s
Washington Mystics. Her leadership journey
includes several stops as an assistant coach
prior to taking the lead role as head coach
with the Sacramento Monarchs from 2007
through 2009, and now as the Associate Head
Coach with the Seattle Storm.
CLEAR CONVICTIONS
One clear leadership trend over the past 20
years has been a shift away from command
and control, where employees serve the
leader, to the more compelling practice of
leaders serving their people. In sports and
business, it’s become a standard leadership
responsibility to care for those you lead.
The servant leader dedicates herself to
uplifting followers, bringing them closer to
achieving their full potential. The end goal
of servant-leadership is for those served to
grow and develop as a player, as a
teammate, as a worker, and as a person.
“My job as a leader is to do
everything I possibly can to help
each player reach her full potential
and whatever it takes for our team to
reach its potential. As someone who
cares about people I want to be able
to help each player contribute her
best to the team.”
Servant leadership emphasizes the role of
the leader as one who paves the way and
provides support allowing followers to
function at their best. The leader creates an
environment that cultivates and nourishes
the growth and development of each team
member. As a servant leader Boucek pays
attention to each individual’s needs for
achievement and growth by acting as a
coach, mentor, facilitator, counselor,
confidant, and teacher.
individual relationship that matters.”
“No two people are the same. So I
treat each player differently. No
relationship with two people is the
same. I embrace the uniqueness of
each relationship. And every day is
unique. We don’t know the
challenges that may emerge, but we
need to have a relationship that can
withstand them; benefit from our
working together to overcome the
daily adversities.”
“There is no formula when it comes
to relationship building. I think
that’s what makes relationship
building fun.”
Whether you are developing a new team or
looking to reenergize a team of veterans,
relationships matter. In an increasingly
interdependent world, it is essential that
leaders discover how to build deep, trusting
relationships with those they lead.
“Whatever it takes, I’m working
hard to cultivate an environment
conducive to maximal growth. It’s
hard at times, but putting the needs
of others before your own needs, for
the greater good of the team, that’s
my job as a coach.”
PRIORITIZE PEOPLE
To develop others to their full potential
requires a special relationship. Boucek
gives players the practical tools and
coaching they need to be successful. She is
intentional in her actions, creating an
individualized framework for relating to
each player as an individual.
“Any time you’re dealing with
people, it’s the nature of the
More than ever, today’s organizations
demand that people come together to work
on increasingly complex projects and solve
confusing dilemmas while operating in an
environment of dizzying ups and agonizing
downs. We no longer have simple
problems. Rather, the day-to-day challenges
we face in our groups, teams, companies,
and communities are quite complicated.
Whether your business is coaching
basketball or leading a sales team,
developing your people is vital to winning.
Indeed, leaders must find ways to elicit the
best from people—their talents, intelligence,
and passions—so that they can successfully
make positive changes in the midst of an
ever-changing world. To do this demands
prioritizing people over products or
processes.
For Boucek, leadership is not simply about
winning—it’s about improvement. It’s
about making people feel important, not
inferior.
“My emphasis is not on winning, but
on helping each player become their
best. I’ve found that negative
emotions such as fear or insecurity
are alleviated when players focus on
becoming the best they can become.
Players seldom win by comparing
themselves to other players.
When players work to become their
best they become freed up from a
fear of failure. The fear of failure is
found in mistakes. I don’t want
players fearing making mistakes.”
“We want the players to be
motivated by what they can
contribute to the team—what the
team needs from them—not what
they can’t contribute, but what they
do well.”
The best organizations, companies like
Microsoft, Google, GE, and REI, understand
that success depends on creating an
environment where everyone can grow and
develop into their best selves. These
organizations nurture a culture where people
are valued and are presented opportunities to
learn, to improve, and to enjoy the entire
work experience.
“I think many organizations miss the
point, they go off to a retreat with the
mantra of something like “less of me
for a better we.” I disagree. I’d
change it and say ‘a better me for a
better we.’ We want players to get
better at what they do best. The
player’s goal should be to be their
best.”
“Furthermore, the only time we’re
going to grow, individually and as a
team, is when we’re outside our
comfort zone making mistakes,
stretching to the point of pain. If
we’re not making mistakes we’re
wasting our time.”
Great companies and teams focus on
developing and leveraging the unique talents
and skills of its members—the source of
sustainable competitive advantage.
“You can’t be your best, as an
individual or a group, unless you
know who you are—what you’re
good at. What we’re good at.
Players need to know what separates
them from other players. You can’t
be good at everything. So the
successful players recognize and
internalize ‘This is what I’m good
at.’ You won’t make it in the WNBA
if you don’t know what got you
here.”
Leadership is not a basket of tricks and
tactics. Rather, it depends on the subtle
personal qualities one possesses, the values
and beliefs one holds and uses to guide the
decisions they make, and the bold actions
one takes to get the right things done at the
right time. If there is one underlying
principle many great leaders share, it is this:
the key to effective leadership is prioritizing
people. After all, it is people that produce
the results.
Boucek is a remarkable coach and an
outstanding leader. She inspires others
through nurturing highly personal
relationships. Her leadership and passion
has a rippling effect. This past season the
Seattle Storm, minus its two best players,
maximized its potential by each player
working everyday to transform themselves
and each other. Taking to heart Boucek’s
philosophy of a better me for a better we.
Prior to the first game of the season the
team’s two stars went down with injuries.
For most team’s this would signal a quick
end to high expectations for the season. Not
for Boucek and her team. Winning teams
have players who make things happen. And
for Boucek and the Seattle Storm,
prioritizing people and building a “better
me” had a positive impact on every player
and the team.
When we think about a great team,
invariably the image we conjure up contains
a great player. Perhaps it’s true that great
teams have a great player. But when we dig
deeper we find such things as teamwork,
trust, cohesion, and commitment to one
another as driving factors in a team’s
success.
Our tendency is to assign greatness to
players that achieve great results—produce
statistics that provide evidence of skill,
ability, and performance capability. But it is
the way people work together to generate a
collective product, accomplish a shared
mission, and commit to one another that is
the essence of a team. The long-haul
winners are those organizations that rely on
true teamwork.
As the quote from Mead advises, a richer
culture will emerge when we weave together
diverse human gifts. That process of
weaving together diverse human gifts is the
essence of a team’s work. There are no
magic potions for success, but teamwork
sure does come close.
The process of weaving together the unique
personalities and skills is the domain of
coaching. For Boucek, the first task of
leadership is to promote teamwork.
THE ESSENSE OF A TEAM
If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in
contrasting values, we must recognize the
whole gamut of human potentialities, and so
weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in
which each diverse human gift will find a
fitting place. –Margaret Mead
“No one player holds the key to our
team’s success. Part of my role as a
coach is to help players recognize
that part of being a team is learning
to collaborate—to work together to
make the whole. We have diverse
parts that do what they do well, and
when we come together we’re able to
create a dynamic team.”
This simple, but profound operational value
is a vital factor in the success of any team.
Take for example what a leading corporate
CEO recently said: “When we are at our
best, we are a mosaic of people and ideas.
Each unique piece fits with the others, and
contributes significantly to the whole. The
whole mosaic is far more stunning and
clever than any one piece.”
One of the most important aspects of
leadership is competence and the
intelligence to use relational skills to build a
culture of trust, loyalty, and high
performance. Boucek sees a team’s culture
as a derivative of team leadership—that is
leadership provided by players; what she
calls “indigenous leadership.”
“I firmly believe that the best
leadership comes from within. That
is, players are really influential in
creating the culture. Peer pressure
is a strong force and can be used for
the good of the team. It’s certainly
not easy to lead one’s peers, but it’s
essential to building a positive team
culture. Sometimes I’m surprised by
the ones that influence the best. They
are not the one’s you or I would have
envisioned as leaders.”
but if they’re the younger players
they may not yet be leaders.”
Leadership expert John Maxwell asks,
“Everyone knows that teamwork is a good
thing: in fact, it’s essential! But how does it
really work? What makes a winning team?
Smart business leaders will do well adopting
Boucek’s idea of indigenous leadership.
Leadership from within is a good start to
answering Maxwell’s questions.
THE CHANGING ENVIRONMENT
The Black Eyed Peas front man Will I. Am,
following his attendance at White House
Gala, made an appearance on the esteemed
weekly political show Meet the Press. The
moderator, David Gregory, asked Will how
the 2014 star-studded political gala differed
from the one he attended in 2008.
Will I. Am noted that what stood out for him
was that the attendees—politicians and other
powerful and highly visible people—were
spending their time engaged with their cell
phones texting and tweeting, rather than
mixing and mingling. Hmmm…
The striking difference between good teams
and great teams resides within its indigenous
leadership. The nature of team sports is
such that the stronger leaders are those with
highly developed interpersonal skills,
possess emotional intelligence and truly care
about those they lead. In general, the more
mature players are those with the insight and
experience to navigate the tumultuous
environment of high performance.
“A natural hierarchy tends to
emerge, one in which younger
players look up to veterans, and
veterans want to teach their younger
teammates to lead. At times we want
our best players to be the leaders,
Here’s an enlightening question: how does
the external environment influence your
organization? On the one hand, in a broad
sense, our culture is vast and complex.
On the other hand, the ways in which we
now relate to one another has changed
tremendously as a result of the proliferation
of such things as the use of the smart phone
that Will I. Am experienced at the White
House. Far too often people are oblivious to
the physical environment they’re in, because
they’re somewhere else mentally.
Many social commentators today express
concern over the lack of team players to be
found in the youth cohort many call
Generation iY; those youth that have grown
up with the Internet and whose lives are
defined by technology.
If we are to harness the capacity of this
generation we’ll need to understand and
learn to lead this group in a different
manner. Author, researcher, and youth
leader Tim Elmore coined the term
Generation iY. Elmore did so because
“Theirs is a world of the iPod, iBook,
iPhone, iChat, iMovie, iPad, and iTunes.
And for many of them, life is pretty much
about ‘I.’ And these young “I” focused
people do graduate and go to work.
“The spirit of entitlement is strong in
our youth culture. Our culture
breeds a sense of entitlement in
young players. We need to root it
out. It’s a serious problem. What
we want to do is to get something
started, and it’s hard to do. But
what we want our veterans to do is to
initiate the rooting out process.”
“Older players need to communicate
to the younger players that ‘You are
lucky to be here.’ You are fortunate
to be here and be a part of this team.
When we root out the spirit of
entitlement then everyone is thankful
to be here. They understand that
they are in a special situation.”
Social scientists are in agreement: human
behaviors are to a great degree shaped by the
environment and the actions of the people
around them. It is crucial that as a leader
you explore and understand how the external
environment is influencing your
environment, your organization, your team.
“Don’t give them things before
they’ve earned it. They’ve got to
earn their playing time. They’ve got
to earn their way. And it doesn’t
matter how talented they are.
They’ve got to live up to the
standards of how we do things and
why we do what we do.”
“It happens quickly for some, but
younger players have to earn their
way—and they’re not entitled to such
things as playing time. It’s not
about being disrespectful or
degrading; rather it’s about learning
to value the opportunity they have to
be a part of something special.”
“It’s like that statement: Ask not
what your country can do for you but
what can you do for your country?
Apply this to your team: ask what
can you do for your team? You’ve
got to work hard to change minds
and get that serving mentality into
your culture.”
GETTING RESULTS
Let’s face it, the pace of change has taken
over our lives. This is partly because of the
ups and downs of our economy; but also the
relentless technological advances that
continue to embed themselves into the world
we live in. It cannot be overstated that
building and maintaining a winning
organization in this environment is no easy
task.
In today’s organization, the capacity to lead
others, to influence the way people think,
feel, or act is crucial for high performance.
And the best leaders do this authentically.
They truly care about the long-term
outcomes of their actions, especially when it
comes to people. For these leaders it’s about
being the kind of person that others want to
follow. For Boucek it’s about acting with
strong values and integrity, being someone
others can count on—especially when it
counts.
“As a leader you need to be
authentic. You can’t expect qualities
from your people if you don’t possess
those qualities yourself. So if you’re
not honest, how can you expect
others to be honest with you?”
“When people choose to follow you,
it’s because you represent who they
want to be like.”
Leadership is also about expressing belief in
others so strongly that their appreciation of
your belief in them inspires them to rise to
new heights.
“In reality, it’s leading not driving.
As a leader, people will follow if
you’re going in a direction that they
too want to go. They want to know
if you know where you’re going and
how you’re going to get there.
People will follow because they want
to get there too, and they trust that
you’ll help them get where they want
to go.”
People have a deep-seated need to be valued,
to know that they matter—that what they do
has meaning. People need to feel that they
are more than a cog in the wheel, a
replaceable part that simply shows up for
work and collects a paycheck. If the human
spirit is shut down, how can your team—
your company—be competitive and
successful?
“It’s the responsibility of the
coaching staff to set in motion a
culture, to nurture the values and
behaviors you want to live with. I
want to cultivate a culture conducive
for maximal growth. So I serve the
team to find ways to help everyone
reach standards of excellence. And
to do this while serving one
another.”
Outstanding teams are more than just a
group of people working together. You see,
building a great team and winning
championships is tough to do. It takes a
clear sense of direction, passion,
commitment, clearly defined goals, and
clearly defined roles. High performing
teams value the contributions of each
member in pursuit of a shared purpose. In
this context the exceptional team player is
willing to commit to team goals even if they
conflict with her personal goals..
“We want the players to want to be a
part of something bigger than
themselves. When players recognize
this they work hard to contribute to
the team. When the player say’s ‘I
know I need to do my part for this
team to do well’ and “I truly
care about my teammates,’ it’s a
completely different level of
motivation. And that will trump
everything else.”
This emphasis on creating results manifests
itself in a very simple team reality: when
players accept, support, and encourage each
other they improve the team’s performance.
Together, they embark on a journey in
pursuit of worthwhile goals, and along the
way they develop a deep commitment to
building a great team.
THE NET EFFECT
In the words of Ticha Penicherio
Jenny Boucek was one of the best coaches
that I had in my career. Some words that
define her are: passionate, dedicated, hard
working, competitive, knowledgeable, great
leader, intelligent, charismatic...all important
characteristics to succeed in sports and in
life.
The thing that I was most impressed about
Jenny, is that at such a young age and with
big responsibilities she was able to teach us
not only to be the best players that we could
possibly be, but also the best people that we
could be.
She used basketball to teach us about real
life situations and showed us how they are
both related, in a way that made us more
mature. I can honestly say that Jenny did not
only developed me as a player, but most
importantly, I feel like I'm a better person,
friend, leader, daughter, sister and human
being. So thank you Jenny for your
dedication to this game we both love
(basketball), but most important, your
mission to be a good person in this world.
You have definitely rubbed off on me in an
amazing way and I will be forever grateful.
About Ticha Penicherio
In 1998, Penicheiro joined the Sacramento
Monarchs as a rookie, finishing third in the
WNBA Rookie of the Year award voting.
She is a four-time WNBA All-Star.
Penicherio is the all-time WNBA leader in
assists and holds the WNBA single-game
record for most steals with 10. Penicheiro is
well known for her consistently flashy style
of play. In 2005 she helped the Sacramento
Monarchs win their first ever WNBA
championship title.
ABOUT JENNY BOUCEK
Associate Head Coach Jenny Boucek, in her fifth season
for the Storm under the leadership of Brian Agler, rejoined
the defending WNBA champions in 2010 as the Director of
Player Development and Scouting.
Boucek served as an assistant coach for the Storm under
Anne Donovan during the 2003, 2004 and 2005 seasons
and was an integral part of the 2004 WNBA championship
team. Additionally, Boucek served as the head coach for
the now defunct Sacramento Monarchs and compiled a
record of 40-41 during her two-plus seasons (2007-2009)
with the organization. With her title in Sacramento,
Boucek became the first person in WNBA history to be a
player, assistant coach and head coach in the league.
Boucek was an advanced scout for the NBA’s Seattle
Supersonics, the first woman to hold that title within an NBA organization.
After beginning her WNBA coaching career began in 1999 as an assistant with the Washington
Mystics, Boucek spent three seasons as an assistant with the Miami Sol. She played professional
basketball for two years before joining the coaching ranks. In 1997, the WNBA’s inaugural
season, Boucek was a member of the Cleveland Rockers.
Boucek also played in Iceland in 1998 and was voted the country’s best player after averaging 23
points, seven rebounds and six assists. She returned to Cleveland for the 1998 season but was
forced to retire due to a career-ending back injury.
A four-year starter at the University of Virginia (1992-96), Boucek helped lead the Cavaliers to
four regular-season ACC Championships and three NCAA Elite Eight appearances. She was a
two-time GTE Academic All-America team member and two-time ACC selection. Boucek twice
earned team Defensive Player of the Year honors and finished her career at Virginia as a member
of the 1,000-point club. She also competed in the U.S. Olympic Festival in 1993.
*Source: www.wnba.com/storm/roster/
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© 2014 by Cory Dobbs
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