615: Leading Shane-Beamer-Like-Joy In A World Of Haters

You don’t have to be a college football fan to understand this story, and yet it would help to understand that college football in the southeastern United States is akin to cricket in India, premier football in England, Formula 1 in Italy, and the carnival in Brazil. We barter, bet, scream, yell, curse, fret, cheer, cry, and hug strangers all in the course of a four-hour window on any given Saturday in the fall.   Betting college sports, television rights, and now the newly minted Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rules have driven revenue in college sports to levels unthinkable just ten years ago. I was able to play football at the University of South Carolina back in the 1990s when assistant coaches barely scratched a living, and graduate assistants took a joyful vow of poverty.  All this sacrifice for the privilege of sleeping on cots at the stadium due to the hours required in hopes for a winning season and a chance to continue playing at one of a very few bowl games around the country. It is not the same game.   Money has skyrocketed, bowls are ubiquitous.  The collective tolerance for losing has an inhumanely short attention span.   Our school has compensated its last coach a reported lump sum payout of $12.9 million to not coach.   “Who?” was the first question for many South Carolina Gamecock fans when the list of top head coaching contenders emerged in late 2020. Coach Shane Beamer emerged as the victor. A unique, quirky assistant coach at Oklahoma who had never been a coordinator, won the job and the hearts of the South Carolina Gamecock fans.   How? Beamer's strategy for leadership can thoughtfully be described in four words that you see and hear around the program and the fan base: love, joy, family, and home. For years, college football was dominated by gruff, macho, bull-headed tough guys who were famous for intentionally making things tougher than they needed to be in order to mentally fire up their players to perform over their skis and bring home a win. During my tenure at South Carolina, we played the Bulldogs of Mississippi State University each year.  Jackie Sherrell was their head coach who in 1992, in an effort to “educate and motivate” his team before playing the Texas Longhorns, had a bull castrated live in front of his team. That ship of that leadership style has sailed and a new form, and dare I say a more humane method, of leadership is emerging.   The old guard might think this new leadership is “soft” or “weak”.  Instead, this counter-intuitive leadership is thoughtful, intentional, human, and engaging.   Beamer has displayed three themes and manifestations of this leadership style that connects with generation Z and motivates them to play on the biggest stages.    Intentionality After each game coach Shane Beamer is ushered to a press conference where, like every other coach in college football, he is questioned and pushed.   If you listen carefully, you will hear coach Beamer call many of the reporters by their first name, and share some inside bit of information that clearly communicates, “I have a relationship with you beyond your general questioning here.” It is subtle, it is intentional, and it breaks down tension.   The most powerful word on the planet to each person is the sound of their own name; not a soundbite, not a zinging one-liner…just Steve, or Hannah, or Clare. Emotional Communication Attend a South Carolina football game at night and you will be treated to a four-hour spectacle of intentionality, targeted communication, and repetition. It is a four-hour sandstorm that is part dance party, community-involved recruiting video, campaign messaging, and football. The communication is emotionally charged, but not unbelievable.  It is messaged in a way where “welcome home” means “I see you, I am grateful for you, you matter, and you can be anywhere else, but you came here…so we’re going to make you feel special, win or lose.” You will not have to look deep in the archives of Gamecock Football media to find a clip of Coach Beamer choking up words in reference to his family, players, fans, or any topic that he is able to find meaning in.   Beamer allows himself to show frustration (especially to poorly called penalties), and to display breakdown emotion.  When they play poorly he does not hide it.  When they play well, even in the midst of playing poorly, he does not hide it.   He displays joy and pain, in full measure.  Hiding emotion is no longer a sign of strength to a younger generation and instead leads to confusion and higher levels of anxiety.   Human vulnerability is a powerful relationship currency.   We have mastered the art of hiding wounds, pains, and cuts leading us to massive storage reserves of unreleased anxiety and mental health challenges.  College football players and coaches standing on a brightly lit stage are no different.  Stardom and money rank among the worst prescriptions for an anxious mind.   Repetition For much of the 2022 season, the offensive staff and players have been forced to listen to an off-tuned chorus of frustrated fans regarding their sporadic play. Beamer is unmoved, at least publicly.  It is clear that he is holding to a mission of positivity and joy, love, family, and home.  Rinse and repeat. Of course, there is work to be done…leadership always be refinement. For many coaches (and leaders) crotchety frustration was the curriculum of their leadership youth.   After a game Beamers’ staff and his players are allowed to go back to work in preparation for the next game, not having to take the initial stings of a short-sighted and emotional blows.  Of course they hear and see the venom or the adulation, but they have a cup-bearer willing to take the first sip of any feedback, look them back in the eye and say, “in love, I’ll take the heat, you go back to work and do what we believe you are capable of doing.” Beamer is not perfect, and that is the point.   He has embraced imperfection and allowed himself the freedom of a different boundary of intentionality, emotional communication, and repetition…all motivated by love.   A far cry from castrated bulls, angry grimaces, and childish vulgarities. The emerging generation is longing to be recruited, to be invited into an ethos of love, family, and joy, especially when things are hard.     Welcome home to a new kind of leadership.