The AthleticDirectorU Podcast

Florida A&M Vice President and Director of Athletics Kortne Gosha sits down to discuss his vision and changes made early in his tenure leading the Rattlers. Gosha touches on bringing in new staff, "Purpose with a Pace," moving from the MEAC to the SWAC, the new apparel deal with Nike and much more.

2:07 - What are your thoughts on being effective early in your tenure as a new Athletics Director? 5:28 - What are your thoughts on making challenging decisions as a new leader? 10:41 - Provide some insight on the promises made between you as the new Athletics Director and the leadership of the institution. 14:34 - What was your hiring philosophy when you began your tenure leading the department? 19:09 - How did you assess the people and positions necessary to build a successful department? 21:32 - Explain your philosophy of "Purpose with a Pace" and how it relates to your thoughts on external affairs. 24:38 - What was your approach to handling a pre-existing NCAA infractions case? 28:38 - What was the strategy behind moving to a new conference? 32:38 - Give us some insight on switching apparel companies. 36:05 - When you leave one apparel company for another, do you keep the relationship with the original company? 38:09 - How important was it to be direct in your negotiations with Nike? 40:56 - How do the comprehensive experiences of your life impact your current role and leadership philosophy?

Alabama State Director of Athletics Jennifer Lynne Williams joins Jay F. Hicks on the Sports Creatives Podcast. The duo discuss Lynne Williams' use of social, her philosophy on telling the Alabama State and HBCU story, the impact of her communications background, lessons in leading digital and much more.

2:48 – As an Athletic Director, how do you go about using social media? 4:46 – How do you work to strike the balance between your personal brand, your personal life and the brand of Alabama State athletics? 8:50 – What is your philosophy on telling the HBCU and Alabama State story using digital and social? 11:42 – How do you lead your strategic communications team given your background in communications? 15:06 – What went into the recent redesign and rebrand of the Alabama State athletics website? 18:09 – How do you inspire your external team to be innovative and not be afraid to fail? 20:33 – Who are you inspirations to create the culture you have fostered at Alabama State? 23:36 – What is the biggest thing you've learned in terms of leading, guiding and directing the strategic and digital, from where you started to where you are right now?

In this RisingADs book review, Portland State Director of Athletics Valerie Cleary and Oakland Associate Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Experience Ashley Stone discuss Abby Wambach's new rules for leadership in WOLFPACK. The duo focuses on leading from the bench, making failure your fuel and finding your pack and how each of those rules applies to leading in college athletics.

2:17 – What first put this book on your radar? 5:48 – One of Wambach's eight rules is "Lead from the Bench." While it is easy to understand how a student-athlete could apply this rule, what does leading from the bench look like to you from an athletic director standpoint, in all the roles that you have and everything that you oversee? 9:34 – iI you see someone who is leading from the bench, what are those qualities that stand out to you, other than creating change and seeing that impact? 10:22 – In what ways have you utilized rule four "Make Failure Your Fuel" throughout your career and getting to the AD chair? 13:41 – Do you have any physical reminders, or go to quotes that are in your office or elsewhere to help reconnect you to your mission? Or to your WHY? 18:23 – Rule eight is "Find Your Pack." How has your pack or your inner circle changed over the years, if at all, as you've moved into higher levels of administration? 23:29 – Who are some inspirational individuals who you've looked up to in college athletics? 26:40 – When it comes to changing the game, whether it's throughout college athletics or your role at Portland State, what do you want your impact to be? 28:04 – Final thoughts.

University of St. Thomas Vice President and Director of Athletics Phil Esten and Head Football Coach Glenn Caruso sit down with AthleticDirectorU to discuss the Tommies' historic transition from Division III to Division I. Esten and Caruso discuss the gravity of the move, its impact on the institution, dealing with the challenges and changes, how they have handled the move and much more.

2:54 – What does Washington's core value of "Experimentation and Innovation" look like within the creative and marketing teams? 7:57 – How does the core value of "People Development" influence how you lead the marketing and creative teams? 13:11 – How does your leadership of creative and marketing allow your team to better tell the UW story? 20:17 – How does your title as Chief Marketing Officer impact your leadership philosophy? 26:07 – What was the creative transition between former Head Football Coach Chris Peterson and new Head Coach Jimmy Lake like? 29:59 – Who is the best either leader or creative leader you've been around? And why?

3:27 – How would you define a brave leader and how have you worked to create a courageous culture? 11:15 – Brown emphasizes rumblings, or conversations where individuals show up vulnerable to serve the mission and each other and not their ego, and identifies it as the heart of daring leadership. For leaders who refuse to rumble with vulnerability, what is the impact on their culture and how can they even be successful? 17:19 – How have those rumblings or uncomfortable conversations helped you improve as a person and leader of your staff and student-athletes? 20:04 – How have you incorporated emotional intelligence into your leadership style? 22:50 – What are your methods in showing intent around being inclusive and supporting your student-athletes and staff around the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion? 31:59 – Brown writes that integrity is choosing courage over comfort. How has integrity influenced your passion as a leader? 34:29 – How has this book increased your value as a leader in college athletics?

3:41 - When you first got to Texas, what changes did you make to the creative process? 8:34 - What were some of the challenges did you experience early at Texas? 10:40 - What are some of the goals for social and digital? And where does that rank amongst the overall athletic wide goals? 16:43 - Being armed with the analytics, how does that affect conversations with head and assistant coaches, staffs, people and stakeholders within the organization about content? 23:41 - Is Chris Del Conte's Twitter organic or is there a strategy behind it? 28:56 - How has your leadership style been influenced by Chris Del Conte? 37:21 - You are involved in the Creative Plug, which is about connecting, and mentoring, empowering black creatives in sports and media. Why was it important for you to get involved? 45:10 - How are you creating a space that inspires creatives?

4:07 – The book references how individuals focus on peak moments and the ending moments of an experience when reminiscing about past experiences. How have you accounted for this phenomenon in designing athletic events and planning for constituency engagement? 8:00 – What are some transition moments you've chosen to implement or create at Fresno State? And why do you think those specific transition moments should be emphasized? 11:32 – How did you come up with the SOLVE acronym (SOLVE stands for Solution-Oriented Leaders Value Everyone)? 12:47 – How did you evaluate creating buy-in when changing the culture? 15:27 – How did you get your staff to understand the concept of duration neglect and start searching for these moments to create in athletic experiences? 19:47 – How do you create sustainable buy-in throughout the department? 24:03 – What is the impact that giving away gear can have for donors? 26:32 – Can you remember a moment or idea that a staff member brought up and subsequently owned? 29:11 – What is one overarching concept that you take when you revisit this book that you pass along to someone else?

Arkansas Head Men's Basketball Coach Eric Musselman joins Coach Bob Walsh on the Dynamic Leadership Podcast to discuss his leadership approaches as a professional and college coach, keys to making an immediate impact on a program's success, maintaining success, creating a partnership with his players and much more.

1:24 – How does your leadership approach differ when coaching professionals versus college? 3:22 – How did you adjust your approach when you went to college and took over at Nevada? 5:47 – Is there something about your leadership style that allows you to hit the ground running and make an immediate impact? 11:59 – How do you maintain that success over a long period of time? 16:35 – How much of your team's leaders taking ownership is their personalities or natural leadership qualities versus you creating the opportunity to lead? 19:29 – Do you have a definition of leadership for your teams? 21:26 – Who are the coaches who have had an influence on your approach? 25:25 – Who is the best leader you've coached and why?

North Carolina Central Athletic Director Ingrid Wicker McCree and Texas A&M Deputy Athletics Director for Student-Athlete Experience/SWA Kristen Brown discuss their philosophies on sport administration, access and advocacy, critical skills for the role, notifying coaches of complaints and more. The conversation is moderated by Auburn Senior Associate Athletic Director/SWA Monique Holland.

1:05 - What is the philosophy for your sport administration 3:02 - What is your philosophy on access and advocacy for coaches and student-athletes? 7:15 - When you receive a student-athlete's complaint about a coach, at what point do you notify the coach of the issue? 9:29 - What are the critical skills a staff member needs to serve as a sport administrator? 11:31 - How do you balance coaches going through proper protocols with sport administrators and getting face time with their AD? (Wicker McCree) 13:06 - What is your most rewarding experience as a sport administrator? (Brown) 14:51 - Final thoughts