Mentors Galore

Mentors...Not just people who tell you what to do or who’s every move you follow exactly, but the people who ask you the tough questions, the ones who always seem to have that golden nugget of advice or different perspective you need. Maybe they are the ones who tell you “no, you’re not crazy – let’s talk this out.” Or the one’s who believe in you more than you believe in yourself. Maybe they are the only ones who will “give it to you straight.” They could be older or younger or your same age, a teacher or friend or parent or anything else, of any background or culture, near or far, from any part of your life. But they are the people that you know for certain help make you a better version of yourself.

We’d like for you to reflect on your experience with the models and mentors in your life.

• What makes your experience with those individuals so meaningful?
• How did you find or attract those mentors?
• How might you bring new mentors into your life as your life changes and you move into new phases of your personal leadership journey?
• And then… who are you mentoring?

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To me, mentors are those people that are truly invested in your success. You can tell they care about you and your journey through life. They model leadership on a daily basis and can support you in your goals. You might not always like the advice they give because it may be challenging, but a mentor always has your best interest at heart. They can get you through those "my world is ending" moments, using their seemingly infinite wisdom and nuggets of knowledge to bring you back to reality. They can provide much-needed inspiration and leave you feeling as if your ready to conquer anything.

I've been lucky to have a number of mentors in my life, most of which have come from my sports experiences. Growing up, the only mentors that I can distinctly identify, other than my parents, are coaches. Coach Longanecker, my baseball coach from ages 7-12, and Mr. Shaw, my basketball coach and social studies teacher during 7th and 8th grade, had a significant impact on my life. They taught me so much more than just how to be a better player; they taught me how to be a better teammate, a better leader, and a better person. I learned the arts of teaching and coaching from these mentors and have adopted them as passions of my own. 


My experiences with basketball at Ohio State have led me to find two more mentors. Thanks to my rock star academic advisor,  I enrolled in OSU's Coaching Basketball class as a sophomore. This class was taught by Coach Pete Gaudet who, at the time, was the Video Coordinator for the Ohio State Women’s Basketball Team. Throughout the duration of this class, I gained an increased affinity for the game of basketball and established a relationship with Coach Gaudet, seeking his mentorship for career and personal matters. The following summer, while attending the LeaderShape National Institute with other Ohio State students (also thanks to the urging of my rock star advisor), I met Coach Patrick Klein—an Assistant Coach with the Ohio State Women’s Basketball team. Patrick helped me obtain a position as a student manager for the OSU Women’s Team at the beginning of my junior year, allowing me to work beside him on a daily basis and seek his mentorship regularly. 

Although I will most likely be leaving all of these mentors behind as I continue my education/start my career elsewhere next year, I am not worried about finding new mentors. I know that wherever I go, I will find plenty of people that are more than capable of providing positive mentorship. I do recognize that in order to have a mentor in your life, you have to be open to mentoring – you have to be willing to be a follower and to learn from someone. You also have to take an active role in seeking that mentorship; go to the person for advice and share both your successes and failures with that person so they can support you fully. I truly look forward to seeing where I land in the next phase of my life and to developing new, meaningful relationships with the people I encounter.

I realize how fortunate I am to have experienced meaningful mentorship throughout my life, and that mentoring others is the perfect opportunity for me to pay it forward. Luckily, my involvement in TKE and my time coaching basketball have provided ideal platforms for me to serve as a mentor. In TKE, I've been able to mentor my two "littles", John and Robby, as well as a number of other brothers, some younger than me and some my own age. I have been able to share valuable lessons from my various life experiences and provide advice in regards to TKE, Ohio State, campus involvement, and much more. As a basketball coach, I have the opportunity to mentor young athletes, teaching them valuable lessons about basketball and life. Having served as an assistant coach for two AAU basketball teams and as a coach at several summer basketball camps, I have found that one of the most enjoyable aspects of coaching is developing relationships with the kids. As a coach, there is no better feeling than watching a child succeed (in basketball and in life) because of the skills and knowledge you taught him/her.

Above are two pictures of me with my littles, John and Robby. Below is a picture of the AAU team that I coached last year, the Capital City Comets.

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Can You Spare Any Change?

This week's in-class assignment: Create positive change...go! Those are pretty much all of the instructions we received before being thrust into the world with one partner and one hour to accomplish our task. Eric and I had a quick brainstorming session while walking across campus, disposing of ideas for free hugs, High Street trash clean-up, and a free lunch giveaway along the way. We decided to capitalize on Eric's outgoing nature (as well as his set of glistening golden pipes) and set out to find a place with lots of people and no easy escape route. Chipotle proved to be the perfect destination. Our goal was to brighten people's days and remind them of how blessed we all are to attend such an amazing University by signing Carmen Ohio as a group. We got a number of people to join in, and definitely left that Chipotle a happier place. Check it out...

Singin' at Supper

Because my singing makes people want to cry in agony rather than smile with happiness, my preferred method of creating positive change was through their stomachs. After spending a little time in the Union, we headed to the nearby UDF to buy a bag of candy. Well... UDF doesn't sell bags of candy so instead, we made a strong investment by purchasing a $1.79 box of Oatmeal Cream Pies. It took a lot of self-control to not eat one of these childhood favorite snacks on the spot, but luckily we made it to the Resource Room in the Union with a full box to share. I put all of my energy and spunk on display as I gave away these delectable goodies to anyone that would take them off my hands. This “random act of kindness” certainly did not go unnoticed, even for those that did not want an OCP, with lots of smiles being shared as I walked out of the room. I hope these onlookers took our advice and spread some of their happiness to others, thus increasing the impact of our positive change. 

Oatmeal Cream Pay-It-Forwards

Our last attempt at creating positive change did not go as well as we had hoped... We brought the other members of our class in on our secret, and decided to sing another rendition of Carmen Ohio on a bus back to class.  Well, these CABS riders did not feel the desire to join us in song like those in Chipotle had (or maybe we are just really, really bad singers) but at least we had fun doing it. I am hopeful that these people were at least smiling on the inside and that they realized, if only for a minute, that life isn't all that bad :)

CABS Full o' Carmen 

Messin' With Strengthsquatch

Not able to attend the Annual Conference on Leadership and Civic Engagement? Once you’ve been excused by Mel and Adam, go ahead and complete this alternate assignment instead. (Due March 5th). We like to call it #Strengths.

Based on what is outlined in Chapter 8 about ways to develop leadership using Strengths in college, discuss the following in your blog:

• Which of the opportunities outlined in the chapter have you taken advantage of already in college? Which of the opportunities are ones you would like to try?
• What can you do to be more Strengths focused in your leadership practice? Think about how your five themes weave together to influence your leadership.
• Find another student leader from a different organization who knows about Strengths and have a conversation. How have they used Strengths in their leadership practice? How can each of you help your peers in student organizations begin to think about leadership from a Strengths perspective?

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Let's be honest, how many people do you know that have taken the StrengthsQuest assessment that DON'T love it? Well, I have met a whopping 0 people during my time at Ohio State that don't jump for joy whenever Strengths are mentioned in casual (or leadership-based) conversations. Not to say that these people don't exist somewhere out there, but they are about as rare as hitting a hole-in-one and getting struck by lightning.... in the same day. Basically, Strengths are great. And because everyone is just dyyyyying to know, my top 5 Strengths in order are: 

1) Competition 

2) Maximizer

3) Communication

4) Significance

5) Woo

When reading through the 10 opportunities for leadership development that were outlined in this chapter, I had a specific experience come to mind for each one. Some of the opportunities that stood out most to me are:

#2 Leadership development and the classroom experience: Ever had Amy Barnes as a professor? If not, you better get on that before you graduate. She's the bomb.com.

#3 Leadership development and class selection: Uhhhh, hello? We have a Leadership Minor....and it's awesome.

#5 Leadership development in athletics: Let's be honest, this is pretty much my life. Whether it's student-managing the Women's Basketball team, coaching high schoolers in AAU tournaments, working summer basketball camps, or playing various intramural sports, my life is consumed by athletics the corresponding qualities of leadership. 

#8 Leadership development through student organizations: Whether it's my involvement with TKE, the Women's Basketball Team, the Greek Week Steering Committee, or another group on campus, there's no denying these experiences are rife with opportunities for leadership development.

Some of the opportunities that I would like to experience more of are:

#4 Leadership development in class assignments and independent studies

#7 Leadership development in study groups

As we discussed in class, being intentional about utilizing your Strengths is not an easy task. It may be even more difficult to be cognizant of and react to others' Strengths. The biggest thing I can do to be more Strengths focused is find ways to keep Strengths prevalent in my mind. I need to write down my Strengths and put them somewhere they will be visible multiple times per week. If I see my Strengths in writing on a regular basis, they will constantly be in my thoughts, exponentially increasing the likelihood that I will put them to use in my actions and leadership opportunities. 

All of the 34 possible strengths fall under one of four categories: Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, or Strategic Thinking. My 5 Strengths, all of which are comprised within the Influencing category, naturally interact and influence my behavior on a daily basis. Competition, my need to be the best and win all contests, and Significance, my desire to be important and be recognized, are both focused on me as an individual. Maximizer, my ability to identify and utilize the strengths of my group mates, and Woo, my love of meeting new people and winning them over, both address my everyday interactions with the people around me. Communication, my capacity to put thoughts into words and share information, incorporates how I respond to the context of circumstances and my environment. 

My friend, Scott, has also taken StrengthsQuest and, like me, is stoked about the accuracy and the potential of the findings. Scott agreed that it is hard to utilize Strengths to its fullest potential when many members of our respective organizations are oblivious to their existence and/or meaning. Scott did assert, however, that he has recognized particular Strengths in his fellow members, prompting him to initiate conversations about the principles of Strengths and how they influence organizational interactions. He is reporting mixed results thus far. I know that being aware of my own Strengths, how I am utilizing them, and how they are influencing my interactions with others is vital to my success as a leader. If I can spread some Strengths knowledge to the other members of TKE, I think we could have some seriously ground-breaking conversations and results. The potential is scary. I see what Katie said about all of Theta having taken Strengths...how do I make that happen?? I'm going to investigate that and maybe, if I can spread some more Strengths lovin' to my brothers in TKE, we will accomplish BIG THINGS in the next couple years! Hey... it could happen.

My Communities

In class, we were asked to visualize and depict all of the different communities to which we belong. As you can see, I identify with a TON of communities, but I categorized them into three distinct groups: the my family communities, my communities in Northeast Ohio (and other locational communities), and my numerous communities at Ohio State. Yes, I did color-coat my communities and the sub-communities within them... from largest to smallest it goes Red --> Blue --> Green --> Purple :)

OSU Women's Basket-Bull

PROMPT: Chapter 10 of Exploring Leadership discusses Albert Bernstein’s and Sydney Rozen’s concept of Sacred Bulls, which are defined as statements that prevent people from reaching their potential as members of corporate organizations. The authors go on to state that a sacred bull is a metaphor for an assumption we make and do not question. “They are the ideas that nobody checks or questions, because ‘we’ve always done it this way’” (p.7, Bernstein & Rozen, 1994).

1. What are some sacred bulls used by you and other members of your organization? These could be related to tasks and projects, meeting culture, who has power, the practice of blaming and pointing fingers, etc.
2. How can you reframe these sacred bulls in ways that will positively affect your membership or leadership in an organization? What can you try, who will need to be on board, and how do you begin the change process related to those things that are so ingrained in your group’s culture?

Dig deep on this one. Think about what sacred bulls are really holding you and your group back. 

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Yesterday was "Senior Day" at the Ohio State Women's Basketball game, marking the last home game for all of the program's graduating seniors (as well as another victory over that dreadful team from up north). Although my illustrious career as a student manager is coming to an end, I think is fitting to discuss the sacred bulls that I have encountered as a part of this group. 

To be honest, our "team" of managers (and in some ways, the program as a whole) has proven to be an extremely dysfunctional group at times, due in large part to the sacred bulls that exist. I can't tell you how many times I've asked a question about why we do something a certain way and the response I receive is, "that's how we've always done it." Seriously, that's all you can come up with? For me, there is no possible response that is more frustrating than this one.

There are several "sacred bulls" that I would like to address, but I will choose just two of them for the sake of all you readers...

1) The idea of seniority/longest tenured: In our program, those who have been with the team the longest and those who are juniors or seniors are held in higher regard than their fellow managers. They are often awarded the title of "head managers", selected to travel with the team to away games, given more logistical responsibilities, and usually rewarded with a stipend or other benefits. The idea of giving more responsibility to or rewarding the oldest/longest-tenured members is not necessarily a bad thing all the time. There are plenty of occasions when an older manager's experiences are beneficial, or even required, to complete certain tasks or activities. However, this is not always the case. There are numerous examples of times when a younger manager's specific skills or abilities make him/her more adept at leading peers, handling logistical tasks, etc. The other issue with using both seniority and number-of-years-with-the-team as determinants for duties and rewards is when these two factors clash with each other. For example, it is not uncommon for a junior manager to have been with the team for three years and a senior manager to have been with the team for two years. What do you do then? Which factor takes precedence? In our program, the advantage is usually given first to the manager who has been with the team the longest, then to the one with seniority if a "tie" exists; however, if these norms are changed without notice or there is variation in how much these two factors are weighed in decision making, controversy is almost a guarantee. If the biases of the head managers or supervisor begin to influence decisions, or if there is simply a change in the way things are being done but no explanation is given to the invested parties, there are going to be some problems. 

2) The blame game: Another common issue that I've experienced as a manager is deflection of responsibility/accountability and the blaming of specific individuals rather than accepting blame as a team. I think this problem stems from two places. Firstly, we divide a lot of our tasks into individual components, giving specific duties to each manager. Doing this usually means that we are working separately on tasks, rather than working together to make sure things get done promptly and properly. Secondly, the high-intensity nature of intercollegiate athletics has a lot of people on-edge about their jobs. The coaches and professional staff are all under a significant amount of pressure to preform, and a lot of that pressure gets passed down to the managers. When something goes wrong, managers are usually asked why and expected to instantly have an answer or a solution. The reality is, however, that we are just students assistants and usually don't have all the necessary information to answer these questions or demands. Also, because we see how much pressure everyone around us is under, we fear being the one that "screwed up" because we never know what the consequence might be. Nobody wants to be blamed for something going wrong, especially because these mishaps usually aren't completely our fault or circumstances aren't completely under our control.

**I apologize if my explanations are vague. I am trying to be as informative as possible without giving away too many details from specific incidents.**

Solutions: To be honest, I know I don't have the perfect solution to these problems. If I did, I would have been able to fix some of these ingrained issues during the two years I spent with the program.  I know that in order to successfully reframe these sacred bulls, ALL of the student managers would need to be on board. Currently, there is a bit of a divide between some of the managers because 1) there is a distinct separation between those who assist with film editing and those who do not and 2) some of the managers' personalities severely clash with each other, causing a number of personal conflicts. Having our supervisor, the Director of Basketball Operations, and the rest of the coaching staff on the same page would certainly be helpful as well because, truthfully, these professional members are the ones with the ultimate decision-making power and serve as the constant figure over the years as managers come and go from the program.

I spent the majority of my first year trying to understand how things worked, what I should/should not be doing, and the group norms of the 8-10 managers. I guess that is another sacred bull I forgot to mention--we do a poor job of acclimating new-comers to the requirements and expectations of being a student-manager. Anyway, I tried to discuss some of these issues on an individual basis, I tried bringing them up in a group at our monthly managers' meetings (which we haven't had since November or so), and I tried talking to my supervisor about them. I learned something from all of these attempts, and it was something I had never experienced before. I learned that this program was completely closed to the idea of implementing change....As I mentioned above,  it's a "that's how it's always been" organization. Now, I have certainly encountered resistance to change as a two-time member of TKE's executive board, but never before had I been flat out denied when trying to make improvements to the functionality of my group. I was stunned, and fairly discouraged. I eventually learned to deal with my situation (maybe a bit begrudgingly), learning that not everyone or every group is as open to change as I would like. I am sure, however, that this will prove to be a valuable lesson for my future. I doubt that I will go through the rest of my life without encountering another group that is as opposed to change as this one was. Hopefully this experience will have me better prepared to deal with this type of situation and next time, I will come out a bit more successful.

6 of the 8 managers before our game at Northwestern...happy as clams :)