Coach Paterno gets carried off the field after his 400th win
I am a huge Penn State fan, I have been all of my life, so I admit that I have a bit of a bias for the Nittany Lions. In my leadership philosophies I also lean a bit towards coaches and their leadership styles. I am a huge sports fan, but it goes beyond that, I think coaches needs to display great leadership skills, they need to lead a team of athletes who typically display strong personalities, most of them are high in the strength of competition, and there are often statistical and natural leaders on the team which add a difficult dynamic to manage. So it takes a high-capacity of leadership skills to manage these individuals, in an environment where winning and losing is black and white, and at a NCAA Division 1 or Professional level the stakes are high.
I have spent a good bit of time reading leadership books by coaches. I really enjoy The Carolina Way, by Dean Smith, books on the leadership of legendary UCLA coach John Wooden, and many others. So I am very excited for this upcoming television event being featured on ESPN, because it brings one of my favorite coaches Joe Paterno to the screen. Sadly it will also feature Coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke, just kidding I can admit he is a great leader and coach, I mean he has an olympic gold medal! This year JoePa reached victory 400 and Coach K reached victory 900 and between them they have 81 years of experience, that’s a lot of time being the leader of student athletes. I am excited to see the spectacle around this, and to hear what these two legendary coaches have to say about leadership!
Check out this article on ESPN about the event, and tune in on June 30 at 8 p.m. ET to see “Difference Makers: Life Lessons with Paterno and Krzyzewski.”
http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/27720/joepa-coach-k-to-talk-leadership-on-espn
