Confidence + Composure

 

Last week, we talked about confidence. The more confidence you have in yourself the better equipped you will be to deal with the many different things you have going on in your life.

Your academic success gives you confidence. Your athletic success gives you even more. Your social life being under control and living a healthy lifestyle adds even more to your confidence.

All of these areas feed upon each other and the balance you have in your life helps you to be successful in all of these areas.

What do you do when the pressure is on? How do you maintain your composure? In chapter 4 of Jeff Janssen’s The Team Captain’s Leadership Manual , you get a great dose of information on how to deal with pressure, but, even more importantly, you get some pointers on how to recognized pressure situations and how they can potentially impact your teammates.

The traffic light analogy is a simple method of assessing where you and your teammates are in regards to managing collective emotions. Think Green, Yellow and Red lights. Read up on this and it will really help you in your ability to lead by example and to help your teammates when they are looking to you for guidance. How do you handle a red light or yellow light and get it back to a green light? Look at some of the refocusing strategies presented on page 56-59.

Your ability to lead in pressure situations will teach life lessons that will by the example you set be contagious with your teammates!

I am going to leave you with one of my favorite poems. I really think you can apply it to your everyday life and your time shared with your teammates.
Just like confidence is contagious – so is composure.
Take a second to read Rudyard Kipling’s If.

If 

BY RUDYARD KIPLING
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Source: A Choice of Kipling's Verse (1943)

A Salute to Joe Artuso

Best wishes to my friend and long time co-worker Joe Artuso...

The following is from the Loyola University Greyhounds website -

Aug. 21, 2014 BALTIMORE - Joe Artuso, Loyola University Maryland's Assistant Athletic Director/Director of Sports Medicine announced this week his intentions to retire after 28 years at the Charles Street school to spend more time with his family.

Artuso, who joined the Greyhounds' staff in January 1986, was hired as the school's Head Athletic Trainer and was promoted to Director of Sports Medicine in 2003.

"We are very grateful to Joe for the care that he has shown to a generation of Loyola student-athletes," said Jim Paquette, the University's assistant vice president and director of athletics. "Joe has always had the health and well-being of our teams first in his mind, and he has been a very important part of our success. Joe built the sports medicine department at Loyola and helped design a state-of-the-art athletic training facility at Ridley Athletic Complex."

In recent years, Artuso worked closely with the Loyola men's lacrosse program and was an integral part of the Greyhounds' 2012 NCAA Championship.

Artuso came to Loyola after spending the previous three years at the U.S. Military Academy. A graduate of SUNY-Cortland, Artuso was also the head athletic trainer at Tomkins-Cortland Community College and Moniteau High School in West Sunbury, Pennsylvania, while he completed studies for his master's degree at Slippery Rock University. He also served as an athletic trainer for the Rutgers' University football team prior to moving to West Point.

A national search for his successor will begin immediately.

Loyola Greyhounds Leadership Academy Wrap Up Dinner

A group of 50 Loyola University Maryland Student-Athletes gathered to share a meal and some conversation about being leaders and to share what leadership means to each of them. 

Before the dinner began, the student-athletes took a moment of silent reflection to collect their thoughts following another busy weekend. 
The group considered this quote from Albert Camus– Life is the sum of all your choices.

As an icebreaker, the student-athletes talked to at their table about the following from the leadership perspective – Who Am I? (Am I a leader?) Why Am I Here? (Someone thinks I am a leader, Do I lead every day?) Where Am I Going? (Am I leading people in the right Direction?)

They then enjoyed a nice meal and more conversation about the role of self in leadership. 

As the meal was wrapping up, the conversation continued and moved into a discussion of “The Total Package.”

The question of “Are You the Total Package?” was presented and framed in the “Life is the sum of all your choices.”  The group talked about leadership and how leading by example in the areas of Athletics, Academics,  Spiritual, Social  and Service helps each student-athlete create a culture of winning and a culture of commitment.  

The first are that was considered was where each student-athlete currently stands in each of these areas and how this impacts their commitment level on a daily basis. They then took some time to share with their table some of individual thoughts.

In the future The Leadership Academy will continue with 3 sections – Emerging Leaders, Veteran Leaders and Leadership 360.  The student-athletes gathered with their teammates for the final discussion and they thought of other teammates, both current first year student and others that you see has real leadership potential. These recommendations will help select the next group to be part of the Loyola Greyhounds Leadership Academy. 

Finally as they were gathered with teammates they talked about how leadership can help propel your teams to even more success.
Loyola University Maryland has made a big commitment to provide leadership development training to our student-athletes.  This dinner was the culmination of the first full year of the Academy and the student-athletes that were in attendance all highly praised the program and look forward to being part of it in the next academic year.

visit here to see some pictures of the event - https://plus.google.com/106554644781305721427/posts/MVjn7pgqFDz

Loyola Greyhound Leadership Academy - Be Excellent

Good Afternoon Loyola Greyhound Leadership Academy – I returned yesterday from a trip to the United States Naval Academy. I had the pleasure of attending the USNA Leadership Conference with two student-athletes: Anna Bosse (Track and Cross Country), and Andrew McGill (Men’s Golf), and two student interns from Campus Ministry: Christin Campbell and Ed Ortiz. (If you bump into them ask them about the conference!) There were 220 student leaders from over 60 schools. There were regular students, ROTC members, Midshipmen and Cadets from military academies and also student-athletes. The theme of the conference was Followership: The Evolution of a Leader. I wanted to share just a couple highlights from the event and will share some more in the future. The conference featured talks by former Vice President Dick Cheney, current VP for US Public Policy for Facebook Joel Kaplan, Lieutenant General Sattler of the USMC, Astronaut Chris Cassidy, and many more. It was amazing and the takeaways were numerous. The first talk that I want to tell you all about was by Captain Will Byrne, Commandant of Midshipmen at the USNA. He is the Dean of Students at USNA. He shared a couple simple messages that when you take a look at it a few times, you will smile and say I can do that. He started by talking about a book that has all the secrets of life – All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum. The following is from that book- “These are the things I learned (in Kindergarten): 1. Share everything. 2. Play fair. 3. Don't hit people. 4. Put things back where you found them. 5. CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS. 6. Don't take things that aren't yours. 7. Say you're SORRY when you HURT somebody. 8. Wash your hands before you eat. 9. Flush. 10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. 11. Live a balanced life - learn some and drink some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work every day some. 12. Take a nap every afternoon. 13. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. 14. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. 15. Goldfish and hamster and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we. 16. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first worked you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.” It is so simple but so true. His other point shared with us was based upon what he says to the new midshipmen when they arrive in Annapolis. “Be Excellent.” That is it. Be Excellent. He did expand to add the following – Be Excellent – to yourself Be Excellent – to each other Be Excellent – to this place He went on about each area briefly as well. Be Excellent – To yourself - eat right, work out, study, tell the truth, know the rules To each other – be a good listener, share your time, be an active bystander To this place – take care of your school, your dorm room, your locker room, etc. These are two simple points to share with your teammates. Thanks for taking the time to read this and please touch base if you have any questions. David Gerrity

Thursday Loyola Leadership Academy Email

In honor of Throwback Thursday, here is a look at some of the basics with the Team Captain’s Leadership Model. Do you remember way back in the first chapter of The Team Captain’s Leadership Manual? Jeff Janssen lays out how you can break leadership down into two areas – Lead by Example and Vocal Leader. Leading by example, although tough at times, is really about pushing yourself. It is about your commitment, your confidence, your composure and your character. If you push yourself every day to be the best student-athlete you can be even when times are tough, you are leading by example. Leading by example is extremely important for the team to be successful. By setting the bar high in all areas - academically, athletically and socially – you are saying “I am a leader and I want my teammates to follow my example.” Leading by example can have a powerful impact on the team, especially when that team has most of the members “on board” or as Janssen says “committed or compelled!” Your leadership by example pushes members of your team who are compliant and existent. But this can only go so far and this is where Vocal Leadership kicks in. There are two types of vocal leaders – The Encourager and The Enforcer. Read the start of section 2 in the leadership manual pages 73-76, it will give you a really nice introduction to vocal leadership. Think about your team and make a list of teammates who are the encouragers and the enforcers. Both are vital to your team’s success. Now that you have that list, ask yourself another question – “How did these people become the vocal leaders on my team?” Many times it is people who are extroverted and outgoing who do not mind stepping out in front and communicating the team’s vision. Many times the vocal leaders are seniors on the team and this is great but this sometimes will stifle younger players who are worried about stepping on the toes of their older teammates. This is where communication is key – if you are an older member of the team try to nurture the younger players’ leadership – give them the opportunity to speak up too. If you are a younger member of the team, talk to the vocal leaders and see how you can be a part of the leadership team. Janssen says it best – “Remember your team must have one person who is willing to step outside of themselves to be a vocal Leader. Are you that person?” Thanks to Jeff Janssen and The Team Captain’s Leadership Manual. Pages 16, 73-76.