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    Building a winning culture: The leaders ever changing environment

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    Building a winning culture: The role of leadership in shaping success

    One of my mentors was the remarkable football coach Bill Walsh. If there was a Mount Rushmore for coaches his face would be carved in the mountain top. He built the 3-time Super Bowl Champion San Francisco 49ers. As Coach Walsh communicated into his team members, the winning formula was the relationships built, not his legendary schemes of X’s and O’s.  He contended that it was the relationships built among team members that created the winning culture. He would preach that when faced with the worst conditions and everything on the line, you must be able to look across the huddle into the faces of teammates you love and trust each other.  His mantra was “relationships make you great”.  

    Teamwork has long been synonymous with sports at every level, as well as in business.  Leaders must embrace one important aspect of building strong relationships, that is communication.  Relationships require comprehensive communication skills.  Communication is crucial for building a culture of excellence.  To inspire excellence, you must be able to inspire and motivate others to do significant things.  “Winners act like winners before they’re winners…The culture precedes positive results.  It doesn’t get tacked on as an afterthought on your way to the victory stand.  Champions behave like champions before they’re champions; they have a winning standard before they are winners (Bill Walsh, n.d.).”  Leaders set the tone and teach team members culture through strong communication to build cohesion on the team.

    As vital as recruiting and retaining the highest caliber talent is, the landscape has changed in athletics as well as most other businesses. In college sports it is most clearly manifested in transfer portals and Name, Image and Likeness laws that have transformed college sports forever. In business, the challenge comes in the form of a new generation of employee driven more by alignment with a brand’s “purpose” than a paycheck. Expectations of work-life balance are prioritized over the traditional “work as hard as you it takes to get the result”.  It is important in recruiting and retaining quality talent to communicate the culture of the organization to help ensure cultural fit with the team.

    People of all ages and skill levels want leadership.  Today’s leaders must be master creators of a well-defined organizational culture. They must breed a culture that elevates relationships and trust over all else. When people trust you, they will listen harder, dig deeper, and work harder for the team. Today’s organizations employ five generations of workers who speak different languages, have different values, and hold different priorities. Successful leaders will encourage mentorships and reverse-mentorships.  They will encourage younger talent to bring their strengths and technical skills to older employees who are the keepers of invaluable institutional knowledge. They will foster curiosity over the staple “this is how it has always been done.” They will invest in quality mentorship programs that enable people at all levels to deliver valued and valuable work product.  Together the team will rise, strong communication among the team is fundamental.

    Recently, I spoke to the premier organization of college athletic administrators about my 40 years of service in various leadership roles in athletics. I challenged my former peers to face a stark reality. College sports has significantly changed, just as corporate America has significantly changed. No matter the arena, leaders regularly face immense challenges that demand open minds, creative approaches, and often difficult collaboration that stretches your every fiber.

    Faced with those realities, I ask business leaders, as I did the nation’s leading athletics directors, “If not you, then who? If not now, then when?” New realities have transformed what it means to succeed. We must recognize and boldly acknowledge those fundamental changes and courageously act on them. Simultaneously, we need to have the vision to see what is ahead and have the confidence to see it through.  As leaders, we must be willing to face challenges head on now.  We must be willing to demonstrate a vision of excellence to create leaders of excellence for tomorrow. 

    Finally, leaders must skillfully master the crucial economics of business while also prioritizing student-athletes and employees. For corporate leaders, I suggest prioritizing employees over customers.  When employees feel valued and they trust the leaders at the top and each other, the byproduct is better-served customers as well.  All of this requires two demonstrated skills of elite athletes, unflinching mental toughness and muscle memory enabling them to perform at peak levels against their fiercest competitors. As a leader in any organization, strong communications skills are essential to help employees strive for excellence and the gain confidence to deliver quality results.  Never let yourself or your team settle for mediocrity.

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    Gene DeFilippo
    Gene DeFilippo
    Eugene "Gene" DeFilippo is a highly respected leader in collegiate athletics, known for his visionary leadership and profound impact on sports administration. With a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education from Springfield College and a Master of Arts in Educational Leadership from the University of Tennessee, Gene built a career that spanned over four decades, including a transformative tenure as Director of Athletics at Boston College from 1997 to 2012. During his time at BC, he guided the institution through its transition to the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) while achieving both athletic success and academic excellence, particularly with student-athletes' Graduation Success Rates. Prior to BC, Gene held leadership roles at Villanova University, the University of Kentucky, and Vanderbilt University, developing a well-rounded skill set in athletics administration. A member of the National Football Foundation's Board of Directors, he continues to influence collegiate sports through consulting with Playfly Sports and contributions to sports media. Gene's legacy is defined by his commitment to integrity, teamwork, and the development of future sports leaders, with a personal dedication to philanthropy and community service that extends beyond his professional achievements. https://leadafi.com/executive-biography/eugene-defilippo-building-champions-shaping-futures-excellence-in-collegiate-athletics/