Over the course of my career in leadership, one question has haunted me: How do we create conditions that incentivize intrinsic motivation, create a strong sense of humanization, but also elevate performance? I’ve obsessed over that question for more than two decades. All of us who have leadership positions understand this is the hardest trifecta to achieve, and when you do, it’s magical. During the course of trying to establish the rhetoric, systems and norms that wo

I have spent my entire career bouncing between public and private education spaces. One of the contrasts that experience has helped illuminate for me is the the extraction vs investment mindset, evident in the way most conversations are framed. I’m confident my teaching background in American history also gives me that specific framing. I’ve been sitting with that categorization lately, and how it applies to my work in athletics. Simply put, I think the biggest

I try to tell this to young, aspirational leaders all the time. I really believe the weight of leadership being heavy is critical to an authentic leader. Transactional leaders inconvenience others. Transformational leaders shoulder as much of the inconvenience as they can. I think a leader who is self involved leaves his work there. I don’t think you can lead multiple people, have to make decisions that are hard sometimes, and claim to be an effective leader if you don’

I wrote this in 2014, when my son was 2, and I was immersed in the wonders of what it meant to be a Father. I find evolution in some of the things I express here, but it articulates a healthy journey and connection of the multiple roles we play. One of the best parts of the journey of fatherhood are the daily revelations and realizations about what it takes to lead a young one effectively. I’m not sure any of us are ready to be fathers, until is thrust upon us, and it is like

I wrote this in 2014, reflecting on Coach Gilmore's dramatic impact on my life. May his legacy live on in those of us he impacted greatly. We found each other. That’s what teammates do. In a crowd of hundreds, maybe nearing a thousand, we found each other. Our ball handling skills probably aren’t quite what they once were. Our defensive stances are more likely to end up in a pulled groin than a steal. We all carry the extra weight and expansive waistline that comes from being

I wrote this in 2014, in honor of an incredible force in my life. May Coach Gilmore's legacy be a blessing to us all. The news came, appropriately delivered by a beloved former teammate, fellow understudy turned coworker. A fellow young man, probably similarly adrift as a juvenile, yet inspired, invigorated, and heavily influenced by coaches and teachers who cared enough to transcend titles. So great was their influence, that we now share the same mission that once so radical

*I wrote this in 2014 to honor Coach Gilmore, a dear mentor and coach of mine. May his powerful legacy compel and ground us all . We ran. And ran. In the filthy heat of late August, through the slightly cooler September, and the thankfully cooler October. We ran. The kind of running that leads you to think your lungs are going to explode, accompanied by the kind of sweat that continues pouring from your body for seemingly the rest of the day, regardless of how long you laid u