March 3, 2005

by UNC News Services

The impact of talent on athletic performance is obvious even to the casual observer. The stronger and faster the players, the more likely it becomes that the team will compete for a national title.

But it takes athletes with more than just pure talent for a team to succeed.

If the leaders of the team -- coaches and players included -- can't mold a group of individuals into a cohesive unit focused in a single direction, not even the most gifted athletes will achieve the goals they set for themselves.

It was this epiphany that prompted Director of Athletics Dick Baddour in September 2004 to conceive and establish the Carolina Leadership Academy, the nation's premier leadership development program in college athletics.

"We should become the university in the country that is known for developing leaders," Baddour said. "Not only because that has impact right here in their competitive world and in their social world and in their academic world, but also in preparation for the role that they play in their communities."

In partnership with Jeff Janssen, a nationally prominent expert on leadership, Baddour and John Blanchard, senior associate director of athletics, created a program to develop the leadership skills of student-athletes, coaches and administrators at Carolina.

Janssen, a Cary resident who has worked with businesses and college sports teams across the country, applied his award-winning formula for leadership development to the specific needs of the teams on this campus.

"He's the guru," Baddour said. "He's where the rubber meets the road. He's the guy who has specialized in athletics and sports leadership development."

The programs focus on the development of the student-athlete as a leader from his or her freshman season until graduation, but they also teach skills that will benefit the young men and women for the rest of their lives.

"They have a short-term focus in terms of trying to make the experience the best for a college student-athlete in terms of the leadership that they have," Janssen said. "But really, we're trying to create leaders not just for four years but for 40 years, beyond where they go past UNC."

A three-step program The development of student-athletes consists of three stages: Personal Leadership, Rising Stars and Veteran Leaders.

As part of the personal leadership program, Carolina freshmen meet monthly with Janssen and guest speakers to ensure that they learn the most critical of the program's lessons.

"You have to lead yourself first," said football coach John Bunting. "You have to lead yourself through tough times. You have to make good decisions. You have to make good choices. You have to have a good attitude."

The Rising Stars stage involves sophomores and juniors who either volunteer or are identified by coaches as leaders with high potential for the future.

Participants in this group begin to develop skills to lead others by example, but they also are taught to respect and support the authority of team captains.

"I don't think you can lead others unless you can set a good example," Blanchard said. "I don't think you can be a good leader unless you're a good follower."

The Veteran Leaders program provides training and support for those student-athletes with critical roles on their teams -- the captains and seniors whose leadership could make or break a season.

Veteran leaders develop the skills to become coaches on the field, motivators who can sense a shift in momentum during a key sequence and immediately rally the entire team around a common goal.

"Momentum is such a big part about just about every competition, so if you've got a leader who can sense that the momentum's starting to go the wrong way and who can step up and refocus people back on the task at hand, teams won't beat themselves," Janssen said.

The program doesn't only target the student-athletes, however. Its systematic approach permeates the entire department and includes programs both for coaches and administrators.

Coaches participate in workshops that cover a range of team-building topics and reinforce the leadership skills that their athletes are learning.

"One thing we're focusing on with the coaches especially is how best can they develop and groom and partner their leaders within their team," Janssen said.

"We're really working on developing a strong leadership team between the coaches and between the leaders."

Leadership in action Although the genesis of the Carolina Leadership Academy dates only to September, teams have seen immediate results.

The leaders of the Carolina field hockey team, for example, developed a chemistry that propelled the Tar Heels to one of the best seasons in their history.

Even after a single morning session with Janssen in which he outlined a continuum of leadership that stretches from "resistant" to "obsessed," Coach Karen Shelton saw immediate results.

"It made a huge difference," Shelton said. "I'm a firm believer in this program, and with my team we did see immediate results even in the first year, after the first session."

Shelton and her team continued to emphasize the continuum throughout the season to motivate student-athletes to increase their effort and commitment to the goals of the team.

With their increased focus on the goals of the team, the Tar Heels won the conference title and were the nation's top-ranked team for much of the season.

"We didn't win the (NCAA) championship, but it was one the best years that we've ever had in terms of team chemistry and leadership," Shelton said. "And our seniors really led the way. That's what you want."

But perhaps the most visible impact of the Carolina Leadership Academy during the fall season happened on the football field.

Before the season, Bunting and his assistant coaches selected a group of student-athletes who they anticipated taking leadership roles, both senior captains and younger players, to take part in Janssen's programs as well as separate seminars with motivational guest speakers.

But once the season began, the Tar Heels suffered several demoralizing losses to national powers such as Virginia, Florida State, Louisville and Utah.

The loss to Virginia in the second game of the season gave Bunting his first opportunity to remind his team of the importance of self-leadership.

"I laid into them pretty good after the Virginia game in the locker room," he said. "That was about mental toughness -- that's individual, and, once again, that's leading yourself. If you're not mentally tough yourself, you're going to have a hard time with this game."

Two games later, coming off an equally frustrating loss to Louisville, Carolina traveled to Florida State for an important road test.

And while the Tar Heels did not come away victorious, they proved to Bunting that they understood the importance of leadership even in defeat.

Several seniors, including fullback Madison Hedgecock and center Jason Brown, continued to fight for yards late in the second half even though the team had little chance of winning.

"After that game, our players really understood just how important it is for everybody to be accountable," Bunting said. "We didn't win the ballgame, but we were accountable."

And after the team's worst loss of the season, a 46-16 loss at Utah in which nine regulars suffered injuries in the first half, the veteran leaders of the team directed a 180-degree shift in attitude that resulted in the Tar Heels' historic upset of then-No. 3 Miami.

But despite the remarkable turnaround that landed Carolina in the Continental Tire Bowl, the graduation of this season's senior class means that previous participants in the "Rising Stars" program will have to take the reins of next season's team.

"I want to see if these guys really want to make that commitment," Bunting said. "If they do, then we'll be successful. If they don't, if they just give it lip service, then we won't."

The future of the program As successful as was the Carolina Leadership Academy's inaugural season, its creators foresee significant growth in the coming years.

The initial programs focused primarily on the chemistry between student-athletes on a team with coaches simply reinforcing the techniques taught to their players, but future instruction will assist coaches directly as they develop team-building techniques of their own.

Impetus for the Carolina Leadership Academy will continue to come from private funding -- including a $25,000 donation as part of the Carolina First Campaign from William C. Friday, president emeritus of the UNC system, who won the grant money from the NCAA as part of the Gerald R. Ford Award for lifetime achievement.

And flexibility will be an important aspect of planning as the program continues to grow.

"From this first semester, we've found out what's working and we've found out what we need to tweak," Janssen said. "That's always going to be our process, to continually evolve and make sure it's meeting (the student-athletes') needs and the coaches' needs."

But the basic aims of the program -- provide practical, hands-on leadership training for student-athletes to employ both on the field and for the rest of their lives -- will remain unchanged.

"We've got to keep it practical," Baddour said. "We've got to make sure we've got a good balance between theory and practical, and have them always dealing with real-life-type situations, both the coaches and the players."