About the June Stewart Leadership Series
Ep 07 June Stewart Leadership Series Podcast, December 15, 2020
Podcast with Jason Horn (Xavier-Louisiana) and Gina Lehe (NCAA)
with host
Trip Durham, 2D Consulting, LLC
Jason Horn
Gina Lehe
Trip Durham
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Jason Horn - Xavier University of Louisiana (NAIA) Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Athletics Director
@JHornXULA
Gina Lehe – NCAA Managing Director of Communications—Strategy and Branding
@Gina_Lehe
Host: Trip Durham, 2D Consulting, LLC Founder
Podcast Length: 35:31
1:55 Defining leadership and bringing your own personality to leadership …
LEHE: Leadership is not just about seniority or title, but it’s cultivating the right environment that is inclusive and built on trust and achieving success through collective humility. Through trust, so much can be built. Being a good leader is to maintain a level of selflessness and autonomy.
2:45 HORN- Leadership is working with your crew, your team. When I arrived (at Xavier), I came up with our hashtag #TeamGold. We also use our branding of Win, Grow and Graduate. Leadership is setting the tone for the staff and for our student-athletes and navigating the walk as there is something new every day in college athletics. How do we put our students in place to win, grow and graduate? Leadership to me is the ability to work through issues and giving staff the autonomy to do the things they need to do to be successful.
3:50: How do you, as a leader, ensure that your messages are on point?
LEHE- We have to manipulate the delivery. Technology has forced us to be more creative in the ‘how’ and ‘why’ in messaging. Did you know that the first press release came out in 1906 – from a format perspective, little has changed in 100 years! But distribution is so different as we worry about analytics and reach. We always need to keep in mind the end recipient as we are dealing with so many different audiences.
5:45: How do you see SIDs working into the process of communicating with and for the NCAA?
LEHE: Working with communicators and with the NCAA, we rely on the collective range of messaging. SIDS have a greater pulse on the collective college athletic landscape. They are in the middle, if you will, between the student-athletes’ pulse, the administrative leaders’ pulse, and they sit at a unique vantage point to pull from both sides. This helps our greater outcome in messaging.
7:18: Jason, as a leader, how do you approach a tone in messaging and convey your philosophy in a saturated (New Orleans) market?
Horn: As an HBCU, we are the only black and Catholic university in the country. We are very solid in the sciences and the number of students we deliver in the medical profession. When
US World and News Report ranks the HBCU’s, we are number three. When I got here, we were ninth or 10th. It’s about talking about what we know best. We know science, and that’s what we sell.
10:18 HORN: I put a table in my office. Before it was a desk and chair. I now come out from behind my desk, and we sit at the table and converse as peers. I’ve tried to break down barriers. In my experience of working in the pros, working in Division I, working in the private sector, working with the Olympics, I’ve been able to draw on a lot of pieces about leadership, about developing a culture.
11:10: A leader has to manage up and manage down. How do you do both - be a leader and a follower at the same time?
LEHE: As I’ve told my young six-year old daughter, you want to learn to be a silent leader and people will follow you. You don’t need to say, ‘look at me’ while you are leading. I do not believe in silo leadership … Information is power at every level, not just at the top. If I can share information above or below me, that’s how you build trust. I believe in this so deeply to my core. From trust stems respect, and from respect comes success.
If I withhold information for my own gain and benefit, then I’ve already eliminated so many elements of the team mentality. The team mentality is so important for collective success. I want to be open and honest and candid and it’s benefited in the relationships I’ve cultivated throughout my career.
13:15 So many varying personalities in a structure like the NCAA, and in your family! All have their own ideas on branding, messaging. How do you build consensus?
LEHE: People who know me say I’m not afraid to speak up! I live and lead with passion. I often will dwell on “how can this be great?” I love collective buy-in, but if I feel strongly about something, I had better be able to back it up. I hold everyone accountable for that – if you want change or have an idea, there needs to be the how and the why behind the process. I do over-analyze into ridiculous detail. I use the analogy of putting together a puzzle. Every day I work on part of the puzzle. It’s not just the main image that matters. The framework also matters, and some days I only work on that framework. If one piece is missing, it’s incomplete. So, every piece matters. My job is to convince people of every details. An example: You might not think a font matters, but I want people to walk away, and put that font with that NCAA signage and align that with the experience that they had at that event. They’ll walk away and think, this all came together. Details separate things being good from being great.
17:50 How do you keep a team motivated during the pandemic? Surely, your staff is just tired right now, emotionally and mentally.
HORN: I work daily out of my office and my senior administrators, like (Associate AD for Strategic Communications) Ed Cassiere communicate daily with our staff to figure things out. If staff have students in school, go get them. We have Zoom staff meetings and I make people turn their cameras on. Important to see everyone and talk how we are all sharing info and navigating. We are doing this across athletics, student affairs and the university as a whole.
19:36: How do you recognize the hard work that people are doing, in-person or in a virtual setting?
HORN: I give staff, in every meeting, an opportunity to say what they are doing and what’s going on with them. Our media relations director Ed (Cassiere) knows if someone has gotten an award, has a speaking engagement, on a committee. We recognize this. We are doing a virtual holiday gifts with our adidas rep. I’ve had people ask about doing work from the road, from home. I’ve always allowed our staff to take personal mental health days. I want people to ask and I want to say, just unplug for a little bit.
22:10: Thinking of future stars in the communications industry. What aspects of leadership are you looking for in communications professionals you work with?
LEHE: I think we are seeing a common theme for me – I look for humility and sense of purpose in life and in their professional work. I don’t ask, in interviews, what are your greatest strengths, your greatest weaknesses? Those have always felt like memorized answers to me. In the communications industry, I want to be able to have a basic “who are you” conversation in an interview- not what your resume lists, or what you’ve word-smithed on a cover letter, or the number of social media likes and retweets you might have on your account.
If we cannot just talk, then the fit in this industry is not going to be great. Ironically, some of the worst communicators work in communications. Trying to draw them out of their comfort zone where a core communications skill set has either left them, escaped them, or never been there to being with … I want to try and draw that out. You can tell a lot by a young star who is hitting the ground to network, observe and most importantly, to listen. People say, don’t be afraid to ask questions, and I agree, but you also can learn a lot by observing and listening.
Recently, during an intern hiring process, we had many candidates with tremendous experience. Asked one female candidate, what do you define as success? Her answer: I just want to be happy. I got off the phone and looked at the people in the room and said, “she’s hired.” For her to say that and not give a prescribed response, it really struck me. She ended up being a great intern. Wise beyond her age… Her answer was authentic. She came in and listened and observed. When you talk about future stars – one of the common cores for me is (that) authenticity will get you places.
26:20 HORN: Along my career path, I was fortunate to spend some time as an interim athletic director … I embraced it. For me, it let me know that even if I did not get the permanent job, that I was ready to do it … Take a look at the landscape – is this (new job) something you want to do? Do you have the confidence to do it, and is it a growth opportunity? That’s how I’ve looked at my career. I started in marketing and there were not many who looked like me. One of my first opportunities came from a chance conversations was with (former Big East commissioner) Mike Tranghese, and I wound up at the University of Miami. For me, it’s been reaching out and having fun with what could be next and dreaming big. Sometimes, it’s not about, ‘are you necessarily ready for it’, but, ‘are you ready to accept the challenge of it?’ That’s a bit of how I’ve navigated my career and I challenge younger people to do the same thing: are you ready for the challenge of the next opportunity?
29:00 In your communications career, can you go about your business quietly? Gina, what do you say to people who ask about your career path where you spent lots of time in college football?
LEHE: I choose to stay behind the scenes in my career. I don’t want or need or like accolades or talking about myself … At the end of the day, I know I wasn’t the only person who got me here. In fact, the line is very long. Personal relationships, professional mentors, my faith – it’s all been part of the path … I get more pleasure watching wins by my teammates and putting them in position for success and achievement. Back to the first question on leadership and trusted influence … I have more gratification to see others succeed. I don’t forget where I came from, ever. I’ve always gone back to year one when I was an intern, doing that job no one else wanted. I can relate to interns and tell them, this is a process. You are not going to wake up and be there tomorrow. This is all I need for self-validation.
31:11 LEHE: I often get asked to speak about being a women in this industry and being a woman in college football for so many years. I will tell people to this day, I hope I get the job - or you ask me to do something with you - because I am the best person to do it. Your bonus? Is that I’m a woman. That’s your bonus. That should not be why you are giving me the job or opening the door for me. I don’t want that to be the reason for you to have an excuse against me. That’s my competitive nature to say that – but I want to be the best person for the job. It’s served me well to push me along my career path.
32:11: Is it incumbent upon a leader to be a mentor?
HORN: I think so. In the six-plus years I’ve been at Xavier, I’ve helped, and others have helped, four assistant coaches get head coaching jobs, head coaches get other head coaching jobs, staffs get other jobs. It’s incumbent upon a leader to operate as a mentor and help them achieve what they want to achieve in their career.
LEHE: Don’t look for the “unicorn mentor”. There’s not one magical person who is going to be able to help you or influence or guide you. Different points in your life require different mentorships. I’ve built a mentor “tool kit” – I needed one when I became a professional, I needed one when I became a woman in a predominantly male profession, I needed one when I lost my mother to cancer and was going through grieving … I’ve needed spiritual mentorship, needed one when I became a mom, when I became a working mom … All of those pinnacle moments required a different type of mentor … Don’t be afraid to lean on different people in different phases of your life, and people who have strong convictions in certain (life) buckets … It’s a two-way street with mentorship. Sometimes you are the mentor and sometimes people serve (in) that role for you.
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About the June Stewart Leadership Series Podcast
CoSIDA debuted the June Stewart Leadership Series in the Fall of 2019 as part of our year-round professional development and continuing education program for our members.
This series adds to our existing professional development initiatives and is named in honor of the late June Stewart who served as CoSIDA's first female president during the 1990-91 academic year. Stewart was a longtime Vanderbilt University administrator and a pioneer for women in college athletics. The series was created in honor of Stewart's great leadership, her love and commitment to the profession and her legacy in giving back to CoSIDA.
This special June Stewart Series showcases noted speakers and experts who will address CoSIDA members on timely communications and leadership topics and issues.
Designed exclusively for CoSIDA members, this series of webinars and podcasts will offer perspectives on leadership and perspectives on managing and directing collegiate athletic communications.
Click here to read more about CoSIDA Hall of Famer
June Stewart.