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This story is part of our February 2022 CoSIDA 360 package, to view more stories,
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From the Desk of CoSIDA President Cindy Potter
by Cindy Potter – 2021-22 CoSIDA President
Columbia College (Mo.), Senior Deputy Director of Athletics @CougarCanuck
These last few weeks as president have felt like a pre-COVID life to me. Travelling, seeing people, balancing being away from home and campus work along with representing CoSIDA and managing some big discussions for the association. Of course, COVID is still very much making itself known as not everyone that was supposed to join us at the NCAA Convention in January was able to and masks are still prevalent.
During those meetings at the NCAA convention, the CoSIDA officers and staff had the pleasure of listening to athletic directors from all divisions within the NCAA. Hearing from this group about their views of CoSIDA, the profession and the future was extremely beneficial. We are in a pivotal time in this association with the search for a new executive director, a new membership model and a strategic rebranding conversation taking place. These athletic directors were up front and honest, and several things they said really stuck out to me. I wanted to share those items with our membership.
I think everyone has said or heard someone in our profession say they are trying to get a seat at the table. If they had that seat, they would be listened to and things would improve. But is that always true? Does a seat guarantee you know how to provide input? Does a seat mean everything you say will automatically be accepted? Is it simply the idea of being able to say you were at the table? Will you be ready to speak up and lead once you get the seat? And why does it take being at the table to be heard? All questions that popped into my mind after listening to one athletic director say, ‘
I need my people to lead from where they are!’
In this moment, the statement was not referring to just the communications staff but, in general terms, about all staff that oversee someone — whether it’s students, student workers, graduate assistants or full-time employees. The idea of leading from the position you are in instead of feeling like you must have a place or title to be able to lead is something we should all take to heart.
When I think about my journey to my current position at Columbia College and in CoSIDA, I can identify key moments where I sat back, opinion-less and quiet, because I didn’t feel worthy of voicing my own thoughts and I didn’t feel I had the title to command respect. If I would have chosen to be a leader in those situations, would I have advanced at a different pace? I’ll never know; but with so many young professionals in the business, it left me thinking I wished I had heard this message early on in my career.
How many of you have done or thought the same thing? I would like to think I’ve improved at this, but the thought still hit me — sometimes maybe my opinion is best left unsaid. However, the cold hard facts are, like so many of you, I was chosen/hired/nominated to be in a position where we are mandated to lead. If we sit back and wait for a sign or a seat at the table, we are missing out on an opportunity. There really is no greater compliment you can receive than to be chosen to lead, and chances are if you are reading this, you’ve been chosen to lead your communications team, or communications for a sport, or student workers. Someone entrusted you to lead and gave you the opportunity to show why you should have the title or seat at the table.
With the 50
th anniversary of Title IX coming up and discussions about how CoSIDA will celebrate this year, the thoughts of just how far we’ve come tied into leading from where you are. If some of our first female CoSIDA presidents — June Stewart, Tammy Boclair, Shelly Poe and Judy Willson — didn’t lead from where they were, they never would have been selected as an officer. Each of them threw “can’t” out the window and gave others the chance to view them as leaders. They did not become CoSIDA president because they asked for the title or because they grumbled that we didn’t have a female president. They ascended to the position because others around them saw them as leaders and recognized their value.
As we move forward in a world of ever-changing duties, high turnover, dwindling budgets and endless “other duties as assigned,” I hope each of you remembers the importance of leading from where you are. All it takes is one person to notice your leadership to forever change the course of your career.
Cindy
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