College Sports Information Directors of America

Related Content
• CoSIDA.com/360 Archive

---

This story is part of our 360 package for September 2022, to view more stories, click here.

What it takes to be a leader and have professional success today

A Q&A with 2022 Keith Jackson Eternal Flame Award recipient and CEO of Women Leaders in College Sports, Patti Phillips

Patti Phillips, the CEO of Women Leaders In College Sports and CoSIDA’s 2022 Keith Jackson Eternal Flame Award recipient, outlines her thoughts on what it takes to have professional success and be a leader in college sports today. Phillips is a noted athletics industry leader on women’s career advancement and leadership and has dedicated her 30-plus-year career to coaching, leading, mentoring and empowering women at all levels across many industries. The Jackson Award is presented to an individual who has made a lasting contribution to intercollegiate athletics, has demonstrated a long and consistent commitment to excellence, and has been a loyal supporter of CoSIDA (now College Sports Communicators) and its mission.

In this Q&A, Phillips talks about being a “possibilitarian,” gives her definition of mentorship and emphasizes the importance of developing your authentic voice and making sure to manage your energy – which must be positive energy.

In thinking about your career work as a coach, as a basketball television commentator, then as a leader in non-profits which led to your role as CEO of Women Leaders, what drives you? One trait that’s been attributed to you is that you are a “possibilitarian” — inspiring others to think and act this way, too.
PP: I am super driven by human potential and I believe we can always get better every day. That’s what you believe as a coach, right? That your players can be better.

I’ve always believed in what’s possible. A few years ago in a quote I saw the word “possibilitarian” … I’d never seen it and love it! If someone had said 20 years ago we’ll be carrying our computers in our pockets, people would have said, that’s impossible. Yet, everything is impossible until it’s not, like running a four-minute mile. I truly think we limit ourselves in our heads, so I’m a big believer in the possible.

At Women Leaders, as part of our mission, we try to get these messages out, particularly for women and underrepresented groups. We have to get over these barriers that others put on us. Potential and possibility are massive drivers for me in my everyday life, physically, spiritually and organizationally. I am a huge believer in the fact that we can create a better future  for everyone, and in our case – we are working to create that for women.
 
Our organization was thrilled to name you our 2022 Keith Jackson Eternal Flame Award winner and have you receive the honor during our June convention in Las Vegas. We appreciate your long-time support and advocacy!
PP: Thank you! I am humbled to be in the same group as the previous esteemed recipients. Like Keith Jackson, my work, and that of Women Leaders in College Sports, is driven by a desire to deliver excellence in all we do.

What do you see about our CoSIDA, now College Sports Communicators as we rebrand, that is our strength and our reputation?
PP: The intensive, thoughtful and strategic work your organization and leadership are doing has not gone unnoticed. It is an exciting time for your organization and congratulations for taking these essential growth steps. Traditionally, the strength of (CSC) is that it is an organzation of creative storytellers and history keepers - roles that are invaluable in any industry, but especially ours! 

There are many layers of developing leadership skills. We know you don’t make it alone. You’ve often said we are all on professional journeys that you might not clearly see yet. Mentors can assist you in the process. Can you expound on what you believe a true mentor is?
PP: You don’t have to be an official mentor to help someone see the next steps in their future. That’s something you do as a leader, something you do as an athletic coach. You see what’s possible for people. That’s all part of mentoring. But, mentors are those who care enough to give you time, to listen and to encourage you, and give honest feedback. I call it being “gentle truthtellers.” A coach is more of a truthteller, but a mentor will have a special energy between themselves and a mentee as they give their time and their knowledge.

And, anytime you are in this type of relationship, you have to be open to being ‘coached.’ A mentor is telling you the truth, how to get where you want to go, talking to you about your path.

Many organizations have mentoring programs, which is good, but it doesn’t matter where you get a mentor. What matters is this: if you get assigned a mentor, it has to go from transactional — I’m your mentor, you are my mentee — to relational. That’s the key. There’s got to be an energy, a relationship there. It’s hard to take info and feedback from someone you don’t have a relationship with. The true great mentoring relationships turn into relationships. Both people have to be truly committed and engaged. If it’s done right, those relationships can last a long time.

When I look back, my teachers and coaches were my first mentors. I could feel they were invested in my future and I did not take that lightly — and I’ve reciprocated since.

I believe that the older and longer your career is, your mentors can become your “friendtors”. You cannot undervalue those relationships.

You talk a lot about the importance of finding your authentic voice. You have leadership tracks at Women Leaders to help everyone develop and find theirs. What does that mean? How do we make sure we are developing one?
PP: I love that you’re using the word developing. You have to develop an authentic voice. That’s something that young people are missing right now. It takes work to know who you are and how you fit in at the right places.

So, number one in Women Leaders, we talk a lot about self-awareness. To develop your authentic voice, you have to be self-aware. You have to know who you are, you have to know your values and beliefs … and actually, you have to understand how you interact with others and how they interact with you so that you can get things done. This is the piece that many are missing. You don’t get to show up and say, ‘this is who I am’ — sometimes that can stall your career.

The second piece of being authentic has to do with experience. People become more authentic over time. Experience IS the best teacher. We do tend to make more mistakes in our early career. Know that we are going to be more authentically ourselves over time.

The last piece is a hugely important piece of authenticity that I do not think is talked about enough — having humility. At Women Leaders, we want to be an organization full of high performers with high humility.

Those things go hand in hand. The humility piece is how we interact with people. Some people don’t understand that it’s not always just about us. Acknowledging and articulating what we do not know and acknowledging and articulating what others know and seeing things through those people’s lens — that’s what’s critical.

Taking this a step further, how does developing an authentic voice help you become a great leader?
PP: True leadership is wrapped up in authenticity. A prevailing attitude now is, ‘hey, it’s all about me’. Well, that attitude is not helpful in helping people advance. To advance, it’s about self-awareness, experience, and humility, and it means being honest with yourself in these three areas. It’s about developing and building trust with those around you. Your authentic voice has to be connected with your leadership voice – which also is a process. Great leaders understand that it’s how people hear what we say that’s important.

Looking at leadership in higher education and college sports, how do we keep pressing and opening more doors for females and those in underrepresented groups?
PP: First of all, we have to understand everything on the macro level about the importance of representation, and then what that means on a deeper level. You have to understand the ‘why’ and then get to the ‘how’. And then we have to dig into the HOW – how do we get there?  There are SO MANY layers to that question! Diversity in leadership produces outstanding results. But one piece is that most humans don’t believe they can be something until they see it.  And you won’t see underrepresented groups until hirers change the lens in which they are evaluating talent.

There’s this innate thing we all gravitate towards — if I can see it, I can be it.

As far as numbers of females and the underrepresented in leadership roles — and everything is a numbers games — we first need to have many people who believe they can “be it.” That is something we now have. You need to have many people who are qualified and who have taken these jobs. We are moving in that direction now.

To get there, you have to have a pipeline of people in those positions, who have gone through the ranks and moved into leadership positions. At Women Leaders, we have done extensive research on trends in hiring, asking what are hiring managers are looking for.

Being known, your reputation and your brand is part of the process and what they are looking for. We tell women, in particular, that there are two pieces to becoming a leader. One is having the skillset, having the portfolio. The other part is winning the job. There are all sorts of layers to both of these things.

We are pulling back the curtain. We’ve talked to hiring managers, to search firms. In professional training, we’ve been putting in the foundational pieces for years. We teach the skills and have been putting these foundational pieces in place. So, I believe that in the next 10 years we will see huge shifts.

What about the athletic communications profession? You’ve spoken a lot on how our sports communicator members can best position themselves to be amongst the next leaders in college sports.
PP: Those foundational pieces are not different at all for athletic communicators. For those communicators who have said, yes, I want to lead, you then have to ask and answer the question, ‘what are ADs, commissioners and hiring managers looking for?’

I think the huge advantage for those in (CSC) is that you are all great communicators. TREMENDOUS communicators! You’ve got that piece, as all great leaders need to be great communicators. I think the next piece is to ask, ‘OK, what also are people looking for right now in our industry?’ Things hiring managers are looking for have changed rapidly in the last five years.

Every aspiring leader needs to expand their portfolio, especially in the revenue generating and sports supervision areas.  There’s an emphasis on having the ability to raise money, understand media, understand football and its impact, and, in the last two years, it’s important to understand the trends and growing impact in Name Image and Likeness (NIL). You must be able to speak on what’s happening in NIL and keeping up with it all.

If you are among those aspire to be elevated to senior leadership positions, you’ve got to understand what hirers are looking for and you have to build important skills in those areas.

Time on task, work stressors and burnout are issues in the workplace today. You are a big believer in managing your energy. A lot of people have passion and energy but get beaten down with long days, constant deadlines and stressors. How do you manage to be as consistently energetic and passionate as you are?
PP: Number one, it is a commitment to have positive energy. You cannot say, I don’t have time to do things differently. You must make the time because you cannot perform if you do not manage your energy.

I am called ‘pumpkin Pat’ because I go to sleep early every night! I’ve read the research that states the time between 10 pm and 2 pm is a crucial sleep period. That might not be possible for everyone, but you’ve got to get a consistent sleep pattern. Right now, I’m getting up an hour earlier than I used to — and this happened in 15-minute increments. I have a pattern and a whole routine. First thing — I hydrate, because being dehydrated after sleeping is a real problem for people. I do breathing work, affirmations, perhaps I work out. I used to watch the news in the morning but I don’t anymore. Instead, I listen to podcasts, looking for positive and uplifting messages. So, I start every morning by infusing positive messages into my day. It’s amazing how much that changes you!

These are the kinds of choices that you can make to start your day off on a positive note. In short, it’s all about your decisions and choices throughout the day. Throughout the day, I am moving. My Apple watch has helped me. Remember, we are not meant to sit and be stationery. Get your standing hours in and make sure to move. There are devices that can help you do that. I try to have breathing room between meetings so I can walk, move, hydrate.

What other things we can do to help us flip our personal narratives and improve our outlook to face all our professional challenges with good energy?
PP: We all have full calendars. Really full ‘everythings’ to be honest. It’s so important to acknowledge our language around our full schedules, too. We teach at the Women Leader institutes that instead of saying words like “overwhelmed” and “crazy-busy” we use words like “full,” “abundant,” “blessed” and “in demand.” By thinking and speaking this way, it totally shifts your energy about how you perceive your day, how you look at your job. Ultimately, we are all really fortunate and lucky to be working in the business of sports, we are lucky to have jobs. Let’s remember that.

You are a big advocate of the growth mindset, so explain that as well.
PP: It’s about building a positive framework, and it goes back to a growth mindset and how we are choosing to frame our lives. I work on this daily, and we hire for this and I surround myself with people who have a growth mindset.

A growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts, that a person’s true potential is unknown - and unknowable!  

It’s also important to know who are you surrounding yourself with, at work and outside of work. Is it with people who believe that life is good, and that every ‘challenge is an opportunity,” and that every day is an opportunity to grow? That growth mindset means that we can cultivate growth and getting better through our efforts. That our true potential is unknown. That goes right back into the importance of how you show up each day, how your energy matters.

Your ability to show up as your best every day matters. It’s impossible to foresee how good you can become, but that path to becoming better and all you can be - takes effort every day.

Every day off when you are tired, or sick, or don’t show your best, not only does it impact you, it impacts all those around you. As a leader of an organization, I take it very seriously – I mean VERY seriously – how I show up every day. Because I think it’s not only for me – it’s for my team too, and it’s not fair for people around me if I do not.

Can you leave us with some final thoughts to help professionals as they navigate their career paths?
One of my favorite quotes around this is “becoming is better than being” (Carol Dwek). I also love the word becoming! Each day I want to become the best version of myself.

We need to keep infusing confidence and inspiration. I do think it is easy to get beat down and lose hope, and I think when you are in that space, it limits your growth mindset. That’s why in addition to all of our proven programs, we at Women Leaders provide heavy doses of inspiration and celebration.
 

---

Talk about these stories on the Slack Community.