1.question Podcast

Herb Courtney, CEO of Renaissance Search & Consulting, visits @1QLeadership to discuss starting and growing the firm without external funding while addressing specific issues in the college athletics industry. He discusses reasons for expanding the staff and how it has helped the company's processes evolve. The conversation also goes into understanding the client to help find the best and most diverse candidate pool.

Sable Lee, Assistant Director for Leadership Development at NCAA, stops by @1QLeadership to give some insight on young professionals in the workforce, specifically within the college athletics industry. She talks about perceptions young professionals may have of the environment and methods to adjust to that environment before jumping ship to find something else. She also provides information on the upcoming NCAA Emerging Leaders Seminar including who should and how to apply.

Candace Smith, Senior Associate AD for Internal Operations at Akron, stops by @1QLeadership for an insightful conversation about her role. She talks about the transition from basketball operations and working with a new leader as she has worked for two head coaches and, in her current role, two athletics directors. The discussion also covers budget planning with coaches and working with numbers and people. Smith wraps the conversation with insight on being unsure when transitioning to a new leadership role. 

Michelle Morgan, Senior Director of Athletics at John Carroll University, stops by @1QLeadership to discuss responsibilities as Chair of NCAA D3 Management Council. She talks about the challenge of considering competing priorities within the division. Morgan also gives insight on taking over a successful athletics department and the conversation wraps on professional development and her leadership philosophy.

Tim Duncan, VP of Athletics at University of New Orleans, visits @1QLeadership to discuss why embracing the New Orleans community culture was included in his strategic plan. The conversation also covers working with the university on raising funds for campus, hiring staff, and wraps on the future of the Emerging Leaders Conference.

Danielle Harris, Commissioner of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, stops by @1QLeadership to talk about listening as a crucial aspect of leadership. Key skills noted are to listen, observe, and be able to connect the dots. She also covers mental health services post-pandemic and the conversation wraps on the concerns regarding enrollment in higher education.

Jeff Mitchell, Deputy AD at Southern MIss, stops by @1QLeadership to discuss topics such as his experience as interim AD at Santa Clara and Southern Miss and creating an atmosphere that is conducive to fact-finding. The conversation also covers putting people at ease during important conversations, how he delineates his opinion from necessary information, writing a text book on leadership and ethics in sport, and his recent professional development experiences.

Long Beach State Deputy AD, Tiffany Edlin, visits @1QLeadership to talk about strategic thinking in the athletics department and on campus. She talks about using her financial background as a catalyst for thinking athletics centered but with a university perspective. The conversation wraps on maintaining relationships and the process of offering off the wall ideas to get things done.

Cary Groth, Sandy Hatfield Clubb, and Carolyn Schlie Femovich of The Pictor Group stopped by @1QLeadership to talk about the importance of establishing core values, the areas of focus for the organization, how their respective experiences contribute to the work they do collectively, and how they always tie the work they do for an athletics department to the institutional mission of the university.

Earlston Bean, Jr., Sr. Associate AD for Events & Safety Management, stops by @1QLeadership to talk about his role and its position within the framework of the greater IU campus. Bean also talks about his leadership style and how he supports those he reports to.

Dr. Don Bruce, economics professor and FAR at Tennessee, stops by @1QLeadership to give insight from an economics professor on the college athletics model. Bruce is also the President-Elect of the 1A-FAR association, and discusses the group's thoughts on the state of the college athletics industry. He also gives an interesting analogy on high salaries for coaches. The conversation wraps on the importance of athletics to the academic mission of a university.

Dr. Miriam Merrill, AD at Pomona Pitzer Colleges, visits @1QLeadership in a conversation that covers hiring for fit and evaluating those hires. The discussion takes a wide diversion as Merrill gives us her way of escaping college athletics every year by attending the national bartenders convention. The episode wraps with her thoughts on using restorative justice concepts in college athletics.

ULM Running Backs Coach, Tony Hull, covers accountability, working for NASA, and the transition from coaching in high school to coaching in college. From Hull, "A big problem in sports is that people focus on winning instead of focusing on creating an environment for winning to happen."

Andrew T. Goodrich, Deputy AD and Chief Marketing Officer at Syracuse, visits @1QLeadershp to discuss his philosophy of engineering the solution to deal with any problem that may arrive. Learned during his time at IBM, Goodrich talks about planning, identifying resources, and executing the plan and how he has applied that ideology in college athletics. He also gives us his thoughts on the importance of zero based budgeting.

The One Question Leadership Podcast was created to discuss leadership with some of the most influential leaders within the college athletics industry. We look at the systems, policies, and people needed to create an environment that people want to be a part of. While college athletics may be the industry we emphasize, the leadership concepts discussed span all walks of life.

Illinois State VB Student-Athlete, Kendee Hilliard, is joined by Redbirds AD, Kyle Brennan as the two cover a number of topics relating to leadership. Brennan discusses diversifying his leadership team, handling decisions he may not agree with, and advice to those seeking to make it to the AD Chair.

Darrice Griffin, Sr. Deputy Director of Athletics at Georgia, stops by @1QLeadership to dive into the evolution of her servant leadership style. She covers the areas where she and the department align - experience of those who work and study at the school, maintaining a level of excellence in sports, and commitment to inclusion. The conversation wraps on becoming a servant leader with a vision, and learning from everyone around her.

Troy Austin, Deputy AD for Competitive Excellence, People, and Culture at Duke visits @1QLeadership on the topic of making decisions and giving a voice to staff who are not involved in making decisions. He also covers evaluating culture and engaging underrepresented populations within the department. The conversation wraps on the topic of weighing experience against values when making decisions in a dynamic, ever-evolving environment.

Illinois State VB Student-Athlete Hilliard is back as a guest host for @1QLeadership. Hilliard talks with Women Leaders CEO Patti Phillips on managing energy as a leader, finding your voice, and balancing commitments. The two visit about the anniversary of Title IX and the ongoing pursuit of equity for women. As the conversation progresses, Hilliard gets fired up and asks Phillips about her use of emojis on Twitter.

Ball State President, Geoffrey Mearns, visits @1QLeadership to talk about creating and managing a strategic plan. The discussion covers the nuance of planning for a specific future as opposed to providing solutions to existing problems. Mearns talks about his process of planning as far out as 2040 while including incremental goals to measure success in execution. The conversation also covers the process for making adjustments to the plan and wraps on his experience serving on NCAA committees.