NCAA LEADERSHIP FORUM: Molinare Reflects On Her Experience

BEVERLY, Mass. – From November 10-13 of this year, Endicott sophomore field hockey student-athlete Cameron Molinare (Simsbury, Conn.) attended the NCAA Leadership Forum in Baltimore, Maryland. While there, Molinare gained an invaluable amount of information on what it takes to become a better leader. Here's what Molinare learned during her time at the NCAA Leadership Convention, in her own words.

CAMERON 'CAMI' MOLINARE ATTENDS NCAA LEADERSHIP FORUM

A couple of months ago, I had found out that I had been given the incredible honor of being nominated and selected to represent Endicott College at the four day NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum in Baltimore. I was truly humbled by the idea of the amazing opportunity that lied before me, but at the time I was selected, I knew little about what the NCAA Leadership Forum actually entailed. So, like any one in need of information, I Googled it. And what I found, courtesy of the NCAA website, was that the NCAA Leadership Forum engages a diverse and dynamic representation of 300 student athletes, administrators, and coaches in various seminars that explore the relationship between personal values, core beliefs, and behavioral styles as well as learn about the NCAA as a whole, and the valuable role of SAAC. Or in simpler terms, the NCAA Leadership Forum transforms these individuals into better leaders. Well, I had no idea just how life changing this experience would actually be. Honestly, just trying to put the magnitude of this experience into a few words to share with all of you was almost impossible.  

Over the course of the four days that I had spent at the forum, I met all kinds of incredible student-athletes and administrators from all over the country. I met someone from Alaska, California, Kansas, Missouri, and New Mexico, just to name a few. But honestly, the coolest part was discovering how we have all gone through similar experiences and were dealing with similar issues when it comes to leadership and being a strong leader on not just our team, but also in life.  

While at the forum, we talked about how it is important to always have a growth mindset and to be open to new ideas. When faced with a challenge, don't just say no, I can't do that, change your mindset and start saying, alright I may not know how to do this now, but with practice, I will get there. It is important to always have a growth mindset as a leader, and in life, as you venture off into new aspects of your life. 

We also talked about the inside-out approach in that it is crucial that you work on yourself first and your own belief system before you can help others. So with that being said, we went on to discuss our core values and engaged in an activity that helped us narrow down all of the ideas and concepts we thought we valued into our top three core values. But what does that have to do with being a leader? Well your core values help shape who you are and what you believe in. These core values have helped mold and create your own unique leadership philosophy and are what you can always go back to whenever faced with adversity.

As a leader, you must align these core values with your goals, dreams, and aspirations and commit to reflecting them in your relationships and interactions with others. Be sure to always be your authentic self, day in and day out and you will not fail. I encourage each and every one of you to take the time to self-reflect and discover your core values. Also, if you have the time, I urge you to take the Gallup Strengths Based Leadership Assessment. This will determine your top five strengths as a leader as they fall within the four domains: execute, influence, relationship building, and strategic thinking. Knowing your strengths as a leader will help you become a better leader as a coach and administrator. You may be surprised by what you find. I know I was.  

Next, we talked about the key characteristics of effective teams. There are five commonalities amongst strong teams and they are as follows: healthy conflict, ability to prioritize and act, have balance in their lives, value diversity, and attract talent. Then, we discussed how to be an emotionally intelligent leader. There are three core facets of emotionally intelligent leadership: consciousness of others, consciousness of self, and consciousness of context. In other words, it is important that you understand yourself and your own emotions. You must be aware of how you will react in certain situations so that you do not have irrational responses to others. Sometimes you may find it challenging to work with someone due to your perception of them, but you must take the time to get to know this person on a personal level because one of the worst things you can do as a leader is discount the benefit these people can bring to you and your team simply because you do not like them.

You must, also, get to know what buttons to push and what buttons to stay away from in each and every one of your teammates in order to get the best out of them both on and off the field. Good leaders know to treat everyone differently because people respond differently to criticism and to different leadership styles. Discover who energizes you as a leader and how you feel when you are around people who you find energizing. Uncover your emotional intelligence blind spots whether it be that you are unaware of others personal situations or knowing when you can no longer help. All in all, if you are in tune with yourself and what makes you tick and you understand how to control your own emotions and relate to others, you are on your way to becoming an effective leader.  

Finally, we talked about how all great leaders must be effective communicators. It is important to listen to understand, don't just listen to respond. As an effective communicator you must stress what is important and keep the other person engaged. Be emotionally aware and clear your mind of the clutter so that you can focus on critical thinking regarding the topic. Know when to take the back seat and become a follower when a task is beyond your area of expertise. You must learn to trust your teammates, players or coworkers and what they are saying in order to have an effective team and workplace. Being an effective communicator is being someone who is able to listen to everyone and take everyone's ideas and opinions into consideration -not someone who simply barks orders at others. 

Now I understand that I just threw a lot of information out there, so I have decided to narrow down my new learning into these five key points. 

1.  Discover your core values and strengths as a leader.

2.  Listen to understand, not to respond.

3.  Make an effort to get to know your teammates at a personal level.

4.  Use each day as a chance to make yourself better than you were the day before. 

5.  AND if nothing else, work towards becoming a 24-hour leader.

NCAA LEADERSHIP FORUM

The NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum engages a diverse and dynamic representation of student-athletes, coaches, faculty and administrators. Student-athletes selected to attend Leadership Forum return to campus with invaluable leadership skills, the experience of exploring the relationship between personal values, core beliefs and behavioral styles, and a thorough understanding of the NCAA as a whole, the different divisional perspectives and the valuable role of Student-Athlete Advisory Committees (SAAC).

The Leadership Forum, created in 1997, has been a life-changing experience for nearly 5,000 student-athletes, many who have grown personally and professionally, gained a new network of peers and friends, as well as felt the rewards and importance of community service. 

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