Leadership Project:
A Leadership Coaching Program for Project Rise
About Project Rise
Project Rise was established in the summer of 2020 by Brandon Goble, co-owner of Verbal Commits, and CEO of JUCO Advocate, which connects basketball coaches from around the country to basketball players from around the world.
In response to heightened tensions arising from George Floyd's murder, Brandon created Project Rise to address the racial equity gap in Division-I men's college basketball coaching (shown below). While college basketball is more diverse than many other areas of American life, there's a disturbing juxtaposition of the racial demographic of college basketball players and college basketball coaches. And when Historically Black Colleges and Universities are removed from the dataset, this racial equity gap widens even further, with the percentage of white head coaches increasing to 77%. This dataset paints a picture of an inequitable system that results in white individuals centered in positions of power at a much greater rate and probability than individuals of color, and specifically Black individuals. There is a large, and inequitable difference between the way minority coaches and white coaches move through the profession.
Project Rise was created as a career development program, partnering 10 Black coaches from the junior college and high school levels with 10 Division-I basketball head coaches for networking, knowledge acquisition and development of technical skills, and career mentorship with the intended goal of facilitating the movement of talented coaches into Division-I men's college basketball. Adam Gierlach Coaching partnered with Project Rise to add leader development through leadership coaching to the existing career development curriculum.
Racial Equity Gap in Division-I
Men's College Basketball Coaching
77%
Men's Basketball Student-Athletes Identifying as a Minority
(2018-19 Season)
23%
Men's Basketball Student-Athletes Identifying as White
(2018-19 Season)
34%
Men's Basketball Head Coaches Identifying as a Minority
(2008-2020)
66%
Men's Basketball Head Coaches Identifying as White
(2008-2020)
Why Leadership Coaching?
A Look at The Practice of Leader Development
As I transitioned into the world of professional coaching and leader development after a decade in college basketball, I was met with a world full of mystery and misunderstanding. What passed as "Leadership Programs" and leader development seemed to be more focused on professional or career development. These programs often focus on acquiring knowledge and development of technical skills, or navigating moving up a hierarchical, career ladder rather than increasing an individual's capacity to lead. And when analyzed with any sort of rigor, it's found these type of programs often utilize untrained mentors that are unlikely to produce leader development outcomes, and practices (high-status speakers, one-off conferences) that produce little to no measurable results and outcomes for increasing the capacity of individuals to lead or the development of specific leader competencies. This paints a picture of programs that are claiming to develop others as leaders but fail to rely upon individuals who are educated, trained, and proven leader development professionals, utilize evidenced-based practices, or produce results and outcomes that substantiate the claim of leader development.
The Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University is committed to improving the practice of leader development in higher education. They've outlined this discrepancy between claims of leader development and the reality of leader development in higher education specifically, as well as put forth a blueprint for a model of effective leader development in their book, Leadership Reckoning.
Leadership coaching is proven as one of the most impactful and reliable ways to increase an individual's capacity to lead. The form of coaching described here is defined by the International Coaching Federation as "partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential." Under the ICF's definition, coaching takes the form of a wholly different discipline and developmental relationship than the consulting, instructing, teaching, mentoring, or counseling provided by many professionals who claim to provide coaching to their clients.
Through their research, the Doerr Institute has proven leadership coaching to successfully increase an individual's capacity to lead as demonstrated by measurements such as leader identity, and specific leadership goals and competencies. This has profound implications, especially considering the Doerr Institute has also demonstrated that time, excellent education, and even roles that others might describe as positions of leadership are not enough to develop individuals as leaders. Additionally, leadership coaching produces leader development outcomes not produced by mentorship or written reflection. Some of the Doerr Institute's research is linked below.
Leader development does not happen on its own, or through the types of "Leadership Programs" outlined above. But through awareness, reflection, intentional practice, and working with a leadership coach, individuals can develop as leaders.
A Leadership Coaching Program for Project Rise
The development of a leadership coaching program for Project Rise was greatly influenced by my work as a Leadership Coach for the Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University. This coaching program centers around participants developing a clear vision for a leadership best self, the ideal leader the participant is wanting to become, and co-creating action steps and goals in order to achieve that vision. This program serves as an entry point to the Doerr Institute for Rice University students and my hypothesis was that its framework could serve as a similar entry point for Project Rise. While several Project Rise participants are more established in their careers as basketball coaches, with a few being head coaches, they lacked the experience of leader development and working with a leadership coach.
The program is structured around the following concepts of leader development:
Begin with and build the foundation of Leader Identity. This measurement of leader identity includes seeing oneself as a leader, confidence to be a leader, willingness to pursue roles of leadership, and awareness of one's strengths and weaknesses as a leader. If one routinely fails to see themselves as a leader, such technical interventions of leadership skills or competencies are unlikely to be embodied and acted upon.
Layer the foundation with Emotional Intelligence. Whereas leadership identity provides the impetus for stepping into a leadership role, emotional intelligence often provides the skills necessary to succeed in that role. The definition of Emotional Intelligence used here is the definition associated with the EQ-i 2.0 Emotional Intelligence Assessment, developed by Reuven Bar-On and administered by Multi-Health Systems. It refers to a set of emotional and social skills that collectively establish how well we perceive and express ourselves, develop and maintain social relationships, cope with life's challenges, and use emotional information in an effective and meaningful way. To support Project Rise participants in their development, each participant completed the EQ-i 2.0 Emotional Intelligence Assessment and received a formal report of their results.
Practice and develop leadership skills and competencies aligned with intrinsic goals. This framework acknowledges that a one-size-fits-all approach is doomed to fail due to differing visions of leadership best selves, desired impact out in the world, and the unique ways of expressing leadership behaviors, while also holding that some specific skills and competencies are more aligned with effective leaders than ineffective leaders. Increasing capacity as leaders also requires practicing those behaviors out in the world, such that an individual can move towards and embody the vision for the leader they choose to be.
The coaching program consisted of four, coaching sessions executed over a 3-4 month period, and scheduled to fit the work flow and demands of participant schedules. The coaching sessions were performed on an individual basis. Sessions 2-4 are 60 minutes in duration, with Session 1 being a bit longer to accommodate for a debrief of the participant's EQ-i 2.0 results. While the specifics of each session are co-created by participant and coach through a working alliance built on trust and safety, the coaching program does follow a general framework.
Session 1 (90 minutes): This session includes a debrief on the client's EQ-i 2.0 report, and helps participants honestly assess their current leadership capacity. A picture of strengths and opportunities for development towards a leadership best self begins to develop.
Session 2: Participant and coach co-creates a vision for the participant's "Leadership Best Self," a vision for his or her highest future possibility and the leader he or she chooses to be.
Session 3: Participant and coach define concrete goals and action steps to actualize the "Leadership Best Self."
Session 4: This session seeks to "wrap-up well" the coaching engagement through highlighting key awarenesses and insights, and solidifying participant strategies for continued actualization of the "Leadership Best Self," and development.
Several external resources were used in support of participant development, and in support of the coaching framework outlined above:
EQ-i 2.0 Emotional Intelligence Assessment: The EQ-i 2.0 is the world's only scientifically standardized, trait-based, emotional intelligence assessment. While there are many valuable EQ assessments on the market, the EQ-i 2.0 is relatively seamless to administer, and its model serves as a valuable leader development tool that is backed by research. As one client expressed, "it simplified where I want to grow, and how I need to do it."
Leader Development Plan: This is a fairly straightforward document, with a handful of questions and reflection prompts. But it is also structured, intentional, and backed by research helping make leader development a real goal with concrete plans around for the participant, it as opposed to just a dream or fantasy.
Goal Setting Frameworks: Grounded in the Objectives & Key Results Framework (OKRs), this supports developing effective goal pursuit plans, which is indicated as the most important predictor of client progress in the Doerr Institute's research.
Measurement
This measurement of results and outcomes was modeled after the Doerr Institute's measurement process for their coaching programs. Using pre and post surveys, participants were measured across a range of scientifically-validated inventories associated with greater leader effectiveness, specific leader skills and competencies, program evaluation, coach effectiveness, and satisfaction measures.
For evaluating leader development programs, it's valuable to introduce rigorous measurement that goes beyond participant satisfaction. While satisfaction may be a reasonable first step in measurement, such measures do little to assess whether the program effectively increases a participant's capacity to lead or results in a shift in behavioral, cognitive, or emotional skills to the extent that it would improve an individual's ability to lead.
The scales administered to program participants captured the following constructs:
Leader identity
Sense of purpose
Life satisfaction
Psychological distress
Self-concept clarity
Additionally, many of the leader competencies measured align with the values, skills, and capacities of the servant-leader dispositions conceptualized by Larry Spears and John Horsman. A selection is listed below:
Collaboration
Development of others
Effective Communication
Empathetic Engagement
It stands to reason that increased leader capacity and leader effectiveness may also result in increased on-court success. Due to COVID-19, not all Project Rise participants completed a 2020-21 season. But for those who did, Win-Loss records for the 2019-20 season (prior to start of coaching) and for the 2020-21 season (during and after coaching) were also assessed.
Impact Assessment for Project Rise: Leadership Coaching
Changes Across Five Constructs
Participants completed a self-assessment on a scale range from 1 to 5.
Changes represent raw score differences of levels at the end of coaching minus levels at the beginning of coaching.
0.31
Leader Identity
0.44
Sense of Purpose
1.04
Overall Life Satisfaction
-0.47
Psychological Distress
0.38
Self-Concept Clarity
Changes Across Selected Leader
Skills and Competencies
Participants completed a self-assessment on a scale range from 1 to 5.
Changes represent raw score differences of levels at the end of coaching minus levels at the beginning of coaching.
0.69
Decision-Making
0.31
Perseverance
0.38
Innovative Thinking
0.50
Love of Learning
0.47
Empathetic Enagement
0.44
Collaboration
0.62
Delegation
0.30
Development of Others
0.38
Effective Communication
Program Evaluation and Satisfaction Measures
Participants completed a self-assessment on a scale range from 1 to 7.
7.0
Perceived Value
100%
% Recommend (6 or 7)
3:1
Participant Preference for Leadership Coaching over Mentorship
Participant Meaningful Goal Progress
6.88
Enhanced Participant Leader Performance
6.75
% Would Recommend For Student-Athletes
100%
% Interested In Pursuing More Developmental
Opportunities With Adam Gierlach Coaching (6 or 7)
100%
% Indicated Leadership Coaching as the Most Valuable
Component of Project Rise for Participant Development
100%
Participant On-Court Success
Change in winning % from 2019-20 season to 2020-21 season.
4.4%
Change in Winning %
17.4%
Change in Winning % for Head Coach Participants
A Closing Reflection
Robert Greenleaf's Best Test of servant leadership asks, "Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?"
Part of my journey in Gonzaga's Masters in Organizational Leadership program has been developing an understanding that, for me, a leadership coach is someone who strives to fulfill Greenleaf's Best Test. But as Dr. Shann Ferch highlighted on Episode 12 of the Love In Basketball Podcast, "the beauty of servant-leadership as it's been conceived by Greenleaf is that the power is not in my hands...The power is in those that are around you. Meaning, can they freely say, that being around you, they become more wise, more free, more autonomous, more healthy? Well, that's up to how you're living around them and a legitimate impact."
All the measures point to this leadership coaching program for Project Rise as a success, and having made a legitimate impact. The results across key measurements speak to an increased capacity to lead for program participants such that we could reasonably say this program developed more and better leaders, and helped leaders become servant-leaders. To establish further credibility, the results and outcomes of this program mirror closely the typical results seen in the Doerr Institute's leadership coaching programs. And at least initially, the results of this program draw a correlation to increased on-court success, especially for head coaches. While the sample size is small, this program also provides proof of concept for the impact and value of leader development through leadership coaching for college basketball coaches.
But the power, impact, and manifested competencies of my Master's in Organizational Leadership journey are not in my hands. The power and legitimate impact is in the basketball coaches who participated in Project Rise. The beauty of servant-leadership is that the power is in those that are around you.