Bill Bowerman was one of the best known and most accomplished track and field coaches of all time. He had a knack for turning average athletes into great ones. Over the course of his career he developed 33 Olympians, 64 all-Americans, 22 world record holders, and 25 U.S. record holders in 16 of the 19 track and field events (University of Oregon, 2016). Bowerman was also the co-founder of Nike athletics and created the original designs for their athletic shoes. He was an innovator and a maverick in the world of athletics and his success and the success of the athletes that he worked with sprang from what might today be recognized as his authentic leadership style.
Bowerman did not always plan to be a coach. In fact, he initially intended to go into medicine, but somewhere along his educational trajectory he switched gears and became a teacher (University of Oregon, 2016). It was when he began coaching a high school track team that his true passion and talent began to surface. His coaching style was rooted in a philosophy of motivation, teaching, challenging, and inspiring his athletes (Wharton, 2005). This same philosophy is the cornerstone of the Nike business model that Bowerman helped to create and the reason both enterprises were so successful (Wharton, 2005). Bowerman’s leadership style was a natural extension of his belief system. His main concern was never money or prizes, but motivation and development. In any endeavor his natural instinct was to figure out how to improve performance, both his own and the performance of others.
An authentic leader is viewed as someone who is a “genuine and real” in their leadership ability (Northouse, 2016). It is not necessarily a fixed trait, but a developmental process that can be learned through experiences, but also involves originality and individuality specific to the leader as well as a reciprocal relationship between leader and follower (Northouse, 2016). Bill George’s approach to authentic leadership identifies five dimensions to authentic leadership as well as corresponding characteristics that support each dimension (Northouse, 2016). First, authentic leaders understand their purpose and are passionate about it. Bill Bowerman’s purpose was the development and welfare of athletes. His passion for his purpose is what fueled his coaching style and fundraisers, his involvement with the Amateur Athletic Union, and what sparked the idea to use his wife’s waffle iron to make his own shoes for his runners (University of Oregon, 2016).
The other characteristics of authentic leaders include clear values and behaviors that line up with those values, relationships and connectedness to followers, self-discipline and consistence, and compassion and heart (Northouse, 2016). Bowerman was strong in all of these categories. He formed strong bonds with his runners and worked with their strengths. In fact one of Bowerman’s mottos was “you look for pockets of excellence and where you don’t find them, you create them” (Wharton, 2016). He believed in building strong foundational skills, that details mattered in every instance, in the power of working hard and consistently, in learning and teaching, and that to win you have to desire to win. Everyday his focus was on his team, how they can improve, what will motivate them, what he can do better or differently. The first thing he did for a new runner was to take measurements of their feet and make them custom shoes (University of Oregon, 2016). He designed a program of high altitude training to improve lung capacity which is now utilized by the U.S. Olympic Committee (University of Oregon, 2016). But his greatest desire was to make a running shoe that all children would be able to afford.
Bill Bowerman was truly an innovative thinker in his field and his leadership and methods changed the way that track and field events are approached and viewed. He made running an accessible activity for anyone and build one of the largest athletic wear companies in the world based on his desire to give access to proper running shoes to all people and to motivate them to excel. His authenticity as a leader inspired what most considered to be average athletes to achieve incredible athletic feats. The town of Eugene Oregon has been dubbed track town USA in his honor.
Leadership and Legacy – Athletics and the University of Oregon. (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2016, from http://sportshistory.uoregon.edu/topics/the-track-and-field-legacy/famous-coaches/bill-bowerman/
Just Do It: More than an Athletic Prescription – Knowledge@Wharton. (2005, March 30). Retrieved July 27, 2016, from http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/just-do-it-more-than-an-athletic-prescription
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Whitney Alexis Wade says
Jaime,
I think your blog post was interesting and it was so good to learn about Bill Bowerman from Oregon. Bowerman definitely demonstrated the characteristics of authentic leadership. Another leader that I feel demonstrated the characteristics of authentic leadership was Temple basketball coach John Chaney. John Chaney viewed student athletes and his job as developing men. At temple he would call early morning practices at 5am and would set grade point average requirements for his players. The purpose of this was to get them accustomed to business life and working as an adult where you often have to wake up extremely early preemptively before your family to handle work responsibilities. This qualifies as authentic leadership because he is engaging himself with the students and going beyond his obligations to better his students beyond the basketball court.
Typically I think you will find most authentic leaders in sports because it gives the leader the greatest amount of possibilities to interact and engage with his subordinates. At our prestigious University Joe Paterno was revered for being an authentic leader.
Excellent Post. ‘
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/news/story?id=2366357