Shannon Miller started as a hockey player that played in the first Canadian national championship in 1982. She went on to acquire a successful leadership history including huge success as the head coach at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). UMD made an excellent choice choosing an amazing player that is also a marvelous leader through her direction and supportive leadership style which is representative of situational approach.
Her rich history includes winning a Silver medal in the 1998 Olympic Winter Games and several Championships in the International Ice Hockey Federation World Women’s Championships (International Ice Hockey Federation, 2016). She co-formed the first ever girls minor hockey association in Calgary in 1989 (Girls Hockey Calgary Association History, n.d.), was an assistant coach for Team Alberta at the 1991 Canada Winter Games, was an assistant coach for Team Canada at the 1992 and 1994 Women’s World Ice Hockey championships, and was wildly successful as head coach at (UMD) for 16 years (Wikipedia, 2016). “She won five NCAA titles in 15 years as head coach, has a career winning percentage of .713, and has helped develop 26 current and former Olympians” (Fagen, 2014). Not all players make good coaches, but Shannon Miller definitely rocked as a coach.
In the situational approach, the leader must adapt to the demands of the environment and to the individuals they are leading. Miller had many recruits from other countries such as Sweden, Finland, and Germany. So, she would need to be understanding of their personal cultures and backgrounds and sensitive to the fact they were so far from family and friends. She was supportive with the young women coming to Minnesota from other countries and directive with her entire team.
The key to her success was through the use of “both a directive and supportive dimension” (Northouse, 2016, p. 93). Miller would vary her style into one of the four distinct categories listed in Northouse; high directive – low supportive, high directive – high supportive, high supportive – low directive, or low supportive – low directive style according to the individual player. This led to record wins and successful athletes – including several Olympians.
Even though Miller was outrageously successful as the lead female hockey coach for fifteen years at UMD she managed to do it despite repeated incidences of blatant homophobic abuse such as having her name plate removed and replaced with paper and the word “Dyke” slipped into the slot. She was eventually let go and told the school needed to make cuts. They never discussed this with her or gave her the option of accepting a pay cut. In addition, the men’s hockey coach held only one title at the time of her release and was being paid $20,000 more than she was (ESPN, 2014).
Miller, and many female athletic coaches face this kind of bigotry and I am always impressed and amazed when these women stand up for themselves! I feel compelled to support the movement that women should be treated equally to men in all ways, but I also feel compelled to support lesbians as they aren’t just treated with less respect they are often, outright abused. They should be treated with the same dignity and respect as anyone. Even though I am not a lesbian, this unfair treatment of Shannon Miller is infuriating to me. An intelligent, driven, successful hockey coach was let go from her position due to her sexual orientation and it is just plain wrong and shouldn’t be tolerated.
Shannon Miller went on to start her own business in Palm Springs, CA. As a coach, she represented situational leadership with her incredible directive and supportive leadership abilities and was incredibly successful. Despite her outrageous success as a coach she was let go from her position and went on to excel in a completely different business adventure. Kudos to her! She is a tremendous inspiration to me.
References
Fagen, K. (2014). Minnesota-Duluth Doesn’t Want Wildly Successful Hockey Coach… Wait, What? ESPN. Retrieved from http://espn.go.com/espnw/news-commentary/article/12046227/minnesota-duluth-want-wildly-successful-hockey-coach-wait-what
Girls Hockey Calgary. Retrieved from http://girlshockeycalgary.com/page.php?page_id=41379
International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved from http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/sport/women/ambassadors/shannon-miller/
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications.
Shannon Miller (2016). Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_Miller_(ice_hockey)
eqh5025 says
I find your blog very interesting and curious. You started by presenting us with a famous female hockey player which and also a good coach wining many championships toward here career. You mentioned Shannon miller used situational approach to analyze and adopt to the demands of the environment. Since most of the girls were from all over the world she far away from their home she had to be supportive of the girls and also understand them. I like how you mentioned that the key to Shannon miller success was her ability to use both “both a directive and supportive dimension” (Northouse, 2016, p. 93). I can’t understand how a famous and so many times championship winner can be replaced and let go only because of her sexual orientation. It is really hard to understand that someones sexual orientation can have such major effects on someone’s life. It is amazing how you can get fired from a job just for being the way you are, just for trying to express yourself. It is a true inspiration how she went on with her life to complete different business adventures and peruse her dreams. I would like to add one more point to your blog. I just want people to become aware and understand how devastating prejudice and stereotyping can be. In these case Shannon was able to manage her situation without stress but imagine home many women or man go through stress because they are being stereotyped for being “different” from others. Homophobia leads to prejudice that lesbians are not good to our society which then leads to discrimination (like in these case) in which the law and justice come into play deciding someone else fate only because they are different from what we as a society call “normal”
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications