ALCOM team learns from UAA basketball coach

Recently, a group from Alaskan Command representing the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Army, and Air Force had the opportunity to learn about the University of Alaska Anchorage women’s basketball team and training program, and tour their facilities.

Women’s head basketball coach Ryan McCarthy and his three team captains discussed leadership with the participants.

During the past four years, McCarthy has led the women’s program to an impressive 124-12 record, capturing four Great Northwest Athletic Conference regular-season and three postseason tournament titles and a feature in Newsweek Magazine.

The Alaskan Command team wanted to understand how McCarthy shaped his leadership style and successfully led both men and women in a competitive environment.

Alaskan Command was inspired by the team captains and engaged by McCarthy’s leadership philosophy and how it mirrored military leadership axioms.

As impressive as the modern facilities were at UAA, we were more impressed with the people – and the coaching.

Make training harder than games

McCarthy makes it a point to train his players hard enough the pain from training forces them to lose their inhibitions and think outside the box and rely on the team.

Team Captain Hannah Wandersee said the games seemed easy after practicing with McCarthy.

“If we push the team hard enough during practice, you can see the players realize they won’t make it going alone and that’s when we really start to gel as a team,” McCarthy said.

In the same way, we shape exercises Red Flag, Arctic Edge, and Arctic Anvil to train at a level that makes reality seem easy. When the training humbles and exposes our weakness, it forces our team to get stronger and develop community.

McCarthy adroitly handles the brokenness that hard training brings out during practice by creating a culture which forces players to be vulnerable with each other so they rely on team not self.

“It’s hard training with a purpose,” McCarthy said. “I want my players to forget about their own skills to get them through training, and look to each other to thrive in training camp.”

Peer leadership shapes culture

McCarthy maintains a high performance culture with a turnover of leadership occurring every two to three years. He credits this to his team captains.

“Teaching new recruits about our culture doesn’t mean as much coming from me – how we do things, what our culture is all about needs to come from my team captains,” McCarthy said.

Senior guard Tara Thompson said McCarthy told her foot speed was not fast enough to compete at the collegiate level.

Thompson’s team captain stepped in to help train her to what seemed an impossible task – getting faster.

A Dimond High School graduate, she was able to achieve what seemed impossible through tough-minded skills training shaped by a culture created by her team captains.

Now a team captain, Thompson uses that same inspiration and insight to lead her teammates. The same is true for shaping culture in the military – peer leadership is the driver that shapes unit culture. Knowing that the frontline supervisor shapes unit culture can make a leader feel vulnerable.

Trust and empowerment are more easily said then executed, but the fact remains, peer leadership makes the most profound and longstanding impact on our warfighters.

This means we need to elevate our subordinates importance creating and empowering peer leaders within the unit. We can follow Secretary of Defense James Mattis’ example; he stated “I have been accused of making my subordinates my equals, and I happily stand guilty.”

Know the enemy – and yourself

Although McCarthy did not quote Sun Tzu, he applies Sun Tzu’s principles. Every year, he has the team and staff take a personality test to gain insight on how to motivate, lead, and inspire his team.

McCarthy was very quick to discount any notion that the younger generation is soft, entitled, or lazy; rather, he said that once his girls believed they could trust him because he cared about them, “they are the most loyal group of people you will find, who are willing to suffer great lengths to achieve team goals.”

Junior guard Yazmeen Goo said she knows she can trust McCarthy because he actively seeks to understand what motivates and drives her to make her better.

McCarthy said he draws on personal experience, remembering insecurities he felt as a player, to develop empathy for his players.

As our force continues to grow in diversity, breaking through cognitive biases about our people and what shapes their world view is a key in ‘knowing yourself.’

Personality tests are a great starting point. Knowing where a person grew up and the people that shaped their lives, the folks that they love and consider family, and where they see themselves in five years are three pillars of a great foundation to understand your people.

At first glance, none of McCarthy’s thoughts on leadership or coaching are groundbreaking or new to our military world. So why take people away from work and discuss leadership philosophy when we already know this stuff?

Leadership is a relational muscle that must be exercised frequently. Just like a spouse or family member may know you care about them, we must still consistently and constantly remind the people in our lives through different actions we care about them.

Leadership is no different. Our armed services have created tactics, techniques, and procedures to keep us straight on the procedural or technical aspects of leadership.

But leadership also draws upon a relational side. Unlike technical procedures that are memorized, memorizing what makes solid relationships without exercise will lead to broken relationships.

Walking away from the experience from McCarthy interview made me think and reflect.

It is the tactical pauses in my life, like visiting with a decorated women’s basketball coach, which force me to reflect and think about my shortcomings and how to improve.

I believe creating white space to learn from other leaders then taking time to reflect and assess will make a better leader.

“If I was to sum up the single biggest problem of senior leadership in the Information Age, it’s a lack of reflection,” Mattis once said.

I agree.