California State University Northridge Athletics
BLOG: Associate AD Ellerbe Takes Part in Pathway Leadership Program
2/2/2018 2:03:00 PM | General
CSUN Athletics' Associate Athletics Director for Marketing, Branding and Fan Development Dawn Ellerbe is visiting the San Francisco Bay Area and surrounding areas for the prestigious Pathway Program. Twenty-five senior-level athletics administrators, who have committed to becoming directors of athletics, were selected for the 2018 program, which is designed to elevate those in senior-level positions within athletics administration to the next step as a director of athletics. The year-long program is an intensive, experiential learning opportunity for selected participants.
Ellerbe will be blogging about the 2018 NCAA Pathway Program for gomatadors.com.Â
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Values in action equal culture.
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This week we started the third session of the NCAA Pathways Program. The goal of the program is to prepare athletics administrators to elevate to the Athletics' Director position. Throughout the program, we've evaluated our core values and how to integrate them into are reasons for what we do, and the decision we need to make as leaders.Â
So far this week the focus has been on culture and the creation of a positive work environment that supports the student athletes, coaches and staff and sets an athletics department up for success. We met with members of the Senior Athletics Staff from Stanford Athletics, the Chief Diversity officer at Sales Force, the Athletics Senior staff at Sacramento State, and toured the facilities at the Sacramento Kings and met with members of their leadership team.
Five very different organizations had a similar answer to the same questions, "How do you create a positive environment and what is your recipe for success?" They all had the same answer, "It's all about the culture!" Â Your job as the leader of the organization is to set the tone and create the culture.
We started the week at Stanford where there is a strong a culture of winning. This is not only Athletically, Stanford has won 115 National Championships, and the winning attitude is attributed to the strong integration of athletics into the academic experience since the universities' beginning. The culture of winning, coming in first is priority across all campus departments regardless of area of focus. The culture across campus is innovative. Stanford Athletics Director Bernard Muir explains the most important thing a leader can do is show up and listen, to build a positive culture.
On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to meet with Tony Prophet, Chief Equity Officer at Sales Force. Sales Force employs over 30,000 people globally and 10,000 in San Francisco alone. That is close to the size of a screaming crowd on any given college football Saturday. Similar to our roles in athletics to unite and support our fan base to come together to cheer for the home team, Tony and his staff work to support the employees of Sales Force in and diverse, inclusive, equitable and ally focused environment. His team identifies their most important stakeholder as the employee.
On the 61st floor of the Sales Force building, the tallest building west of Chicago is Sale force's Ohana Floor, a designated open space with 360 degrees of breathtaking views designed for their employees and the community to enjoy. They call this the Ohana Floor, Ohana in Hawaii means extended family. Instead of Human Resources (HR) the HR department at Sales Force is named the Employee Success Department.   The first stakeholder listed in Mr. Prophets presentation was the employee. Diversity, inclusion, equity and engagement are part of the core values expressed from the leadership at Sales Force and its obvious its part of their culture from the moment you enter the building.              Â
Wednesday we visited with Sacramento State Director of Athletics Mark Orr and he discussed his journey and emphasized how important it is to remain your authentic self. Mark became the youngest AD in Division I Athletics when he took over as Athletics Director at St. Mary's in 2006 at the tender age of 29, and of all the advice he has received over his career the most important piece of advice he received was to be himself. He encourages that among his staff and appreciates having different experiences, thought processes and opinions at the table helping to move the department forward. Authenticity is a core value of his department culture and part of Sac State's recipe for success.
The Sacramento Kings facilities are the most innovative in the NBA, as explained by the Chief Technology Officer. The Golden 1 Center holds the largest interactive 4k scoreboards and technology to support 250k Instagram posts per second! There technology used to support the facilities 100 gigs is the same that could support a community of 17,000 homes. That's a lot of Facebook and Instagram posts! While it certainly helps, innovative arenas and the innovative facilities are not all it takes to build a winning program.
We spoke with assistant GM Brandon Williams, and like the other leaders we met with, he emphasized that importance of a positive culture. He explained the decisions your repeatedly make create your culture and the most important things to building positivity is trust and follow through. All organizations had to start somewhere; you've got to be a dreamer. Â He encouraged us to keep moving the needle and making an impact because the most admired universities and sports teams didn't get their overnight. The culture had to be created by good decision after good decision.Â
As we moved through the week and heard leaders from very different organizations repeat the same advice on building a positive work environment, it reminded me of a quote my college head coach used all the time.Â
"We are what we repeatedly do; therefore, excellence is not an act but a habit." -Aristotle
#GoMatadors
Â
Ellerbe will be blogging about the 2018 NCAA Pathway Program for gomatadors.com.Â
Â
Values in action equal culture.
Â
This week we started the third session of the NCAA Pathways Program. The goal of the program is to prepare athletics administrators to elevate to the Athletics' Director position. Throughout the program, we've evaluated our core values and how to integrate them into are reasons for what we do, and the decision we need to make as leaders.Â
So far this week the focus has been on culture and the creation of a positive work environment that supports the student athletes, coaches and staff and sets an athletics department up for success. We met with members of the Senior Athletics Staff from Stanford Athletics, the Chief Diversity officer at Sales Force, the Athletics Senior staff at Sacramento State, and toured the facilities at the Sacramento Kings and met with members of their leadership team.
Five very different organizations had a similar answer to the same questions, "How do you create a positive environment and what is your recipe for success?" They all had the same answer, "It's all about the culture!" Â Your job as the leader of the organization is to set the tone and create the culture.
We started the week at Stanford where there is a strong a culture of winning. This is not only Athletically, Stanford has won 115 National Championships, and the winning attitude is attributed to the strong integration of athletics into the academic experience since the universities' beginning. The culture of winning, coming in first is priority across all campus departments regardless of area of focus. The culture across campus is innovative. Stanford Athletics Director Bernard Muir explains the most important thing a leader can do is show up and listen, to build a positive culture.On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to meet with Tony Prophet, Chief Equity Officer at Sales Force. Sales Force employs over 30,000 people globally and 10,000 in San Francisco alone. That is close to the size of a screaming crowd on any given college football Saturday. Similar to our roles in athletics to unite and support our fan base to come together to cheer for the home team, Tony and his staff work to support the employees of Sales Force in and diverse, inclusive, equitable and ally focused environment. His team identifies their most important stakeholder as the employee.
On the 61st floor of the Sales Force building, the tallest building west of Chicago is Sale force's Ohana Floor, a designated open space with 360 degrees of breathtaking views designed for their employees and the community to enjoy. They call this the Ohana Floor, Ohana in Hawaii means extended family. Instead of Human Resources (HR) the HR department at Sales Force is named the Employee Success Department.   The first stakeholder listed in Mr. Prophets presentation was the employee. Diversity, inclusion, equity and engagement are part of the core values expressed from the leadership at Sales Force and its obvious its part of their culture from the moment you enter the building.              Â
Wednesday we visited with Sacramento State Director of Athletics Mark Orr and he discussed his journey and emphasized how important it is to remain your authentic self. Mark became the youngest AD in Division I Athletics when he took over as Athletics Director at St. Mary's in 2006 at the tender age of 29, and of all the advice he has received over his career the most important piece of advice he received was to be himself. He encourages that among his staff and appreciates having different experiences, thought processes and opinions at the table helping to move the department forward. Authenticity is a core value of his department culture and part of Sac State's recipe for success.
The Sacramento Kings facilities are the most innovative in the NBA, as explained by the Chief Technology Officer. The Golden 1 Center holds the largest interactive 4k scoreboards and technology to support 250k Instagram posts per second! There technology used to support the facilities 100 gigs is the same that could support a community of 17,000 homes. That's a lot of Facebook and Instagram posts! While it certainly helps, innovative arenas and the innovative facilities are not all it takes to build a winning program.
We spoke with assistant GM Brandon Williams, and like the other leaders we met with, he emphasized that importance of a positive culture. He explained the decisions your repeatedly make create your culture and the most important things to building positivity is trust and follow through. All organizations had to start somewhere; you've got to be a dreamer.  He encouraged us to keep moving the needle and making an impact because the most admired universities and sports teams didn't get their overnight. The culture had to be created by good decision after good decision. As we moved through the week and heard leaders from very different organizations repeat the same advice on building a positive work environment, it reminded me of a quote my college head coach used all the time.Â
"We are what we repeatedly do; therefore, excellence is not an act but a habit." -Aristotle
#GoMatadors
Â
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