January 21, 2021 • 55 mins
In this episode of Cultivate your Culture we are joined by Valorie Kondos-Field, often referred to as Miss Val. She is a retired American gymnastics coach. She was the head coach of the UCLA Bruins gymnastics team of the University of California, Los Angeles from 1991 to 2019, leading the Bruins to seven national championship titles.
In her book, Life is Short, Don't Wait to Dance, Miss Val shares personal stories, anecdotes, and lessons learned throughout the 37-year career of a dancer/choreographer turned athletic coach. Miss Val is a dynamic speaker and choreographer. She lights up a crowd with her enthusiasm and zest for life and mesmerizes audiences with her spectacular ability to entertain. And, as a newly retired head coach, she’s ready to spread her joy even further. Connect with Valorie via her website.
The host, Zoran Stojkovic believes that we are all born to flourish in work and life. Through his company, Kizo, he equips organizations and people with culture and mindset tools to reach full engagement through powerful workshops, memorable keynotes, and transformative individual consultations.
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Episode Transcript
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Zoran Stojkovic (00:03):
Hello, I'm your host Zoran Stojkovic and welcome
to cultivate your culture. Thispodcast we'll be discussing how
leaders can build connected highperforming teams and business in
sport using actionable toolsevidence based systems and
simple processes.
Today on the show we havevalorie kondos field, who is the
(00:27):
head coach and seven time NCAAchampion of the seven time NCAA
champion 22 time regional and 18time Pac 12 champion UCLA
women's gymnastics team. She wasinducted into the UCLA Athletic
Hall of Fame in 2010. The fourtime national Coach of the Year
was recently named West Regioncoach of the PAC 12 of the PAC
(00:50):
West Region Coach of the YearPac 12, Coach of the Year and
coach of the century with hersolid track record as a
preeminent coach. crediting hermentor and legendary basketball
coach we all know about johnwooden and the Olympic Olympians
and athletes with whom she'sworked with misbalance success
is due to her extraordinaryleadership and mentorship of
(01:11):
young student athletes. And theway in which she uses gymnastics
as an avenue through which toteach valuable life lessons.
Miss Val is a dynamic speakerand choreographer, used to do
ballet and she lights up a crowdwith her enthusiasm and zest for
life and, and mesmerizesaudiences with their spectacular
(01:31):
ability to entertain. Bow. Thankyou so much for coming on to the
show. Yes, is the kind of dayafter I stopped.
Valorie Kondos Field (01:41):
I knew that you knew Greek because the
way you introduced me You saidValerie condos? Yes. Like most
people say condos? Yes. Once ina while. They'll say Valerie
condom? And I'm like, no, that'snot My Name Is Khan. It is
actually a contract this so Oh,yeah. How do you do?
Zoran Stojkovic (02:01):
So I studied in Greece, I did my masters in in,
in a Greek city. And I studiedin Greece and Finland to
Master's in sports psych. So Igot to spend a lot of time in a
small city. Not everybody spokeGreek Duolingo didn't have Greek
on it. So I basically sort oflooked phrases up. We had some
Greek lessons and then buddiesfrom the program would teach me
(02:23):
Greek and some of it not goingto say on the podcast here. But
yeah, it's it's a really greatlanguage. The alphabet was okay
to learn because Serbian, usessome similar letters. And then
some were asked to go back to myphysics and math textbook to
remember. Well, thank you forhaving me. Thanks so much for
coming on and taking the time toshare your your knowledge and
(02:44):
insights. First of all, the wayI found out about you was
through your awesome TED talk ofwhy winning doesn't always equal
success. And I've passed that onto so many people, it's informed
to me as a coach and as a mentalperformance coach, and maybe
tell me a little bit about that.
Is there is there a backstory tohow you know how that happened?
And
Valorie Kondos Field (03:08):
yes, there definitely is a backstory to how
it happened. It was the summerof 2018. And it, sadly was the
year of that the victims cameout against Larry Nasser, the
team physician for the UCLA, USAGymnastics team. And I was
invited to go to Washington, DCto speak with Senator Feinstein
(03:32):
and a few of the members of theHouse of Representatives about
culture. And I remember being insenator Feinstein's office. And
I remember her saying, how do wechange the culture of
gymnastics. And at that moment,it like this light came on, it
was like, it's not gymnastics.
Gymnastics is an amazing sport.
(03:54):
Sport, in itself is amazing.
It's anytime there is someonewho has oversees the development
of someone else, particularly achild, you're going to see
issues, you're going to haveissues and whether it's sport,
or in parenting, or school orpolitics, business, whatever.
And in that moment, as I'mtelling her all this, I, I
(04:18):
realized, you know, we have a,we have a crisis. And I say this
in my TED Talk, we have a crisisin the win at all cost cultures,
in every avenue of life, that weall have accepted. And what
really hit me and the reason whyI wanted to do my TED talk on
this was I started to do myresearch. And there have been
(04:40):
more reports of depression,stress, anxiety, and suicide,
particularly amongst our youththan ever before in the history
of man. And that's not on themthat's on us on us adults. And I
just felt it was itIt was really, it was something
that hit my heart. And I wantedto do more research about it
(05:03):
more thinking on it. And Iwanted to bring it to a platform
where I could encourage otherpeople to answer the question is
all winning success? Because Iremember when I was talking to
somebody about USA Gymnastics,and they said, but we've been so
successful. I said, No, we'vewon a lot. There's a difference.
Zoran Stojkovic (05:30):
Yeah, that's a really important point. Because
there is, and it's challenging,because head coaches get fired
for not having results. So ifthat's how they're measured, and
that's how success is measuredat a pay, you know, depending on
how much you get paid, or whatopportunities you have, or how
long you stay in a program,that's it is a system that would
(05:51):
have to change and and, youknow, the head coach would
really have to be really dialedinto their into their values and
have a different barometer anddifferent measure of success
than just results.
Valorie Kondos Fiel (06:04):
Absolutely.
You mentioned my mentor, johnwooden. He was coaching in
college for 15 years before hewon a national championship. So
in this day and age, where youget basically three years to
prove yourself in college or inthe pros, you we we would we
would have never had a CoachWooden, I mean, we would have
them we wouldn't have known, weprobably would have gone back to
(06:25):
coaching English, I mean, toteaching English.
You know, I really feel thatit's we're at an impasse where,
especially the high schools andthe colleges, we need to measure
success as more than winning, weneed to measure, we need to be
(06:46):
able to measure character. Asthis conversation is going to
evolve, we need to be able tomeasure culture, we need to be
able to measure academics,community service, we need to be
able to place a value on allthose things
in order to change this cultureof when at all cost.
Zoran Stojkovic (07:06):
Yeah, definitely. And so that leads me
to a question for you. How doyou define team culture? I mean,
this is a concept that getsthrown around so much, and
togetherness and connection andall these things. And, and
there's a lot of work being doneon this. But how do you define
it?
Valorie Kondos Field (07:23):
Okay, well, first of all, I want to
thank you for asking me to be onthis podcast. And for anybody
who's listening.
All of these questions that he'sgoing to ask me, I encourage you
to take notes and answer themfor yourself. Because as I told
Zoran, I was like, I talkedabout culture all the time. But
(07:43):
I've never really thought aboutit. I've never broken it down.
And so when you told me what wewere going to talk about, and
shifted me sent me somequestions. My mind has just been
going, you know, 100 miles anhour and doing research and how
do you develop culture? So thefirst thing you asked is how do
you define culture, andI feel that culture is a common,
(08:05):
agreed upon system of vision,values, and behavior, that are
all shared by one team. And theword culture is interesting,
because when you talk aboutculture, you're not just talking
about good cultures, positivecultures, there are plenty I
(08:29):
mean, they're a culture isanything in my opinion, that is
a common vision, common values,and common behavior. And I, you
know, since we're talking aboutsports, I teach, I taught a
course at UCLA last year on thedifferent philosophies of
successful coaches, and westudied bobby knight. And I
(08:51):
don't know if your listenerswill know who bobby knight is,
but he was the head coach atIndiana basketball and known for
his volatile, verbal, physicallyabusive behavior. But he had
athletes dying to go play forhim. And, you know, he never was
at a loss for talent on histeams. And so when I think about
(09:13):
culture, and I think aboutsomeone like bobby knight,
he had a clear vision of whatwas important winning, he had a
clear value, he his values, wereclear of how we're going to get
there. And his behavior wasclear. And sometimes it was
gonna get volatile, and verbal,verbally abusive, but the
(09:37):
players that signed up to playfor him knew that so there was,
as I just said, there was acommon shared belief and
agreement to all of that. Andthat was a very strong culture
that he created.
Zoran Stojkovic (09:52):
Yeah. And so the vision values and behaviors
is how you've defined culture.
It's a shared sharedunderstanding and agreed upon
vision values and behavior. Andso but then why? Why is it
important to cultivate theculture of a team? If you think
about team in business or sportsthat has individual performers
like your gymnastics program?
(10:15):
Did I mean or a golf program ora or a sales, you know, sales
company that has individualperformers who are measured,
measured individually on theiron their performance?
Valorie Kondos Field (10:26):
Well, I think that even if you were
training one on one, if I was agolf coach, and I was training a
golfer, and that's the onlyperson I was training, I would
still need to define how we'regoing to get to our goal. And
why is it important to cultivatea culture, whether it be with
(10:47):
one person or with a team ofpeople, is to be able to move
toward that common goal in syncand with Unity. Um, it's
important to, to discern whatyour culture is what that
culture is, okay? My mind isgoing 100 miles an hour right
(11:07):
now. I feel like okay, the bestway to do that is if I'm if
you're my athlete, and I'mcoaching you, Zoran, and we're
going to go win the nationalchampionship in golf, I need to
communicate to you a Why, why isit important that we do this?
Why do I want to coach you? Whydo you want to do it? What's
your why and discuss the how,how we can get there, and then
(11:30):
I'm going to educate you andyou're going to educate me. And
there's going to be thissymbiotic education going on of
the best way to get there. Andwe're going to communicate that
over and over and over and overagain daily, so that there is
continuous growth through ourUnited goal that will create
(11:52):
this culture. So if I get upsetwith you about something, we can
go back to why we're doing this,how did we decide agree to do
this and talk about it. And I dofeel that in cultures, cultures
are not static cultures arefluid. And I feel like the best
cultures allow for shifting, aslong as there's an explanation
(12:17):
of why, why are we making theshift? Is that in the best
interest of what we're trying toachieve? Yeah, okay, then great.
But let's make that shift.
Zoran Stojkovic (12:27):
What I'm hearing you say is, it's
important to cultivate theculture of of teams, and even
individual teams, because themembers of the team get
synchronicity and alignmenttowards going towards the goals.
So so that sense of vision,which is that it has to keep the
the the the leaders of the teamhave to keep reminding people of
that, but you're also mentioningthat it's a symbiotic dance,
(12:50):
where it's not just this leadertells you what to do, and you do
it. It's developing arelationship where the coach or
the leader and the teamunderstands the people who are
on the team. And there's aconstant communication, I think
you didn't use that word. Butthat's what I'm reading between
the lines is constantcommunication of what's going
on. Maybe a post mortem of whenthings go wrong, and things like
(13:15):
that.
Valorie Kondos Fiel (13:16):
Absolutely.
And communication is key. And Ithink that I've been known for
over communicating to my teamover and over and over and over
and over again. But I wouldrather err on that side than
not, you brought up something, Ithink that you use the word
dictate. And this is somethingthat I talk about my TED talk, I
feel like there are two types ofleaders, those that dictate
change in those that motivatechange. When I first started,
(13:38):
when I first became a headcoach, I didn't know what the
heck I was doing. I was a balletdancer. And I hired, I could
hire assistant coaches that knewthe sport of gymnastics, the X's
and O's and how to train skills.
But I quickly realized, whoa,there's this whole thing called
team culture I knew nothingabout because you don't grow up
(14:01):
with Team culture on stage as Idid, and I mimicked other
coaches that have beensuccessful, and pretty much
became a dictator, becausethat's what I thought that was
what you know, I, I grew up inthe 70s in the 80s. And it was
(14:21):
coaches were these empiricaldictators that, you know,
everything landed on them, thewinds, the they were hailed for
the losses, they were, theyassumed as well, so why they
should be the ones to dictatehow everybody's going to act in
this in his team. And it reallywas back in those days. I sound
(14:45):
so old back in those days, whenyour coach it's kind of like
you're given this armor andyou're given this, this way of
doing things that is going to besuccessful. And so if you're
going to coach, this is how youshould do it. I did that and
failed.
miserably. And I'm going totake, just take us a little bit
further imagine. So imagineyou're an assistant coach, and
(15:09):
I'm the head coach. And we'recoaching UCLA gymnastics is one
of the preeminent athleticprograms in the United States.
And you're working for me. And Idon't know the first thing about
gymnastics. So I'm just kind ofwinging it. And I'm doing all
this coach talk and coach speak.
And just, I honestly felt thatit was more important that they
(15:30):
did exactly what I told them todo, rather than doing it the
right way, that's gonna get usto the common goal, it was more
important that I did not lose myposition as a leader, then
humbling myself to say, you knowwhat, there's probably a better
way of doing this.
And so I'm fumbling around. Andthen I remember so clearly,
(15:56):
walking from the parking lot tothe athletic department one day
and looking up and UCLA is 24sports. And I think at that
time, in the late 80s, therewere maybe our budget was maybe
$50 million a year or somethinglike that. And in New Zealand,
BUT IT department, and Iremember thinking, Oh my gosh,
$50 million a year at UCLA isspent on what bragging rights to
(16:22):
be able to say we beat you. Andin that moment, I was like,
there has to be more to sportthan how we beat you. There has
to be. And so I took, I don'tknow how long the next few days,
weeks, I don't know how long,but to figure out my why, as
Simon Sinek would have asked usall to to figure out your why.
(16:43):
And my why absolutely was notabout winning, because I did not
grow up in this athletic cultureat all. It was so weird to me,
there had to be more to sportthan just winning. And it became
so clear, it was like sport, isthe greatest venue to learn
(17:05):
really, really, really toughlife lessons that you don't
learn in the classroom. And soat that moment, I was like, I'm
gonna develop champions in lifethrough sport. And because I
work at UCLA, and I can recruitsome of the best talent in the
world. If I could help developthese young women into becoming
a superheroes in life in allaspects of their life, that will
(17:30):
translate to the competitionfloor. And that became my Why,
why was I going to coach todevelop superhumans through
sport? Now? How am I going to dothat? And then that became the
foundation of our culture.
Zoran Stojkovic (17:45):
That's, that's really interesting. I was just
picturing the moment that youwere walking from the parking
lot to the building and kind ofpondering that question of what
does 50 mil get us? And is thisactually important? And why is
this important? And so what I'mhearing from your from your
answer there, Val, is that ait's important to question old
(18:05):
systems, regardless of what areasomebody who's a leader, and to
really update the systems tomatch what what science is
learned, and what we learn aboutpeople and the way that culture
more globally has changed. Andthe way that the people you work
with have changed, but also toclarify your leadership
(18:27):
philosophy or coachingphilosophy? And can you speak a
little bit more about either oneof those on maybe how you did
that? And what what are some ofthe questions you asked
yourself, as you as you, as youwill hear, why don't we maybe
focus first on on the questionquestioning the old system,
because that can sometimes be apretty hectic process,
(18:47):
especially if whoever is like,whoever hired you expect you to
coach a certain way? So did youhave to and your athletes are
used to be encouraged in certainways? So what are some ways that
you like, how did you get thatbuy in from from above and from
your athletes and from yourcoaching staff to do things
differently?
Valorie Kondos Field (19:05):
Well, I just I'm a firm believer in the
combination of education andcommunication. And so I, I
believe in a growth mindset,until the day we all die, I
think we should continue togrow. And the more I learn, the
more I want to share. And that'sthe same with my staff, and with
(19:25):
our student athletes. And so Iactually enjoyed being
challenged as to why why do Ihave these rules and
regulations? Why are we doing itthis way? Why are we training
these days and not these days?
Why, why, why why. And I thinkit's so important because it
forces you to take a pause. Andto figure out your why. You
(19:45):
know, we went from an example Iprided myself on the fact that
we never trained on theweekends, because I felt it was
really important for our studentathletes to be normal student
human beings.
And not be bad. Be an athleteseven days a week 24 seven. And
(20:06):
I've always believed in the wellrounded student athlete.
And the more well rounded theywere, the better their
gymnastics would be. Becausethat's the type of dancer that I
was. And then the last fewyears, we went to trading on
Sundays. And our athletes hatedit, and bucked the system. And
(20:28):
we came in pissy and poopy andall that. And I was like, well,
I need to explain why,obviously, I've not done a good
enough job explaining my why.
And the why in a shift in ourculture that I had established
for 20 years, I've nevertraining on a weekend, or now
want to train on a weekend. Thewhy was because it got harder
(20:50):
for them to take us to be ableto sign up for classes outside
of our training time. So we hadmore athletes missing training
time. So we were not able totrain as a team, very often
during the week. And I felt itwas super important that we were
all there together, at least forone day a week, and to be able
(21:12):
to be there on a day where theydidn't have to rush out of gym
to get to class. So explainingall of this to them. And then
also explaining, so I'm goingto, we're going to try it on
Sundays, but guess what you'regonna get Wednesdays off. And so
that means you're going to beable to like, go do things like
normal people, do you need to goto the bank, because banks
aren't open on Sundays, and youget to go, you know, to the
(21:34):
beach in the middle of the weekwhen it's not packed. How cool
is that? So explaining all ofthat, I found as I became a
better and better and betterleader and coach that the more I
explained the more buy in, Ihad, even if they didn't agree
with me, they appreciated that Irespected them enough to explain
ad nauseum to them why I didthings, right.
Zoran Stojkovic (22:01):
So you're explaining why certain changes
are happening, why you do thingscertain ways, and you think you
think it was good, it is good.
You invited athletes tochallenge you and and to ask
questions, because it got youalso to reflect on why you were
doing certain things. Andanother thing I picked up from
what you just said is that itwas important to be together, at
(22:21):
least one day of the week, whichwasn't happening. Hence, your
change to practicing on Sundaysin a turbulent I mean,
turbulence is a strong word, butin a changing workplace where
some companies have gone from inperson to remote
culture has really been shifted,because they don't, there isn't
(22:43):
that in person time anymore. Andso I think I think that's really
challenging as well. And a lotof companies are figuring that
out. And so, and teams as well,like I know, national teams
were, you know, for a whilethere weren't training and
athletes out to do at homeworkouts, and there was a lot of
challenges with that, you know,with with regards to motivation
(23:06):
and lack of connection and thosekinds of things. And you've
already touched upon some ofthis, but I'm wondering how
culture, how can culture becultivated? Like, what's the
starting place? Who has to be inthose conversations? Is it you
know, starting with the sit downat the start of season set a
team vision and missionstatements? Is it? Have you used
leadership groups? I mean, whatare some of those practical
(23:30):
systems you use to
Unknown (23:33):
get
Valorie Kondos Field (23:33):
You sit down at the beginning of season
and you talk about the long termgoal, and then you break that
down?
And what was the last thing yousaid? Do you remember?
Zoran Stojkovic (23:44):
leadership groups?
Valorie Kondos Field (23:46):
Yes, yeah.
obvious. I look at this like aflowchart. Because I grew up in
the era of flowchart, do theyteach flowcharts anymore? I
don't think they do that. I grewup in the air flow chart. So I
thought is the leader that wouldbe the head coach, that was me,
and then to discuss with ourstaff, what is our goal? Okay,
our goal is to win the nationalchampion was when the national
championship. second goal wasalways for me, I want to leave
(24:07):
the season with no regrets. Idon't want to have any regrets.
So can we as a coaching staffagree on that? And then let's
agree on how we're going to dothat. And then the flowchart
comes down to not the team yet.
But explaining all of this tothe people that have the most
(24:28):
daily communication andengagement with the team. So
that was having the meetings andexplaining it to the staff. If a
trainer, sports informationdirector, the director of
operations, the team managers,all of those people, that the
girl the student athletes wouldgravitate towards to complain
to, because that's natural. Sothen a team manager who was
(24:51):
their exact age, could say, youknow, well, this is what my
spouse explained, and this iswhy we're going to do this and
trustingtelling them, I'm going to trust
you to get my back on this andexplain it in a way that is
positive for us as a group andnot explain it in a way that,
yeah, she's just an old Biddythat wants to do it her way. And
(25:12):
so having those conversations,and then you mentioned,
leadership groups, and I hadteam captains when I first
started becoming head coach,because as I told you, I just
did what everybody else did. Andall the teams that I knew had
team captains, and it was a fewyears later, where one of my
student athletes was having aproblem on vault. And one of our
(25:34):
seniors was just watching herbut not saying anything to her
and not helping her. And I said,Why aren't you helping in this
situation? And she said, becausethere's a team captain, that's
right there. I don't want tostep on the captain's toes. And
so as like, Oh, no, no, no, byhaving team captains, I was not
(25:59):
allowing the space for all ofthe athletes to develop their
own leadership styles, and testtheir leadership, their
leadership skills and to honetheir leadership skills. So I
did away with team captains. AndI went to, as you mentioned, a
leadership group. And I had oneperson from each class,
(26:21):
freshman, sophomore, juniorsenior, and I always made a
point to have the person thatwas the it girl, the one that
the team followed, that notnecessarily, it was, I mean,
like, usually the bad girl, youknow, that was getting in
trouble all the time. I made apoint of having her in these
(26:42):
leadership groups, because Iwanted her to hear one on one
from me or one me with a smallgroup, over and over and over
again, why we are doing thingsso that when he wanted to make a
decision to go out at midnighton a weeknight that probably
wasn't the best for the team,she might think twice about it,
(27:03):
because I had explained myselfso much
Zoran Stojkovic (27:07):
You started by talking about team vision,
sitting down to the coachingstaff and saying, what do we
want to achieve this season,communicating that to the
operation staff andcoordinators, and managers and
whatnot. And then electing aleadership group, which we
didn't do initially, you didwhat everybody else did. But
then you decided to go againstagainst the mold a little bit
(27:29):
and do something different. Andyou had this leadership group
where you had athletes from eachyear, but you made sure that the
girl who was the you said the itgirl and didn't wasn't always
necessarily a good influence onthe team was in these groups,
and then through that, you wouldinfluence this person because
(27:49):
this is a leader. This is like anatural leader in the team. And
if they're not in this group, itjust makes it less powerful,
doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Sohaving having them on the team
and you build more of that buyin, don't you with things when
that person is on?
Valorie Kondos Field (28:03):
Well, I think also people everybody
wants to feel valued. Andeverything, you know, if you're
an IT girl, and you're makingpoor decisions and all that,
you're probably one of the bestcompetitors. And okay, I'm going
to tell you those KatelynOhashi. So anybody that
(30:00):
How you do things. And it'simportant for the leader to be
able to stand in front of theteam and say, Okay, I know this
is how we've always done thingslike, you know, when I said they
never trained on weekends, butI'm gonna make a change. And
this is the reason how I'm gonnamake the change. Or if something
goes wrong, and you make a hugemistake, as a leader, things
(30:22):
just didn't turn out well to beable to model humility and
vulnerability, and how tosincerely apologize. And I feel
like we're in this culture shiftin their, in our world where
there's so much research comingout on the power of
vulnerability, thank you, BernieBrown, that we're realizing that
(30:42):
vulnerability and humility andcompassion, those are not
weaknesses, their strengths, andto be able to model that
behavior. For those people whomyou are meeting is one of the
most powerful things you can doas a leader, to develop this buy
in to develop trust, huge wordtrust, able to have grace, and
(31:08):
to model what grace looks liketo be able to move forward. But
when you do that, you give yourstaff and you give your those
people whom you're leading thesafe space to themselves, make
mistakes, and not have to coverthem up or feel badly about.
Zoran Stojkovic (31:25):
That's I think that's huge. And this is
something I was discussing, Iwas actually discussing with
somebody a couple days ago aboutleaders, just the leader in
their organization being veryopen to sharing when they
failed. And something I've usedas a coach in teams is having
the senior athletes of the teamshare stories of when they
failed, and seeing what I mean,like the oldest athletes of the
(31:48):
team, I guess, so that theothers can learn from this, I
think that's really powerful.
And especially if the leaders doit as well, and, and if it's
just something that's normal,and not trying to cover it up.
For me, that speaks toauthenticity. And that speaks to
vulnerability, which youmentioned. And also to that
openness to communicate. I heardthere's a college basketball
(32:09):
coach here in Canada and one ofher philosophies is five for the
next 50. And she tries toprepare the girls on her team in
the five years that they're withher for the next 50 years of
their lives. And I think that'sone of the things that that does
that is getting people creatingthat space where people can
explore and be vulnerable andshare and that leads to
(32:30):
definitely to enhanceconnection. You've touched a
little bit on mistakes thatleader can leaders can make what
are some toxic behaviors in inteam culture and how have you
dealt with them either, youknow, in in the leadership team
and the team in the staff fromyourself even I mean,
Valorie Kondos Field (32:50):
I think that one of the toxic toxic
environment in a team cultureis, is not having trust. and
so..on. I mentioned CaitlinOhashi before, so I'll mention
her again. She literally and Italked about this in the TED
Talk. So it's no big secret. Sheliterally came in she was one of
(33:11):
the best journalists in theworld. She's the last humans to
ever beat Simone Biles,actually. And she came in just
burnt out an angry and defiantand the whole bit. And her
freshman year, she was justdefiant. And we were having a
team meeting mid mid year. Andshe just told the team and the
(33:31):
staff, I just don't want to begreat again. And I literally
wanted to say then what the hellam I paying you $60,000 a year
for? You know, thankfully, Ididn't say that.
And I thought, Why does she wantto be great again, she says
great athletes. And then shewent on to explain because
everything is she associatedwith being great, was hurtful,
(33:55):
and, and didn't bring her joy.
And why would she want to goback to that? She just let's
just be mediocre. So I can havefun. And at that moment, I was
like, okay, it's not that shehates gymnastics. She hates
everything she associates withit. So I have to earn her trust,
that I actually care about hermore as a human being than as
(34:15):
just an a great athlete that canget me another championship. And
as we all know, trust takestime. And it takes time to
build. It was super, superimportant. And dang it. I forgot
your question.
Zoran Stojkovic (34:35):
No, no, you you you're off, you're off to a good
start. It was what are toxicbehaviors in a team and how have
you dealt with them?
Valorie Kondos Field (34:41):
Yeah, so it was trust. And so, you know,
we'll don't change overnight.
None of us do. And for the nextfew months, actually her
sophomore year, that whole year,she would still screw up and do
things she shouldn't do as astudent athlete that was helped
trying to help retain a nationalchampionship and but there was
(38:04):
Oh, I'm sorry. You're right.
It's not gonna work. And she wasdumbfounded. And I was thinking
now what I say, you know, I,gosh, I apologize. And she said,
I've never heard those wordscome out of the coach's mouth, I
said what word chose I'm sorry.
And to be able to model thatbehavior, without even knowing I
was modeling the behavior for itwas really, really powerful.
(38:28):
Something I really remember andsomething that she speaks about
quite often.
Zoran Stojkovic (38:32):
And that's huge. And it seems like in that
moment, you did pause betweenthe stimulus and the response.
And and that's a that's a reallyimportant skill for coaches. I
mean, that's something thatathletes that I work on with
athletes, but it's important forcoaches and leaders as well, for
anybody really totake a pause process using
emotion regulation. And just,you know, let the mind quiet
(38:56):
down and then, and sometimes wehave a couple of seconds, and
sometimes that pause can belonger for bigger, bigger
decisions. But that's really, Imean, I the thought that keeps
coming to mind for me, Val ishow did you get buy in if you
never did gymnastics at thelevel needed?
Valorie Kondos Field (39:16):
It really was because I was not afraid to
show my vulnerability. And soYou will have a far better
(40:00):
result. If you allow the athleteto become a part of the process
of figuring out how to achievesomething, instead of dictating
to them what to do another partthat I learned early on in my
coaching career that, you know,coaches that will make a
correction ever give you acorrection every single time you
(40:22):
do something, that's not a goodway to get a result at all,
you're supposed to getcorrection. And then let the
athlete take 567 turns, and themhave the best space to figure it
out. Yes, and 100% of the time,you have a better result.
Zoran Stojkovic (40:45):
Because it it does take trial and error you
most athletes can implement anew a new technical change right
away. That's really interestingthat you're mentioning that one
of the most toxic behaviors orelements of bad team culture is
a lack of trust. It's astrongest element of team
culture. And it's definitely astarting place. And you
mentioned a couple of differentways to generate that buy in and
(41:09):
trust as well through throughshowing vulnerability and
through involving the peopleyou're working with in the
process. And through thattransparency. Culture is
sometimes this airy fairy thingthat is really hard to pinpoint.
And it's hard to put a finger onhow have you measured and
assessed team culture? I mean,is it through talking to
(41:30):
athletes? Is that through givingthem a survey? Is it through
your own observations? Is itthrough other tools? And means?
Valorie Kondos Field (41:39):
Yeah, I think that it would be
interesting. If I was, I thinkit'd be interesting to go back
to UCLA and or to, you know,take one of our teams that we
had asked them to write downwhat they felt the team culture
was, and I guarantee you thatthey're not all going to have
the same answer. And they're notgoing to have the same answer
that I would put down. And thenas a leader to try to, you know,
(42:01):
figure out, okay, maybe somebodybrought something up in the team
culture that was really goodthat I didn't realize was part
of our team culture. That'scool. But the way that I
assessed our team culture, andthe success of it every year
was, as soon as the athletesstarted taking ownership of
themselves, and of theirteammates, that magic happened.
(42:26):
And another another, what's itcalled?
What's it called? Where you? Youtalk about something, but it
really means something else? Oh,my gosh, I came upon
Zoran Stojkovic (42:37):
a pun. No.
Valorie Kondos Field (42:41):
Okay, I'll think of it.
But another, this
Zoran Stojkovic (42:46):
acronym?
Valorie Kondos Field (42:48):
No, but like that.
Oh, my gosh, I talked about it.
When I talk about my book, lifeis short, going to dance and
dance is obviously a metaphor.
It's a metaphor for a metaphorfor this culture. And when I
know that it's working is aflywheel. And, you know, I never
(43:08):
knew what a flywheel was, untilI read the amazing book, Good to
Great that Jim Collins wrote,it's like a Bible out there. But
when you have a flywheel is thismassive piece of steel wheel
that is going to create energy,and it takes a massive amount of
inertia to move this thing, theslightest bit, but consistent
(43:34):
force on this, we'll, we'll getit to start to move. And once it
moves, it, it continues to flowon its own. And that is what a
team a good team culture is. Andso I always knew that when I
could take my hands off thewheel, and put the ownership on
(43:54):
our student athletes, and theywould take responsibility for
their actions and theirteammates actions. That's when
the culture was thriving.
And we talked about best when wehad one heartbeat.
You know, we would talk aboutgoing into competitions. And
let's get to the point in ourseason, where we literally have
(44:16):
one heart beat as a team.
Zoran Stojkovic (44:18):
Wow, that's huge. And that is a great book
that you you mentioned, the Goodto Great and the flywheel and
the one heart, that's apowerful, because it makes it
feel like more like a system,like, like an organism, which
you essentially are. That's whata culture is. We just it's not
always so obvious on thesurface. Because if you choose
(44:38):
to look at people individually,you can do that. But there's
this symbiotic relationship. Andthat's really, really awesome
and interesting. I'm wonderingif there's a book or resource
that you would suggest to ourlisteners that has shaped your
leadership style, and you'vementioned a bunch in here as
well. You mentioned start withwhy you mentioned growth
(44:59):
mindset. So mindsets by CarolDweck. Good to Great you
mentioned Man's Search forMeaning.
Valorie Kondos Field (45:05):
Yes, as I mentioned, I'm teaching this
class at UCLA on thephilosophies of coaching. It's
fascinating in love it becauseevery single week we study a
different coach. And we startedwith Phil Jackson. And then we
went to bobby knight. And thenwe have Pat Summitt, and Coach
Wooden and on and on, but theunderlying book that I use
(45:26):
throughout the entire quarterwas dare to lead, burn a bridge.
And that there were, everysingle student in this class was
either a fifth year studentathlete at UCLA or a graduate
assistant with football. And atthe end of the course, I asked
them just to give me a debriefand tell me what they learned,
you know, what's the like one ofthe two or three things that you
(45:47):
learn in this class, everysingle one of them, especially
the male athletes that werefootball players said, they
never thought of vulnerability,and humility, as characteristics
of strength. They were they allthey grew up as tough boy, like
(46:09):
when we say man up to him, not.
That doesn't mean be morevulnerable, you know? And they
shut down. Right, exactly. Andso that was really cool. So dare
to lead is kind of like aleadership Bible as far as I'm
concerned. And I'm actuallyreading this book right now,
Lincoln on leadership. And it'sfascinating, because it goes
(46:32):
into Abraham Lincoln'sleadership. And
it's a very small little book,but oh, my gosh, it's, it
literally is speaking to exactlywhat leaders go through in this
day and age, including thehaters. I didn't know this. He
(46:53):
had a ton of haters, andadversaries, and people that
were just trying to tear himdown and, and spewing lies and
libel about him. And I was like,honestly, seriously. So I'm
really enjoying, I'm enjoyingthis book a lot right now.
Zoran Stojkovic (47:12):
Sweet. Those are, those are really good
suggestions. I've not heard ofthe Lincoln one. But I've heard
of Bernie Brown, of course, anddare to lead. Last. One of my
last questions here is what's wehad a lot of these kind of
weaved in throughout theconversation, but what's one
practical tool leaders can useto cultivate the culture of
(47:32):
their team?
Oh, that's a good one. I think Iwould go back to what I
mentioned a little bit ago, apractical tool, if I was a
leader, would be to ask a seriesof questions to the people who
might relating and have themwrite down the answers to get
back as to what do you see ahealthy culture for this team?
(47:58):
And is in this group of peoplethat we're all going to be with
for this next year? What do yousee that looking like? What do
you see some of the snakescoming? Weird? What do you feel
if you were leading the team?
What do you think should be ournegotiables and our non
negotiables, and have them writeall that down, and then look at
all over and then reconvene andtalk about what they'd written
(48:22):
in what you the commonalitiesand such. And I feel like
immediately, as a leader, youwould have buy in from your
team, because you're asking himtheir opinions, you're giving
them a voice, and you're makingthem feel that their opinions,
and their discussion isvaluable.
(48:47):
And so I think whenever you givesomeone a voice and make them
feel of value, you've alreadystarted the buy in of them. And
then you got to follow through.
You can't just throw it all outthe window and do over the heck
we want to do.
Right, so the one tool you wouldsuggest is questions and really
good questions. And you youmentioned some really solid open
ended questions that can give acoach a lot of information and
(49:10):
and really build thatrelationship with the athlete as
well because you putting it onthem to co create the culture
with you to help you and not noteven to help you but to be part
of the process that cultivates aculture.
Valorie Kondos Field (49:26):
Okay, then let's take this one step
further. And let's play off thisscenario. And let's say then
next week, you meet again as ateam. And I say, Okay, the first
question I asked you was, whatis give me three non negotiables
that you feel would help uscreate some unity with this team
as we move forward? So Zoran,you wrote some really impressive
(49:48):
things down here, would youexplain them? And so to have the
teammates explain theirresponses you just took you just
empowered them? 100 times.
Zoran Stojkovic (49:58):
Yes. And then constantly reminding people of
what those non negotiables arehaving that common blueprint of
vision, values, behaviors, andthat that all feeds into it.
That's a really solid suggestionand actually doing something
about it not just askingquestions for the sake of asking
questions. Well, tell me about,tell me about your book, life is
(50:20):
short, don't wait too Dance
Valorie Kondos Field (50:21):
the book is. The book is about how I
figured out this world ofathletics. And the things that I
did that didn't work and thethings that I did that were very
unorthodox as a head coach to dothat did work. And just my
journey along the way, it's areally fast read. So holidays
are coming up people, it's gonnabe a really great holiday gift.
(50:43):
And as I was writing the book, Iwas trying to come up with the
title of the book, and I waswriting the part of the
chapters, the Jefferson CoachWooden, my relationship with
him, I had a very, very, veryclose relationship with john
wooden, and he lived to be 99,and nine months old, and the
last few years of his life.
Whenever I was with him,somebody would say, you know,
(51:05):
coach, you've lived animpeccable life. Do you have any
regrets. And he would alwaysreply the same way, his little
eyes, blue eyes would start toglisten with tears. And he would
say, you know, my wife, Nellielove to dance. And he outlived
his wife by I think, 30 years.
(51:25):
And he said, and I grew up veryshy, and I was never very good
dancer. And so I never dancedwith my wife. And I realized now
that had I danced with my wife,people wouldn't have made fun of
me, they would have seen acouple of deeply in love dancing
together. So if I have oneregret, I would go back and
(51:48):
dance with my wife. And so mytitle of the book is an homage
to coach wouldn't Life is short.
Don't wait to dance.
Zoran Stojkovic (51:57):
Wow, I think you wouldn't know that's Yeah.
Valorie Kondos Field (52:00):
And I can't tell you how many times I,
in my speaking engagements, ifI'm, when I'm done, or I'm
signing books, or autographs orsomething, I will get elderly
men come up to me with tears intheir eyes and saying thank you.
I'm going to go home and dancewith my wife. Yay.
Zoran Stojkovic (52:18):
That's a really powerful message. Val, tell me
about what you're up to rightnow. And what about official
Miss Val and where people canfind you?
Valorie Kondos Field (52:26):
Okay, you can I honestly have kind of
gotten off social media. WhenCOVID started, I just wanted to
take a break and kind of refreshmy whole being and what I wanted
to do moving forward, I am stilldoing a lot of speaking
engagements. And like you mostpeople find me through the TED
Talk. People can find me on mywebsite, official misspell.com
(52:49):
you can go to my Instagram andTwitter. But I don't post
anything. I just don't likesocial media for a lot of
reasons. And what I'm doingbesides speaking, I'm super
excited to produce an urbanNutcracker. Because I danced
Nutcracker for 15 years. And Iwant to bring the classics of
(53:12):
Tchaikovsky and his beautifultail to the streets. And so like
the street performance arts likepopcorn cup water and
skateboarding. I know that'sgonna be a cool mix. I know. So
I'm really excited to do that.
And I want to develop a theaterproduction or a film or even an
animated film about theenvironment called trash. And so
(53:35):
if you are any of your listenerson vinyl, environmentalist, I
need a storyline. And I want itto be like I've recently been
thinking about having it beanimated kind of like Toy Story.
And following you know, thislead character that maybe the
lead character is a plasticbottle, I don't know, I want the
whole message to be people, weneed to wake up and start really
(53:58):
on an individual basis takingcare of our climate and our this
beautiful planet that we liveon. And so trash isn't a great
name. I mean, imagine, imagineif it was like a theatre
production, you say let's go gettrashed, like, Oh my gosh, Mark
value of that is just and I dohave it copyrighted so yeah,
(54:19):
trash or trash, and urbanNutcracker. And I also want to
do a film on our last 2018National Championship, which was
literally one of the greatestcomebacks in all sport. It is
like a miracle and I story, andit needs to be told in a film.
And so I'm actually working onall these three projects as I'm
(54:41):
speaking all around the world.
So that's what's going on.
Zoran Stojkovic (54:46):
That is awesome. Seems like you're up to
some quite different things. Andand so thanks so much for taking
the time to speak to me todayand to share your insights and
your stories and hope we can dothis again in the future.
Valorie Kondos Fiel (55:00):
Absolutely.
And thank you for all you'redoing to get us all to think in
a much more powerful way. Have agreat day. Thank you. Efharisto
Poli!
Zoran Stojkovic (55:10):
Efharisto poli! Hey, thanks for tuning in to
cultivate your culture, rate andreviewer podcast on iTunes. Any
websites and resources mentionedin the podcast as well as the
guests information can be foundon the show at
www.kizo.ca/podcast. Here's asneak peek of what's coming up
(55:31):
in our episode next week.
Susan Scott (55:40):
When you walk into an organization or you walk into
a group of people who are doingsomething together, you can tell
within seconds what the cultureis.
Hello, I'm your host Zoran Stojkovic and welcome
to cultivate your culture. Thispodcast we'll be discussing how
leaders can build connected highperforming teams and business in
sport using actionable toolsevidence based systems and
simple processes.
Today on the show we havevalorie kondos field, who is the
(00:27):
head coach and seven time NCAAchampion of the seven time NCAA
champion 22 time regional and 18time Pac 12 champion UCLA
women's gymnastics team. She wasinducted into the UCLA Athletic
Hall of Fame in 2010. The fourtime national Coach of the Year
was recently named West Regioncoach of the PAC 12 of the PAC
(00:50):
West Region Coach of the YearPac 12, Coach of the Year and
coach of the century with hersolid track record as a
preeminent coach. crediting hermentor and legendary basketball
coach we all know about johnwooden and the Olympic Olympians
and athletes with whom she'sworked with misbalance success
is due to her extraordinaryleadership and mentorship of
(01:11):
young student athletes. And theway in which she uses gymnastics
as an avenue through which toteach valuable life lessons.
Miss Val is a dynamic speakerand choreographer, used to do
ballet and she lights up a crowdwith her enthusiasm and zest for
life and, and mesmerizesaudiences with their spectacular
(01:31):
ability to entertain. Bow. Thankyou so much for coming on to the
show. Yes, is the kind of dayafter I stopped.
Valorie Kondos Field (01:41):
I knew that you knew Greek because the
way you introduced me You saidValerie condos? Yes. Like most
people say condos? Yes. Once ina while. They'll say Valerie
condom? And I'm like, no, that'snot My Name Is Khan. It is
actually a contract this so Oh,yeah. How do you do?
Zoran Stojkovic (02:01):
So I studied in Greece, I did my masters in in,
in a Greek city. And I studiedin Greece and Finland to
Master's in sports psych. So Igot to spend a lot of time in a
small city. Not everybody spokeGreek Duolingo didn't have Greek
on it. So I basically sort oflooked phrases up. We had some
Greek lessons and then buddiesfrom the program would teach me
(02:23):
Greek and some of it not goingto say on the podcast here. But
yeah, it's it's a really greatlanguage. The alphabet was okay
to learn because Serbian, usessome similar letters. And then
some were asked to go back to myphysics and math textbook to
remember. Well, thank you forhaving me. Thanks so much for
coming on and taking the time toshare your your knowledge and
(02:44):
insights. First of all, the wayI found out about you was
through your awesome TED talk ofwhy winning doesn't always equal
success. And I've passed that onto so many people, it's informed
to me as a coach and as a mentalperformance coach, and maybe
tell me a little bit about that.
Is there is there a backstory tohow you know how that happened?
And
Valorie Kondos Field (03:08):
yes, there definitely is a backstory to how
it happened. It was the summerof 2018. And it, sadly was the
year of that the victims cameout against Larry Nasser, the
team physician for the UCLA, USAGymnastics team. And I was
invited to go to Washington, DCto speak with Senator Feinstein
(03:32):
and a few of the members of theHouse of Representatives about
culture. And I remember being insenator Feinstein's office. And
I remember her saying, how do wechange the culture of
gymnastics. And at that moment,it like this light came on, it
was like, it's not gymnastics.
Gymnastics is an amazing sport.
(03:54):
Sport, in itself is amazing.
It's anytime there is someonewho has oversees the development
of someone else, particularly achild, you're going to see
issues, you're going to haveissues and whether it's sport,
or in parenting, or school orpolitics, business, whatever.
And in that moment, as I'mtelling her all this, I, I
(04:18):
realized, you know, we have a,we have a crisis. And I say this
in my TED Talk, we have a crisisin the win at all cost cultures,
in every avenue of life, that weall have accepted. And what
really hit me and the reason whyI wanted to do my TED talk on
this was I started to do myresearch. And there have been
(04:40):
more reports of depression,stress, anxiety, and suicide,
particularly amongst our youththan ever before in the history
of man. And that's not on themthat's on us on us adults. And I
just felt it was itIt was really, it was something
that hit my heart. And I wantedto do more research about it
(05:03):
more thinking on it. And Iwanted to bring it to a platform
where I could encourage otherpeople to answer the question is
all winning success? Because Iremember when I was talking to
somebody about USA Gymnastics,and they said, but we've been so
successful. I said, No, we'vewon a lot. There's a difference.
Zoran Stojkovic (05:30):
Yeah, that's a really important point. Because
there is, and it's challenging,because head coaches get fired
for not having results. So ifthat's how they're measured, and
that's how success is measuredat a pay, you know, depending on
how much you get paid, or whatopportunities you have, or how
long you stay in a program,that's it is a system that would
(05:51):
have to change and and, youknow, the head coach would
really have to be really dialedinto their into their values and
have a different barometer anddifferent measure of success
than just results.
Valorie Kondos Fiel (06:04):
Absolutely.
You mentioned my mentor, johnwooden. He was coaching in
college for 15 years before hewon a national championship. So
in this day and age, where youget basically three years to
prove yourself in college or inthe pros, you we we would we
would have never had a CoachWooden, I mean, we would have
them we wouldn't have known, weprobably would have gone back to
(06:25):
coaching English, I mean, toteaching English.
You know, I really feel thatit's we're at an impasse where,
especially the high schools andthe colleges, we need to measure
success as more than winning, weneed to measure, we need to be
(06:46):
able to measure character. Asthis conversation is going to
evolve, we need to be able tomeasure culture, we need to be
able to measure academics,community service, we need to be
able to place a value on allthose things
in order to change this cultureof when at all cost.
Zoran Stojkovic (07:06):
Yeah, definitely. And so that leads me
to a question for you. How doyou define team culture? I mean,
this is a concept that getsthrown around so much, and
togetherness and connection andall these things. And, and
there's a lot of work being doneon this. But how do you define
it?
Valorie Kondos Field (07:23):
Okay, well, first of all, I want to
thank you for asking me to be onthis podcast. And for anybody
who's listening.
All of these questions that he'sgoing to ask me, I encourage you
to take notes and answer themfor yourself. Because as I told
Zoran, I was like, I talkedabout culture all the time. But
(07:43):
I've never really thought aboutit. I've never broken it down.
And so when you told me what wewere going to talk about, and
shifted me sent me somequestions. My mind has just been
going, you know, 100 miles anhour and doing research and how
do you develop culture? So thefirst thing you asked is how do
you define culture, andI feel that culture is a common,
(08:05):
agreed upon system of vision,values, and behavior, that are
all shared by one team. And theword culture is interesting,
because when you talk aboutculture, you're not just talking
about good cultures, positivecultures, there are plenty I
(08:29):
mean, they're a culture isanything in my opinion, that is
a common vision, common values,and common behavior. And I, you
know, since we're talking aboutsports, I teach, I taught a
course at UCLA last year on thedifferent philosophies of
successful coaches, and westudied bobby knight. And I
(08:51):
don't know if your listenerswill know who bobby knight is,
but he was the head coach atIndiana basketball and known for
his volatile, verbal, physicallyabusive behavior. But he had
athletes dying to go play forhim. And, you know, he never was
at a loss for talent on histeams. And so when I think about
(09:13):
culture, and I think aboutsomeone like bobby knight,
he had a clear vision of whatwas important winning, he had a
clear value, he his values, wereclear of how we're going to get
there. And his behavior wasclear. And sometimes it was
gonna get volatile, and verbal,verbally abusive, but the
(09:37):
players that signed up to playfor him knew that so there was,
as I just said, there was acommon shared belief and
agreement to all of that. Andthat was a very strong culture
that he created.
Zoran Stojkovic (09:52):
Yeah. And so the vision values and behaviors
is how you've defined culture.
It's a shared sharedunderstanding and agreed upon
vision values and behavior. Andso but then why? Why is it
important to cultivate theculture of a team? If you think
about team in business or sportsthat has individual performers
like your gymnastics program?
(10:15):
Did I mean or a golf program ora or a sales, you know, sales
company that has individualperformers who are measured,
measured individually on theiron their performance?
Valorie Kondos Field (10:26):
Well, I think that even if you were
training one on one, if I was agolf coach, and I was training a
golfer, and that's the onlyperson I was training, I would
still need to define how we'regoing to get to our goal. And
why is it important to cultivatea culture, whether it be with
(10:47):
one person or with a team ofpeople, is to be able to move
toward that common goal in syncand with Unity. Um, it's
important to, to discern whatyour culture is what that
culture is, okay? My mind isgoing 100 miles an hour right
(11:07):
now. I feel like okay, the bestway to do that is if I'm if
you're my athlete, and I'mcoaching you, Zoran, and we're
going to go win the nationalchampionship in golf, I need to
communicate to you a Why, why isit important that we do this?
Why do I want to coach you? Whydo you want to do it? What's
your why and discuss the how,how we can get there, and then
(11:30):
I'm going to educate you andyou're going to educate me. And
there's going to be thissymbiotic education going on of
the best way to get there. Andwe're going to communicate that
over and over and over and overagain daily, so that there is
continuous growth through ourUnited goal that will create
(11:52):
this culture. So if I get upsetwith you about something, we can
go back to why we're doing this,how did we decide agree to do
this and talk about it. And I dofeel that in cultures, cultures
are not static cultures arefluid. And I feel like the best
cultures allow for shifting, aslong as there's an explanation
(12:17):
of why, why are we making theshift? Is that in the best
interest of what we're trying toachieve? Yeah, okay, then great.
But let's make that shift.
Zoran Stojkovic (12:27):
What I'm hearing you say is, it's
important to cultivate theculture of of teams, and even
individual teams, because themembers of the team get
synchronicity and alignmenttowards going towards the goals.
So so that sense of vision,which is that it has to keep the
the the the leaders of the teamhave to keep reminding people of
that, but you're also mentioningthat it's a symbiotic dance,
(12:50):
where it's not just this leadertells you what to do, and you do
it. It's developing arelationship where the coach or
the leader and the teamunderstands the people who are
on the team. And there's aconstant communication, I think
you didn't use that word. Butthat's what I'm reading between
the lines is constantcommunication of what's going
on. Maybe a post mortem of whenthings go wrong, and things like
(13:15):
that.
Valorie Kondos Fiel (13:16):
Absolutely.
And communication is key. And Ithink that I've been known for
over communicating to my teamover and over and over and over
and over again. But I wouldrather err on that side than
not, you brought up something, Ithink that you use the word
dictate. And this is somethingthat I talk about my TED talk, I
feel like there are two types ofleaders, those that dictate
change in those that motivatechange. When I first started,
(13:38):
when I first became a headcoach, I didn't know what the
heck I was doing. I was a balletdancer. And I hired, I could
hire assistant coaches that knewthe sport of gymnastics, the X's
and O's and how to train skills.
But I quickly realized, whoa,there's this whole thing called
team culture I knew nothingabout because you don't grow up
(14:01):
with Team culture on stage as Idid, and I mimicked other
coaches that have beensuccessful, and pretty much
became a dictator, becausethat's what I thought that was
what you know, I, I grew up inthe 70s in the 80s. And it was
(14:21):
coaches were these empiricaldictators that, you know,
everything landed on them, thewinds, the they were hailed for
the losses, they were, theyassumed as well, so why they
should be the ones to dictatehow everybody's going to act in
this in his team. And it reallywas back in those days. I sound
(14:45):
so old back in those days, whenyour coach it's kind of like
you're given this armor andyou're given this, this way of
doing things that is going to besuccessful. And so if you're
going to coach, this is how youshould do it. I did that and
failed.
miserably. And I'm going totake, just take us a little bit
further imagine. So imagineyou're an assistant coach, and
(15:09):
I'm the head coach. And we'recoaching UCLA gymnastics is one
of the preeminent athleticprograms in the United States.
And you're working for me. And Idon't know the first thing about
gymnastics. So I'm just kind ofwinging it. And I'm doing all
this coach talk and coach speak.
And just, I honestly felt thatit was more important that they
(15:30):
did exactly what I told them todo, rather than doing it the
right way, that's gonna get usto the common goal, it was more
important that I did not lose myposition as a leader, then
humbling myself to say, you knowwhat, there's probably a better
way of doing this.
And so I'm fumbling around. Andthen I remember so clearly,
(15:56):
walking from the parking lot tothe athletic department one day
and looking up and UCLA is 24sports. And I think at that
time, in the late 80s, therewere maybe our budget was maybe
$50 million a year or somethinglike that. And in New Zealand,
BUT IT department, and Iremember thinking, Oh my gosh,
$50 million a year at UCLA isspent on what bragging rights to
(16:22):
be able to say we beat you. Andin that moment, I was like,
there has to be more to sportthan how we beat you. There has
to be. And so I took, I don'tknow how long the next few days,
weeks, I don't know how long,but to figure out my why, as
Simon Sinek would have asked usall to to figure out your why.
(16:43):
And my why absolutely was notabout winning, because I did not
grow up in this athletic cultureat all. It was so weird to me,
there had to be more to sportthan just winning. And it became
so clear, it was like sport, isthe greatest venue to learn
(17:05):
really, really, really toughlife lessons that you don't
learn in the classroom. And soat that moment, I was like, I'm
gonna develop champions in lifethrough sport. And because I
work at UCLA, and I can recruitsome of the best talent in the
world. If I could help developthese young women into becoming
a superheroes in life in allaspects of their life, that will
(17:30):
translate to the competitionfloor. And that became my Why,
why was I going to coach todevelop superhumans through
sport? Now? How am I going to dothat? And then that became the
foundation of our culture.
Zoran Stojkovic (17:45):
That's, that's really interesting. I was just
picturing the moment that youwere walking from the parking
lot to the building and kind ofpondering that question of what
does 50 mil get us? And is thisactually important? And why is
this important? And so what I'mhearing from your from your
answer there, Val, is that ait's important to question old
(18:05):
systems, regardless of what areasomebody who's a leader, and to
really update the systems tomatch what what science is
learned, and what we learn aboutpeople and the way that culture
more globally has changed. Andthe way that the people you work
with have changed, but also toclarify your leadership
(18:27):
philosophy or coachingphilosophy? And can you speak a
little bit more about either oneof those on maybe how you did
that? And what what are some ofthe questions you asked
yourself, as you as you, as youwill hear, why don't we maybe
focus first on on the questionquestioning the old system,
because that can sometimes be apretty hectic process,
(18:47):
especially if whoever is like,whoever hired you expect you to
coach a certain way? So did youhave to and your athletes are
used to be encouraged in certainways? So what are some ways that
you like, how did you get thatbuy in from from above and from
your athletes and from yourcoaching staff to do things
differently?
Valorie Kondos Field (19:05):
Well, I just I'm a firm believer in the
combination of education andcommunication. And so I, I
believe in a growth mindset,until the day we all die, I
think we should continue togrow. And the more I learn, the
more I want to share. And that'sthe same with my staff, and with
(19:25):
our student athletes. And so Iactually enjoyed being
challenged as to why why do Ihave these rules and
regulations? Why are we doing itthis way? Why are we training
these days and not these days?
Why, why, why why. And I thinkit's so important because it
forces you to take a pause. Andto figure out your why. You
(19:45):
know, we went from an example Iprided myself on the fact that
we never trained on theweekends, because I felt it was
really important for our studentathletes to be normal student
human beings.
And not be bad. Be an athleteseven days a week 24 seven. And
(20:06):
I've always believed in the wellrounded student athlete.
And the more well rounded theywere, the better their
gymnastics would be. Becausethat's the type of dancer that I
was. And then the last fewyears, we went to trading on
Sundays. And our athletes hatedit, and bucked the system. And
(20:28):
we came in pissy and poopy andall that. And I was like, well,
I need to explain why,obviously, I've not done a good
enough job explaining my why.
And the why in a shift in ourculture that I had established
for 20 years, I've nevertraining on a weekend, or now
want to train on a weekend. Thewhy was because it got harder
(20:50):
for them to take us to be ableto sign up for classes outside
of our training time. So we hadmore athletes missing training
time. So we were not able totrain as a team, very often
during the week. And I felt itwas super important that we were
all there together, at least forone day a week, and to be able
(21:12):
to be there on a day where theydidn't have to rush out of gym
to get to class. So explainingall of this to them. And then
also explaining, so I'm goingto, we're going to try it on
Sundays, but guess what you'regonna get Wednesdays off. And so
that means you're going to beable to like, go do things like
normal people, do you need to goto the bank, because banks
aren't open on Sundays, and youget to go, you know, to the
(21:34):
beach in the middle of the weekwhen it's not packed. How cool
is that? So explaining all ofthat, I found as I became a
better and better and betterleader and coach that the more I
explained the more buy in, Ihad, even if they didn't agree
with me, they appreciated that Irespected them enough to explain
ad nauseum to them why I didthings, right.
Zoran Stojkovic (22:01):
So you're explaining why certain changes
are happening, why you do thingscertain ways, and you think you
think it was good, it is good.
You invited athletes tochallenge you and and to ask
questions, because it got youalso to reflect on why you were
doing certain things. Andanother thing I picked up from
what you just said is that itwas important to be together, at
(22:21):
least one day of the week, whichwasn't happening. Hence, your
change to practicing on Sundaysin a turbulent I mean,
turbulence is a strong word, butin a changing workplace where
some companies have gone from inperson to remote
culture has really been shifted,because they don't, there isn't
(22:43):
that in person time anymore. Andso I think I think that's really
challenging as well. And a lotof companies are figuring that
out. And so, and teams as well,like I know, national teams
were, you know, for a whilethere weren't training and
athletes out to do at homeworkouts, and there was a lot of
challenges with that, you know,with with regards to motivation
(23:06):
and lack of connection and thosekinds of things. And you've
already touched upon some ofthis, but I'm wondering how
culture, how can culture becultivated? Like, what's the
starting place? Who has to be inthose conversations? Is it you
know, starting with the sit downat the start of season set a
team vision and missionstatements? Is it? Have you used
leadership groups? I mean, whatare some of those practical
(23:30):
systems you use to
Unknown (23:33):
get
Valorie Kondos Field (23:33):
You sit down at the beginning of season
and you talk about the long termgoal, and then you break that
down?
And what was the last thing yousaid? Do you remember?
Zoran Stojkovic (23:44):
leadership groups?
Valorie Kondos Field (23:46):
Yes, yeah.
obvious. I look at this like aflowchart. Because I grew up in
the era of flowchart, do theyteach flowcharts anymore? I
don't think they do that. I grewup in the air flow chart. So I
thought is the leader that wouldbe the head coach, that was me,
and then to discuss with ourstaff, what is our goal? Okay,
our goal is to win the nationalchampion was when the national
championship. second goal wasalways for me, I want to leave
(24:07):
the season with no regrets. Idon't want to have any regrets.
So can we as a coaching staffagree on that? And then let's
agree on how we're going to dothat. And then the flowchart
comes down to not the team yet.
But explaining all of this tothe people that have the most
(24:28):
daily communication andengagement with the team. So
that was having the meetings andexplaining it to the staff. If a
trainer, sports informationdirector, the director of
operations, the team managers,all of those people, that the
girl the student athletes wouldgravitate towards to complain
to, because that's natural. Sothen a team manager who was
(24:51):
their exact age, could say, youknow, well, this is what my
spouse explained, and this iswhy we're going to do this and
trustingtelling them, I'm going to trust
you to get my back on this andexplain it in a way that is
positive for us as a group andnot explain it in a way that,
yeah, she's just an old Biddythat wants to do it her way. And
(25:12):
so having those conversations,and then you mentioned,
leadership groups, and I hadteam captains when I first
started becoming head coach,because as I told you, I just
did what everybody else did. Andall the teams that I knew had
team captains, and it was a fewyears later, where one of my
student athletes was having aproblem on vault. And one of our
(25:34):
seniors was just watching herbut not saying anything to her
and not helping her. And I said,Why aren't you helping in this
situation? And she said, becausethere's a team captain, that's
right there. I don't want tostep on the captain's toes. And
so as like, Oh, no, no, no, byhaving team captains, I was not
(25:59):
allowing the space for all ofthe athletes to develop their
own leadership styles, and testtheir leadership, their
leadership skills and to honetheir leadership skills. So I
did away with team captains. AndI went to, as you mentioned, a
leadership group. And I had oneperson from each class,
(26:21):
freshman, sophomore, juniorsenior, and I always made a
point to have the person thatwas the it girl, the one that
the team followed, that notnecessarily, it was, I mean,
like, usually the bad girl, youknow, that was getting in
trouble all the time. I made apoint of having her in these
(26:42):
leadership groups, because Iwanted her to hear one on one
from me or one me with a smallgroup, over and over and over
again, why we are doing thingsso that when he wanted to make a
decision to go out at midnighton a weeknight that probably
wasn't the best for the team,she might think twice about it,
(27:03):
because I had explained myselfso much
Zoran Stojkovic (27:07):
You started by talking about team vision,
sitting down to the coachingstaff and saying, what do we
want to achieve this season,communicating that to the
operation staff andcoordinators, and managers and
whatnot. And then electing aleadership group, which we
didn't do initially, you didwhat everybody else did. But
then you decided to go againstagainst the mold a little bit
(27:29):
and do something different. Andyou had this leadership group
where you had athletes from eachyear, but you made sure that the
girl who was the you said the itgirl and didn't wasn't always
necessarily a good influence onthe team was in these groups,
and then through that, you wouldinfluence this person because
(27:49):
this is a leader. This is like anatural leader in the team. And
if they're not in this group, itjust makes it less powerful,
doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Sohaving having them on the team
and you build more of that buyin, don't you with things when
that person is on?
Valorie Kondos Field (28:03):
Well, I think also people everybody
wants to feel valued. Andeverything, you know, if you're
an IT girl, and you're makingpoor decisions and all that,
you're probably one of the bestcompetitors. And okay, I'm going
to tell you those KatelynOhashi. So anybody that
(30:00):
How you do things. And it'simportant for the leader to be
able to stand in front of theteam and say, Okay, I know this
is how we've always done thingslike, you know, when I said they
never trained on weekends, butI'm gonna make a change. And
this is the reason how I'm gonnamake the change. Or if something
goes wrong, and you make a hugemistake, as a leader, things
(30:22):
just didn't turn out well to beable to model humility and
vulnerability, and how tosincerely apologize. And I feel
like we're in this culture shiftin their, in our world where
there's so much research comingout on the power of
vulnerability, thank you, BernieBrown, that we're realizing that
(30:42):
vulnerability and humility andcompassion, those are not
weaknesses, their strengths, andto be able to model that
behavior. For those people whomyou are meeting is one of the
most powerful things you can doas a leader, to develop this buy
in to develop trust, huge wordtrust, able to have grace, and
(31:08):
to model what grace looks liketo be able to move forward. But
when you do that, you give yourstaff and you give your those
people whom you're leading thesafe space to themselves, make
mistakes, and not have to coverthem up or feel badly about.
Zoran Stojkovic (31:25):
That's I think that's huge. And this is
something I was discussing, Iwas actually discussing with
somebody a couple days ago aboutleaders, just the leader in
their organization being veryopen to sharing when they
failed. And something I've usedas a coach in teams is having
the senior athletes of the teamshare stories of when they
failed, and seeing what I mean,like the oldest athletes of the
(31:48):
team, I guess, so that theothers can learn from this, I
think that's really powerful.
And especially if the leaders doit as well, and, and if it's
just something that's normal,and not trying to cover it up.
For me, that speaks toauthenticity. And that speaks to
vulnerability, which youmentioned. And also to that
openness to communicate. I heardthere's a college basketball
(32:09):
coach here in Canada and one ofher philosophies is five for the
next 50. And she tries toprepare the girls on her team in
the five years that they're withher for the next 50 years of
their lives. And I think that'sone of the things that that does
that is getting people creatingthat space where people can
explore and be vulnerable andshare and that leads to
(32:30):
definitely to enhanceconnection. You've touched a
little bit on mistakes thatleader can leaders can make what
are some toxic behaviors in inteam culture and how have you
dealt with them either, youknow, in in the leadership team
and the team in the staff fromyourself even I mean,
Valorie Kondos Field (32:50):
I think that one of the toxic toxic
environment in a team cultureis, is not having trust. and
so..on. I mentioned CaitlinOhashi before, so I'll mention
her again. She literally and Italked about this in the TED
Talk. So it's no big secret. Sheliterally came in she was one of
(33:11):
the best journalists in theworld. She's the last humans to
ever beat Simone Biles,actually. And she came in just
burnt out an angry and defiantand the whole bit. And her
freshman year, she was justdefiant. And we were having a
team meeting mid mid year. Andshe just told the team and the
(33:31):
staff, I just don't want to begreat again. And I literally
wanted to say then what the hellam I paying you $60,000 a year
for? You know, thankfully, Ididn't say that.
And I thought, Why does she wantto be great again, she says
great athletes. And then shewent on to explain because
everything is she associatedwith being great, was hurtful,
(33:55):
and, and didn't bring her joy.
And why would she want to goback to that? She just let's
just be mediocre. So I can havefun. And at that moment, I was
like, okay, it's not that shehates gymnastics. She hates
everything she associates withit. So I have to earn her trust,
that I actually care about hermore as a human being than as
(34:15):
just an a great athlete that canget me another championship. And
as we all know, trust takestime. And it takes time to
build. It was super, superimportant. And dang it. I forgot
your question.
Zoran Stojkovic (34:35):
No, no, you you you're off, you're off to a good
start. It was what are toxicbehaviors in a team and how have
you dealt with them?
Valorie Kondos Field (34:41):
Yeah, so it was trust. And so, you know,
we'll don't change overnight.
None of us do. And for the nextfew months, actually her
sophomore year, that whole year,she would still screw up and do
things she shouldn't do as astudent athlete that was helped
trying to help retain a nationalchampionship and but there was
(38:04):
Oh, I'm sorry. You're right.
It's not gonna work. And she wasdumbfounded. And I was thinking
now what I say, you know, I,gosh, I apologize. And she said,
I've never heard those wordscome out of the coach's mouth, I
said what word chose I'm sorry.
And to be able to model thatbehavior, without even knowing I
was modeling the behavior for itwas really, really powerful.
(38:28):
Something I really remember andsomething that she speaks about
quite often.
Zoran Stojkovic (38:32):
And that's huge. And it seems like in that
moment, you did pause betweenthe stimulus and the response.
And and that's a that's a reallyimportant skill for coaches. I
mean, that's something thatathletes that I work on with
athletes, but it's important forcoaches and leaders as well, for
anybody really totake a pause process using
emotion regulation. And just,you know, let the mind quiet
(38:56):
down and then, and sometimes wehave a couple of seconds, and
sometimes that pause can belonger for bigger, bigger
decisions. But that's really, Imean, I the thought that keeps
coming to mind for me, Val ishow did you get buy in if you
never did gymnastics at thelevel needed?
Valorie Kondos Field (39:16):
It really was because I was not afraid to
show my vulnerability. And soYou will have a far better
(40:00):
result. If you allow the athleteto become a part of the process
of figuring out how to achievesomething, instead of dictating
to them what to do another partthat I learned early on in my
coaching career that, you know,coaches that will make a
correction ever give you acorrection every single time you
(40:22):
do something, that's not a goodway to get a result at all,
you're supposed to getcorrection. And then let the
athlete take 567 turns, and themhave the best space to figure it
out. Yes, and 100% of the time,you have a better result.
Zoran Stojkovic (40:45):
Because it it does take trial and error you
most athletes can implement anew a new technical change right
away. That's really interestingthat you're mentioning that one
of the most toxic behaviors orelements of bad team culture is
a lack of trust. It's astrongest element of team
culture. And it's definitely astarting place. And you
mentioned a couple of differentways to generate that buy in and
(41:09):
trust as well through throughshowing vulnerability and
through involving the peopleyou're working with in the
process. And through thattransparency. Culture is
sometimes this airy fairy thingthat is really hard to pinpoint.
And it's hard to put a finger onhow have you measured and
assessed team culture? I mean,is it through talking to
(41:30):
athletes? Is that through givingthem a survey? Is it through
your own observations? Is itthrough other tools? And means?
Valorie Kondos Field (41:39):
Yeah, I think that it would be
interesting. If I was, I thinkit'd be interesting to go back
to UCLA and or to, you know,take one of our teams that we
had asked them to write downwhat they felt the team culture
was, and I guarantee you thatthey're not all going to have
the same answer. And they're notgoing to have the same answer
that I would put down. And thenas a leader to try to, you know,
(42:01):
figure out, okay, maybe somebodybrought something up in the team
culture that was really goodthat I didn't realize was part
of our team culture. That'scool. But the way that I
assessed our team culture, andthe success of it every year
was, as soon as the athletesstarted taking ownership of
themselves, and of theirteammates, that magic happened.
(42:26):
And another another, what's itcalled?
What's it called? Where you? Youtalk about something, but it
really means something else? Oh,my gosh, I came upon
Zoran Stojkovic (42:37):
a pun. No.
Valorie Kondos Field (42:41):
Okay, I'll think of it.
But another, this
Zoran Stojkovic (42:46):
acronym?
Valorie Kondos Field (42:48):
No, but like that.
Oh, my gosh, I talked about it.
When I talk about my book, lifeis short, going to dance and
dance is obviously a metaphor.
It's a metaphor for a metaphorfor this culture. And when I
know that it's working is aflywheel. And, you know, I never
(43:08):
knew what a flywheel was, untilI read the amazing book, Good to
Great that Jim Collins wrote,it's like a Bible out there. But
when you have a flywheel is thismassive piece of steel wheel
that is going to create energy,and it takes a massive amount of
inertia to move this thing, theslightest bit, but consistent
(43:34):
force on this, we'll, we'll getit to start to move. And once it
moves, it, it continues to flowon its own. And that is what a
team a good team culture is. Andso I always knew that when I
could take my hands off thewheel, and put the ownership on
(43:54):
our student athletes, and theywould take responsibility for
their actions and theirteammates actions. That's when
the culture was thriving.
And we talked about best when wehad one heartbeat.
You know, we would talk aboutgoing into competitions. And
let's get to the point in ourseason, where we literally have
(44:16):
one heart beat as a team.
Zoran Stojkovic (44:18):
Wow, that's huge. And that is a great book
that you you mentioned, the Goodto Great and the flywheel and
the one heart, that's apowerful, because it makes it
feel like more like a system,like, like an organism, which
you essentially are. That's whata culture is. We just it's not
always so obvious on thesurface. Because if you choose
(44:38):
to look at people individually,you can do that. But there's
this symbiotic relationship. Andthat's really, really awesome
and interesting. I'm wonderingif there's a book or resource
that you would suggest to ourlisteners that has shaped your
leadership style, and you'vementioned a bunch in here as
well. You mentioned start withwhy you mentioned growth
(44:59):
mindset. So mindsets by CarolDweck. Good to Great you
mentioned Man's Search forMeaning.
Valorie Kondos Field (45:05):
Yes, as I mentioned, I'm teaching this
class at UCLA on thephilosophies of coaching. It's
fascinating in love it becauseevery single week we study a
different coach. And we startedwith Phil Jackson. And then we
went to bobby knight. And thenwe have Pat Summitt, and Coach
Wooden and on and on, but theunderlying book that I use
(45:26):
throughout the entire quarterwas dare to lead, burn a bridge.
And that there were, everysingle student in this class was
either a fifth year studentathlete at UCLA or a graduate
assistant with football. And atthe end of the course, I asked
them just to give me a debriefand tell me what they learned,
you know, what's the like one ofthe two or three things that you
(45:47):
learn in this class, everysingle one of them, especially
the male athletes that werefootball players said, they
never thought of vulnerability,and humility, as characteristics
of strength. They were they allthey grew up as tough boy, like
(46:09):
when we say man up to him, not.
That doesn't mean be morevulnerable, you know? And they
shut down. Right, exactly. Andso that was really cool. So dare
to lead is kind of like aleadership Bible as far as I'm
concerned. And I'm actuallyreading this book right now,
Lincoln on leadership. And it'sfascinating, because it goes
(46:32):
into Abraham Lincoln'sleadership. And
it's a very small little book,but oh, my gosh, it's, it
literally is speaking to exactlywhat leaders go through in this
day and age, including thehaters. I didn't know this. He
(46:53):
had a ton of haters, andadversaries, and people that
were just trying to tear himdown and, and spewing lies and
libel about him. And I was like,honestly, seriously. So I'm
really enjoying, I'm enjoyingthis book a lot right now.
Zoran Stojkovic (47:12):
Sweet. Those are, those are really good
suggestions. I've not heard ofthe Lincoln one. But I've heard
of Bernie Brown, of course, anddare to lead. Last. One of my
last questions here is what's wehad a lot of these kind of
weaved in throughout theconversation, but what's one
practical tool leaders can useto cultivate the culture of
(47:32):
their team?
Oh, that's a good one. I think Iwould go back to what I
mentioned a little bit ago, apractical tool, if I was a
leader, would be to ask a seriesof questions to the people who
might relating and have themwrite down the answers to get
back as to what do you see ahealthy culture for this team?
(47:58):
And is in this group of peoplethat we're all going to be with
for this next year? What do yousee that looking like? What do
you see some of the snakescoming? Weird? What do you feel
if you were leading the team?
What do you think should be ournegotiables and our non
negotiables, and have them writeall that down, and then look at
all over and then reconvene andtalk about what they'd written
(48:22):
in what you the commonalitiesand such. And I feel like
immediately, as a leader, youwould have buy in from your
team, because you're asking himtheir opinions, you're giving
them a voice, and you're makingthem feel that their opinions,
and their discussion isvaluable.
(48:47):
And so I think whenever you givesomeone a voice and make them
feel of value, you've alreadystarted the buy in of them. And
then you got to follow through.
You can't just throw it all outthe window and do over the heck
we want to do.
Right, so the one tool you wouldsuggest is questions and really
good questions. And you youmentioned some really solid open
ended questions that can give acoach a lot of information and
(49:10):
and really build thatrelationship with the athlete as
well because you putting it onthem to co create the culture
with you to help you and not noteven to help you but to be part
of the process that cultivates aculture.
Valorie Kondos Field (49:26):
Okay, then let's take this one step
further. And let's play off thisscenario. And let's say then
next week, you meet again as ateam. And I say, Okay, the first
question I asked you was, whatis give me three non negotiables
that you feel would help uscreate some unity with this team
as we move forward? So Zoran,you wrote some really impressive
(49:48):
things down here, would youexplain them? And so to have the
teammates explain theirresponses you just took you just
empowered them? 100 times.
Zoran Stojkovic (49:58):
Yes. And then constantly reminding people of
what those non negotiables arehaving that common blueprint of
vision, values, behaviors, andthat that all feeds into it.
That's a really solid suggestionand actually doing something
about it not just askingquestions for the sake of asking
questions. Well, tell me about,tell me about your book, life is
(50:20):
short, don't wait too Dance
Valorie Kondos Field (50:21):
the book is. The book is about how I
figured out this world ofathletics. And the things that I
did that didn't work and thethings that I did that were very
unorthodox as a head coach to dothat did work. And just my
journey along the way, it's areally fast read. So holidays
are coming up people, it's gonnabe a really great holiday gift.
(50:43):
And as I was writing the book, Iwas trying to come up with the
title of the book, and I waswriting the part of the
chapters, the Jefferson CoachWooden, my relationship with
him, I had a very, very, veryclose relationship with john
wooden, and he lived to be 99,and nine months old, and the
last few years of his life.
Whenever I was with him,somebody would say, you know,
(51:05):
coach, you've lived animpeccable life. Do you have any
regrets. And he would alwaysreply the same way, his little
eyes, blue eyes would start toglisten with tears. And he would
say, you know, my wife, Nellielove to dance. And he outlived
his wife by I think, 30 years.
(51:25):
And he said, and I grew up veryshy, and I was never very good
dancer. And so I never dancedwith my wife. And I realized now
that had I danced with my wife,people wouldn't have made fun of
me, they would have seen acouple of deeply in love dancing
together. So if I have oneregret, I would go back and
(51:48):
dance with my wife. And so mytitle of the book is an homage
to coach wouldn't Life is short.
Don't wait to dance.
Zoran Stojkovic (51:57):
Wow, I think you wouldn't know that's Yeah.
Valorie Kondos Field (52:00):
And I can't tell you how many times I,
in my speaking engagements, ifI'm, when I'm done, or I'm
signing books, or autographs orsomething, I will get elderly
men come up to me with tears intheir eyes and saying thank you.
I'm going to go home and dancewith my wife. Yay.
Zoran Stojkovic (52:18):
That's a really powerful message. Val, tell me
about what you're up to rightnow. And what about official
Miss Val and where people canfind you?
Valorie Kondos Field (52:26):
Okay, you can I honestly have kind of
gotten off social media. WhenCOVID started, I just wanted to
take a break and kind of refreshmy whole being and what I wanted
to do moving forward, I am stilldoing a lot of speaking
engagements. And like you mostpeople find me through the TED
Talk. People can find me on mywebsite, official misspell.com
(52:49):
you can go to my Instagram andTwitter. But I don't post
anything. I just don't likesocial media for a lot of
reasons. And what I'm doingbesides speaking, I'm super
excited to produce an urbanNutcracker. Because I danced
Nutcracker for 15 years. And Iwant to bring the classics of
(53:12):
Tchaikovsky and his beautifultail to the streets. And so like
the street performance arts likepopcorn cup water and
skateboarding. I know that'sgonna be a cool mix. I know. So
I'm really excited to do that.
And I want to develop a theaterproduction or a film or even an
animated film about theenvironment called trash. And so
(53:35):
if you are any of your listenerson vinyl, environmentalist, I
need a storyline. And I want itto be like I've recently been
thinking about having it beanimated kind of like Toy Story.
And following you know, thislead character that maybe the
lead character is a plasticbottle, I don't know, I want the
whole message to be people, weneed to wake up and start really
(53:58):
on an individual basis takingcare of our climate and our this
beautiful planet that we liveon. And so trash isn't a great
name. I mean, imagine, imagineif it was like a theatre
production, you say let's go gettrashed, like, Oh my gosh, Mark
value of that is just and I dohave it copyrighted so yeah,
(54:19):
trash or trash, and urbanNutcracker. And I also want to
do a film on our last 2018National Championship, which was
literally one of the greatestcomebacks in all sport. It is
like a miracle and I story, andit needs to be told in a film.
And so I'm actually working onall these three projects as I'm
(54:41):
speaking all around the world.
So that's what's going on.
Zoran Stojkovic (54:46):
That is awesome. Seems like you're up to
some quite different things. Andand so thanks so much for taking
the time to speak to me todayand to share your insights and
your stories and hope we can dothis again in the future.
Valorie Kondos Fiel (55:00):
Absolutely.
And thank you for all you'redoing to get us all to think in
a much more powerful way. Have agreat day. Thank you. Efharisto
Poli!
Zoran Stojkovic (55:10):
Efharisto poli! Hey, thanks for tuning in to
cultivate your culture, rate andreviewer podcast on iTunes. Any
websites and resources mentionedin the podcast as well as the
guests information can be foundon the show at
www.kizo.ca/podcast. Here's asneak peek of what's coming up
(55:31):
in our episode next week.
Susan Scott (55:40):
When you walk into an organization or you walk into
a group of people who are doingsomething together, you can tell
within seconds what the cultureis.
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