Richard A. Baddour Carolina Leadership Academy Overview

Student-Athlete Programming
Carolina NAVIGATE
Emerging Leaders
Veteran Leaders
Carolina ACTIVATE
Leadership Summer Intensive
Carolina Sports Leadership Summit
FTH Mentor Program

Leadership for Department Staff
Leadership Liaison
Leadership Certification
Blue OPS
Lean In Circle

The Richard A. Baddour Carolina Leadership Academy develops world-class leaders for a lifetime of service and success. In 2004, its launch marked the first leadership development program in collegiate athletics, and in the intervening years, it has prided itself on being the premier leadership development program in collegiate athletics. In short, it was the first and continues to stand as the best of its kind.

Programming is based upon descriptive and applied frameworks. A descriptive framework describes how student-athletes progress through the programming. It is a leadership depth chart and pipeline. An applied leadership framework provides a language and an architecture with which to speak about leadership. UNC features an applied framework which is unique to Carolina and uniquely Carolina. The frameworks showcases the interdependence of leading self and leading with others.

Student-Athlete Programming

Carolina NAVIGATE is the first level of programming. The program helps first-year student-athlete navigate the Carolina CREED Statement. The statement outlines the core values of what it means to be a student-athlete at UNC.

Program Objectives for Carolina NAVIGATE:

Become familiar with descriptive and applied leadership frameworks.
Instill knowledge of personal core values and those for UNC student-athletes.
Use privilege as student-athlete as a platform for good.
Identify major possibilities and career interests.
Understand three elements of "athletic character".
Develop self-awareness.

Emerging Leaders
Emerging Leaders is the second level of programming. And is designed for a select group of "high potential" sophomore and junior student-athletes. The Emerging Leaders program provides prospective student leaders with the insights, strategies, and skills necessary to become effective leaders on their team, on campus, and in the community. Through ongoing workshops, interactive exercises, action learning experiences and readings, the year-long Emerging Leaders program provides a strong foundation for student-athletes to develop into effective leaders. The emphasis of the program at this level is creating effective Leaders by Example while setting the stage for Vocal Leadership.

Program Objectives for Emerging Leaders:

Identify and develop high potential leaders in their sophomore or junior years.
Create solid Leaders by Example and set the stage for developing Vocal Leaders.
Build a strong network of peer leaders.
Develop leaders who support and learn from current team captains/leaders (succession planning).
Teach prospective leaders how to gain respect and develop leadership skills with their peer group.

Veteran Leaders
Designed for team captains and veteran student-athlete leaders from all teams, the Veteran Leaders program provides established team leaders with advanced leadership training and support. The program teaches student-athletes the critical team leadership skills and insights necessary to be effective Vocal Leaders as they manage and conquer the day-to-day responsibilities and challenges of leadership. In addition to the education, the Veteran Leaders program also provides student-athlete leaders with a strong peer network to lean on and learn from throughout the school year. Student-athletes meet regularly to learn and reinforce leadership principles and share successes, frustrations, and lessons.

Program Objectives for Veteran Leaders:

• Encourage established leaders to step up and be Vocal Leaders on their teams
• Provide established leaders with ongoing support as they tackle the tough issues of team leadership
• Provide established leaders with a solid peer network for guidance and support
• Review and extend the insights and skills necessary to be a responsible and respected leader
• Establish a solid, cooperative, and ongoing partnership with the coaching staff

Carolina ACTIVATE is the fourth level of programming. The program helps participants to activate the resources to co-lead the team with fellow leaders and coaches. It is a resource designed to support student-athletes in their team leadership efforts.

Program Objectives for Carolina ACTIVATE:

Deepen application of leadership framework.
Onboard to leadership position.
Practice leadership within team.
Translate coach feedback for teammates.
Develop communication plan to partner with coach.
Enhance awareness of self and others.

The Leadership Summer Intensive (LSI) is a three-month certificate program. LSI is a summer independent study in leadership development. Participants complete an assortment of activities across a variety of areas (i.e. buckets). Programming consists of ten buckets.

Program Objectives for Leadership Summer Intensive:

Allow for self-paced participant progress through the program;
Provide participants the freedom to select resources which they find most relevant to themselves, to their sport, and to their upcoming seasons; and
Offer suggested buckets and resources which are purposefully selected for maximum impact on an individual's leadership development.

The Carolina Sports Leadership Summit is a student-run event hosted annually on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day for local middle schoolers. Student-athlete organizers self-select to one of three committees: Administration & Logistics, Curriculum & Facilitation, and Communications & Marketing. Those committees sub-divide into 10 work teams: Regimentation, Registration, Requisitions, Facilitation, Wranglers, Marketing, Sponsorship, and Media (New, Social, Traditional). The summit schedule includes a welcome, four rotations, and then a closing. Participants were divided into four groups, each group wrangled by two student-athletes. Groups rotate through four stations. Each station focuses on a different element of leadership: personal, peer, people and public leadership. The student-athlete facilitators developed a curriculum which incorporated instructions, experiential activities, individual reflection and collaborative learning.

The FORevHER Tar Heels (FTH) Volunteer program is a join initiative between Carolina Student-Athlete Development and The Rams Club that aims to connect women student-athletes with women volunteers to engage and develop relationships within a specified field. Participating student-athletes provide requests and area of interests and then are prompted to reach out to volunteers who may have advice, connections, or internship opportunities in that area.

Program objectives include
    • Offer transformational engagement between volunteers and student-athletes.
    • Pair volunteers and student-athletes according to preferences.
    • Provide prompts for intentional exchanges between participants.
    • Foster larger sense of community within cohort and among cohorts.

Leadership for Department Staff

A Leadership Liaison is designated by each team from their coaching ranks. Leadership Liaisons serves three vital and primary functions. One, as the designated singular contact person, each liaison expedites and increases efficiency in communication between a given team and the Leadership Academy. Two, liaisons serve as the resident the Leadership Academy experts for their teams with regard to the Leadership Academy policies, protocols and practices. Three, they facilitate coach involvement in the student-athlete leadership development process.

The criteria for Leadership Certification outline best practices in leadership development, namely a demonstrated dedication to personal leadership development as well as to a partnership with student-athletes in the leadership development process and leadership effort on their respective teams. The purpose of certification is to (a) Provide coaches a sense of achievement in the progression through the various benchmarks in participation and leadership development efforts; (b) Market said participation and development efforts in a fashion similar to coaching education/licensing through sport national governing bodies; and Develop a system and nomenclature to describe a coaches' participation and leadership development efforts to student-athletes.

Blue Optimal Performance Series (OPS) offers programming for anyone who works on the front lines with student-athletes, i.e., head coach, assistant coaches, athletic trainers, team physicians, strength & conditioning coaches, academic counselors, sports nutritionists, sport psychologists, student-athlete development staff, and sport administrators. The format of the workshops is a combination of presentation and discussion.

Blue OPS is intended to (1) get everyone who needs to know each other, trust each other, and work together in the same space with a growth mindset with greater regularity; (2) present new research or novel insights which would help to foster an environment where our student-athletes can achieve their optimal performance; and (3) encourage performance team members to consider how the presented ideas might be applied to their sport/student-athletes.

A Lean In Circle is a place where women can be unapologetically ambitious, where they can give voice to our dreams and find the encouragement to start chasing them. It is a place for sharing ideas, gaining skills, seeking advice, and showing solidarity. Most of all, it is a place where women help each other become their very best selves. (leanin.org/circles)

The UNC Athletics Lean In Circle claims the following. Why is it here? Connect – build relationships, Inspire – generate enthusiasm, Encourage – give support, confidence, and hope, Empower – generate capacity and commitment, and Elevate – create paths for advancement. What will it do? Build relationships; Give and receive support, and Solve problems. How will it do this? Strike a balance between topical exploration and interpersonal connection; Foster a bias toward action; and Welcome other ways of achieving our goals.

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