Leading By Example

Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione has taken the Sooners back to the top by empowering his staff for success.
by: Rod Smith
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Just four short months after assuming the reigns of the University of Oklahoma athletic department, Sooner athletic director Joe Castiglione made a decision that would shake the OU football program out of its recent doldrums and head it toward a sudden and glorious future. He hired Bob Stoops as head football coach.

Prior to his arrival in Norman, Castiglione - a former football walk-on at the University of Maryland - spent 18 years rebuilding the pride and solidifying the infrastructure of the athletic department at the University of Missouri. Now, in a little more than three-years at Oklahoma, Castiglione has breathed both financial and emotional life back into a once deflated Sooner athletic department. Since his arrival at Oklahoma in April of 1998, Castiglione has made fund-raising a priority and has successfully garnered a $9.1 million donation, the largest capital gift in athletic department history. Through the generation of revenue and the practice of fiscal responsibility, OU athletics ended the 1999 fiscal year with a balanced budget, its first since the early 1990s.

With the additional revenues came the development, renovation and construction of new facilities, and Castiglione has overseen the completion of redesigned football practice fields and the replacement of Memorial Stadium's all-weather surface plus drawn up a master plan that includes additional renovations including Memorial Stadium and an indoor practice facility. And while the Sooner's recent success has contributed greatly to the physical changes underway, Castiglione feels it his responsibility to ensure future success.

How much day-to-day interaction do you have with head football coach Bob Stoops or with other members of his staff?

I would say in most cases, I see at least one member of the football staff virtually everyday. I personally interact with Bob Stoops at least three or four times per week, depending on the time of year, his schedule, the demands of recruiting and game preparation.

How would you define your management style?

First of all, there is a difference between a management style and leadership. My management style is mission oriented but my leadership style is principle based. I'm a Stephen Covey devotee... pathfinding, aligning, and modeling. It's powerful and it works.

That's not to say that I'm totally different from other athletic directors out there that are hands-on oriented. It's very important to me to know what's going on in each area of the athletic department. But I really believe in hiring the best people and empowering them to do their job the best way it can be done and (then) be supportive of them in that particular endeavor. Whether that means continually providing a variety of resources, being there when they need you or simply getting out of the way so they can do their job. (Support) can come in a lot of different forms.

I could use a lot of different terminology that we've heard many administrators say over the years ... 'My door is always open to my staff...' Which, in fact it is at any time they need access to me. But I'm not the type of person just to sit in the office and wait and see whether or not a coach needs some support. I'm very active, whether it's being at practice or attending as many events as I can.

I think it's just as important for student athletes to see members of the administration visible at their practice, at an event, or just being with them periodically. Administrators can express all they want about their support, but if there's not a visible sign sometimes it's not as meaningful.

As an athletic director, what do you feel is your role in setting the philosophical tone for the athletic department or more specifically for the football program?

I think it is imperative for the leadership to set a tone and to create a powerful vision for the entire athletic program. I don't think it's always necessary for the athletic director to lead the way in every case. Going back to what I said earlier, I believe in empowerment, and I also believe in creating an environment where people feel part of a team, where people feel part of our mission to reach the extraordinary goals we have set for ourselves. There have been times when student-athletes, coaches or other members of our staff have had opportunities to make all sorts of contributions to reinforce the tone which may have been set at the beginning. That's the special atmosphere that we have inside what we call intercollegiate athletics. (This tone) can be reinforced by a number of different people - even outside of the department. Our donors, our fans, our friends, they can all do something that compliments the tone, helps support our mission, and enables us to continue onward in our journey.

So, in other words, you feel that you play a role in setting the tone, but consider what you do simply one piece of the larger puzzle that is the Sooner athletic program?

There's no doubt about it. The leader has to set the tone, create an understanding of what the department wants to do, determine what our needs are, and educate (staff) as to the means that we will (use to) reach our goals. But more importantly, help our staff understand they are part of something special and they are expected to contribute. We have to hire so many talented people. It's important to recognize those talents and build the type of (administrative) team that will support gifted student-athletes and coaches.

What did you look for when you hired Bob Stoops?

A person with skill, character, passion and a great understanding of the power of a team! Any time an athletic director is in a position to hire a new coach, there's always the goal of finding a dynamic leader. Oklahoma's situation when we hired Bob Stoops was really unique in the sense that a once proud program had been taken down, for one reason or another, and had uncharacteristically gone through a number of head coaches in a short period of time. That in itself is detrimental. A lack of continuity creates all sorts of adverse situations itself, let alone the problems which develop from selecting the wrong individual (to lead the football program).

Keep in mind, I was only here for four months (before making the decision to hire Stoops). I'm still new to the University of Oklahoma family and to the attributes which make this program special. Part of which is a tradition of years and years of outstanding performance and success at the highest level. For decades, Oklahoma knew they were good. Success became the expectation.

Yet from the early to the latter part of the '90s, Oklahoma had endured this uncharacteristically difficult period of time as it relates to football. It's not really important to debate the reasons why it happened. It happened. And the most important thing for me to do as the new leader of this program was to find the right person who could lead us forward. We are not trying to become what we were at one time. We are trying to rebuild the program to emulate that level of success but to do it in today's demanding and competitive environment.

Often times, situations like (Oklahoma's) would call for a selection to be made from someone who already has exhibited a great deal of success in leading programs, as opposed to reaching out to someone who is taking on a head coaching job for the first time. Yet the more that I got to know Bob, the more I realized how special he was as an individual. It's easier to find out about a coach's capabilities on the sports side. You can learn that quickly. It's more difficult to find out or to learn about a person's character, their leadership qualities or their ability to make decisions or willingness to handle the myriad responsibilities that come with being a head coach today. It's hard to find that out about a person, and particularly to try and picture how someone will make that transition (from an assistant to a head coach).

I don't think anybody's perfected (the hiring of coaches) as an exact science. But there are ways that people can become very comfortable, if not inspired, by the way a person handles themselves in a variety of roles. The way that they interact with people; how strong they are as a person; the way they have developed their priorities throughout their career. When I found all these out about Bob Stoops, it became very clear to me. Despite what conventional wisdom might suggest, I felt strongly that Bob was wise beyond his years. Even though he may not have had the title of head football coach next to his name, he possessed and embodied all the qualities anybody would ever want in a head coach and a leader.

What can life-long assistant coaches, like Bob Stoops, do to make themselves more attractive head coach prospects, whether it be at their own college or somewhere else?

Obviously, make sure they know what they truly want, then work to get into a position to achieve it! I like for people to combine character and competency. Visibility helps, and that can come in a number of different forms. Certainly those programs that are successful generally get the visibility through a variety of forms of media - television, radio, newspaper, talk-shows, or magazines. There are a lot of excellent coaches out there that may not be as well known right now. They just need to find a way to become visible. But that doesn't mean they branch off and do their own thing, or they start to think about themselves more than the program they represent. If those coaches are doing the best possible job for their university, on and off the field, they will become known because their programs will be successful, and the spotlight is broad enough for it to shine on them.

If you're talking about other experiences that make a coach attractive, I think the interaction they have with their Head Coach, their AD and department staff members is important. And what they might do within the overall university framework to interact with local media, fans or friends (of the university) are opportunities which coaches might think are unnecessary or not worth their time, but they end up being some of the most critical opportunities for them to embrace. But again, they must do it within the structure the campus leadership defines.

I think there's a level of consistency that is also attractive. (For example), someone being part of a program that's had an extended period of success. I think the roles that (assistants) receive from the head coach are important to fulfill regardless of what they might be. I think people will look beyond the title. The title is important, but at times the title itself may imply that the assistants do more than what the they actually do. And likewise, a title that may not appear to be as significant may not tell the whole story in terms of the responsibility that a coach has. I've seen some quarterback coaches who have a great deal of responsibility even though a coordinator, an assistant or an associate head coach may have a bigger title. It's incumbent upon the prospective employer to look beyond or below the surface. Interaction with the media, interaction with the student athletes and the respect (assistants) have amongst the student athletes, respect amongst the coaches they work with every day, obviously, the respect the head coach has for that person, (and) the interaction with the constituencies outside the program - the fans, the donors, the media. All these things are important. If the person making the hire is doing their homework correctly they will find this out.

Obviously, the interview skills are important. How a person presents themselves. One of the skills coaches possess, at least those who are very effective, is one that often gets overlooked is recruiting. The variety of situations that a coach is put into to interact with prospective student athletes, head coaches, guidance counselors, principals and others in the recruiting process is something that provides a world of experience in interpersonal communication. And those coaches who pride themselves in doing it the right way create a positive reputation for themselves.

The talent that coaches have for identifying exceptionally gifted people and determining their place within the team is important. This ability to look for the right (characteristics) has obviously become very important as they ascend to positions that have greater responsibility or finally getting the position where they are the decision maker and they must put people in a position to be successful.

That's ultimately my role too as an athletic director. To try to put our staff and our program in the best possible position for success. So in a sense there are many similarities between an AD's role and a head coach's role.

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