PEAK Magazine Feature: Leader Lab
12/29/2020 10:35:00 AM | Field Hockey, Men's Basketball, Peak Performance
"Leadership during this time was going to require experimentation and interdependency."
From the Fall 2020 issue of PEAK Magazine, released in November.
Stephen Gonzalez, Dartmouth's Assistant Athletics Director for Leadership and Mental Performance, lives and breathes leadership. Upon his arrival at Dartmouth in June of 2019, one of his early goals was to create a best-in-class leadership experience for the student-athletes. When the pandemic arrived, and students departed, he knew the timing was perfect.
"(Last spring) was a real and authentic time," said Gonzalez. "So much of our time initially was spent determining how to access resources and we realized it was not going to require a one-person solution but rather, a collective approach. The dependency on each other to address what was happening all around us created the perfect opportunity."
That opportunity – to launch Leader Lab – produced a series of virtual meetings, workshops and interactions and brought together student-athlete leaders from all varsity programs. It was clear there were no textbooks or game plans for how to lead during a pandemic and therefore, leadership during this time was going to require experimentation and interdependency.
The main purpose of Leader Lab is to create a forum for student-athlete leaders across sports to (a) learn and explore leadership concepts and (b) stay connected to others as a way to build a deeper sense of community and shared vision for what leadership means at an institution like Dartmouth. Â
Reading Harvard Business review articles on empathy and watching Ted Talks on topics like trust were merely the stimulus for robust, authentic and, at times, emotional conversations for the participants.
"The goal was to have our student-athlete leaders engage in meaningful dialogue around a topic and then bring those discussions back to their teams, at a time when they needed support and connection more than ever," said Gonzalez. "When I walked away from this it was special to see the relationships being formed between athletes from different teams and different seasons and the networks that now allow them to reach out to someone in another program and discuss a situation.
"This unique time allowed us to work on social and emotional leadership competencies in a way that was practical and real and understand that these competencies are important to being not just a great student-athlete, but a great leader and person."
Taurus Samuels '21, a member of the men's basketball team, relished the sessions each Friday during the spring, absorbing as much as possible from the materials, Gonzalez and his peers.
"I've always naturally been drawn to leadership positions, especially playing point guard," said Samuels. "What was most beneficial was the ability to go through this program with other student-athletes who are leaders on their teams. When you think about all the different sports offered at Dartmouth, it was a real privilege to sit on a Zoom call and realize that regardless of how different our sports may be, we are way more similar and face many of the same challenges when it comes to being leaders."
Breakout rooms during each call is where most of the magic happened. These sessions provided the student-athletes an opportunity to display a high level of curiosity, according to Gonzalez, and explore how different coaches and programs operate and determine what was scalable and applicable to their own situations.
 "Due to the uncertainty in their lives, participants came at an issue with a sense of openness rather than thinking they knew how to approach a particular problem," added Senior Associate AD for Peak Performance, Ian Connole. "The pandemic shook up our sense of normal and forced us to ask questions around how we lead, how we find new approaches and how we work together — for staff and student-athletes. Yet, it created this new sense of openness and togetherness — everyone against the covid challenges and isolation — that was different from our normal environment."
Field hockey student-athlete Sara Falkson '22, found herself in a particularly-unique environment with a new coach and no spring season, which would accelerate the relationship building so critical when there is new leadership within a program. Searching for answers on how to approach the spring, she found many of them through her involvement in the Leader Lab.
"After the fall season, we were in a tough place emotionally," explained Falkson. "Hearing from other programs and how their culture functions around accountability and respect was eye opening and a good inspiration for us moving into a new era. One thing that we really focused on was understanding our own values. Through Leader Lab, I became more confident in my values as a leader — authenticity, honesty and hard work. These traits will really help when our season comes back but also in our everyday lives. Â
"We had this ongoing, genuine and vulnerable conversation with other team leaders, and I feel so much more confident and supported, knowing I can go to them to discuss something on our team, while knowing they may be experiencing a similar situation," Falkson added.
For Gonzalez, the feedback from the student-athletes provided important reassurance related to the value of the program as well as motivation to continue the program with each program's future leaders.
"I get emotional because of the appreciation I have for the people and the time they committed during a very chaotic period in their lives," said Gonzalez. "Seeing our student-athletes unify under the banner of Dartmouth Athletics and seeing the authentic care and concern was powerful. It makes me feel like we are making a real difference with each other."
The recruiting visit of Taurus Samuels '21 was made possible by the generosity of the Dartmouth Class of 1972 and Richard Colton Jr. through the Dartmouth Athletic Sponsors program.
Resources provided by our Athletic Sponsors enabled the Dartmouth Field Hockey staff to travel to evaluate Sara Falkson '21 in action as a talented high school athlete.
