Love In Basketball

This episode is a conversation with Chris Acker. I found this to be a conversation filled with partnership. Coach Acker explores what it looks like for him to walk alongside, and partner with the student-athletes he serves to support the achievement of their goals, a collective effort, and build community, rather than imposing coach-led goals that resulted in the diminishment of others previously in his career. Along the way, he ex...

This episode is a conversation with R-Jay Barsh. I found this to be a conversation filled with generous silence. Coach Barsh explores his journey of listening to his own heart and own mind through silence and challenge, to ground and center in his gifts rather than chasing the perceptions of others. Along the way he highlights the power of feedback loops, laying your arrogance down, and empathetic listening.
R-Jay Barsh is an A...

This episode is a conversation with Robert Lucero. I found this to be a conversation filled with empathy. Coach Lucero explores some of the ways he routinely takes the perspectives of those he serves, both his staff and his student-athletes, while reflecting on how ego, an inward mindset, and maybe lack of empathy might have resulted in a bit more diminishment of others previously in his career. Along the way, he highlights honest ...

This episode is a conversation with Rick Croy. I found this to be a conversation filled with healing, and exploring the healing potential of servant-leadership for ourselves and others. Coach Croy explores his recognition of the opportunity to help make whole those with whom he comes into contact, using healing in leadership as a force for transformation and integration. Along the way, he highlights creating an environment that all...

This episode is a conversation with Josh Prock. I found this to be a conversation filled with courage, that shows up as open and honest communication. Coach Prock explores his journey of opening up to feedback from others as a way of moving towards greater service to others. Along the way, he highlights the power of mutual trust and feedback, and listening first as a pathway to serving first.
Josh Prock is the Head Women’s Bask...

This episode is a solo episode, exploring the connection of Emotional Intelligence and Servant-Leadership.
In this episode, we break down some popular misconceptions of emotional intelligence, move towards deeper understandings of the term, and explore how fostering greater emotional intelligence might allow us to more greatly fulfill the Best Test of Servant-Leadership.
Robert Greenleaf’s Best Test of Servant-Leadership as...

This episode is a conversation with Shann Ray Ferch. I found this to be a conversation filled with kindness and healing. Dr. Ferch explores balancing love and power in healthy ways, countering inappropriate ambition and power drive, and more healthy ways of relating to and being with one another in basketball, and in our families and communities.
Dr. Shann Ferch is a Professor of Leadership & Forgiveness Studies with the in...

This episode is a conversation with Brent Scott. I found this to be a conversation filled with gratitude. Coach Scott expresses immense gratitude for the individuals who served him along his path, and highlights his journey of helping others move forward as a way of honoring those who served him. Along the way, he highlights the role of setbacks in beginning the inner journey of servant-leadership, the power of the “softer side,” a...

This episode is a conversation with Frank Allocco, Sr. I found this to be a conversation filled with wisdom. Coach Allocco highlights that self-knowledge often allows us to cultivate larger purpose in work and life, that helps move towards greater definitions of success and service to others. He also explores cultivating a shared vision, and the power of elevating and valuing others as a reflection of their inherent importance.

This episode is a conversation with Carlin Hartman. I found this to be a conversation filled with sincerity and genuineness. Coach Hartman highlights the power of acknowledging mistakes, slowing down and developing patience, and pursuing relationship in an enduring way, by taking a genuine interest in others through their stages of life.
Carlin Hartman is an Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach at the University of Oklahoma. Coach ...

This episode is a conversation with Charli Turner Thorne. I found this to be a conversation filled with strength and care. Coach Turner Thorne explores the traps of a results-orientation, how this may block servant-leadership, and some of what she calls a lost perspective that led her to take a sabbatical in the middle of her tenure at ASU, and discover greater purpose in her work and life. She also highlights the differences betwe...

This episode is a solo episode, exploring Ten Characteristics of a Servant-Leader, a list developed by Larry Spears. Larry Spears is the servant-leadership scholar at Gonzaga University, and President & CEO of the Spears Center for Servant-Leadership.
In this episode, we dive into these ten characteristics, and identify how what we’ve heard from our guests so far connect to these characteristics of servant-leadership. Hopef...

This episode is a conversation with Charles Ament. I found this to be a conversation filled with genuine reflection. Coach Ament wrestles with servant-leadership as continual growth and struggle, that it is something we are always in training to become, and probes for deeper understandings throughout our conversation. He also highlights that service to others is often an outgrowth of developing greater purpose, the power of humilit...

This episode is a conversation with Benjamin Sanders. I found this to be a conversation filled with openness. Coach Sanders’ experience at the collegiate and professional levels have exposed him to many different forms of leadership. Our conversations so far have mostly centered around an individual servant-leader. And in this conversation, we hear Coach Sanders’ perspective of having also received more diminishing forms of leaders...

This episode is a conversation with Gus Argenal. I found this to be a conversation filled with vulnerability. Those who know Coach Argenal tend to associate him with energy and spirit, and in this conversation he illuminated where that spirit comes from. He highlights that it comes from not a place of false positivity but from a depth of self-regard and self-knowledge, where he learned about himself doing tough times, that brought ...

This episode is a conversation with Jason Burton. I found this to be a conversation filled with grace and strength. Jason Burton and his program underwent true heartbreak in his first season as head coach at Texas A&M-Commerce, with two student-athletes, Aubree Butts and Devin Oliver being killed in a car accident. Coach Burton shares his story of heartbreak and loss in moving towards greater ways of serving and being with each...

This episode is a conversation with Willis Wilson. I found this to be an inspiring dialogue, filled with powerful insights on the power of activating moments, the difference between a basketball coach and a leader who coaches basketball, and empathy, understanding, and forgiveness.
Willis Wilson is the Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, where he’s entering his 10th season as head coach of the Islanders...

Welcome to the very first episode of the Love In Basketball podcast! In this solo episode, I seek to provide a foundation for what servant-leadership is, what it entails, and why it's important.

I cover some of the myths of servant-leadership, Robert Greenleaf's foundational definition for the servant-leader and his Best Test, in addition to the human development models and larger shifts in consciousness and awar...

The Love In Basketball podcast seeks to gain a fuller understanding of this vision for leadership that holds people and results together. Some episodes will be solo episodes, with host and Leadership Coach, Adam Gierlach, exploring the academic frameworks, concepts, and theories of servant-leadership. And some episodes will be conversations with servant-leader practitioners throughout the world of basketball, learning what it looks...