Dudley R. Slater - Fusion Leadership: Unleashing the Movement of Monday Morning Enthusiasts

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Copyright 2017 Dudley R. Slater and Steven T. Taylor

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Print ISBN: 978-1-62634-401-3

eBook ISBN: 978-1-62634-402-0

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First Edition

To Jim, Trent, Goose, Matt, Mark, Jason, Carol,
Ken, Steve, Byron, Mike, Lisa, Deb, Matt, Dean, John,
Dave, Julie, Jeff, Chris, and our 2,337 other team
members, the greatest team to serve our industry.

And to Laurie, Toryn, and Kathrina,
the greatest team to grace my life.

CONTENTS

Featuring Colleen Abdoulah, president and CEO (retired) of WOW!

Featuring Darrell Cavens, founder and CEO of Zulily

Featuring Jeff Pinneo, president and CEO (retired) of Horizon Air

Featuring General Robert Van Antwerp,

chief engineer (retired) of the Army Corps of Engineers

Featuring Leslie Braksick, consultant, author, and cofounder of My Next Season

Featuring Chip Bergh, president and CEO of Levi Strauss & Co.

Featuring Dave Shaffer, president (retired) of DePaul Industries

Featuring Ray Davis, executive chairman of Umpqua Bank

FOREWORD

ON AND OFF THE COURT: FUSION LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLES IN ACTION

by Terry Porter

A two-time NBA all-star who played professional basketball for seventeen years and coached in the league for many more, Terry Porter is currently the head coach at the University of Portland, in Oregon. Hes also known throughout the Portland area and nationally for his work with charities and his community service.

When I was asked to write the foreword to Fusion Leadership: Unleashing the Movement of Monday Morning Enthusiasts, I quickly accepted the invitation. I think I know a thing or two about leadership, because Ive been fortunate to have learned from so many great leaders. They taught me valuable lessons about how to succeed, lead, motivate others, contribute to and achieve a common mission, give back to your community, and live a full and meaningful life.

I took a little something from each of the wonderful coaches I had during my career: Dick Bennett, who coached me at the University of WisconsinStevens Point, Jack Ramsay and Rick Adelman with the Portland Trail Blazers, Flip Saunders with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Pat Riley with the Miami Heat, and Gregg Popovich with the San Antonio Spurs.

And you know what? In their own way, each of these coaches deployed at least one of the tools outlined in this book. As I read Fusion Leadership, I realized, time after time, that my own leadership style closely aligns with the principles, techniques, and values that compose the Fusion Leadership model. Like Dudley Slater and, really, all successful leadersI began my own journey in becoming a leader without knowing very much about leadership.

For one thing, I lacked discipline. When I played high school basketball in my hometown of Milwaukee, I did all right, but I was no standout. Consequently, the big NCAA colleges didnt recruit me, and thats one reason I attended Stevens Point, a Division III NAIA school. As I look back on my time there, Im glad I did because of Dick Bennett, who went on to coach the University of Wisconsin Badgers and the Washington State University Cougars with great success. Coach Bennett taught me the virtues of discipline, and that was the thing I needed most when I stepped on campus. He demonstrated to me and to all of his players that you have to be diligent and work hard at your craft to get better every day. He showed us that you need to make a plan and work that plan. And you also have to use discipline to put your team first.

Although Dudley doesnt use the word discipline in this book, he certainly indicates that its an important leadership trait. For example, he talks about the difficulty of putting the team first and the struggle he faced whenever his selfish ego, as he puts it, wanted one thing that would benefit him and the collective ego (which serves the needs of the organization) wanted something else. Placing the collective ego first in order to build a successful team takes discipline.

GETTING BUY-IN FROM THE STARS

Pat Riley and Gregg Popovich taught me a lot about team building. In different ways, they were able to fully integrate themselves within the team and build rapport and a solid winning system while still maintaining their leadership. Dudley and some of the other leaders who contributed to Fusion Leadership talk about working among the frontline employees and how critical it is to build a culture of mutual respect. Riley, Pop, and other coaches do this, and I also try to do it at the University of Portland with my players and with the other teams Ive coached.

As a head coachor CEO, department manager, college dean, director of a non-profit, law firm managing partner, or any other sort of leaderyou are the salesperson for your philosophy and your culture and what you want to see that culture execute. Consequently, you have to get the top few people to buy into your vision and mission. You have to spend a lot of time with them, teaching them about the culture, because they have to be your voice in the locker room. I saw Riley do that with the two superstars on his Miami Heat team in the 1990s, Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway. He was tough on them, demanded certain things from them, and held them accountable. (Pops famous for this, too.)