Interview with Brian Levin, November 30, 2018

Molly Dietz: Okay, I'm here with head Belmont softball coach Brian Levin on November 30th of 2018 at the Belmont University athletics department. How are you doing today, Coach Levin?

Brian Levin: I am doing great.

MD: All right, so to begin, can you tell us a little bit about your personal background that led you to your current position?

BL: Yeah, I have always been doing something in athletics. So ever since I was really young, I grew up playing sports. I have always been involved in it in some shape or measure, so it is pretty in-depth to me. When I went to a military when I was about 24 years old after college. When I watched athletics with my dad, he would always tell me that when I played that he thought I would be a good coach. So, I never really thought about doing it a lot until my kids were born and they started playing sports and I just like being around it. So I started coaching and helping with their youth sports. How I got into softball was my wife was a softball player, my girlfriend at the time, and I was a baseball player and then in college between the summer I stayed on campus. So, I had known a young man thats dad was a fastpitch player that would have me come and play fast pitch with them. So, I kind of fell in love with that part of the game and fast pitch in general. My wife played it, and I got to play it a little bit. And then when my daughter started growing older she started playing it and I started coaching. So then I had a dream of trying to to get into the college coaching room. And so I sought out advice from coaches that were playing against my daughters team and things like that. I would ask college coaches say, how do you go about getting into the business and they gave me some advice on getting a degree and things like that. So I had so that dream this kind of something I pursued even while in the military. So when my military service ended, during that time I got my Masters Degree and then started seeking out volunteer assistant positions and things like that and it eventually led to me coaching, and getting a head coaching job here in college.

MD: So what cultural identities or experiences do you think have been most monumental in your life?

BL: From a cultural standpoint I got to be able to see a lot of different cultures being in the service. I was deployed 22 times. So I went overseas a lot mostly in Northern Africa and the Middle East. So, I got to see a lot of different cultures and how different people think. And the importance of what people think are important or not important. So, I think being able to see that and see how different people live and react in different situations really opened my eyes in terms of how blessed and fortunate we are here in America, and of the things that we have. It really made me realize that anyone that lives in our country has to understand how blessed they are, and what the Lord has given them because there are a lot of absolutes in life and one of those is that you can never choose where you are born. You can never choose your parents, you can never choose the language you are put in. All those types of things are given to you. They are absolutes. There is nothing you can do about it. So, I just I think more so than the diversity part of it, was the gratitude of where I'm at and being able to see how other people live and what they have to go through. It really helped me to realize and bring about some gratitude towards how happy I am and blessed to be where I am at.

MD: How do you think that those experiences shaped you as a leader?

BL: I do not know. I think growing up I had always had some leadership qualities. I would say that I would go against what a lot of people think in terms of leadership because of my military experience. Everybody is trained to be a leader in the military, but there are certain people, and again, this may go against a lot of the leadership books out there and things like that, but there's certain people out there that have this way about them. That have this sense about them that people follow. And I think some of that can be taught and I think that leadership principles can be taught, and I think that is important that everyone learns those. But, I also feel there are certain people that have an innate ability to be able to draw people to them, and people follow them. I don't know if that is you know, a god-given thing or if it is... I am a true believer in that, you're given certain gifts. I think one of those may be leadership. I'm not saying that people without those gifts can not be leaders, because they can, but I think it is just a little different approach to it. Just through my military experience, I've learned that you know, we can go to the same leadership courses in the military, but some people just turn out being better leaders than others. So there has to be something. If we are learning the same things, there has to be something in that person that makes them a better or worse leader. One is either adapting them greater, or they have something intangible that others do not.

MD: So going off of that, would you say you were called into leadership or did you seek it out first?

BL: I think I seek it out. I think I have always tried to do things to the best of my ability. So, I always strive to educate myself or if I find someone that is in a field that I am in that is better than I am, or I think is better than I am, or is more efficient at doing things than me, I am going to seek them out and ask them how they go about doing it. I am always trying to learn and always trying to be the person that educates themselves and learns something more about the field that I am in. You can never learn enough, you know, there is always something out there to get better at. So I think I always tried to do that and seek it.

MD: So what have you learned from obstacles in your life?

BL: Well one you can not get away from. I guess I really stand firm in my convictions and biblical principles. You have to look at obstacles as blessings because something good is going to come because of it. You just have to keep working hard at what you are doing and be able to overcome that adversity. There are peaks and valleys in everything you do, and usually when there is a valley, there is a peak to come. So if you look at it in that way, then your hardships are really making you stronger and you are growing from them.

MD: What does leadership mean to you?

BL: Mentoring people trying to make others better. Taking yourself and helping to make other peoples lives better no matter what you are doing. I think that is what a true leader does is serves people. He understands that mankind in general, or people are more important than yourself, so to speak. And trying to make people feel that way, that you know, their worth is great. If you can help them in any way that you can, then that is probably your duty as a person. So, that kind of shapes me in terms of my leadership and what leadership means to me is serving others.

MD: What would your life purpose statement be?

BL: I can tell you what it is for my job now in terms of my career, because I have written that. And that is to prepare my players to be women of integrity and understand that through faith and love that they can accomplish anything. I think if I can prepare them to have integrity, meaning to do the right thing all the time, and that through faith, through being able to believe in things unseen and by showing love and being able to accept it, then through all those things they can accomplish whatever they set their mind to. So, that is the purpose I have from a coaching standpoint. To try to impact my players in that way.

MD: How would you characterize your leadership styles and how you choose to lead?

BL: Well, I would say that it has changed a little bit. When I grew up and going through the military, of course, it was very, you know, dictator type and very authoritative. But, as I have grown in the coaching realm especially, and even when I was in the service as I started to lead young people, I found that you have to just be more of a transformational coach. You have to be more of a person that can relate to players or people. And I kind of go by the old cliche that no one cares how much you know until they know how much care. So if you can show people that you care for them and that you love them, that you're there to help and serve them, they are going to go to great lengths for you. So I would say that my coaching style is more people oriented. It is basically bottom-up leadership instead of top-down. Rather than being dictator or someone that is going to demand things and, you know, be an order barker, so to speak. I think there is more to it than that, and I think people go and will be more apt to follow you if they know you care for them.

MD: So what would you say are some of your professional strengths and weaknesses?

BL: I think I do a good job of trying to get to know people that I'm leading. I could always do better at it. I think that one of my biggest weaknesses is patience. I am not a very patient person, so I always have to work on that. I really think also that I have to work on the aspect of being positive all the time because, just like anyone else I think sometimes you fall into being in those adverse conditions, or being in situations in which you may feel like things are not going your way, and it is really easy to fall into a negative attitude. I think I do an unbelievable job in terms of talking to others and some of my peers with being able to self reflect and think of why things have went wrong and how can I better fix them, and how can I go about doing that. So I think I do a really good job of that. I think my military background has helped me in a structural standpoint. I have taken that with me, that people do not want their time wasted. Time is one of the greatest commodities in the world to people, so you have to make the most of it and invest in it. So I think that is another positive thing that I have, but the patience thing I got to work on.

MD: So who or what would you say is your greatest influence?

BL: My dad was a great influence on me and still is. He was my coach when I grew up. But Jesus is my greatest influence, I think. Just understanding and reading the Bible and understanding how He went about things and how He groomed his disciples to be the people that they were, to go out and spread that gospel is amazing. I also like that in my job because His ministry was about three and a half years and that is about the time that I have with players in college. So I kind of look at those type of things. Like wow, if He can make that type of influence on the people that followed him, I can try to do that too. That is in my dad. He raised me in a Christian home, so I always had that to fall back on and I am thankful for that. But those are probably the biggest influences. I would also say my father-in-law was a huge influence. He has passed away, but he lived for most of his adult life in a wheelchair with muscular dystrophy, and never once complained about life. Every day was a great day for him. So, you know, if he could live like that, then why should I not? So that was a good influence as well.

MD: So leaders help turn ideas into action and empower others and how would you say that you accomplish this?

BL: That is a good question. I think my abilities to try to have my players in terms of coaching, or even when I was in the military on a special forces team, having them to have some input and empowering them to have ownership in either team. And that is by either having mission meetings or asking you know, hey, what are we trying to achieve here? What is the purpose of what we are doing? So they have some type of ownership in what we are trying to accomplish in terms of a team. So I think being able to empower your players to know that they have some type of value and their input in the things that they are doing and in the hard work that they are putting in for you and themselves. I think that is important to include them in that. So I think that we try to do that here, and I think I have tried to do that every place that I have ever coached or tried to be a leader.

MD: Do you feel that it's important to delegate and if so, why and when do you choose to delegate?

BL: Yeah, I think it is really important to delegate. For me, I have an assistant coach. I have always thought and grew up in the fact that being a leader and through leadership positions is that you are always training someone to take your position. So if you care for that person and you want to serve that person and you want to delegate the authority and things to them then it is going to make them grow as a leader. Because you want them to be as good, if not better than you are. If that is not what you are trying to do, then you are not doing that person justice, and it is unfair to them. So yeah, I delegate a lot of things down to my assistant coaches and even captains on the team to make decisions and understand that that they have they have the ability to do that. I am giving them empowerment in that because I think it is important that they do that and then you kind of feed them along a little at a time. Give them a little more responsibility, then a little more, then a little more. You know that sooner or later, there is going to come a time when that assistant coach leaves to become a head coach, and whether you believe it or not, as a coach, that person is a reflection of what they have learned from you. So you want them to turn out well. Not just for that purpose, but also because you want that person to do well because you care for them.

MD: So, how do you measure success and how do you learn from your failures?

BL: Well in this job, you know success is usually measured by wins and losses or what the scoreboard says, but that is not how I measure it. I measure it in terms of how I have impacted the lives of the people that are on my teams. Sometimes that does not come for years, so no, I just found and I have said it many times. I found that you know, you can win a conference championship. I have been fortunate enough to win back to back to back conference championships and go to regional or super regionals, but it was not fulfilling to me. As soon as it ended, I was trying to figure out how to win the next one. So it is not winning that brings me success. It is those stories like, players emailing me on how much I meant in their life, or asking me to be in their weddings, you know, different things like that. That is how I measure the success that I had. Where has that person gone? They have gone on to be teachers and nurses and lawyers and they have been successful in life. And those are the things that really, to me, create success and sometimes you do not see that for 10, 5-10 years.

MD: So what are some action steps that you think are essential in enabling success in others?

BL: Well, one of them is of course delegating. Empowering. You have hit on those two things. Having a positive attitude. I think it is incredibly important always being grateful for what you have. I think it is another thing that is really important because being grateful does bring happiness. So if you can be grateful, be happy, and serve others in doing things like that. I think that is going to make you a good leader.

MD: So what advice would you give on building relationships and trust within an organization or a team?

BL: Get to know the people that are subordinate to you. The people that you are in charge of, get to know them and get to try to meet them and talk to them and try to meet them on their grounds and not yours. Whatever it takes whether you got to go out and, for me, sometimes I will go eat breakfast with players, or get away from my own office and meet them on their own ground. You know, I think that is important. It used to be an open door policy, but I do not know if the open door policy works, because most people that are under another really are not apt to truly express their feelings the way that they feel to their superior. I mean, that is just not something they are going to come in your office and say, so I think it is essential that you try to build a relationship with them. And with that, you know, I think comes trust and when you can build a two-way street and trust between the player and the coach or you know, whether it is an employee and supervisor. If that employee or player understands that through this relationship, this trust that you have built in and understand the decisions you are making as a leader for the best interest of everyone, and you know them personally. That would be my biggest advice, to talk to and get to know the people that that you are leading.

MD: So as a final question, what do you want your legacy to be?

BL: I do not know so much that I want to leave any type of legacy. I mean I think that happens a lot that people strive for that, but I think if you just treat people well, you love them, you serve them, care for them, you push them to do their best, and you build that trust, then your legacy will be built for you and you do not have to go seek it. I think in the end for when all things are said and done that I would hope that the people that have played for me or worked under me know that I have made a positive impact on their life and know coach is someone that, you know, can really impact more people than almost any job out there. You can make it positive or you can make negative impacts. I would hope that in the end that the players that have played for me think that, hey the impact this guy has made on my life has been positive.

MD: Well, thank you Coach Levin for your time. Those are all the questions I have.