While I don’t agree with everything Woody Allen has said, I do agree with his statement that eighty percent of success is showing up. As a leader, being there matters. It matters at crucial times and it matters at moments you least appreciate at the time.
In Why It Matters, I shared advice I received from UA men’s athletics director, Frank Broyles: weddings are optional, but funerals are mandatory. I also shared other examples where showing up matters.
Because we would be attending football games, when Mary Lib and I took on the task of me being chancellor at the University of Arkansas we knew we would be attending as many student events on campus as possible, including women’s athletics events. Why? Because women spend just as many hours practicing as football players. When they put on their uniforms, they represent the University of Arkansas.
We attended numerous performing arts and athletics events during my 11-year tenure as chancellor. Because multiple events occurred on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, we each had a schedule of events to attend.
If you asked women athletes which sport was my favorite, all but soccer would say it was their sport. Soccer wouldn’t because I watched the match from a box and wasn’t visible. The women’s tennis team took great pride in claiming I was the only university president or chancellor who received warnings from the umpires about my cheering for them. The gymnastics team took pride in learning that the Southeastern Conference office received a complaint about my cheering at meets.
I recall sitting at the airport waiting for my flight when I was approached by the men’s tennis coach from the school we played the previous afternoon. He thanked me for supporting UA’s tennis team the way I did and said that he wished his university president would attend their matches. The coach handled the situation so well that I let his president know how impressed I was with his coach and team. In doing so, I hoped he would “get the message” without me having to say, “You need to show up!”
I remember when Robert Khayat, chancellor at the University of Mississippi, visited me and asked to tour the athletic facilities on the UA campus. After visiting indoor tennis and track facilities, as well as baseball, basketball, football, and gymnastics facilities, Khayat said his visit made him realize he had erred in not showing up at various sporting events.
Khayat played football at Ole Miss and played professionally. Because he didn’t want people to think that all he cared about was athletics, he attended very few athletic events. After commenting on the number of student-athletes I introduced to him as we toured the facilities, he said it was obvious how much it meant to them that I knew them and showed up at their athletic contests.
Not only did we show up at student events, but we also showed up at faculty and staff events. I walked across campus frequently, greeting people and asking how they were doing. I ate in the dining halls and visited libraries and laboratories. Basically, I wanted people to know I was available and accessible if they wanted to chat. I’m not aware of anyone wanting to meet with me who wasn’t provided an opportunity to do so.
Leadership is a contact sport. Leaders need to be visible and available to those whom they lead.
Students in my leadership class were always interested in asking leaders who visited the class how they balanced time spent with family and time spent on work. As noted in Chapter 6 of Why It Matters, no leader claimed to do it perfectly but several shared what they did. It was evident that effective leaders know they need to show up at moments that matter to family members and colleagues. And they do so. Showing up matters!
Next: Leadership Virtues—Courage
