Valorie Kondos Field famously led the University of California at Los Angeles women's gymnastics team to seven NCAA championships. Yet the best leadership advice she ever received came quietly and unexpectedly from her mentor, John Wooden, who led the UCLA men's basketball team to 10 NCAA national championships.
The advice, ironically, was not at all what she was hoping to hear at the time.
Think back to Sept. 11, 2001, the day of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Kondos Field, better known by the UCLA women's gymnastics team as "Miss Val," was driving to work that morning when she heard the awful news on the radio. She panicked.
Seek Out Advice Like Valorie Kondos Field
She felt hopeless — almost like the child she had once been who suffered such severe scoliosis that she desperately took ballet to develop the muscles that helped her to become a professional ballerina. But at this particular moment, it was as if she was metaphorically flailing in midair during an ill-timed leap. She did not feel at all like the confident head coach of one of the gymnastics world's most storied collegiate programs.
She'd had plans to hold a team meeting that morning aimed at setting the team on the right course for the year ahead by diving into hard-core practice. But with the terrorist attack news so fresh, she figured that idea was out the window. She phoned the ultra-experienced Wooden for his advice about what she could possibly say on this horrific day that might be inspirational to her team.
"Listen to your heart," Wooden said.
That's it. No great words of wisdom. No sharing of specific advice to save Kondos from her emotional panic. By saying so little, Wooden was actually telling her that great leaders sometimes need to figure out things for themselves. Kondos Field was disappointed — until that moment when she realized Wooden's limited advice was genius.
Listen To Your Heart
Kondos Field summoned the courage to stand in front of her emotionally dazed team and tell them it was time to go practice gymnastics. There was instant pushback. Why practice gymnastics on the very day that the nation had been attacked? In fact, why ever practice gymnastics again?
"Because we can," Kondos Field replied.
That's the moment when Kondos Field says she put on her life-changing leadership hat by listening to her heart. She reminded the team that they lived in a country where women have the freedom to participate in any sport they choose. "Not only should we train today, but train with more gratitude and intention than we've ever trained," she told them.
The team embraced the challenge.
That was also the moment when Kondos Field — who has since become one of only two active coaches to be inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame — realized that truly great leaders step out of the way and allow future leaders to find the greatness within themselves. "If John Wooden had told me exactly what to say, I'd have trusted his words instead of mine," said Kondos Field.
Learn From The Greats Like Kondos Field
Great leaders learn from great leaders.
Back in 1989, when Kondos Field was still an assistant coach for UCLA gymnastics, Judith Holland, then women's athletic director at UCLA, called Kondos Field into her office to offer her the job of head coach. Never mind that Kondos Field was technically trained in dance — not gymnastics — and had never personally performed as a gymnast nor, for that matter, ever played in any type of organized sport.
"I leaned forward and told her I don't really know the first thing about gymnastics," she said.
"I trust you'll figure that out," responded Holland.
Trust Yourself
Ah, trust.
What can be more important? Great leaders ultimately trust that future great leaders can spread their own wings because they also trust that they have mentored and nurtured them properly.
That prescient leadership decision would ultimately turn the future upside down for the famed UCLA Women's Gymnastics Team. And the deep trust that Holland had in Kondos Field gave her the courage to accept the job for which she thought she wasn't really qualified and which she feared others might belittle.
"To think that I might not have had my whole career because of the fear about what other people think," says Kondos Field. "So many people die with their passions and dreams still inside of them because of the paralyzing fear of other people's opinions."
Not her.
Kondos Field: Know What Truly Matters
Great leaders do something else. She says she learned that from Wooden, too. Leaders must demonstrate that they genuinely care more about the ultimate success outside the workplace — or, in her case, the gym floor — of those working under them than they care about making a profit (or, in her case, in winning medals).
Few know that better than Samantha Peszek, who trained under Kondos Field at UCLA and would ultimately win a silver medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Peszek vividly recalls an argument that she had with Kondos Field when Peszek initially turned down an invitation to speak to a UCLA alumni group that would have required her to miss a team practice.
"I didn't know it at the time, but she was looking out for my life after gymnastics," said Peszek. "She was more committed to my success outside the gym than I was."
Yes, Peszek finally relented and gave that speech. And, yes, it did help to foster connections that she still uses to this day, as founder of Beam Queen, a traveling gymnastics company. "Her advice to me was, yes, you may know gymnastics, but leadership and life skills are what you're really learning on this team," said Peszek.
Find Joy In Challenges
That's also when Kondos-Field was confronted with her most difficult professional challenge: breast cancer.
In order to teach her team the right lesson, she opted to approach it through positivity. "I told them that I was going to the Chemo Spa," said Kondos Field. "I told them that I was grateful for the chemotherapy because it was going to give me more days."
In the end, the team responded just as she'd hoped it would. "It was hard for us to complain about conditioning when your coach was going through chemo," said Peszek.
Perhaps no single moment better demonstrates how those who Kondos Field has lead respond to her leadership than this. Her team was competing for what would be its final attempt at a National Championship under her guidance. Watching from the stands was her longtime friend Darcy Anderson, who vividly remembers what happened.
"When they came in third, the athletes circled around Miss Val and began to dance," she said. "It was a joy." Authenticity creates joy. Great leaders are authentic. Poor leaders are not, says Kondos Field.
Prioritize People Like Kondos Field Does
Way back when the UCLA athletic director first appointed her head coach, she told the athletic director that she wasn't going to focus on winning — but on how she could help each team member succeed in life. "I knew if I did that well enough, that mentality would translate to the athletic floor," she said.
Did it ever.
She still remembers that fateful day in 2014 when future Olympic champ Simone Biles — who was all of 15 at the time — was coming to visit UCLA with her folks. Biles was already heralded for her skills. It was the day after Kondos Field has received a tough chemo treatment and was feeling pretty lousy.
The group went out for lunch, and Kondos Field started to go into her UCLA pitch to encourage Biles to choose her program. That's when Biles stopped the discussion. Biles placed her hand on Kondos Field's arm and simply said: "How are you feeling?"
"Here was the greatest athlete in the world on a recruiting visit to UCLA, and she took herself out of it and showed empathy for me," said Kondos Field. "At that moment, I knew Simone Biles was a champion."
Don't Stay Still
Great leaders, she says, stay great by listening — and changing.
Very early on in her head coaching career — when her self-confidence was low and her coaching style was over-the-top — her team requested a meeting. During this meeting, one by one, the team members shared examples of how her coaching style had been hurtful or demeaning. That's when Kondos Field asked herself: Is this how I want to feel as a leader?
Of course not.
She made it a personal mission to do better. That's when she started to support team members through their individual struggles. She didn't change overnight, but trust, authenticity and compassion ultimately became her North Star.
Kondos Field ultimately retired from head coaching in 2019.
At 65, her leadership influence is still resonating through the books she writes and motivational speeches she gives. She has even moderated some world tours where Biles has performed
"She was invested in our success outside of the gym," said Peszek, reflecting on her former coach. "Great leaders adapt and learn what makes people tick. You wanted to do her proud because you felt how much she wanted you to succeed. She walked the walk."
Dancers always do.
Valorie Kondos Field Keys
- Coached UCLA women's gymnastics team from 1991 to 2019, winning seven national championship titles.
- Overcame: Lack of gymnastics experience and a bout with cancer.
- Lesson: "So many people die with their passions and dreams still inside of them because of the paralyzing fear of other people's opinions."
