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Embodying A Championship Culture With Alabama’s Greg Byrne

Guest Greg Byrne, University of Alabama
24:05 min watch

Summary

University of Alabama Director of Athletics Greg Byrne joins ADU’s Steph Garcia Cichosz at the 2023 Women Leaders Convention for a conversation about creating and maintaining a “championship culture” for personal success. Byrne and Garcia-Cichosz dive into goal setting, habits and routines, getting into the flow state, and how Byrne’s definition of achievement – both personally and professionally – have evolved throughout his career. Byrne also shares the “aha” moment that took place during his tenure at the University of Oregon nearly 30 years ago, in which he realized that strategic thinking included three aspects: honoring a school’s past and history; focusing on today’s on- and off-the-field performances; and creating a vision for the future. Byrne: “From a championship culture standpoint, you want to make sure that you create an environment that high-level performing people want to be a part of.”

The conversation is indexed below for efficient viewing (click the time stamp to jump to a specific question/topic).

  • - Put yourself back in the shoes of 1994 Fiesta Bowl Greg Byrne - how did you define success then? What did it look like for you?
  • - Did you always consider yourself - or were you always told - that you're a high performer? Did you ever have a moment when you didn't want to go into Athletics as a career?
  • - At what point in your career did you start thinking strategically?
  • - Let's get specific: do you set goals for yourself and, if so, how do you do it?
  • - What resources do you personally need to be successful?
  • - When you were in the early days of balancing your career with parenthood, how did you prioritize yourself and your health?
  • - What does it look like for you to get into the "flow state" at work? Is there a certain aspect of being an AD that you really love? Are there still responsibilities or tasks that you find challenging?
  • - In your 17 years as an AD, how has your reaction to gut-punch moments evolved?
  • - Let's go back to 1994 version of Greg Byrne - would he look at 2023 Greg Byrne, 17 years in as an AD, and think "Mission Accomplished"?