Paige Wadley

I would say probably first and foremost, I'd have to say my faith. For me, I'm very grounded in that, and that's been such a big part of my life. I had the opportunity to be saved at a very young age and have a relationship with Jesus. I was raised in a church - my dad was a music minister, my mom worked in the children's department - but it wasn't even just that I had to go, I wanted to go. I had very great female coaches in my life, and male coaches that also were people of faith who helped instill in me just a love for people and wanting to be there. And then I would just say the people that influenced me and believed in me that helped ground me in who I was and give me the confidence to step into things. I've always tried to stay focused on serving others and building relationships and doing things the right way, even at times when it's hard and feels impossible. But I've also been blessed with great mentors along the way, supportive family, and just students and athletes that help inspire me every day. You know, we go through different seasons in life, and I think those different seasons, every season teaches us something different, and we come out of that season a different person with new experiences. Experiences are what shape us and help us to step into different roles and how to handle different situations. And so, I would just say the people in my life throughout these different seasons - the great ones and the ones that were difficult to work with - I mean, everything teaches us something, right? And we're able to walk away from that with a different perspective. So I would just say the hard lessons and the good lessons and all the in-betweens, those seasons, and those people involved in that have shaped a lot of who I am and how I view leadership and step into the role that I'm in now.

I would say the other thing, too, is loyal… is loyalty. Um, you know, its so easy, it's so easy to just always take the next big offer. and its… its tempting. I mean, I was just offered a really awesome job the last couple weeks, and I chose not to take it, I chose to stay where Im at, where my feet are planted, and continue working here and investing in the program. Ive been in the last, you know, two… Well, I guess 3 years at the school, but 2 years in the basketball program. And so, just loyalty from a standpoint of Staying at the school, but then the loyalty of our athletes staying at the same place, because now we have it where they can transfer wherever they want to go, and weve made it so easy just to leave when they dont like it or things look better. I think relationships are what the thing that I would say that I value the most. I just believe in treating people the right way. That old saying, like, treat people how you want to be treated. Working hard and just staying true to who I am and what these values are, like staying true to that, and not letting things persuade me or shift my focus. And then, Im a servant leadership girl thats just the one that I would say is… I know its not a love language, but if there was a… if there were love languages of leadership, mine would definitely be servant leadership, because Im all about my people. And, um, I think I would say that those all tie together in my work, and then I would say Also, in my personal life, I… my number one goal every day is to treat people better than I find them. And I hope that Im successful at that. I tell my kids, you can be a balloon that lifts people up, or you can be a weight that drags them down. Like, what do you want to be? What impact do you want to leave on people? And, um, I just… My hope is that I… and one of my values is that relationship piece, and letting people know that they're valued, that they're supported, and they're cared about, and that that goes beyond what their title is, what their wins and losses are. Um, you know, it just kind of ties into that whole, like loyalty, relationships, integrity, all that

This is actually a subject that I'm very passionate about, because I think that a lot of times the fear of failure in certain things holds us back from really stepping into who God created us to be, and giving us a voice and the boldness that He's given us. I think one of the biggest messages I want to give women is to be bold, to be confident, to work hard and learn - be willing to learn from the people around you, because we're never at a place where we ever should stop learning. Don't be afraid to speak up when we feel that something is right, to be able to use our voices. This profession can be tough, it can be hard because you feel like you're outnumbered. Sometimes you walk into a room and there's 2 or 3 women to 40 or 50 men. I am not one of those that is pro-women like we're treated wrongly or treated that way or that - I just think that you sometimes walk into professions where there's more men than women, and so it can be intimidating to some women. I want women to understand that they've earned that place to be in that room as well, and that their voice matters. I encourage them to build relationships, to treat people well, to engage in conversation and not stand and wait on conversation to happen. Always keep focus of why you started this, what's your why. The opportunity that we have as females in a world of coaching, and males as well, anyone that is in a world of coaching and in a world of education - we have the opportunity to make such an impact on young people. We have to let them know that who they are and what they mean to us, and those relationships are always going to be bigger than the wins and the titles and the things that they earn. Helping women to understand the impact that they can have is such a big deal to me, but having the boldness and the confidence to step into that role is the first part of it. I'm actually in the process of writing a book called Holy Grit about female leadership - about how faith ties into who I am, but also the experiences I have learning to become a competitor, learning to fight for my own space and voice in rooms growing up, and just how all that ties together to help me in the place that I am now in life.

I would say in my field right now, being in the education world in the state of Oklahoma is challenging because we're ranked 50th. It's hard being in the world of being an athletic director and trying to recruit really solid coaches and people into your program when we're one of the lowest paying in the country. We may not have the best facilities, we're not given the biggest bonuses - we're 50th, I believe, in pay. That's a challenge for us as athletic directors to be able to paint a vision of why people should come here. That's a big push right now for our state superintendent job that's fixing to be filled - finding a candidate that is going to help figure out ways that we can recruit people in that are qualified, certified, the best of the best, and how do we reward them, how do we incentivize them to get here. I think the thing we have to focus on is relationship building and the need that we have for those people. We are 50th. We need people that are invested in the kids, not worried necessarily about pay. We need you bigger picture - let's invest in kids, let's find a way to make change. There's a lot expected from people in our profession, so I think that one of the biggest challenges is burnout. I was looking at statistics because I'm going through my dissertation, and within 5 years, our rate drops from 93% of people that graduate college with an educational degree that go into teaching down to 80 within the first 5 years. So we're losing a good 13-15% of people in the profession because they reach burnout, and they feel like they're not getting compensated well, kids are being disrespectful. But I think also at the same time that one of the biggest opportunities would be the impact that we get to make on young people every single day. When you are passionate about something, it doesn't feel like you're going to work. It feels like you're showing up and you're making a difference. Keeping that in the forefront of people's minds when they show up and they do feel underpaid and overwhelmed, reminding them that there's not a lot of jobs you get a full summer vacation. Kids need positive role models, and that leadership, accountability, and encouragement right now more than anything. That is ultimately when you graduate and you decide to go into education, you went into it with the purpose of I want to impact lives. That's an opportunity and a blessing that we get in someone else's lives. I think the challenge is how do we get people here, how do we keep them here. That's something I'm focused on with my dissertation that I'm hoping to be able to address and help us figure out how do we do this better.

I would say my faith, obviously. Integrity is a big one for me. There's a word that I use more than anything in leadership and in coaching and teaching athletes and speaking to young women and men, athletes in general - it's about integrity. Integrity means doing the right thing when even no one's looking, doing the right thing when even it goes against what everybody else says. I think right now we are in such a day and age where everything is so broadcast across social media that we're afraid of making decisions that go against the grain because of the pushback. But for me, I'm grounded in my faith, and so being grounded in my faith, I have to know that I'm making the right decision that I have been called to do, even when it's hard. I took over the basketball program, and in my first year I had a couple girls who were my two best players on the team, but they were disrespectful to myself, to my coaches, to their teammates. They wanted to skip practice, they wanted to do certain things. I ended up removing them from the team, and it was a big ordeal - it made the paper. People were like, oh my gosh, she just kicked off her two best scorers, her two best players ranked in the state. But they disrespected my rules and they were doing wrong to the team, and my job isn't to protect two people because of athleticism, my job is to protect the team and the culture. That's integrity - making the hard decision even when people are gonna think you're crazy because you're not rewarding talent over character. The other thing is loyalty. It's so easy to just always take the next big offer, and it's tempting. I was just offered a really awesome job the last couple weeks, and I chose not to take it. I chose to stay where I'm at, where my feet are planted, and continue working here and investing in the program. I think relationships are the thing that I would say that I value the most. I just believe in treating people the right way - that old saying, treat people how you want to be treated. Working hard and just staying true to who I am and what these values are, not letting things persuade me or shift my focus. I'm a servant leadership girl - that's just the one that I would say is my style. I know it's not a love language, but if there were love languages of leadership, mine would definitely be servant leadership because I'm all about my people. My number one goal every day is to treat people better than I find them, and I hope that I'm successful at that. I tell my kids, you can be a balloon that lifts people up, or you can be a weight that drags them down. What do you want to be? What impact do you want to leave on people? My hope is that one of my values is that relationship piece, and letting people know that they're valued, that they're supported, and they're cared about, and that that goes beyond what their title is, what their wins and losses are. It just kind of ties into that whole loyalty, relationships, integrity, all that.