Tom Osborne spoke about Ethical Leadership at Concordia University, Nebraska

Tom Osborne, former coach and congressman, spoke at Concordia University, Nebraska, Monday, Nov. 14 as part of a program sponsored by the Concordia chapter of Phi Beta Lambda business club.  

More than 150 Concordia students, coaches and faculty members attended the event, eager to hear Osborne’s coaching stories and gain insight on how he has been so successful as a player, coach, college athletics administrator and politician. During his talk, Osborne spoke about the importance of transformational leadership and the rewarding effects it can have on a team or organization. He also talked about how crucial it is to have strong ethics and to build relationships that are built on trust and integrity.

“During my time as a coach, there were many other teams participating in bribery and promising playing time to recruits they knew wouldn’t contribute,” said Tom Osborne. “My staff didn’t do any of that. We wanted to do things the right way, even if that meant losing some guys to other teams. In which case, it wasn’t really our loss anyway.”

Throughout the years, Osborne has built a reputation that revolves around leadership, integrity, honor and compassion. In 1991, he started the TeamMates Mentoring program beause he felt the athletes in his program could make an impact on middle school students. The program has since grown into a statewide program with more than 7,500 youth.