Dana White - Authentic Leadership Characteristics. Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) - Research Paper Example

Dana White is the CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), a top sport league for MMA (mixed martial arts). This paper examines White’s authentic leadership characteristics, his sense of purpose, strong values for right action, how he establishes trust and demonstrates self-discipline, and the astounding passion that drives this extraordinary man. Dana White: Authentic Leader There is a lot of biographical information, fan praise, gossip, statistics, and anecdotes available about Dana White, CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).. What I found most revealing, however, are the stories that provide brief glimpses into his life. They are not mainstream stories, meaning they are not about love and marriage, tragedy and dashed dreams. They are not about an individual with a nine to five kind of life. They are stories of extraordinary purpose, strong values for right action, establishing trust, demonstrating self-discipline, and astounding passion for the core elements of his life: MMA (mixed martial arts) as a sport, the UFA and its fighters and fans. The picture that emerges from these stories is of an authentic leader, a man who, though surrounded by fans and fighters, often stands alone; lives fearlessly, acts heroically, wants to be free and true more than anything else, takes unconditional responsibility for himself, faces everything and avoids nothing, lives for a higher purpose, has insight, demonstrates initiative, exerts influence, has impact, and exercises integrity. Understanding UFC Purpose Dana White rescued the UFC, when it was basically worthless, disrespected, and badly organized around a sport most states did not even allow. He arranged, with investors, to buy it for $2 million, with him as president. In less than a decade, he has guided the UFC to astounding success and put mixed martial arts onto the map and into the mainstream (Hyson, 2011). Time Magazine estimated UFC’s net worth to be over 1 billion dollars, and it out-performs boxing and wrestling in pay-per-view revenue (Hyson, 2011). For Dana White, however, the UFC is about more than money. It is about generating and sustaining respect for a sport he loves. After arranging the purchase of the UFC, White implemented safety rules and medical exams, re-structured the image of UFC and the sport, taking pride in the education and intelligence of the fighters, as well as their physical qualities. He marketed fighter’s athleticism and personalities by producing a highly successful, quality television series about them (Hyson, 2011). He carefully controls the image of mixed martial arts, as a now respectable sport, and he requires positive fighter-fan interaction (Hyson, 2011). In addition to seeing the role of the UFC as generating and sustaining respect for the sport, Dana White further sees the role of the UFC as maintaining the top brand status in the sport. He keeps only the best fighters and is therefore not intimidated by the competition. He says, “We’re the Super Bowl of mixed martial arts” (Hyson, 2011). Dana White is an authentic leader because he demonstrates the qualities of insight, influence and impact. These qualities are three of five which denote authentic leadership (Hyatt, 2010). He influences UFC fighters and fans to keep a respectable image. Actually, Forbes magazine recently listed him as one of the most influential people in the world (Koapaka.org, 2011). He has demonstrated insight into how to restructure his organization to support that goal, and how to market that improved image while building a tremendous fan base. His impact on the sport of mixed martial arts fighting is enormous. Andrew Cohen, founder of EnlightenNext, lists eight behaviors that characterize authentic leadership. Two of these are: “Want to be true and free more than anything else” and “Live for a higher purpose” (Cohen, 2011). Dana White demonstrates both of these qualities as he continues to raise the quality of the sport. He and UFC are already the best, yet he continues to strive for better. He makes lots of money but is focused on fighter quality, branding quality, and fan relationship. He is very strict with his standards for fighters and won’t work with fighters who fail to meet his criteria for commitment and character (Hyson, 2011). Strong Values for Right Action Among Cohen’s eight behaviors that characterize authentic leadership are: “Stand Alone” and “Act Heroically”. To stand alone means to do the right thing regardless of whether others join in right action or not. To act heroically means to do whatever it takes, whatever is required in a given situation, regardless of whether it is reasonable or within a set of social expectations guiding normal behavior or not. Michael Hyatt (2010) lists five attributes of an authentic leader. One of these is “Demonstrating Initiative”, something very similar to Cohen’s “Stand Alone” and “Act Heroically” categories of action. Demonstrating initiative is what Hyatt describes as going first and leading by example. Dana White epitomizes these three behaviors, which are based on a strong value for always doing the right thing. He paid $50,000 for surgery on a trainer’s infant daughter, to save her life; $7,500 for a brain tumor treatment for a fan’s toddler daughter (wikipedia.com, 2011), covered a fan’s $300 speeding ticket, and gave $100,000 to A Caring Place charity (fightofthenight.com, 2010). He gave $100,000 to a radio fund-raising marathon (wikipedia.com, 2011). He stays active in communication with fans on Twitter (fightofthenight.com, 2010). He certainly stood alone when his mother spoke loudly and derisively against him. She claims that when he was born, and they were still in the hospital, she had recently watched Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby. She told a journalist and others that she looked into baby Dana’s dark eyes and saw he was without a soul and knew he was a child of Satan (White, 2011). She says other dreadful things about him also: how he treats everyone badly, how he lies about his background, how he uses people and is selfish and on a wrong path, and thinks he is God (White, 2011). She attacked his religious stance also. A careful reading of her complaints and accusations reveals that her thinking is as disturbed as her relationship with him is. What she says hurts Dana. She tells, in fact, how he came to her hospital bed, when she was near death, and asked her if she had really said to a writer, that Dana thinks he is God, and she replied that she had. Even after the fact, she apparently could see only how witty she was, but could not feel how it hurt him (White, 2011). She has written a rather unflattering and insulting book about him. Dana chose to respond with right action. He went to her bedside, when she was critically ill, to ask her side of the story, rather than letting celebrity gossip get to him or rather than risking her death without clarity between them (White, 2011). When she bragged about it, and followed it up by spreading disempowering stories about him, he again did the right thing, something not easy. He put down a strong boundary and stopped speaking to her (White, 2011). This response shows that even when the right thing to do is very difficult, even when it might be misunderstood by others, even if it leaves him standing alone, still Dana White will choose right action. If he had chosen to argue defensively or offensively, in a tell-all book (like his mother did) or on a talk show, he might have gained sympathy. On the other hand, it would likely have triggered an even stronger response from his mother who, it is obvious, does not love him and has never loved him and seems narcissistically incapable of doing so. He has known her a long time and, in spite of how painful her actions and attitude have been, he did the right thing in choosing to not engage further. He was strong enough to find his own center outside the family dysfunction.H e showed initiative by making an attempt to gain clarity with her, and then, once the situation was clear, though standing alone, he took a hero’s path and made it his responsibility to not contribute to the problem. That must have taken enormous courage and strength. It showed what this authentic leader, Dana White, is made of. Establishing Trusting Relationship Dana White talked a couple of investors into backing him for the purchase of a badly run, underdeveloped, barely legal sport league with poor standards, no safety protocols, few fans, a bad reputation and little worth. He turned it into a top sport league, of immense worth. That shows he is smart, competitive, and has good judgment. These are qualities that build trust. He is very fan-oriented, keeping in touch on Facebook and Twitter. He is generous with financial help for fans in desperate need. He is committed to his fighters, caring about their safety, intelligence and wellbeing (Hyson, 2011). These qualities build trust. He was challenged to a fight, recently, by a fighter .who questioned his commitment to the sport, based on the apparent evidence that he had gotten fatter and richer, thus assumed to have an administrative focus instead of a fighter focus. Dana White accepted the challenge and began training to get in shape. The challenger’s girlfriend kept calling Dana with revised stipulations, many having the outcome of decreased safety (Hyson, 2011). He accepted these stipulations and the attack on his dignity that they represented. He continued readying himself for the fight. Dana White was indeed committed to the sport, and the other fighter backed out of the challenge. This also was a case of building trust, this time by demonstrating his commitment. There was no need for such a wealthy and powerful businessman, of admirably-proven reputation, to prove himself again to this one, inferior fighter. There was especially no need to cooperate with repeated and unreasonable demands, delivered by the challenger’s girlfriend. Doing so, however, maintained constancy and built trust in an individual who lacked it. In discussing an authentic leader’s commitment to a higher purpose, Cohen says, “It means we care so passionately about others also reaching that goal that we unhesitatingly sacrifice our own peace of mind, comfort, and security in order for them to succeed. It really means that we have no choice left anymore because we have realized without any doubt that from now on, it's up to us (Cohen, 2011).” I feel Cohen’s words deeply reveal the sanctity of Dana White’s handling of the challenger’s challenge and the repetitive and unreasonable stipulations. Dana did not tolerate this because he wanted to, nor because he had to, nor because of any demand of his own ego. On the contrary, it was insulting. He cooperated because he was modeling a higher purpose behavior and active compassion to this other fighter. If White had resisted the challenge or insisted on safety protocols, the other fighter could have lost his trust in White. Because the fighter measured himself against White, Dana understood that a deeper capacity to trust was at stake in this challenge. He understood, I think, that this fighter’s identity and safety in the world needed protection. Because he is an authentic leader, Dana did not waver from that. He took on the challenge of the fight in order to take on the challenge of helping the other fighter hold onto something much bigger. That is how Dana White builds trust, by doing as much as it takes, without wavering. Demonstrating Self-Discipline The anecdote just discussed shows enormous self-discipline, and also demonstrates how he models self-discipline to others. The way he handled the brutal attacks by his mother, and the publishing of her book, with its accusations against him and its consistently negative portrayal of him, shows enormous restraint under tremendous pressure. A person who lacked self-discipline, or who lacked the level of self-discipline maintained by White, might have publicly attacked back, dramatically throwing reputation punches at the insulting fighter and his disturbed mother. But to do so would have violated the values he holds dear and would have betrayed the sport. A baseball player, a soccer player or a javelin thrower are also expected to show good sportsmanship and the discipline to focus on their sport without engaging distractions. Any athlete exercises self-discipline in any number of areas: diet, weight, strength, endurance, focus, respect toward the coach. Mixed martial arts, however, is centered around the concept and practice of self-discipline. One is trained to kill, and one restrains from killing. One is under great and immediate threat, and one restrains from responding out of fear, but faces the threat head-on and uses the stress to fight. When Dana White took over the UFC, mixed martial arts fighting was not respected nor sanctioned by most States because self-discipline and restraint were lacking and, in fact, officially discouraged (Hyatt, 2010). It was a bloodthirsty group of extremist fans who came to see fights in which restraint was not expected. UFC marketing emphasized that aspect. It was unlike any other sport, because of this, and consequently did not have the wide appeal the organization and sport have today. A core value of martial arts training is self-discipline. To remove that core value is to remove both the sport identity and the martial arts identity from mixed martial arts. That is a big reason why the organization was nearly without worth when White rescued it. Plenty is written about Dana White’s notorious street tough background and how he had to run from his first business success because the Irish Mob targeted him, and about his flaring temper and his liberal use of expletives and his colorful criticism of fighters of whom he does not approve (Hyson, 2011). It must be a particular challenge for Dana to rein himself in, to exercise and model self-discipline in really big ways where it really counts, but he made it a core value in the sport and organization that became his life. Passion For His Mission Dana White is clearly a man with highly admirable passion for his mission. “There's no bigger fan of the UFC than Dana White,” says Brian Diamond, Spike's senior VP of sports and specials. “He loves what he does, and that's the reason for its success” (Umstead, 2011). When an interviewer asks if the UFC has a monopoly on the sport, in the USA, White replied: “We're not a monopoly. We're just the best (McCarthy, 2011).” White is enthusiastic in telling how the UFC has only scratched the surface of the sport’s potential in America. He confides that his ultimate dream is to take the sport to other countries, turning mixed martial arts into a global sport (Umstead, 2011). It seems White’s passion for MMA (mixed martial arts) knows no bounds. His passion for UFC has been likened to a grizzly bear protecting her young (Koapaka.org, 2011). White communicates the importance of passion to the construction of success. Although he was never an extraordinary student, he was invited to give a reunion speech as the high school he graduated from, 20 years before. He spoke to the graduates about the importance of finding work you can feel passion about, and not wasting life on things you are not passionate about (Umstead, 2011). Passion about elevating the sport is strong enough to hold out as an example to the next generation. White has experienced pressure from a lot of people to take on other investors and take the company public. He adamantly refuses to do so, however, and the reason he gives is that Wall Street types are not going to have the same level of passion as he himself has, and so they would be useless (Carmichael, nd). It is fairly clear that Dana White considers passion to be the most essential ingredient in a recipe for success. Dana White’s passion for his mission supports some listed authentic leadership characteristics: living fearlessly, face everything and avoid nothing (Cohen, 2011), and integrity (Hyatt, 2010). Conclusion In reflecting on these things, I am left with an understanding that restructuring and building up the UFC, and restructuring and building up the sport itself, represented a path of personal development and redemption for Dana White, a way he worked on himself and tested himself and committed to himself, a way he rose above his mother’s narcissistic and painful influence, a way he grew past the hold of the streets and casinos, a way he transcended his own rage and directed his passion. Without a doubt, Dana White is an authentic leader. References Carmichael, E. (nd). It takes passion to win the fight. Retrieved July 30, 2011, from Famous Entrepreneurs: Dana White: http://www.evancarmichael.com/Famous Entrepreneurs/1166/Lesson- 2-It-Takes-Passion-to-Win-the-Fight.htm Cohen, A. (2011). What is authentic leadership? Retrieved July 28, 2011, from EnlightenNext: http://www.andrewcohen.org/andrew/authentic-leadership.asp fightofthenight.com. (2010, August 1). Dana White pays for a fan's $300 speeding ticket. Retrieved July 27, 2011, from FIGHTOFTHENIGHT: http://www.fightofthenight.com/news/dana-white-pays-for-fans-300-speeding-ticket/ Hyatt, M. (2010, March 8). The five marks of authentic leadership. Retrieved July 28, 2011, from michaelhyatt.com: http://michaelhyatt.com/the-five-marks-of-authentic-leadership.html Hyson, S. (2011). Dana White: The man, the sport and the money. Retrieved July 28, 2011, from Men's Fitness: http://www.mensfitness.com/sports/athletes/dana-white Koapaka.org. (2011, June 22). Is Dana White the most influential figure in sports? Retrieved July 30, 2011, from MMA Underground: http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/news/329814/Is- Dana-White-the-most-influential-figure-in-sports/ McCarthy, M. (2011, June 22). White says UFC's growth knows no bounds. Retrieved July 30, 2011, from USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/mma/2011-06-21-dana-white- interview_N.htm Umstead, R. T. (2011). Dana White: President, Ultimate Fighting Championship. Retrieved July 30, 2011, from B & C Broadcasting and Cable: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/279234Dana_White.php White, J. (2011). Dana White: King of MMA. self-published: Smashbooks wikipedia.com. (2011, Jully 25). Dana White. Retrieved 2011 28, 2011, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_White Read More