The Corbin's

The above lyrics come from the only song critically acclaimed musician Bruce Springsteen ever wrote about his mother, Adele. In Springsteen's upbringing, he learned the love of family, singing, and dancing from his mother. Experiencing and dealing with pain, the rebellion against the establishment, and, most of all, lessons on the daily work grind came from his father, Doug. When Springsteen creates music, he writes from his experiences of his father through his mother's instincts, intuition, and love—which makes for a brilliant and creative combination. The power of having a robust female role model is a powerful tool for all of us. Tim Corbin, the head baseball coach of the Vanderbilt Commodores, understands this better than anyone.

Tim Corbin is entering his eighteenth season as the head coach at Vanderbilt University. Coach Corbin has achieved incredible success, winning two National Championships, one in 2014 and the other in 2019. Corbin's ability to coach and lead transcends any field or sport. His core principles are rooted in standards, not rules. He spends most of his time developing and maintaining the culture he has worked diligently to install — and as a result, the Commodores' baseball program has turned into a national power.

Every day each member of the squad and organization enters the specialized built classroom inside the walls of the baseball stadium for one of Corbin's daily lectures. Coach Corbin is not giving talks on baseball, or how to prepare for the Major League. He is bestowing lessons and advice on the most important game called life. During each meeting, his wife, Maggie Corbin, sits in the back row. These truth talks last a half hour or longer as Tim Corbin is teaching these young adults invaluable lessons on manhood, life, learning, leadership, legacy, and respecting the process of excellence.

While Maggie Corbin is not listed as a coach or paid by the University to have a role within the team, she is, however, one of the main reasons why Tim Corbin has been so successful. She is the unsung hero of the program and a valuable resource to Coach Corbin. Vanderbilt Baseball is not Tim Corbin. Vanderbilt Baseball is "The Corbins."

Tim and Maggie are life partners as well as work partners. Tim Corbin would never make any significant decision without the advice and counsel of his best coach weighing in her opinion. Women have a true gift to examine things from a different point of view. A view that perhaps Coach Corbin would never think to see. Like all women, Maggie Corbin has incredible instincts — an intuition that has allowed the program to minimize their mistakes. Tim Corbin's ability and awareness to recognize the need for a female voice in a heavily male-dominated arena enables him to grow as a leader while allowing his teams to develop their minds, bodies, and hearts fully. Coach Corbin equips his players with the tools and mindsets to enter the world understanding and appreciating the importance of diversity and inclusion.

Tom Peters, the renowned business management guru, has advocated for gender equality and women's empowerment for years. In his manifesto on Women in the Workforce, Peters', like Coach Corbin, recognizes the immense value, return on investment, and competitive advantage of adding women into organizations, councils, and positions of influence as well as leadership. The power of a woman's voice not only makes men better but can undeniably transform teams, companies, institutions, communities, countries, and workplaces from good to great. We can all learn something from The Corbins!

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