Gopher Legend - Laura Halldorson - Joins Leadership U for Speaker Series Event

On Tuesday, March 14th, Laura Halldorson joined Gopher Athletics for a Leadership U Speaker Series event. Laura was the inaugural head coach for Gopher Women's Hockey and is a former member of the Golden Gopher Fund. Throughout the event, Laura delivered a powerful message on her journey to success and her passion for influencing others.

Laura's mission in life is to leave a profound impact on those around her and help them achieve their goals. Her core values of faith, family, and friends, have been a guiding principle and has allowed her to prioritize relationships even beyond the coaching environment. Although Laura admits that she never intentionally set out to become a leader, she found herself in positions where that developed authentically and she was eager to stay in the business of supporting others. When asked what her approach to leadership is, Laura responded with, "serving others with love and humility." Through Laura's many years of coaching experiences, she discovered that winning is not everything, and at times the coaching hat must come off and you need to meet others with compassion.

With a surplus of coaching and mentorship experience, Laura provided a great amount of advice to coaches in the audience. Laura described the difference between transactional and transformational coaching styles and how taking a transformational approach has allowed her to act in alignment with her value of relationship building. Keeping that in mind, Laura shared that having the courage to create her own coaching style was a pivotal moment for her in her career. Coaching is not a one-size-fits-all approach, and creating an environment that gives coaches autonomy is what breeds success. Laura's compelling message was clear - when adversity strikes, you must revisit your "why" to reignite your passion and continue on with your pursuit for greatness.

One element that allowed Laura to be her authentic self and flourish in her coaching roles was the power of perspective. Laura channeled that perspective throughout her career and encouraged others to see the larger picture by approaching tasks with a positive attitude, hard work ethic, and being a good teammate. By doing so, Laura and her student-athletes became trailblazers in the state of Minnesota, taking the program to new heights and enjoying the journey along the way.

The Plymouth Minnesota native found her passion for skating at a very young age competing for one of the few youth women's hockey programs in the state. After a successful playing career at Princeton University, Laura became a member of the US Women's National Team in 1987. Following her playing career, Laura became an assistant coach at Princeton before transitioning to the head coaching role at Colby College in 1990. Laura was then selected to become the inaugural Gopher Women's Hockey coach that led to an extremely decorated coaching career. During her time as a head coach at Minnesota, Laura led the Gophers to three national championships, five consecutive Final Fours, seven WCHA championships, and was a three-time National Coach of the Year honoree – earning a career record of 278-67-22. In 2014, Laura was inducted into the M Club Hall of Fame and the MGHCA Hall of Fame. Laura transitioned into the Golden Gopher Fund department for 15 years, focusing on endowed scholarships for student-athletes.

Laura's incredible resume and experiences, as well as her ability to positively impact those around her led to a Speaker Series event full of profound discussion, shared laughs, and reflection. Leadership U is hosting our final Speaker Series event of the 2022-23 academic year in April.

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Gopher Legend - Laura Halldorson - Joins Leadership U for Speaker Series Event

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