One of the biggest challenges for today’s student-athletes is managing expectations of others. Most commonly, they find themselves in a no-win situation when faculty and coach expectations collide regarding missed class time for team travel. This is where athletics leadership must recognize the potential for this type of situation and develop ways in which student-athletes […]
My Communication Conundrum
A core element of leadership is effective communication, which requires skill, empathy and consistency. People around you need to know what you expect from them and also what they can expect from you. Consistent communication delivers the same message to everyone. Open and clear communication sounds easy enough, but as I learned a long time […]
The State of College Sports Today
The December 11, 2011 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education published a powerful headline on its cover: “What The Hell Has Happened to College Sports? And What Should We Do About it?” The article and commentaries came in the wake of the Penn State issues, but really was the climax of several high profile […]
Evaluating Coaches: Competitive Success
Part 3 of 3 Competitive Success: Growing into winning. So how does an athletic director evaluate coaching performance in a way that considers the less tangible outcomes? An evaluation must clarify expectations and consider more than just competitive success as a criteria. Three major components go into successful coaching: 1) Effective Program Management; 2) Positive […]
Evaluating Coaches: The Student-Athlete Experience
The Student-Athlete Experience So how does an athletic director evaluate coaching performance in a way that considers the less tangible outcomes? An evaluation must clarify expectations and consider more than just competitive success as a criteria. Three major components go into successful coaching: 1) Effective Program Management; 2) Positive Student-Athlete Experiences; and 3) Competitive Success. […]
Beyond Winning and Losing: Evaluating Coaches
PART 1 OF 3 Effective Program Management Athletics gives us one of the most objective measures of success: you either win or you lose. (Okay, soccer and a few other sports may allow ties, but we won’t go there.) Winning and losing are two concrete outcomes; they are easy to understand and evaluate. One of […]
Find The Pulse of Your Student-Athletes
Anecdotes Aren’t Enough Do you know what your student-athletes really think and feel about their athletics experiences? The student-athlete experience is widely considered a vital component to a successful athletics program. Yet few programs have evidence of how their program impacts student-athletes. Everybody’s got a story to tell about a student-athlete achieving success, but is […]
Five Ways to Demonstrate the Impact of Your Athletics Program
I have asked dozens of college athletics administrators, faculty athletic reps, coaches and student affairs professionals this question: ‘What is the student-athlete experience? ‘ While no two people answered the question the same way, all agreed that the student-athlete experience is the most important element of their athletics program. The second question I asked the same […]