In a sports world trending toward specialization, the role of the small college athletics director still is very much that of a generalist. The key to being effective in multi-dimensional roles is to eliminate redundancy in your department using clarity and accountability. Redundancy is the duplication of responsibilities or specific tasks. The most common issue […]
Keeping Focus on Your Strategic Core
Too Many Hats. Mission Drift. Job Scope Creep. Survival Mode. Any of these sound familiar? The job of athletics directors today is not getting any easier. Increasing expectations and shrinking resources for AD’s to juggle an array of job duties. And, unfortunately, these duties often have little or nothing to do with an athletics department […]
Up and Running on iTunes
We are now officially up and available on iTunes! Episodes of Perspective on Athletics, as well as other audio or video webcasts, will be available any time you want. Plus you can subscribe and get new episodes automatically downloaded to your computer or smartphone. Just go here to subscribe or listen. And while you’re there, […]
Faculty Friction: Caught in the Middle
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 […]
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 […]