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 core purpose. AD’s are spread too thin. Effectiveness is being diluted.
The problem with this type of environment is that it steers actions away from a department’s core purpose. Putting out fires, averting or managing a crisis or simply spending too many hours in seemingly useless meetings forces many AD’s to operate in reactive modes, trying to stay a half-step ahead of what’s coming next. This leaves little time for vision, strategy, and true leadership. The danger here is allowing these distractions to displace time and attention for your core purpose. Reaction mode breeds routines, or survival mechanisms. These routines can quickly become habits and if unchecked, these habits become excuses.
I’ve had many years in my career that started off with a great staff retreat, with lots of energy and renewed focus on our mission and values, only to have reality smash back in to snatch up day-to-day time, energy and resources. They take energy and focus away from those things that you’re most passionate about. And you feel stuck, because you can’t simply not do, or respond to, these things.
Too Many Hats – a.k.a. ‘Job Scope Creep’
Most AD’s multi-task. It’s an essential job skill. And because many do it so well they are often the ‘go-to’ person when something needs to get done. If you are good at what you do, and are reliable the reward is more work. I call this ‘job scope creep.’ It’s not necessarily part of your job description or expectations, but you serve the institution and feel compelled to help. It’s not uncommon in resource-challenged environments to see AD’s serving on significant campus-wide committees, directly supervising all head coaches, functioning as the lead fundraiser for athletics, teaching academic courses and, in some crazy situations, also serving as a head coach. How could any single person perform all of those duties well?
Mission Drift
‘Job scope creep’ is directly related to ‘mission drift.’ These distractions broaden your area of attention and job duties rather than staying focused on the athletics core purpose. The day-to-day management of athletics requires agility and quick reflexes, two more traits of today’s athletics directors. But operating in reactive and defensive modes takes its toll. Rather than keeping your work focused on the core purposes of athletics, AD’s and whole departments easily can settle into survival operating mode. You are trying to manage all of these other ‘priorities,’ many of which are only perceived as priorities because of survival mode. This simply means that the most important things to the department are not getting the attention they deserve because day-to-day actions do not allow time for it.
So what’s a person to do?
Staying focused on the most important things requires conscious effort. You must regularly visit your mission or purpose statement, your core values and ask if the work you are doing today, this week, this month or this year is helping you achieve your vision of success.
Your core purpose is your compass, your sail or your rudder… take your pick of a favorite metaphor. The point is unless you look at your compass, position your sail or keep your hand on the rudder they all are useless. You need to use your core purpose as a tool.
Here are a few suggestions to help you stay focused on your core purpose.
1. See It, Define It and Talk About It
Your vision of success will help you determine strategies and actions. Clearly defining what success looks like will help people connect their own actions to the vision. And put it in writing. This cements it with reality. Once everyone is clear about the vision, share it with everyone… on campus, off campus, recruits, donors, alumni. External awareness will promote accountability for your vision.
2. Revisit Your Mission or Purpose Regularly
Start with at least an annual retreat with all of your staff to review what everyone’s work is supposed to be about. This is especially important for new coaches and staff. Your core purpose should be present, if not verbalized at monthly staff meetings, too. Keeping it in front of people and asking them to check their actions will help maintain focus when frustration or other distractions creep into day-to-day life.
3. Delegate Whatever You Can
An AD cannot manage everything in the department effectively. As Seth Godin wrote in his book Tribes, the critical leadership functions are vision, strategy and culture. If the AD is too districted by other management tasks, no one will be focused on the department’s core purposes.
4. Establish Accountability
Your vision of success or core purposes are intended to guide everyone’s actions. Accountability for these things must be built into every job description and be a part of every performance management process.
The AD job will alway be difficult and challenging. The skill set continues to evolve. But the importance of keeping yourself and your department focused on the core purpose of athletics will never go away. Make it a priority. Check yourself regularly. Ask yourself daily if what you plan to work on today is advancing your department’s stated vision and mission. If nothing does, it’s time to revisit your core purpose again.
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