Leadership through Sport
Background
The experience gained by students in sport can stand them in good stead for the rest of their lives. Many gain experience beyond playing, which itself has the virtue of encouraging fitness, health, sportsmanship, team awareness etc. Other benefits arise from the opportunities to coach, referee, administer and captain.
Many leaders in society and industry attribute much of their success to the experience they gained through sport. Much of this may have been obtained as a student.
Over half of the British medallists in Beijing were Higher Education students. A large number of the coaches, trainers, sports scientists and medical support staff will have been involved in their early days in student sport.
While at university, students have the chance to not only participate, but to take on leadership roles within student clubs and community programmes.
In the past decade, there has been increasing recognition of the importance of team play in business, and many well-known names of the sporting world have become very successful in the commercial sector as consultants in team building and team play, using sporting analogies and experience as a guide to improving work systems and behaviours.
Leadership through sport has exactly the same relevance as team play has beyond the parameters of sport itself. It is the leaders who not only will set high standards, assume responsibility and demonstrate management skills, but also will recognise and encourage sporting values of fair play and team spirit. Transferable skills such as strategic planning, communication and people management, will often have been nurtured within the sporting environment. These people will often inspire.
Leaders may or may not be captains, though captaincy is the ultimate form of leadership. Sporting analogies abound as we talk of ‘captains of industry’ and ‘good team players’. Even though Henry Newbolt wrote ‘Vitae Lampada’ a century ago, his assertion that the leaders in battle would be likely to have cut their teeth on the playing field, where camaraderie and honour were enshrined in codes of fair play and decency, still has some credence.
Sport is more than a ‘trifling irrelevance’ when it has the chance to develop leaders, to promote team understanding and to improve people. It can also, in the wrong hands do more harm than good, to be sure.
Leadership in and through sport is rarely addressed fully in the academic sense. There is a place for greater emphasis on leadership and the provision of opportunities, beginning at low levels, by way of volunteering, for example.
Opportunities and training in leadership can encourage and support individuals in dealing with others, handling change and acting as excellent role models both in the sporting and non-sporting setting.
Foundation for Leadership through Sport
A range of key partners have come together to develop the 'Foundation for Leadership through Sport' building on elements of programmes developed by the University's Sport, Exercise and Health team. The Foundation will provide the following:
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Inspirational activity
- Seminars and short courses on the subject of sports leadership, team building and ethics in sport.
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Visiting speaker programme, with contributions from significant sporting leaders, or others who have attributed their success to what they have gained through sport. These will include Bristol alumni such as:
- Jayne Pearce- Press Chief- 2012 Olympic Games
- Kipchoge Keino- International Olympic Committee member
- Julia Bracewell- Chair –Sport Scotland
- Mark Evans- CEO Harlequins rugby
- Harvey Smyth- CEO Pizza Express
- Mike Giffin- Finance Director Waterstone
- Josh Lewsey- Rugby World Cup winner
- Iain Percy- Double Olympic Gold Medallist
(All the above, except Kipchoge Keino, had significant positions in sport when they were undergraduates at Bristol)
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Encouragement of personal and professionally-related development
- Opportunities for students and others to gain sports leadership awards
- Encourage more students to take courses that will qualify them as coaches, officials and administrators.
- Provide more opportunities for students to be empowered in the running of the Intra-mural programme.
- Provide training and advice for students in leadership roles within student sports clubs, and to open this up to people involved in sport within the community.
- Encourage and support students to take on roles within BUCS, and provide a development programme.
- Incorporate within the existing community programme more placements for students to assume leadership roles through coaching and officiating.
Links
Contact
For more information contact Bob Reeves on 0117 331 1103 or bob.reeves@bristol.ac.uk