Step up to the Plate

First off - an apology / an excuse / an omission of guilt....  So - yes the new country, the flat hunting, the lack of wifi (yet), the new job, the exploration of a new culture, and my overall lack of blog-ammittment have meant I have been rather lax/tardy/shocking with keeping my blog up to date - so from the bottom of Omani sunrise (as I wait here to head into work) - I am sorry.  Hopefully (not a term you should be using in sports really - masters of our own destiny that we are you know) - hopefully I will make sure I update more regularly.  So- onward compadres.......

As someone (possibly fictional) once said - “With great power, comes great responsibility” and this can never be more true than in the business  of leading sports.  Now for sure every business leader should accept a personal responsibility - should have an inner drive that means he (other sex leaders are available) is motivated to be “the leader” of his organization and that organizations’s failure should be seen as a reflection on him/her as a leader.

And sadly in today’s day and age - the motivators of personal gratification, personal reward, personal ambition seem to hold more sway - the recent Global Financial issues have certainly highlighted plenty of leaders who have been in it (knee deep) ‘for themselves”.  Yes - it is nice to be well rewarded for what you do for a living - but it can never just be about YOU....

So - moving onto sports - and where business cross culture more than in the world of bullet-makers, pumpkin farmers and cheese-graters (a personal favorite).  No disrespect to these other careers  it’s just that sports has the power to grab hold of people, to impact on a culture and to really make a difference...

And it is here that leaders need to really step up to the plate.  If you cannot say to yourself that it is YOUR responsibility to leave any organization you work for  in a better place than when you joined - then you are not worthy of holding that office.  I am not saying that people will join companies looking to do a bad job or purely for personal gain (though there are many whose sole aim is the ladder of greed) - but there are far too many examples to mention of sports franchises whose leaders have jumped ship when another opportunity appears - leaving clubs in the mire, leaving plans unfinished, leaving clubs far worse off than when they started.....

Football clubs all over the land are prime examples of where unscrupulous folk have made a personal killing at the expense of land sale, TV rights banked, star payers sold, wages escalated in the pursuit of a quick thrill, and leaders walk away (often to their next pay-packet) with no shame, no legacy and no honor.  NOTE - footballs is far from the only black sheep in the family - Sport seems to have a habit of attracting some of the dodgiest “geezers” (yes - proof that I remain English) the planet has to offer.

And it is wrong - sport has so much power for good - there needs to be a pact - a commitment - that if you work as a leader in sports - if the s**t hits the fan at your place - you stay to sort it out.  If you are the reason behind the stinky mess - then it is your job to make personal sacrifices to clean it up.  If you want to just make as much money as you can, if you want to leave the earth having accumulated a huge amount of wealth that is no use to you - then find an alternative career.  If you want to work hard and work long for the improvement of the world around you then (outside of possible ‘000’s of better humanitarian cause related jobs) - sport is the career for you!!

Agreed??

Then let’s shake on it....

Shakes hand....  checks fingers for loss of rings etc.....

#it’salongbattle

NOTE - if you want a good track to get you started (certainly whilst typing) in the morning - head to Tom Petty - Running down the Dream.  NOTE - if you want a track to put you back in the mood for another couple of hours sleep - head to Tom Petty - Freefallin’...  NOTE - probably best not to mix the two!!