Leadership Part II

LEADERSHIP AND TOTAL CONTROL; PART 2

Every successful Executive Director will always say that he is not there to control everything or anything; he is there to serve. Which makes everything so interesting to look at.

Lacrosse Canada has a nine person staff who reports to the Executive Director. The staff reports neither to the Board of Directors nor to the provinces or the members. Each staff member, and all of them, report to the Executive Director who, himself, reports to the Board of Directors. The line of authority has the advantage of being crystal clear and quite business like which, in my mind, is a sign of good governance.

We must understand and recognize that Lacrosse Canada has a functional structure of authority and, for all intent and purpose, the legitimate authority rests with the Executive Director who is mandated by the Board to carry out the Association’s strategic plan and to try to meet, in the next four years, the objectives laid out in the plan. And he has a nine person staff who will work under him (the expression is correct, they work ‘’under’’ him) and carry out the mandates he will set out for them. Staff members won’t attend Board meetings; the ED will and he will report to the Board on what he needs and selects to report on.

The first challenge, in terms of leadership, in an amateur sport not used to structural authority, is to ensure that the staff understands that he is the boss and thus acts accordingly. The ED must be friendly enough so that the staff calls him by name but firm enough to carry out evaluations, promotions or demotions when the time will be needed to act. Be good and though.

The second challenge will be to avoid playing favorites; making life easy for some and difficult for others; we have all seen associations where playing favorites ruins a team’s morale and paralyses efforts and progress. This will be an important challenge as it’s a nine person staff, everyone is different and they all have different responsibilities and mandates. The clearer the mandates are the easier it will be to asses and evaluate performance and promote fairness. But we need to remember that some staff were not hired by the ED as they were there before he was hired as ED; this often creates situations where the boss would very much prefer having staff members of his choosing; just like GMs always prefer to work with a coach they have selected.

The third challenge, and probably the most important one, is that he will need to convince his staff, if ithas not already been done, that his narrative is the best option for the development of the game. And his narrative, adopted by the Board of Directors, is that High Performance is the best tool to contribute towards the development of the game in Canada. A win at the Olympic Games, a gold medal at World Championships or international events, outstanding performances by National Teams or athletes at national championships will generate visibility for the game and will motivate Canada’s youth to pick up lacrosse and play the great game. Numbers will increase and the game will grow because of our High- Performance programs.

That’s the official narrative and the staff must believe that this is the road to success; this is the best road to success. In fact, it’s the only one because Lacrosse Canada does not have one single developmental plan on the table and is putting all its marbles on one very debatable narrative: High Performance brings development. In 2025-26 43% of the expenses will be spent on the National Teams while 11% will be on National championships; 54% of the budget will be for High Performance. The money is there to back up the narrative and the staff must believe that this is what is best for the game. One can only hope that there are models to follow from other sports who have invested massively in High Performance and now have the registration numbers to prove that they were right. We’d all love to know who those sportsare! Because, if ever substantial growth does not happen, some members might feel that they will have been misled by the ED’s leadership. The staff might also progressively lose trust in the ED. And, also the national backlash could be severe. ‘’All that money down the drain’’ while provinces have difficult times just to get along and carry out their mandates.

That is where control come in.

The ED must ensure that there are no leaks and that the staff has pledged total loyalty to the ED. Just like in the US. Hey, how about that? Authoritarian regimes???

Leaks will kill you and it will take time to uncover where they emerge from. So instead of fighting it when it happens a successful ED will monitor his staff, will know who is happy and who is not, who is expressing doubts about ‘’the plan’’ or the leadership, who just might leak something here or there. Who seems friendly with a Board member or a provincial president or a team operator. The ED might want to know what networks his staff members operate in and might feel the need to know everything that is significant. Not quite a police state but…

The challenge here will be to operate a supervision without showing any supervisory attitudes; the challenge will be to invade without showing any intent to be on the war path. Just like goaltenders who have ‘’a book’’ on players the ED will have ‘’a book’’ on his staff members; just to know what he needs to know and to prevent leaks.

A more delicate challenge requiring control over his staff will be in the internal peer evaluation of performance. Four staff members will be spending money while two will endeavor to raise money. Simply put it will be far easier to rent a field or a hotel in Oshawa than to raise 100,000$ in sponsorship. But staff members might feel that some are not pulling their load (partnership and sponsorship) and are taking a long time to deliver what was promised in the budget. ‘’Will we have to cut our programs because some are not delivering?’’ The ED will have a challenge here. ‘’We’re paid to do our job and we deliver; they are paid and they don’t’’. Simple human feelings that arise and could break up a team. The ED will have to control emotions and ‘’human feelings’’ especially if those in charge of sponsorships and partnerships don’t deliver and are looking for excuses. Control over the team’s morale will be a challenge. ‘’Stay in line; remain focused; trust the plan; work as a team’’. Easier said than done.

Now let’s see how it will be done; how Terry Rayner will perform with his staff. How he will control his staff.