Avoiding a clubhouse of cards
Vivienne Young & Arj Puveendran
Effective club managers recognise that doing things right, means doing the right things to lead the club into a successful future. This article highlights some issues to assist clubs as they prepare for the challenges ahead in 2017.
Leadership and management
In his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey writes“ Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.” Club managers are compelled to prioritise operational matters and develop the club’ s strategic plan to sustain growth. This means that sometimes compliance and governance matters are put on the back burner. However, if the club does not establish and maintain a robust compliance and governance framework, this can then pose challenges for those operations or even for implementing the strategic plan.
For example, an out-dated constitution may delay, or even prevent, the club from starting a major development. Or, as Paddington Bowling Club learned painfully, failure to properly manage compliance and governance issues can even spell a club’ s demise.
Leadership will always involve creative thinking, taking risks, and making difficult decisions. Many clubs only seek legal advice when embarking on larger projects.
However, pursuing a bold vision for the club does not have to be at the expense of paying attention to the day-to-day issues.
Good leadership relies on good management. This starts with building systems for the club to keep on top of compliance and governance issues, and implementing those systems through all levels of the club. Effective club managers instil a discipline of systematically addressing those issues, guided by appropriate professional advice.
We recommend that club managers include‘ legal’ in their New Year’ s resolutions, to make sure their clubhouses are in order for 2017. Here are our suggested resolutions to get started:
IQ 12