FACILITY LEADE
IS A COMPLE
RESPONS
At the 2013 US Indoor Conference in Las Vegas, Jason Clement and I had the
opportunity to lead a session on facility leadership. Our firm plans, manages and
optimizes performance for facilities around the world; so, as we developed the
curriculum, we were able to draw on a wide range of real-world experiences.
by Dev Pathik
Dev Pathik is the Founder/CEO of The Sports Facilities Advisory, which provides planning, funding, opening and management
support for all types of sports, recreation, entertainment and event facilities. Visit SFA at www.sportadvisory.com.
T
he session was called "Optimizing
Performance Through Stellar
Leadership," and it covered the 8 Critical
Leadership Skills that we put to work in our
operations. They are:
1.Crafting a vision
2.Establishing goals for results,
relationships and processes
3.Inspiring others to share your
commitment to excellence
8
4.Maximizing "return on effort"
5.Attracting and retaining great staff
6.Giving feedback that improves
performance
7.The "must-have" monthly & quarterly
meetings
8.Benchmarking against other operators
It was a lot to cover in a full-day session,
and the development of the workshop
reinforced to us how complex sports
facility leadership can be.
For most General Managers and aspiring
GMs, there is almost nowhere to turn
for assistance with the wide variety of
issues that indoor and outdoor sports
complexes present. Facility management,
customer service, program development,
cash flow management, marketing–-we
find that most GMs become so caught
up in the day-to-day grind that they have
little to no time for their own leadership
development. In fact, when compared to
a number of other leadership positions,
