Leading and managing in sport and exercise industries

21st March 2024

Coming soon – training to support leadership and management within sport and exercise industries.

BASES is working in partnership with Dr Andy Borrie and Dr Andy Miles FBASES to develop a new CPD opportunity for BASES members.

Summary

  • A new management professional development programme will be launched in 2024.
  • The programme is aimed at aspiring and newly appointed leaders and managers in sport and exercise industries.
  • It will be specifically tailored to the nuances of sport and exercise industries.
  • As well as providing a workshop programme, candidates will have the option to complete an ILM Level 6 qualification in leadership and management.

The idea

BASES members will be able to register for a new CPD programme which will be running in 2024-25.The genesis of the programme was a ‘coffee table’ conversation at a BASES conference. Drs Borrie and Miles have both been involved in sport and exercise industries for over 30 years and have filled a number of management and leadership roles. In that time, they have seen the number of job opportunities for BASES members grow exponentially with a parallel increase in the number of management roles available. Yet, in that time there has never been a leadership and management training offer tailored to the needs of BASES members. How many BASES members have taken their first steps in management with only a limited understanding of the attributes and skills they need to be successful and then have to learn on the job? This new training will try and change this situation.

What members want

Drs Borrie and Miles started working with BASES to gather members’ thoughts and created a management needs survey which went initially to BASES Fellows and was then opened up to all members via the members’ newsletter. The survey aimed to (i) assess the appetite for leadership and management training within BASES, and (ii) to see what members perceived as their greatest needs in terms of management CPD. The headlines from the survey are in Table 1.

The proposed programme

The aim of the programme is to provide an understanding of fundamental management concepts but within the context of the idiosyncrasies of sport and exercise industries – a somewhat eclectic domain with multiple disciplines. In applied practice, managers often have different professions and practice philosophies coming together in a single team. In education, management challenges arise from the varied demands on staff (research v teaching v practice) and the degree of autonomy academic staff have in fulfilling their roles. Leading and managing in sport and exercise is not easy. The programme (Table 2) should be relevant to those who aspire to taking on leadership and management roles as well as those who have already started on their management careers.

Next steps

The programme will be delivered from Autumn 2024, with expressions of interest being sought from early Spring 2024 from members who would be keen to enrol on the programme. Please contact Lisa Phillips (lphillips@bases.org.uk), BASES Professional Development Manager, to express an interest in the programme.

Table 1 Main findings from survey

  • Over 80% of respondents were in favour of BASES offering leadership and management training
  • The majority preferred a blended learning delivery format
  • Preferred topics tended towards the practical, transactional skills required in the performance management of people. The top six topics were
    • Giving feedback & having difficult conversations
    • Leading & managing – what’s the difference?
    • Motivating and guiding your team
    • Understanding Change Management
    • Performance management processes (including effective appraisals)
    • Conflict Resolution

Table 2. Programme Outline

The programme will consist of three modules with each workshop consisting of two separate sessions. The first session will be online (three hours). The second session for all workshops (two hours) will be run face to face on the same day, effectively creating a one-day symposium. Learners will be supported between taught sessions by Action Learning Sets and tutorial/mentoring support.

Modules

  1. Leadership & Management – what is it and how do you do it? (including skills self-assessment)
  2. Managing people (covering performance management, delegation, communication)
  3. Innovation and Change – leading and managing change

Additional Qualification

Each workshop will be mapped to specific units from ILM qualifications so that learners can, if they choose to, can extend the programme to complete an ILM Level 6 Certificate in Leadership and Management. The qualification add-on will require some additional tutorials and the completion of an integrated assignment to evidence learning and the development of management competencies.

Table 3. Proposed Costs

The full programme has been costed in two parts, the workshop series and the qualification. It is anticipated the pricing will be:

  • Workshop series £825
  • Qualification £575 (additional to Workshop series cost)

(This includes ILM registration fees, additional tutorial support and assessment).

This cost compares favourably to the cost of other ILM Level 6 programmes available from training companies who run generic programmes. Dependent on numbers the programme will be open to non-BASES members, but they will pay a 15% surcharge.


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BASES stands for the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences. BASES is the professional body for sport and exercise sciences in the UK.

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