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What does it mean for a sports organisation to be more professional?

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Many people speak about how sports organisations are becoming more professional. It used to be that an organisation was deemed professional if there were full time employees rather than volunteers. Although more and more fulltime employees are being hired in sports organisations, the industry still depends largely on its volunteer base. So does that mean that sports organisations will never be seen to be fully professional? Or, despite the use of volunteers, can sports organisations be considered professional if they deliver quality work, on time in a friendly manner? What creates the gap between good and great work and makes people consider you as a professional organisation or professional individual? David H. Maister, in his book `True Professionalism`, discusses these questions. Below are some of his ideas explaining what professionalism means and maybe your sports organisation can benefit from these ideas to be seen as even more professional.

What does professionalism mean?

Professionalism is not only about having good strategies, management skills and ideas. Theoretically all companies and organisations should have these fundamental components. Professionalism is about the principles and values that are reflected in the behaviour and working style of the management, employees and everyone representing your organisation. It is the strict adherence to these principles and values that differentiates professional firms, clubs and organisations from the unprofessional ones.

The following example illustrates the importance of providing good coaching and supervision for your staff and volunteers. Do you think a sponsor will accept the excuse `It was not my fault; it was a volunteer who forget to put up the logo in the sports hall`? Especially in sports where a lot of volunteers are still involved in projects it is important to prepare them for their working tasks. It is important that someone is in the position to brief, prepare, inform and give feedback to volunteers, interns, trainees or juniors. With this feeling of support the staff will be more motivated, deliver higher quality work and not waste time. This means that full time employees will have more time for other activities. It is worth taking a little extra time to have skilled and trained staff who will be more effective, do higher quality work and provide greater client service.

Another example is the way that you deal with money provided by your sponsor. Very often invoices are structured in order to maximise the profit. It is not surprising; therefore, that sponsors become suspicious about the money they are being asked for. To avoid suspicion it would make sense to work hard and reach the sponsor`s goals with the minimum costs to them. This does not mean that you should always search for the cheapest solution but there is a difference between demanding high fees for effective work and wasting client`s money on ineffective and unproductive activities. A true professional knows that being effective and reducing the revenues will be compensated for by the reputation for being honest and trustworthy, which in turn might lead to new sponsorship contracts.

A final example of what it means to be professional outlines what it means to look after your clients. Imagine the situation where someone wants to sell you something. When do you decide to buy a product? Do you buy it when you have the feeling that he just wants to earn more money from you or because of you or do you buy it when you have the feeling that the person really cares about improving your situation? The answer is easy and demonstrates what professionalism means. It`s about sincerely caring for clients over and above caring about your work. If you show genuine sincerity they will trust you and you will be able to build long term partnerships.

Ensuring your organisation is professional

True professionalism means sticking to your values, not only as a person but also as an entire institution. Whether it be a club, federation, or organisation, core values should be defined and agreed on by everybody. These values will lead your organisation to be more professional. The combination of common goals and common values, together with coaches who will support the staff to get aligned with these principles, will form a great working team. Further to that it will create motivation amongst the staff to complete their tasks at the highest possible level of quality.

To enforce these core values, then consequences for non-compliance should be introduced. The meaning of the core values will be clear as soon as every person agrees to the consequences which describe what happens if the core values are not respected. These consequences are not established as a punishment but more as an inspiration to stick to the values. The aim is not to stop people trying something because they are afraid of being punished, but to challenge them to try new things, even if sometimes they should fail.

Professionalism is not only about working hard, involving your colleagues, caring about clients and doing a satisfactory job. It`s not about competence it`s about the pursuit of excellence. The easiest way to achieve excellent performance is very basic: Have fun! If you search for happiness in your job, not just for your own contentment, you will find that you will easily achieve much more success in your work.

So being professional is not about hiring top business managers and having fulltime employees, it`s about getting your staff - if it`s a manager or a volunteer - aligned with the principles of the organisation so that they care about the people that they work with and come to work to enjoy what they are doing!

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