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Reflection

Week 1

I don’t care how experienced you are in your life, starting something new can be very intimidating because you’re trying to get a feel for what you should be doing and you want to do it well. It never gets easier over time, you just have to learn to adapt to the situation as best as you can and trust that it will all work out. So it is with that I begin another course in my Master of Business Administration program, this one on Communication and Fundraising in Sport. Based on the experience that I have had in communications and media, with some fundraising as well, it seems like the type of course that is right up my alley.

For the most part, it has been a smooth beginning. I was able to get a refresher on the origins of social media evolving to the time of publication where it was and still is commonplace for businesses to use these Internet platforms to connect with their consumers. I was also pleasantly surprised by how quickly it took me to repurpose this website to include several different blogs (officially, they are categories on the website) to meet the requirements for content on each. WordPress is great that way and I am happy with the switchover to that system. There are some other great things in the works as well, which I am not ready to discuss in full detail at the moment.

On the subject of discussion, we held one virtually today following a question-and-answer with a representative from the Haiti Olympic Committee. It was intended to be an open discussion, which I felt complicated things because someone else would be talking when I wanted to speak and I wanted to make sure that the person speaking could finish their thought without interruption. So I could not get a word in edgewise and I was very frustrated by that because it seemed like I was not participating in the discussion.

I feel better after talking to a couple of people who reminded me that it is the newness of the process. I just have to learn to be patient with it and in the meantime, enjoy the journey. With that, I’m off to work on that project I can’t tell you about yet.

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Siguenza on Sports

MLB commissioner on CNN discusses plans to play ball

Chase Field in Phoenix, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. (Brian Siguenza)

CNN’s Thursday night town hall on coronavirus was the television program to watch if you wanted an idea of what a return to live sports might look like. That’s because Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred spent approximately fifteen minutes speaking with moderators Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta about his organization’s plans to start the baseball season. You can see a portion of the interview below.

CNN International on Twitter

There wasn’t any real earth-shattering information to come out of the conversation between Manfred, Cooper, and Dr. Gupta, but it was interesting nonetheless to hear the commissioner talk of playing games in front of no fans and the procedures that the league and its teams would take to keep players safe. Some items of note:

  • Manfred asserted that players who were uncomfortable with assuming the risk of being in close contact with others would not be forced to return to work.
  • In the event a player tests positive for coronavirus, he would be quarantined for two weeks, and then MLB would conduct additional tests on anyone the player may have had contact with.
  • Owners could stand to lose $4 billion if a season did not happen, an impact Manfred called “devastating.”
Anderson Cooper 360 on Twitter

Do the economics outweigh the health risks involved in playing sports during the pandemic? That is a question the major organizations are having to ask themselves and should be a contributing factor in plans to resume competition.

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Siguenza on Sports

Introducing My Fan Blog

I have certainly picked an interesting time to pursue a Master of Business Administration emphasizing sports management; a time when sports are not live, save for ESPN’s overnight airings of baseball from Korea. That also makes it seem like a bit of a struggle to write about sports. You would think that someone who has a Journalism degree and written an entire work of fictional literature centered around college football–with some other wacky elements added in–can be creative and resourceful when talking about topics that intrigue them. And you would be right, which is why it is with great pleasure that I welcome you to Siguenza on Sports, a regular blog where I will offer my musings on things as they pertain to the wonderful world of athletic competition.

Even with the majority of sports still on hiatus, there is plenty to discuss, like the timetable for returning to events, what they might look like at first, and their implications to public health and the economy. We will get to those in good time but for now, I just want to set the starting point for what I hope will be an informative and maybe even entertaining read for you. If you see something that triggers a thought, by all means, please share it with me!

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Communication & Fundraising in Sport

Sports and Social Media: A Brief History

Stock photo of smartphone icons. (Pixabay via Pexels)
Stock image of smartphone icons. (Pixabay via Pexels)

No one could have guessed when ESPN first released the trailer for The Last Dance that the documentary series on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls dynasty of the 1990s would become the closest thing to sports that fans could consume during a battle over when, and if, any competition could safely resume during the coronavirus pandemic. The results have been championship-caliber for ESPN, with six million viewers for each episode and a great deal of buzz on social media (Reames, 2020).

Deseret News on Twitter
105.7 The Fan on Twitter

Websites like Twitter and Facebook are now as much a part of the sporting experience as collegiate marching bands and sideline reporters. According to Narrelle Harris (n.d.) of LaTrobe University, social media has made it easier for athletes, fans, and organizations alike to connect like never before. Harris writes, “Spectators are no longer simply watching sport, and fans can often get news, insights, and commentary straight from the source” (para. 1).

To understand how we got here, Newman, Peck, Harris, & Wilhide (2013) take us back to where it started. They explain that fans previously had limited options for receiving sports content: there was the daily newspaper or weekly magazines like Sports Illustrated, the radio, and television. And the messaging was one-way, making it easier for the sender to control the narrative. That changed around the mid-1990s with the rise of the World Wide Web and services like AOL, giving users more power to send feedback of their own. This gave way to the debut of MySpace and Facebook approximately ten years later, sites with profiles users could create themselves and invite others to be part of.

Social media in its nascence focused on individuals. It wasn’t until the introduction of Twitter that the concept of using these digital platforms to market to the public began to take off. You can now find businesses around the world promoting themselves on today’s most popular social sites, including those in the sports industry that use the services to keep consumers abreast of what’s happening in a major area of interest (Newman, Peck, Harris, & Wilhide, 2013). With sports at a standstill right now, organizations have had to get creative in entertaining the masses. One popular tactic has been showcasing historic games like this friendly soccer match between the Americans and Germany.

U.S. Soccer MNT on Twitter

References

Harris, N. (n.d.). The impact of social and digital media on sport. Retrieved from https://www.latrobe.edu.au/nest/the-impact-of-social-and-digital-media-on-sport/

Newman, T., Peck, J.F., Harris, C., & Wilhide, B. (2013). Social media in sport marketing. Scottsdale, AZ: Holcomb Hathaway, Publishers, Inc.

Reames, M. (2020, May 10). Nike and Jordan logos appear over 100 times in a single episode of The Last Dance. Adweek. Retrieved from https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/nike-and-jordan-logos-appeared-over-100-times-in-one-episode-of-the-last-dance/

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Leadership Archive

Looking back

Doing communications work for as long as I have, I can tell you that creating content that will compel somebody to read it is not easy. You get excited to start putting whatever comes into your head on this blank canvas that you’ve been given. Then after a certain period of time has passed, you start running out of things to say. This is pretty much how I felt previous blogs went: they were rather fruitless exercises because my point of view was a little too unique for the common visitor.

What makes this time different, and honestly more satisfying, is that I had an actual theme that I had to stick to. That kept me honest. I could still give my own little spin on things–that’s how I managed to incorporate Patrick Mahomes and the controversy surrounding the Houston Astros into posts–just as long as they were somehow tied into leadership and specifically the topic for that week.

The hope is that my posts from the past seven weeks show the information that I’ve gained about myself and about the concept of leadership in general. The latter is, in my opinion, a lot more complex than just taking charge and giving orders. You have to be able to motivate and inspire people to be their best version of themselves. Like writing a blog, really. I don’t know that I offered all that much inspiration or motivation in previous writings, it was basically typing just to see my words on the screen. Now I’ve imparted knowledge through research and my understanding of the subject that ideally people will pass on to others, and I will use this knowledge to continue to better myself as I strive to be the one people turn to for my particular line of work.

This has been a lot of fun. I will have plenty more to write later in the year when I head to Tokyo for the Summer Olympics, if not before then. Stay safe out there, and go Chiefs!

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Leadership Archive

A bases-loaded jam

Now that it’s been a couple of weeks since the Super Bowl, we can begin the transition from the gridiron to the baseball diamond. And we find the major leagues in a difficult moment right now, with much of the news centered around findings that the Houston Astros employed sign-stealing methods en route to their World Series title in 2017. The fallout from these actions has been described by public relations experts and sportswriters alike as a crisis for MLB. By their accounts, commissioner Rob Manfred has handled the situation rather clumsily. Writes John Feinstein in the Washington Post, “Right from the beginning, MLB has botched this investigation, from the blanket immunity it gave players to Manfred’s refusal to…tak(e) the 2017 World Series title and trophy away from the Astros.”

As the head of a professional sports organization, it is perhaps inevitable that Rob Manfred would be subjected to fierce criticism of his decisions. But how do other leaders avoid the same kind of scorn from the public and the press? The answer, say Lussier & Achua (2016), is very simple: the leader must get in front of the situation and be able to communicate effectively with all parties. This includes the public, the media, and especially with employees in the organization.

Ideally, the firm will have a plan already in place for dealing with scenarios that are at best embarrassing and at worst have deadly consequences. They’ve assembled a team, determined possible threats to operations, and created an outline for publicly dealing with these threats (Lussier & Achua, 2016). Given the ability to react in real-time on social media now, as people did when Astros players apologized during a news conference, it is not unreasonable for organizations to implement so-called “safety measures” that protect their reputation from further damage.

I would have to imagine that for being such well-known entities in North America, Major League Baseball and the Houston Astros would have some sort of contingency plan for handling controversial matters, it’s just in this instance both seemed to swing and miss.

Reference

Lussier, R.N., & Achua, C.F. (2016). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

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Leadership Archive

Diversity at Amazon: Thinking Outside the Box

Amazon presents itself as a champion of diversity and inclusion. “We seek builders from all backgrounds to join our teams, and we encourage our employees to bring their authentic, original, and best selves to work,” writes the online retailer on its careers site.

In spite of this declaration, Amazon’s track record paints a different picture. The company balked a couple of years ago at a plan to require that consideration be given to women and minorities qualified for a leadership role, a policy similar to the NFL’s Rooney Rule in which teams must speak to minorities when filling vacancies at the head coach and general manager positions.

Just this week, the Seattle Times reported that two women have joined senior management, otherwise referred to as the “S team” internally, tripling the number of female leaders. Three is also the number of people on the 22-member S team who are not white, suggesting that Amazon has been slower to accept diversity at the top.

A lack of diversity can have consequences for both minority groups who may feel ostracized and the organization that loses talented employees, creating costs in the process. There should be a commitment to diversity on all levels at Amazon and other firms. However, they need to be more than empty gestures meant to satisfy public relations and government law (Lussier & Achua, 2016).

Amazon for its part did relent and agree to implement the Rooney Rule in its hiring practices. It also reports offering staff educational opportunities such as training, mentorships, and recognition of events such as Black History Month, which we happen to be in right now. But is it enough when the people at the top are still mostly white? My recommendation for Amazon would be that they include more women and minorities on their leadership team to help promote the message of inclusivity within the company in the hopes of delivering a positive work experience for employees.

Reference

Lussier, R.N., & Achua, C.F. (2016). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

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Leadership Archive

Team Meeting

To some people, twice a week may seem like an excessive amount to hold department meetings. But as a communications professional, my team serves as the face of the organization in many ways, working on fundraising, marketing, and social media. And that’s a lot of things to keep track of, so much it’s hard to condense into one-hour meetings each week. As a result, we go over projects on Mondays and Thursdays, with social media and fund development the focus on Monday and other outreach on Thursday. While not a fan of meetings in general, I do enjoy the opportunity to tackle the objectives for our department and I try to have a little fun, too. Today, of course, we talked a little about the first Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory in 50 years. How could I not as a Chiefs fan?

Even with such asides, we get a lot accomplished in this scheduled time, a lot more than other meetings I’ve been part of. The biggest culprit in the past has been waffling on certain decisions. Either several people needed to have input on a matter or there was nitpicking on content, layout, even the type of font we used. This led to spinning our wheels and ultimately a delay in completing projects, a very frustrating process to say the least.

With the method that my current team has in place, we’re able to look more at the bigger picture of creating the right message to convey how we help our community. We still pay attention to detail and want to present a quality product, and effective meetings allow us to do that. Lussier & Achua (2016) indicate that laying out objectives, breaking out topics to be covered, then going back to discuss action items are the three components that make a meeting most successful. I feel like we accomplish this in each meeting and have a sense of direction for what our department should be working on before the next one.

Technology plays a major role in moving our meetings along. We have a monitor in the conference room and so we’re able to see things on the screen and make adjustments as we notice something. This saves us a great deal of time, not to mention sheets of paper that we’re not having to print.

For me, the department meeting really is a chance to give my input on things and help improve upon our processes to do great things for the organization.

Reference

Lussier, R.N., & Achua, C.F. (2016). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

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Leadership Archive

It takes a village

My first two posts have talked about leadership and important attributes for a leader to have. Now I’m going to switch gears a bit here and look at the people who complete the process. Followers are crucial to making a leader effective. They work in concert with the leader on attaining organizational goals that will greatly benefit all parties. That’s right–ideally, the relationship between a leader and follower is one of mutuality where each supports each other rather than the person of “lesser” status doing much of the heavy lifting.

Even so, the follower still has to be committed to doing their part. A work ethic and loyalty are just two of the traits that John McCallum (2013) in Ivey Business Journal says a follower should possess. There are eight qualities in all which constitute a Boy Scout-Esque oath if you will, of prudent followership. Trustworthiness, good judgment, ability, courage, and tact are included as characteristics. Finally, McCallum says that a good follower can check his or her ego at the door to accomplish the task at hand.

It’s important that leaders be able to track whether objectives are being met. This ultimately means tracking the performance of followers to determine whether they are up to par as far as the guidelines of followership are concerned. According to Lussier & Achua (2016), the goal of evaluations is to provide an opportunity for the employee to understand strengths and weaknesses and gain further experience to grow in their careers. My opinion is that reviews should be treated as such by leaders rather than a means to reward or punish followers, though instances may occur that require appropriate intervention. It may also be helpful to use McCallum’s eight pillars as criteria for assessing performance.

A complication in the leader-follower relationship is the suitability of fraternization between the two. The United States military notably has had a policy prohibiting such a connection. Here it is an issue of maintaining discipline within the realm of the Armed Forces. Any breach of this discipline can create a decrease in morale and performance (Thompson, 1986). This could have devastating consequences in the course of combat.

Yet it would be to the detriment of the leader to completely close themselves off from those below them. They should make an effort to know who their followers are, what interests them, their family members and/or pets. The leader could also decide to have outings with followers at their home or a local bar, but they should take care to ensure that all members of the group are afforded the opportunity to participate. The leader also needs to maintain professionalism even off the clock.

The tips that are outlined above go a long way in reciprocating a relationship between a leader and follower that nurtures growth and innovation in the issues that both are collectively tackling.

References

Lussier, R.N., & Achua, C.F. (2016). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

McCallum, J.S. (2013, September/October). Followership: The other side of leadership. Retrieved from https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/followership-the-other-side-of-leadership/

Thompson, C.L., Jr. (1986, April). Fraternization: A military offense? [PDF File]. Retrieved from https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a168706.pdf

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Leadership Archive

Contingency leadership and the Big Ten models

This week I’ll be talking about theories of contingency leadership, defined by Lussier & Achua (2016) as a guideline of which leadership style is best suited for a particular situation. Some factors that must be considered include the disposition and experience of the leader; what the followers are able to do and whether they’re motivated to do it; and the project’s nature.

Looking back on the jobs I’ve had in communications over the years, there have been some differences in terms of the situation at hand. With news, I was putting out a product on a daily basis, so there was a great deal of urgency and thus the emphasis was on doing things the correct way. Outside of news, I’ve found that I have a bit more license as to how I do my job. The deadlines still remain, but they aren’t as frequent as they used to be. The culture where I am now is also a lot more supportive. Under the contingency leadership model, the objective is either dictated by the task itself or the need to build relationships (Lussier & Achua, 2016). My opinion is that the news business is much more task-focused, while nonprofit work is about building relationships out in the community.

In some ways, contingency leadership complements the ideas of what I like to call the “Big Ten models” because they were all introduced by researchers at Michigan, Ohio State, and my alma mater, Iowa, all who compete athletically in the Big Ten Conference. Each of these models that examine behavior closely reflects the contingency leadership idea because they indicate that leaders act based either on the job or maintaining relationships. Ohio State goes a little more in-depth, suggesting that leaders may prioritize the job, the employees, or both or neither equally. Iowa, meanwhile, focuses more on the personality of the leader themselves. Michigan’s model matches the contingency leadership theory the closest (Lussier & Achua, 2016).

Now as much as I love my Hawkeyes, I really have to give the nod to Ohio State in terms of behavior model preference just because it gives leaders a much more detailed analysis of how they carry themselves. Once armed with that knowledge, the leader can then assess whether their style fits the scenario in front of them and adapt as needed.

Reference

Lussier, R.N., & Achua, C.F. (2016). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.