Athletes and Management behaving badly. It’s nothing new. Recent developments in Australian sport make you wonder, why? when? and how?
Why are athletes calling press conferences to ‘state’ their position, prior to official discussions with their employer?
Why are professional sporting bodies calling press conferences, prior to the completion of official investigations?
When did these ‘scare them into submission’, ‘air our dirty laundry’ tactics become an appropriate form of professional issues management?
And how, did the power base of Australian sport shift so significantly that the CCA calls the major Australian sporting codes, yet fails to produce representatives of Olympic sports like swimming to discuss failures in team and drug management.
I’m a proud Australian, a keen observer of sport both here and abroad and a professional communicator.
I suspect, I am also not the only person who finds the emergent ‘trial by media’ practice of sports management, abhorrent.
The Business of Australian Sport will suffer. And it really doesn’t need to.
Athletes and management excited about being in sports management, will always stumble.
The trick is to put supports in place that provide the requisite guidance to ensure professional development both on and off the pitch.
This is not always easy in our new world of instagram, twitter and all things social media.
So as we evolve our understanding of dialogic interaction, thanks to the prevelance of mobile and social media communications and technologies, let’s not forget the art of conversation and what in fact constitutes 'best practice'.