People

Developing leaders together

Supporting leaders to enhance their skills and knowledge within Scotland's sporting system.

A learning and development opportunity will support sporting leaders to enhance their skills and knowledge within Scotland's world class sporting system. A new cohort of the Scottish Sporting Leaders Programme (SSLP), introduced by sportscotland, is to be launched, aimed at helping improve the leadership skills or increase the leadership capability of staff within the sporting sector throughout the country.

Each cohort will include a mix of delegates from local and national partners as well as sportscotland staff. Stewart Harris, Chief Executive of sportscotland, said;

"At sportscotland we believe that strong leadership will help deliver an inclusive world class sporting system and investing in the development of the professional staff within the sector is a priority for us."

"It’s exciting that for the first time in Scottish Sporting Leaders Programme history, we are delighted to be bringing together staff from both sportscotland and the wider sector to engage in a journey of learning and development together.”

What is the Scottish Sporting Leaders Programme?

The first cohort of the programme was launched in September 2018, giving participants a variety of different learning opportunities, each delivered by specialists Ethos Consulting.

These opportunities include team workshops, 360-degree feedback process and a personalised learning development programme. Bruce Milroy of delivery partners Ethos Consulting said;

“The programme has supported sporting leaders to enhance their existing skills and learn entirely new ways to manage through the huge changes that Covid-19 has created. The new cohort will continue to create new networks across Scotland, allowing participants to benefit from knowing other leaders who may have a different approach to a similar situation. As a result, the programme sustains a new way of working for us all, bridging gaps and making connections across many sporting partners.”

Jude Salmon, Active Schools manager for Edinburgh Council and a member of the first cohort, was excited by the spread of experience within the programme.

“I wanted to network more with other agencies in sport and broaden my network of people and learn more about areas other than Active Schools. I wanted to become a better leader and learn more about other ways of leading.”

What do I need to know?

The idea behind the programme is about creating a community of sporting leaders who can share ideas, offer each other support, and challenge each other to perform at an even higher level. For the first time in programme history, this new cohort will bring together staff from both sportscotland and the wider sector to engage in a journey of learning and development together.

Member of the most recent cohort, Jamie Smith, Development Manager at ClimbScotland, found the mix of experiences to be beneficial to his learning process;

“There is a real mixture of experience and variations of the impact on the sporting sectors. It’s been beneficial to hear how others have approached challenges and their personal reflections of this.”

For the next set of applicants, there will be a maximum of 32 delegates across two separate cohorts.

The timings associated for each cohort is given as part of the programme application process.

Bruce Milroy of delivery partners Ethos Consulting is excited to see the sector coming together in this manner to face the new challenges faced in a post-pandemic Scotland.

“The coronavirus pandemic has created multiple situations in our business lives that none of us have ever dealt with before. Working from home, managing teams from home, or managing the expectations of club members who want to play sport. As we move through 2021 into 2022 we will face new challenges - how do we manage “hybrid” teams where some team members are in the office whilst others are still at home? What does the future of sport look like post-pandemic, and how do we ensure that the digital platforms we’ve all become used to continue to add value for us in our new world? These are some of the topics we will cover in the 2021/22 Scottish Sporting Leaders Programme.”