A new learning and development opportunity will support sporting leaders to enhance their skills and knowledge within Scotland's world class sporting system.
The Scottish Sporting Leaders Programme (SSLP), introduced by sportscotland, is aimed at helping improve the leadership skills or increase the leadership capability of Active Schools managers, sports development managers, heads of development and other senior members of staff throughout the country.
The programme
Lasting nine months, the SSLP will initially be delivered across two cohorts of 16 people, the first of which launched in September 2018.
Nomination and selection for the second cohort has just been finalised with a start date of January 2019. Each group will include a mix of individuals from across the sporting sector.
Jude Salmon, Active Schools manager for Edinburgh Council and a member of the first cohort, was excited by the spread of experience within the group.
Jude said: “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.”
By participating in the programme members can expect a variety of different learning opportunities, each delivered by specialists Ethos Consulting. These include team workshops, 360-degree feedback assessments and a personalised learning development programme.
The programme was designed this way to take into consideration the wide spectrum of learning styles. Stewart Harris, Chief Executive at sportscotland said:
"We believe that world class leadership will help deliver a world class sporting system for everyone and investing in the development of the professional staff within our networks is a priority for us."
Personal development
While the overall objective of the programme is to help generate higher-skilled leadership capabilities at the peak of the Scottish sporting system, each individual is entering the programme with his or her own goals.
Derek Keir, CEO at the Camanachd Association, said: “I am looking to have a greater understanding of my strengths and areas I need to work on.
"I believe one of [the programme’s] greatest attributes is to have some focused learning of leadership strategies from other sectors and developing ideas to help manage challenging situations that may arise.”
Another aim of the SSLP is to encourage participants to take their learning from the programme and develop and adapt their leadership styles beyond the end of the programme.
Jude Salmon said: “I am keen to learn how I am perceived as a leader in order to give me a better insight into what I can strengthen and improve on to ensure I work as effectively as I can with others."
Find out more
There are other SGB Learning and Development opportunities available from sportscotland.
Discover CPD and Training opportunities available for coaches at sportscotland.
