The Sports Governance College is now offering them a lifeline.

A new training program is being offered by the College called The Sports Governance Education Program™. It is designed to help Board members in driving and sustaining the success of their sports organizations though better governance and risk management.

The program is taught by world class governance experts and is intended for board members and executive directors of sport organizations of all sizes.

The program involves six, three hour evening sessions, taught once a week from 6:30 to 9:30 pm at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton, Ontario, starting March 21st. Cost is $600 for each registrant and even includes a light dinner each evening.

Session topics include:

1.      The Principles of Good Sports Governance

2.      Roles, Responsibilities, Accountabilities and Culture

3.      Introduction to “basic” Financial Literacy

4.      Good Boards Need Good Directors

5.      Developing Strategic Thinking vs. Strategic Planning

6.      Risk Management

The program is officially endorsed by the Burlington Sport Alliance, Sport Hamilton and two CFL football teams (The Toronto Argos and BC Lionss)!

For more information or to register, please go to: https://sportsgovernancecollege.com or email chrisbart@sportsgovernancecollege.com

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The Sports Governance College™ promotes the highest standards of professionalism in the governance of sports organizations of all sizes – local, provincial and national. Its goal is to provide educational programs that will acquaint Board members and Executive Directors with their governance options, their implementation, best practices, and their consequences.

War Amps of Canada

Children’s Wish Foundation

Canadian Cancer Society

The Royal Ontario Museum

While it is commonly known that Canadian charities are not legally bound to disclose their audited financial statements, the question remains: Do they have an ethical or moral obligation to do so? The answer is yes.

Many assume that because an organization is not for profit in nature it will have in place organizational strategies that are ethically guided and based on the principles of good governance. Having said this, perhaps it’s time to remind Canadian charities of a fundamental principle of good governance: there must be a high degree of accountability and transparency in their operations and finances. To be accountable, charities must especially be willing to provide information of different types to their various stakeholders. This includes their mission, their front-line activities, and their sources and uses of donated funds.

Most charities can only succeed in achieving their mission by receiving financial donations from the public. In order to continue to do so, they must maintain a high level of public trust. How do these organizations expect to instil trust by society when they outright refuse to publish their financials? It only makes sense that charitable donors have the right to know how their money is being spent. They need to know what portion of a charity’s income actually reaches the end cause as opposed to being absorbed by management salaries, marketing activities and “reserves”. By failing to make public their financial information, charitable organizations are clearly undermining some of the most basic principles of good governance. In fact, when you think about it, charities are really owned by society. And so, society – the public – should therefore have access to the charity’s financial accounts.

Why some charitable organizations refuse to disclose their financial statements is a loaded question. Accordingly, we need to be careful not to jump the gun and simply assume that when this happens, such organizations are engaged in devilish and unethical practices. Perhaps their boards have simply not yet considered the benefits and obligation in doing so. For the most part, Canadians continue to trust their charitable organizations. However, over the course of the next few years, Canadians must continue to push for greater financial transparency. Wise charitable organizations, in turn, will not view this as a necessary evil but rather as an opportunity to reassure donors and reinforce the very high level of trust that society places in them.

Indeed, the true test of any mission statement’s worth, and worthiness, lies in its ability to inspire, control and influence employee behaviour. It’s also the job of corporate and institutional leaders to make sure this happens.

While it is beyond the scope of today’s blog to delve into all of the activities required to become a mission driven organization (for that you have to read my 2011 Business Best Seller, A Tale of Two Employees and the person who wanted to lead them), I can however outline a few strategies wise leaders must consider when developing and implementing an effective, behaviour influencing mission statement:

Only by incorporating the above mentioned practices can a company ever expect their mission statement to have an effect on their employees. It’s that simple . . . really!! Failing to do so will result, I can assure you, in having a mission statement that is hardly worth the paper it is written on.

My closing thought:

For any corporation to successfully develop and implement a mission statement, it must possess a team of well-trained, engaged employees who are committed to upholding it. And what are the consequences of not being mission driven? Chaos, confusion and contempt. Just ask any failing organization.

Moreover, when a company’s performance goes well, the board get’s to take credit along with management – and often does. But when a company fails, it’s almost always only management who pays. They get fired – and typically with millions in severance. Directors, however, need to know and demonstrate to shareholders that there are “job related consequences” for them – along with management – when company performance fails. They too should be replaced….and even volunteer to do so. Now that’s accountability!

On January 10th 2012 my book A TALE OF TWO EMPLOYEES was ranked as the #4 Best Selling Business Book in Canada for 2011…this is the 9^th consecutive year that the book has appeared on the list (#1 in 2010).

 

For the record, I have spent most of my academic career unraveling the mystery of mission statements – the most popular management tool in the world and yet equally among the most despised. What I have found is that a well crafted, communicated and coordinated mission can make the difference between mind boggling and mediocre performance.

The starting point is in their creation which must answer the question: why do we exist. Easy to ask. Hard to answer. The secret lies in understanding that every organization exists because it is able to attract and retain the loyalty of multiple stakeholders (external and internal)who support the organization through different means: capital, purchases, labour and social licence.

Massively mistreat any one stakeholder upon whom you are significantly dependent as an organization, and you are toast….you will not exist. Plain and simple.

Mission statements however are just words found on a piece of paper or at a lobby entrance. To make them real, they need to be translated (word for word) and communicated (over and over again), though measurable objectives, programs and tactics. And all this needs ultimately to be coordinated in some kind of symphonic-like set of organizational systems and processes because, if not, the mission music will just be a lot of conflicting noise.

Creating a mission driven organization is a lot of hard work for sure….but, the payoff from creating one is definitely there…and not just for the shareholders who get to enjoy excellent returns but also for the customers with outstanding products,for the employees with secure and rewarding careers and for communities who benefit from having the “corporation” as a responsible “resident citizen”.

Corporations must make a profit to exist…but those profits, if they are to be both superior and sustainable, will only happen when all stakeholders, not just the shareholders, benefit/profit from the existence of the corporation. So, corporations must make money/profits to exist but how they make those profits is the key to the corporation’s long term success.

Great mission statements espouse this thinking and brilliant leaders turn the words of their mission into action. My research over the years bears this out.