By Tim Sloan
The best way to advance people in your organization, to sound like Yogi Berra, is to advance ’em. If they are willing and desiring to try and you’ve put a good development initiative into place, the odds are in your favor. Like the tightrope walker, again, if someone’s willing to get on the wire in the first place, then, after the first 15 feet or so, it doesn’t matter how high he or she goes — if they’re going to succeed, they’re going to succeed. If they aren’t, well. … Your job is to set them up for success. I contend that the best way to do it is forget about what could go wrong and plan for success. This is way better than initiating people by substituting them for people with pulled hamstrings or broken legs; advance them up the ladder according to a plan. In the long run, the organization and them will be better off for it.
What are some of the potential roadblocks to this approach and how do you deal with them?
Seniority: You’ll always have individuals among your members who believe the only path to better assignments is liberal attrition. In essence, when enough people drop out of the guild, the plum jobs should be theirs by default. When you then turn around and say that one of the “new” kids is going to get a couple of those sought-after assignments, there will be some red faces: Tough. Maybe then, they’ll get the message and realize you were serious when you said your development program was intended to improve the overall breed.
Lack of support: Statisticians in the Middle Ages noted a trend where knights had considerably more longevity if they remembered to wear their armor to work. Similarly, if you’re going to send one of the newbies to work at a higher level than they have previously, find out what kind of support they need.
Resistance from the participants: Many leagues, of course, keep lists of approved officials and take a dim view of cavalier switching of officials. Fortunately, many league commissioners are hip enough to understand that development takes experience and experienced officials make them look good. So, a phone call ahead of time to the commissioner, combined with your reputation for not being reckless about these things, will usually get you approval to trot out a new person under the right circumstances. Always grease the skids with the people writing the checks when you put new officials onto a particular landscape.
You: If you are a responsible and reasonable person — always a possibility if you’ve been elected to a leadership role — you are keenly aware that the firestorm will burn your house down if your exercise in advancement goes awry. OK, maybe Moses couldn’t have kept this game under wraps, but everybody these days seems to want a scapegoat or, at least, an apology for failed conscientious actions. So, you might not be prone to wanting to take that risk. I like to play the percentages. Over the course of a season, the odd person may miss on an assignment through injury or other obligations, but far more disappear at the end of the season leaving not one, but perhaps a dozen, assignments to be filled the next year: Continuing to challenge your members and foster their development on your terms will pay handsome dividends when filling the big voids. When people are developed, rather than simply thrown into situations, they succeed far more often. Occasionally, granted, the odd person misses the brass ring and generates some negative press — but then, some guys or gals who have worked for 30 years can stink the joint out, too. “What was he thinking?” they might ask of your decision to run a new person into a tough game.
The answer is, you were thinking that your organization only grows by growing the people in it. Trust your system and good things will happen.
Tim Sloan, Davenport, Iowa, is a high school football, basketball and volleyball official, and a former college football and soccer official.
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