Best Practice People
Management in Sport

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We cover best practice in People Management in sport! Find out all you need to know when it comes to succession planning, performance reviews, athlete induction programs and so much more. You may find our sections for our most recent articlesresources and materials, latest newsletters, or 5 Minutes with Bo Hanson video series valuable too.

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We are in the AITD 2020 Excellence Awards Finals

We are incredibly proud and excited with the news we recently received from the Australian Institute of Training and Development (AITD). Each year they preside over the national Excellence Awards and Athlete Assessments have just been announced as one of eight finalists in the Best Leadership Development Program Award. Prior winners range from large corporations and Australian household brands such as Coles, Blackmores Institute, Volkswagen Group, Government departments and top Universities, so it is truly an honor to be named a Finalist now and we have our fingers crossed for the winner announcement later this year.

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Prodigious Contribution to Coaching

When Georgia Southern University formally acknowledged Hal Wilson’s prodigious contribution to coaching and the community with the Waters College of Health Professions Award for Service, they recognized the thousands of hours that Hal (and many coaches for that matter) spend every year, when he mentors and coaches athletes and coaches, propelling them forward, taking steps alongside them as they fulfil their dreams.

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Marquette Makes Leaders

Leadership is not a role it’s an attitude; a state of mind, a way of behaving that inspires people around you to follow, hold similar beliefs, live similar values and work towards common goals.

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6 Reasons to Rethink 360 Observer Feedback Opportunities

The best teams take time to reward what’s going well, review what needs to be improved upon, and set plans to achieve future success. The same is true for individuals. How do they do this? One very effective way is to get feedback from others. Getting feedback from others in a formal way is called 360 Observer Feedback. The process is often perceived negatively, avoided by many, approached with trepidation or as a critical experience people must endure. BUT, we think it’s misunderstood and with some re-examining you too will know the value of 360 Observer Feedback.

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Google’s Management Tips Translated to Coaching

Google, the #1 search engine in the world, ranked the top 10 attributes common to its best managers. We found that those behaviors run parallel to characteristics displayed by the most successful leaders in sport. Google’s findings support our knowledge that the best in the world reach that rank because of their expertise in people management, not just technology, equipment or physical capabilities.

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Athlete Assessments’ Team Day

Every team needs to set aside time to re-connect, review goals and revisit values. Athlete Assessments is no different. We have four Team Days a year and the first one for 2019 saw us rock climbing, getting to know each other a little better from a DISC perspective and making some tough “Decisions” over a lunch menu!

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Engagement & Excellence in Sport and Recreation Management

The team at Texas A&M University-Commerce encourage engagement, energy and work ethic in all of their Health and Human Performance students. Faculty work together to deliver exceptional outcomes, making an immediate impact on students’ lives and their professional careers. In this article we talk to Dr Clay Bolton and Dr Anthony Rosselli about their curriculum, students, internships and building those all-important networks.

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University of Louisiana Athletics Leading the Way

When you visit University of Louisiana’s campus and see the new athletic facilities, a testament to the University’s investment in recent years, you’d understandably be impressed with their focus on the physical side of development. But, you would be misled. What you quickly learn, when you dig a little deeper, is that they are committed to a holistic approach to development across the entire Athletic Department.

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6 CRUCIAL Steps to Success in Taking Over a Program

Congratulations! You’ve just been recruited as the new Head Coach. Whatever circumstances led to your appointment, the fact remains; you need to turn this team around – fast. You’ve got to get important elements of the team on side and develop what’s left of the team culture into a culture that you want. A culture that develops growth and delivers performance. There are six non-negotiable elements to success in this situation.

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Self-knowledge Creates Career Opportunity

Chris McDonell graduated Saint Mary’s College of California with a B.A. in Politics and a minor in Spanish, but when it came to the interview process for a career in California’s Police Force, Chris’s superiors and interviewers thought one of his greatest strengths was his self-knowledge.

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Fast Track Your Team Rebuild

You have just been recruited as the new Head Coach, and unless your predecessor was successful and has moved up or decided to retire, then the program you’ve taken on has not been performing and it’s your job to turn that around – fast.

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People quit Bosses not Jobs because they are not Engaged

There is interesting research, based on a Gallup survey of reasons for people leaving their jobs, which shows nearly 75% of people decided to quit because of their boss or the managerial working environment, and only 35.4% of Americans felt engaged in their workplace. If you think about it, this creates a massive and unnecessary cost to businesses, especially when you consider the cause and the fact that these numbers are fixable.

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Are you Missing the Most Important Factor when Recruiting in Sport?

Recruiting. It’s fundamental to the success of any team and as coaches, you make an enormous investment in time with the aim to get it right. So often, coaches are looking for the X-factor or conversations are focused on a physical attribute of a particular player. Are you missing one of the most critical aspects for your team’s success? And, could the success factor come from an unlikely place?

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5 Minutes With Bo Hanson The Circle of Safety in Sport

The Circle of Safety in Sport

At Athlete Assessments when we work with clients one of the really critical models we refer to is the Circle of Safety. The Circle of Safety is not a concept we developed ourselves, it is taken from models such as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and it is also taken from a lot of the work Simon Sinek has been doing, and the book that he wrote Leaders Eat Last.

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Recruiting X Factor Athletes

By Bo Hanson, 4x Olympian and International Coaching Consultant  Coaches often think about recruiting X Factor athletes. But what is the X Factor? Is it a great technical ability, unwavering motivation or single moments of brilliance?

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Why a Sports Team’s Culture Matters

Culture is a buzz word in sport. Coaches often attribute their success or failure to this ambiguous word. But at the crux of it why should you care about your sports team’s culture? The short answer

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Sport Management Leadership and Coaching

Recently we saw a great article in the Harvard Business Review Blog Network by Monique Valcour, titled “You Can’t Be a Great Manager If You’re Not a Good Coach”. We thought it would be useful to discuss how this topic can be adapted for Sports Management Leadership.

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Learn more about Athlete Assessments

DISC Profiling

Learn how to master the people side of sport using DISC Profiling...

What We Do

We specialize in helping our clients create and sustain winning results...

Our Clients

See who we work with and read what they say about us...

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Bo Hanson

Senior Consultant & Director

Bo Hanson’s career within the sport and the business sector spans over 25 years, delivering leadership, management, and coach development. In addition to his own athletic career comprising of four Olympic appearances and including three Olympic medals, Bo has worked for many years with coaches and athletes from over 40 different sports across the globe. Bo was also the winner of the Australian Institute of Training and Development (AITD) 2023 Award for L&D Professional of the Year, for his dedication to L&D and transformational work across various industries.

After a successful career in sport including four Olympics and three Olympic Medals, Bo co-founded and developed Athlete Assessments in 2007. Bo now focuses on working with clients to achieve their own success on and off ‘the field’, and has attained an unmatched track-record in doing exactly this.

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BoRowing-Atlanta Olympics

Now, watch us interrupt him for a round of quick fire questions.