Managerial experience A
How the people running bowls can learn from Sir Alex Ferguson BY BRYAN DALY
s a Manchester United die-hard, I was delighted to see Sir Alex Ferguson celebrate 25 years in charge of the club recently. The word ‘legend’ is thrown around quite carelessly these days but, in the case of Sir Alex, it is entirely fitting. Quite simply, he is Manchester United as far as a lot of people are concerned and all of us, even those of in involved in bowls, can learn a lot from his example. You see, behind every great club, there is an even greater manager. Somebody who is prepared to take risks, make unpopular decisions and give in to their gut instinct every now and again.
It is that ruthless streak, that organisational nous and that unquenchable thirst for success that separates the truly great managers from the run-of-the-mill. A bog standard manager is the sort of person who is quite content to mosey along, play it safe and hope that they get lucky from time to time. But what use is that?
Just look at the success the Bowls England teams have had under the stewardship of John Bell. Commonwealth and Atlantic glory doesn’t just happen by chance or by raw talent. It requires good, practical and considered management. It’s the same with clubs, where every day-to-day function at grass-roots level requires careful management to avoid things going pear-shaped. My local indoor club in Ballymoney is proof of that.
It is going to close at the end of this season and there are a number of factors for that. We cannot seem to attract new members, our existing members are leaving and our running costs have gone up.
But, if you ask me, the closure has been inevitable for a while now because the place hasn’t been managed properly. When you have two secretaries appointed in the one calendar year and next to no delegation whatsoever, you’re going to struggle to be successful, never mind stay afloat. So, it’s really no surprise to me that my club is closing. More could and should have been done to save it. But, hey, if you have the wrong people in charge at the wrong time, things are going to go, well, wrong.
One organisation that does seem to have made a wise managerial appointment recently is Bowls Scotland. The newly- amalgamated body named David Gourlay as its new head coach, much to the delight of just about every bowler in the country. David is enormously well- respected and has the kind of record that most bowlers can only dream of emulating. He has been there, done that and got the T-shirt. He is, in short, just the man to have in charge of the country’s top bowlers. He’s got a tough job on his hands, all the same, especially with the spectre of the Commonwealth Games on home soil looming large on the horizon.
Scotland had a disaster in Delhi in 2010, returning home without even one medal for the first time since 1958 and only the fourth time in the history of bowls in the Games, so much will be expected of David in terms of righting that wrong in front of a home crowd in 2014.
It would be a silly person who would bet against him doing so, though. He will take the role seriously and give it his all - like any good manager should - and I expect he will prove to be a revelation in the post.
Of course, those of us who are officials aren’t immune to needing good management, too, and, in the interests of the game continuing to evolve and grow at all levels, it is imperative that we always look to try and improve our standards. We need to be pro-active at looking to see ways in which we can improve our performances, so that the game is marshalled effectively, fairly and, most important of all, accurately. On the World Bowls Tour, we have a really good team,
sides of the rinks with their arms folded and barking instructions at the guys on the green (not that we would want that, of course) but we cannot afford to take a blasé approach to management. It’s such an important part of the game that, when it goes wrong, it goes wrong spectacularly. Again, just look at my home club. Or, alternatively, look at Nigel Worthington, the football manager who was, until recently, in charge of the Northern Ireland football team. We had a really
Bowls can learn a lot from Sir Alex Ferguson’s style of management
comprising Allan Thornhill, Andy Ewens, Mike Davies, Sandra McLeish and myself and we have quite a unique relationship in that we all pretty much manage one another. We’re constantly pushing each other to up our games, so to speak, and I hope that shows in the way we officiate on the matches.
Perhaps bowls’ very own Sir Alex Ferguson is out there right now, waiting to be discovered
It always strikes me as funny - in the ‘odd’ sense of the word - that management isn’t given more credence in bowls. Okay, so we’re never going to have guys in raincoats stalking the
good little team on the go until he took the reins and, during his time in charge, no-one would deny the team went backwards. Just like every good ship needs a captain and every good plane needs a pilot, every serious sport requires a manager, regardless of the level the game is being played at.
Who knows, perhaps bowls’ very own Sir Alex is out there right now, waiting to be discovered, reading this column. If so, let’s hope he makes himself known to us.
NationwideBowler 33
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