18 October 2022

The British Olympic Association – Leadership Development

Leading Edge are excited to begin a bespoke leadership development programme for The British Olympic Association (BOA) next month.

We’re thrilled to work with The BOA again to help develop its next generation of leaders, people likely to take a leadership role at the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games – and beyond.

Ahead of Tokyo 2020, we were involved in preparing people leaders for ‘Games-time’, a period every four years when many BOA colleagues transition from their day-to-day roles to managing groups of volunteers or specialists from across the globe.

The BOA is strong on succession planning for people leadership positions. Through this multi-faceted programme, which weaves in the annual Performance Management Review, we’ll support high-potential people nominated for development with a combination of cohort sessions and individual coaching as well as group work on a strategic business project led by a member of the Senior Leadership Team.

This programme focuses on leadership development while building a cross-functional cohort of future leaders that will learn from and develop alongside one another.

About The British Olympic Association

The British Olympic Association (BOA) is the National Olympic Committee for Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The BOA selects ‘Team GB’ from the best athletes who will go on to compete in the summer and winter Olympic sports at the greatest sporting competition in the world.

The BOA was formed in 1905, at that time consisting of seven National Governing Body (NGB) members from the sports of fencing, life-saving, cycling, skating, rowing, athletics, rugby, football and archery. It now includes as its members the 42 NGBs of each Olympic sport, both summer and winter.

Great Britain is one of only five countries to have been represented at each summer Olympic Games since 1896 and has also played host to three Olympic Games, all held in London (1908, 1948 and 2012) – making England’s capital the only city to have staged the Games on three separate occasions.

 

Team Coach Insights

Patrick McMaster

Leading Edge Team Coach

Leading Edge Team Coach Patrick McMaster talks about what this programme means to him:

“When ‘1980s decathlon dynamo’ Daley Thompson is your childhood hero, not much can beat being a Leading Edge Team Coach working alongside The British Olympic Association! I have a strong love of sport in general, but the Olympics are right up there, so it’s amazing to be able to make a small contribution to a really significant group of people.

Having said that, ‘Olympians’ are just people doing their best at something. On one level, The BOA is such an important organisation, helping Olympians to do their best – but people who work at The BOA are just like anyone else: they have struggles, they face challenges, they need to make choices. And the people I’ve met so far are incredibly committed to the organisation; they’re as committed to their organisation, and to the great countries it represents, as anyone I’ve ever worked with.

As a Team Coach, I relish working with committed people, so I’m thrilled to be starting a development journey with future leaders who work in an environment and for an event that inspired me growing up.”