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Following on from this week’s interview with Phil Andrews, CEO of USA Weightlifting (USAW), Business Of Sport asks him how he runs an organization with over 27,000 active members across the US.
What do you think are the key assets of a CEO to help grow an organisation?
“The most important asset for me is to lead with empathy at all times. There are many different ways to lead organisations, but I believe staff will produce their best work when they feel valued and I am lucky to have such a dedicated and hard-working team at USAW.
During my tenure, I’ve placed a big emphasis on changing the culture within the sport in the United States and feedback from our members has suggested that we are getting things right in that regard.”
Can you explain how you try to drive decisions for this national governing body?
“Every decision that I make is made with the organisation in mind and with the intention of promoting and growing the sport of weightlifting in the United States. I think it’s always important to have a network of individuals that you can trust and liaise with should they have expertise in a particular area that you can benefit from, assuming the information is not confidential.
I’m a firm believer that we have two ears and one mouth and as a result we should do twice as much listening as we do talking.”
Do you feel you’ve helped change the culture of the organisation since taking over? If so, how?
“As CEO, I think that you should always ask yourself three questions. Why are we doing this? Who/what cause are we helping? And what are we trying to achieve? For me, this is about considering the needs of the people in your organisation, whether that’s a junior hire or an executive joining the company board.
As mentioned, the key to achieving a positive culture is to lead with empathy and you should never try and implement widespread change in an organisation without speaking to key staff and sourcing their opinions first.
In an organisation like ours, that extends to our key stakeholders – the athletes and the coaches – who are really both our customers and stakeholders in our case, and for our elite athletes we are also funding their income, in our case up to $4000 per month.“
