3 TIPS TO GET ALONG GREAT WITH YOUR ATHLETIC DIRECTOR
1. Communication, communication, communication
The most important thing that you can do in order to get along great with your Athletic Director is to communicate!
Most Athletic Directors are very busy. They are either teachers who have a small window every day to get their athletic duties done, or they are administrators who have vice principal duties nagging at their time all day. Do your best to answer their emails and phone calls right away.
Most of the time an Athletic Director is trying to reach you, it is very important and it is time sensitive. So, communicate in a timely fashion with your AD to stay in his good graces.
I once had to have an answer about a trip that a team wanted to take, an overnight trip out of the area. There was one question on a form that the head coach didn’t answer. Well, I got that form about five minutes before our administrative meeting where this trip would need to be approved, to go on the board meeting agenda that very night. If not on the board meeting agenda for final approval (they approved all overnight trips), the team would not be going on this trip because there wasn’t another board meeting before the trip date.
First area the head coach messed up there, he failed to turn the form in to me in a timely fashion for me to review it and clear up any questions I might have had.
So, that was poor written communication right there.
I returned his email with the trip request about three minutes after he sent it saying “Call me right away on this trip request.” Then, about a minute later, five minutes before my admin meeting, I called him and said “We have to talk about this field trip, call me back ASAP coach.” Then, I texted him my question about the information I needed.
I didn’t hear back from the coach for about three hours.
The meeting was only two and a half hours. We couldn’t get the admin approval during that meeting to get it on the board meeting agenda. That is just one example of very poor communication from a head coach – poor written and poor verbal communication.
The first tip to Get Along Great With your AD: C-O-M-M-U-N-I-C-A-T-E
Read Fore’s 5 Keys To Creating A Winning Atmosphere here
Chris Fore is a veteran high school football coach and Athletic Director from Southern California. He earned his Masters’ degree in Athletic Administration, and is a Certified Athletic Administrator with the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators’ Association. Follow @coachfore on Twitter. Please visit www.eightlaces.org to see the various athletic manuals he has published.
