Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group, LLC Blog

Every fall, we host a team-building/appreciation event for our student staff at the beginning of the school year.  It is a mixture of games, team activities, and learning in a fun environment.  I find that it's an important event for a few reasons.  First off, it is a chance for a large chunk of the 400+ students that work for our facility to get to know each other when otherwise they might not have an opportunity to.  Secondly, it is an opportunity for us to teach them a number of things about the facility and what we do in general and impart some basic departmental philosophies in them.  Finally, it is a way to give back to them for the excellent job that most of them do and for us to say that we encourage them to enjoy what they do, who they work with, and where they work.  It takes some work to pull off during a busy time of year, but it is something that the students have really enjoyed participating in and we feel that it is not an opportunity to be missed.

Recreation centers, athletic and other university departments all over the country are staffed by large numbers of the very students that their university has been built to service.  While their contributions can range from simple office tasks to critical on-the-job training and internships, they are a crucial cog in making any department run smoothly.  Let me ask you this question though; how often do you take time out to recognize them for their contributions?  I know some departments where students are just employees paid to do a task, no different than a Walmart.  They fill out their timesheets, they receive their check and they are told when they do things well/poorly.  Shouldn't that be enough?  Well, if you expect the bare minimum of effort from your student staff, then yes, the bare minimum of attention is what you should provide.  If however, you are trying to cultivate an environment where your students are enjoying where they work and giving out a maximum effort as a result, then I would encourage you to try a little harder to recognize them.  It doesn't take a lot of effort on our part, but the results can be phenomenal. 

When is the last time that you thanked your students?  What are you doing tomorrow?

Shaun Bossio is the Assistant Business Manager and ProShop Manager at Boston University FitRec.
He can be reached at sbossio@bu.edu
 

Whose toes were you going to step on?

If you translate “I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes” from its ancient Latin roots you will find that it means, “I really didn’t want to perform job/task “x”, so this is my way out.”  When we use this “excuse” we are missing an opportunity to do the right thing. Yes, it takes a little extra effort and yes it may require you to work through your coffee break, and yes it will require you to become exceptionally unordinary at work.

But who wants to do ordinary work?

For arguments sake, let’s say you are sincere, (I’ll say it again for emphasis) and I mean really concerned that you’ll be stepping on someone’s toes.  Do it anyways.  Because when it comes to doing the right thing, it’s better to act now and apologize later. 

You’ll often find that there is never any apologizing and instead simply a thank you from the mouth of the toes you stepped on.

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

Do you like ice cream?

Do enjoy beer?

How many of you enjoy drinking beer and eating ice cream together?

Just because two things are both good, doesn’t mean that they are compatible or complimentary to one another and should go together.

The challenge with rehabbing an actively participating athlete is that the rehab in the sports medicine room may be good, and the strength exercises in the weight room may be good, and even some of the individual skill work on the court or field may be good as well.  However, whether it be total volume, or time frame within the week, all the the "good" parts, might just not be all that good together. 

The totality of all good things (or stressors) should be juxtaposed so that not one takes away from the one before, or the one after, but instead fit together to improve the athlete’s end performance profile.  The main obstacle which prevents all those professionals who are caring for that athlete from being on the same page is that each one usually presents an argument for why the athlete should do x,y and z from a posture which protects their own interest and not necessarily the interest of the athlete. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for arguing, as long as the arguing and debating is on behalf of the athlete and their best interest. 

So when you’re done arguing why your athlete just has to do 30 weighted jump squats, or that extra set of straight leg raises check with the guys and gals down the hall and make sure that the time spent doing those exercises are actually in the best interest of the athlete and not what’s best for you.  Because if you’re not willing to put all the pieces together for your athlete then you might just be serving beer sundaes this coming season.

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

If you show up 10 minutes late for work, but stay an extra 20 minutes at the end of the day, that’s a net of +10 minutes extra that you put into your day. You should be applauded for working overtime, right?
 
Maybe, but that probably won’t happen. Because at 8:30 a.m., when all the workers are at their desks ready to start the day, yours is noticeably empty. And trust me, people notice.
 
The simple act of getting to the office and being ready to work when the day starts shows your office that you are a team player. At the very least, being on time will help you avoid the devastating perceptions that come with habitual tardiness. In the age of Blackberries and iPhones, we can all send emails from bed at 11 p.m. But true commitment starts with being ready to work when it’s time to work.
 
Think about it: If you were the manager of a gym that opened at 6 a.m., do you think your customers will give you a pass when you open at 6:05? Do you think the prospective clients in California will enjoy listening to the background music while you are five minutes late for your conference call?
 
It’s no different in whatever job you have. Be on time. It’s an easy way to start your day right.

Mark Harris is the Assistant Director of Athletic Development at Northeastern University.

You ever walk into a old school barbershop? 

You know the place, one or two barbers cutting the same high and tight crew cut they’ve been performing for the past 30 years, and just behind them a row of guys sitting and yuking it up.

Everyone talking about what they’re going to do, what they did do, and how good they were when they were your age.  Everyone has a suggestion on how things should be run and how to do it better.

Just ask them.

They’ll tell you what they’d do if they were president, the pope and even God. But then ask them to tell you what exactly they would do differently from what is currently being done; exactly, and in no uncertain terms and they often go silent.

Staff meetings are a lot like Barbershops. One guy who has been there forever, doing the same things the exact same way that they have always done it, trying to convince you that you need that high and tight fade, even though you just asked for a little bit off the top.  And around the meeting table, just like the barbershop, a whole lot of people making suggestions on how to make improvements but no one offering to own their suggestion and see it through.

“Who wants to research, develop and implement plan B that was suggested?”

Silence.

If you can’t tell me exactly what you would like to see done differently compared to what is currently being done then you’re simply complaining.  Or as I like to say, you’re just talking Barbershop.

And no, I don't need that fade.

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

If it is clear that a goal will not be met, do not adjust your goal, adjust your action steps.

Literally.

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

I’m amazed at the thought process employed by some people when a desirable job opens up within their organization.  It doesn’t matter what the job is.  It could be the leader of a special interest group, a Graduate Assistant Position for an unemployed graduating senior student, or even the head of your special unit.  It’s as if some people just wait their whole life for the moment that these positions magically open, and then suddenly now, as if a giant obstacle has been removed from their path, they are suddenly ready to take on this new position and all the responsibilities that come with it.

Forget that last week they wandered into work an hour late, shirt unchecked, 5 o’clock shadow at 10 am and that the TPS reports that they still haven’t completed, were suppose to be handed in with the new cover sheet last week.

“I’m still waiting on Jimbo down in printing to get me the green stock paper to print it on boss.  As soon as I get that green paper I’ll be right on it.”

All of a sudden, now that more pay and a title change are available, a better effort is now worth putting forward. That now, getting to work early or at least on time is the right thing to do and that now tasks will be accomplished on time and with vigor. That now, customer service comes with a smile.  The trouble with now is, well now is simply just too late.

Because right now, you’ve already been interviewed for the past three years.

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

The next time you have the opportunity to implement a new technology or process to your line of work ask yourself; is it peanut butter or is it fluff?

 
Peanut butter is substantive, it is a great source of protein, and you can build a sandwich around it.  Fluff meanwhile, well it's fluff.
 
We live in an age where technology changes the way we work almost daily. For example, those massive printing budgets for media guides and workout packets which we once considered a cost of doing business, are a thing of the past. But if we take those savings and invest them in high-tech, video-laced digital media guides, what is our end result? At the end of the day, it is the same information, at the same (or greater) expense and a whole lot of fluff.
 
Maybe we should consider reallocating the old printing budget for summer workout packets towards actual exercise research to make more effective training programs?  In the case of media guides, rather than make the information we already share look more appealing with color and videos, why not invest in digitizing and organizing our historical statistics to offer a more comprehensive archive?
 
No matter what field or industry we work in, technology will continue to enhance the way we do our jobs. As managers and leaders, we need to be mindful of whether we are loading up on the peanut butter or on a whole lot of fluff.
 
 
Mark Harris is the Assistant Director of Athletic Development at Northeastern University.

Remember when you were in college? It was great wasn’t it?  Not a worry in the world, house gatherings every weekend, Jell-O shots and streaking through the quad! Ok, maybe not the streaking through the quad but you get my drift.

Remember also the time you were assigned a 10 page paper at the beginning of the semester and all of a sudden it’s 9pm on a Sunday night and its due the next morning by 8am.  As impossible as it seemed at first, you got it done didn’t you? And I’d even bet that you did better than average on it? 

When we remove ourselves from all distractions, from all the things that inevitably sabotage us from shipping, we are capable of wonderful and remarkable feats.  Yet, when we allow others, as well as ourselves, to constantly get in the way, we find that each workday is an ongoing struggle.  That each eight hour day wears on and on and yet at the end of it all; the day, the week, or the month we have little or nothing to show for the massive amount of time that we sat at our desk.

I know that phone call was important and that you had to reply to a customer inquiry, but that’s not what really kept you from shipping was it?

What amazing piece of work could you ship (Seth Godin calls in Art – “an original creation”) if you weren’t so busy updating your status on Facebook, tweeting that you just spilled your coffee on your new dress shirt, or checking the latest email chain about the office photocopier being broken again?

Don’t have Facebook? What about the clerical, custodial, and catering that you’ve continued to do?  The challenge now is to identify all the distracters that are preventing you from shipping after of course you’ve eliminated the 3-C’s from your work place.  So what in your day stops you from shipping?

Hold that thought, someone just tagged me on Facebook, I’ll be right back…

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

It's summer and those of us in the collegiate realm realize that this is the time when the vast majority of the staff take their allotted vacation.  The Executive Director of our department walks into my office this week and tells me that both he and the Associate Director will be out of the office for a few days and that as we have discussed, everyone will be reporting to me during that time.  "Sure," I say, "I will write up a full report of the changes I make while you're gone and be sure to appraise you when you get back so we don't miss a beat."  We share a quick laugh and go about our business, but it also gets me thinking; what would I do if I were in charge?  I take some time to ponder things like the areas I would keep a closer eye on and the tasks I would delegate to members of my staff.  I wonder about areas for potential growth that I've seen and how I would take advantage of it.  I think about all these things and more for a while, then go about the reality of my position.

The question is, do you really have to be the director of your area in order to enact positive change?  Sure, you will need approvals to set some changes in motion, but this is why you were hired.  You were brought on board to improve the function of your workplace, not be a bookmark for its current state.  Some people look at a problem within their area and say things like, "Well, I'm not in charge" or "I don't get paid for that".  These people are either ill equipped to evaluate the situation around them or just too lazy to care.  The reality is that we are all empowered to bring about a positive change to our workplace, some of us just aren't motivated to do so.  Get motivated.  Sure, you are not in charge now, but keep this up and maybe someday soon you will be.

Shaun Bossio is the Assistant Business Manager and ProShop Manager at Boston University FitRec.
He can be reached at sbossio@bu.edu