Leadership & Decision-Making

CASE STUDIES: LEADERSHIP & DECISION-MAKING I PRIME MINISTERS’ SPORTING ORATION 2018 Booklet_Leadership & decision making v5.indd 1 18/10/18 2:55 pm FOREWORDS Dr Campbell A. Rose AM CHAIR, PRIME MINISTERS’ SPORTING ORATION The idea for the Prime Ministers’ Sporting Oration (PMSO) was to develop a leadership initiative to bring together corporate and philanthropic Australia with the politicians and policy-makers who influence and shape the future direction of investment in grassroots sport in our nation. With your leadership, we are investing in four key causes areas which require critical attention in our country: women & girls in sport; physical activity; diversity & inclusion and leadership & decision-making. In approaching the Australian Sports Foundation to auspice this event, the PMSO will play a trusted and pivotal role in shaping the federal policy agenda regarding sport. On behalf of the PMSO organising committee, we thank all those who have supported this initiative to date, showing the kind of foresight needed to invest in grassroots sport for the benefit of our youth and future leaders. When considering the stature of an athlete or for that matter any person, I set great store in certain qualities which I believe to be essential in addition to skill. They are that the person conducts his or her life with dignity, with integrity, courage, and perhaps most of all, with modesty. These virtues are totally compatible with pride, ambition, and competitiveness. “THE DON” SIR DONALD BRADMAN AC, AUSTRALIAN CRICKETER Booklet_Leadership & decision making v5.indd 1 18/10/18 2:55 pm Patrick Walker CEO, AUSTRALIAN SPORTS FOUNDATION The Australian Sports Foundation was set up by the Federal Government in 1986 to raise philanthropic money for Australian sport. For details on how we do this, and to learn how sports clubs, schools and athletes all over Australia can benefit from our tax-deductible status, please turn to page 17. We believe passionately in the power of sport to enhance lives, and are committed to helping all Australians – regardless of gender, ability, cultural or social background – to enjoy the health and community benefits of sport. We are proud to lead this initiative for the benefit of all Australians, and thank Campbell Rose for bringing his concept to us. I would also like to thank the Organising Committee, and our Partners, supporters and donors for their generous support. Together, we will help create a healthier, more active Australia. “You can’t always control circumstances. However, you can always control your attitude, approach, and response. Your options are to complain or to look ahead and figure out how to make the situation better.” TONY DUNGY (NFL PLAYER AND COACH) Booklet_Leadership & decision making v5.indd 2 18/10/18 2:55 pm FAST FACTS LEADERSHIP & DECISION-MAKING 62 % OF AUSTRALIANS THINK AUSTRALIAN ATHLETES OUR ATHLETES ARE AS YOUNG AS 12 ARE POSITIVE ROLE-MODELS1 USING PERFORMANCE- ENHANCING SUBSTANCES2 $ 60% IS AUSTRAL9.7BIA’S TURNOVER THINK ELITE AND HIGH- IN THE SPORTS WAGERING PERFORMANCE SPORT MARKET IN 2015-16 IN AUSTRALIA HAS HIGH (AN INCREASE OF 35% ON INTEGRITY4 2014-15 ESTIMATES)3 STATE OF THE NATION PHYSICAL INACTIVITY IS THE FOURTH-LEADING CAUSE OF CHRONIC HEALTH PROBLEMS IN AUSTRALIA5 WITHOUT INTERVENTION, AUSTRALIA COULD FACE $88 billion IN EXTRA HEALTH COSTS OVER THE NEXT DECADE6 03 PRIME MINISTERS’ SPORTING ORATION 2018 Booklet_Leadership & decision making v5.indd 3 18/10/18 2:55 pm THE CASE FOR CHANGE Sport has a unique capacity to “unite people in a way that little else does” NELSON MANDELA ustralia has long been regarded as a nation of high integrity when it comes to sport. At an international level, our athletes have historically had an enviable reputation for success underpinned by fairness.7 Such performances canA instill pride in a nation and foster cohesion in communities around Australia.8 Australia’s sports industry also acts a “soft power” on the global diplomatic stage, shoring up Australia’s identity, values and cultures.9 In recent times, however, there have been substantial threats to that reputation, including but not limited to the Essendon Football Club supplements saga (beginning in 2011) and the Australian men’s cricket team ball-tampering scandal (2018). These examples and others have weakened Australians’ perception of whether our athletes are positive role-models (with 62% responding ‘yes’ in 2018) and whether elite and high-performance sport in Australia has high integrity (60% ‘yes’).10 As outlined by the national review into Australia’s Sports Integrity Arrangements, “public loss of confidence in sport has direct consequences for the health, economic, social and cultural benefits that sport generates, and undermines significant Government investment in sport (more than AU$300million in 2016-17).11 PRIME MINISTERS’ SPORTING ORATION 2018 04 Booklet_Leadership & decision making v5.indd 4 18/10/18 2:55 pm THE CASE FOR CHANGE The National Integrity of Sport Unit defines sports integrity as: The manifestation of the ethics and values which promote community confidence in sports, including: — fair and honest performances and outcomes, unaffected by illegitimate enhancements or external interests, and — positive conduct by athletes, administrators, officials, supporters and other stakeholders, on and off the sporting arena, which enhances the reputation and standing of the sporting contest and of sport overall.12 Ethical conduct must be driven by leadership, with research showing that leadership has the strongest impact on culture and behaviour – including integrity transgressions – in organisations.13 Outside of the sporting arena, recent times have seen glaring failures of ethics and leadership, with poor decision-making often driven by personal greed, laid painfully bare in the revelations of the recent Royal Commission into Banking and Financial Services,14 as only one example. Ethical leaders “practice what they preach” and are proactive role-models for conduct driven by values,15 while leadership is predictive of the performance of individuals and teams in both business and sport.16 HOW WE CAN MAKE GRASSROOTS SPORTS HAPPEN CORPORATE FUNDING 02 — Corporate CSR investment — Government funding PHILANTHROPY — State funding — to PMSO — to other ASF programs 03 — to ASF Charitable Fund 01 VOLUNTEER SUPPORT — Sport leaders — Mums and Dads — Community 05 PRIME MINISTERS’ SPORTING ORATION 2018 Booklet_Leadership & decision making v5.indd 5 18/10/18 2:55 pm Thankfully, we know that sport is an outlet through which children can learn important leadership, ethical and decision-making skills. Physical activity, for example, positively influences concentration, memory and classroom behaviour, while structured sports participation positively influences school grades, reduces dropout rates for both male and female students and results in higher levels of post-secondary education.17 Recent trends have shown that as a nation, we need to increase our focus on the grassroots – as well as in our schools – to use the capacity of sport to foster these important life skills and inculcate ethical behaviour in our children.18 The value placed on winning and success cannot outweigh the importance of learning what it means to be a good teammate, or sportsperson, and maintaining the integrity on which sport – and life – ought to be based. PRIME MINISTERS’ SPORTING ORATION 2018 06 Booklet_Leadership & decision making v5.indd 6 18/10/18 2:56 pm CASE STUDY ESSENDON SUPPLEMENTS SAGA – A “CLASSIC FAILURE OF GOVERNANCE” Culminating in the federal government’s 2018 review into Australia’s Sports Integrity Arrangements, the nation has recently undertaken significant steps to rebuild sporting integrity and public trust following what was dubbed the “crisis” or “blackest day” in Australian sport in 2013.19 The so-called “crisis” referred to the release of the Australian Crime Commission’s report into organised crime in sport,20 as well as the revelation that Essendon had “self- reported” to ASADA over the club’s supplements program undertaken during the 2012 AFL season and pre-season.21 Over the next three years, the Essendon football club was investigated by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA)22 and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)23 over the legality of the program. In 2011, the club hired sports scientist Stephen Dank to oversee a supplements-based program aimed at accelerating recovery and repairing players’ soft tissue.24 Players were then injected with substances such as AOD-9604, colostrum, tribulus and an unspecified variety of “thymosin” amongst others.25 After four years of investigations, mage courtesy Rawpixel WADA and the Court of Arbitration for Sport found 34 players guilty of having used the I banned peptide Thymosin beta-4, resulting in two years of suspensions.26 The club was also fined $2m, the largest fine imposed on a club in the history of Australian sport, losing the right to play in the 2013 finals series, while Essendon were also stripped of draft picks.27 Head coach James Hird was suspended for 12 months,28 while Stephen Dank was later banned for life by the AFL.29 The AFL report into the practices undertaken at Essendon claimed the club had engaged in a wide range of governance failures, and “engaged in practices that exposed players to significant risks to their health and safety as well as the risk of using substances that were prohibited by the AFL Anti-Doping Code and the World Anti-Doping Code”.30 A “whatever it takes” attitude was blamed for these transgressions,31 and in reflecting on what he termed a “mistake of the highest magnitude”, Lindsay Tanner, Chairman of the club, admitted that the 2012 programme amounted to a “classic failure of governance”.32 “We all absorb signals from people in leadership about what’s acceptable and what’s not. Whether it’s coming from the boardroom or cabinet, people take in these cues and modify their behaviour accordingly. That’s why how you behave as a leader in an organisation is so important.

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