Thanks to Alan Vincent for this Article.  It can be downloaded here: Thoughts on Performance Collapse

Content always welcome.

WHEN OUR OFFICIATING PERFORMANCE FALLS BELOW PAR

There must be quite a few experienced officials like me who struggle a little with the column on the Record of Experience which invites us to list “What Did You Learn?” No, emphatically no, it is not because we feel we know it all and have nothing more to learn. But it can be genuinely challenging, more often than not, to identify meaningful new learning – and to conjure up satisfactory words to describe any such learning.

However, I was motivated to some new thinking on one aspect of my experience and learning by my attendance at a recent Competition Management Award (CMA) course. I sat in on part of Moira Gallagher’s Leadership module. When Moira elaborated on the factor of ‘performance collapse’ it triggered some specific thoughts. We UK officials pride ourselves, rightly I believe, in being a very professional volunteer workforce. Fortunately, we do not see ‘performance collapse’ very often. But when we do it is serious enough for us to ask why it occurs. I think that extreme tiredness is one cause of which we are pretty well aware. There is the current struggle to adhere to the eight-hour competition guideline, with widespread acknowledgement of the fact that the individual official’s commitment does not end with the eight hours of competition: it is not uncommon to see the addition of several hours’ travel to and from the venue and/or a variable amount of preparation and/or post-event time – and I am only including, for present purposes, time spent on the day of competition.

In other cases, ‘performance collapse’ may relate to factors outside athletics such as health, a house move, other family matters, or work stress. For reasons like these, the performance of a normally competent official may fall below par even from an early stage of the meeting.

In a small but significant number of cases, a tendency towards ‘performance collapse’ is triggered by negative or even destructive criticism of the official by a colleague. Whether through pressure or an ill-conceived sense of competitiveness, even some experienced officials can occasionally be guilty of criticising a colleague in a destructive manner that can actually cause such a loss of confidence that it leads to ‘performance collapse’.

Whatever the reason, Moira’s presentation set me to thinking about the role of officials when we do come across examples of ‘performance collapse’. I am assuming that it is a colleague rather than ourselves that is suffering in some degree from a lapse in performance level (whilst remembering that we should not regard ourselves as exempt). Our own role may be one of senior official with some form of relevant responsibility (eg NTD, Referee, Chief, Manager or Assessor) or it may be simply one of colleague official. Whatever our role, any sort of intervention needs to be appropriate and well directed. It should also take into account both the health and wellbeing of the individual official and the the smooth running of the meeting. If at all possible, any intervention should be discreet and conducted in a private and confidential way. Circumstances may occasionally mean that something has to be said or done quickly and in the presence of other officials. But it should still be possible for this to happen without the ‘failing’ official having the feeling that they are being censured publicly. Any failing on the part of an official should certainly not be addressed by way of radio communication: regrettably, I am aware of this being the case on at least a couple of occasions over the past year or two.

In a small number of cases, the withdrawal of the official, preferably with their agreement and certainly without undue prejudice to future appointments, may well be the most appropriate solution – and I know that this has happened on some occasions.

The structure and procedures for officiating in the UK sometimes incline us, if we are honest, into something of a competitive (or at least self-justifying) mode. My own sense is that this is fine if it is channelled into efforts to perform as effectively as we can, to be the best officials that we can be; but it should never be at the expense of encouraging our colleagues to be the best they also can possibly be. That means that we should always be constructive in our remarks and actions towards them, not least if they are showing any signs of ‘performance collapse’.

Alan Vincent

January 2019