Leadership Case Problem A

Ray, the Empowered Athletic Club Director

Ray was moving along well in his career in sports administration, having graduated from college with a degree in sports and health administration five years ago. He spent the first two years after graduation working as a fitness instructor at one health and fitness club. Ray then found a position as an assistant manager at a chain of athletic clubs, Modern Fitness. The manager suddenly resigned to move to an athletic club in Las Vegas. Ray was then asked by the CEO of the chain to accept the position as manager of the local Modern Fitness. The CEO, Larry, said to Ray, “You’ve got the smarts and the charisma to do a great job as manager.” Ray was flattered, and he saw the management position as a splendid opportunity to make a contribution in his chosen field.

Five months into the job, all was going well with the Modern Fitness staff. The group appeared to be well motivated, customer complaints were at a minimum, and only one person had quit voluntarily. Yet the local Modern Fitness was facing a problem of declining club enrollment, rather than experiencing growth. New club memberships enrollments were not coming in fast enough to make up for existing members not renewing their enrollment.

Larry, who carefully reviewed enrollment data each month, scheduled a meeting at Ray’s club to discuss the enrollment picture. Larry told Ray that he was pleased with the operations of the club, but not with the enrollment figures. “I am empowering you to boost enrollment to a net gain,” said Larry, “do what you need to do.”

Ray replied, “Larry I am doing all I can. We send out flyers. We advertise on social media. We encourage word-of-mouth advertising. This town is saturated with athletic and fitness clubs. It’s tough for our Modern Fitness club to get a bigger market share. What advice can you give me to boost enrollment?”

Larry responded, “Ray you are empowered as the manager to boost enrollment working within your advertising budget. Boosting enrollment is your responsibility, not mine. We’ll talk about your enrollment figures again in thirty days.”

Questions

How effective is Larry’s approach to empowering Ray to boost enrollment?

Which political tactic or tactics do you recommend Ray use to deal effectively with his empowering boss?

What might Larry do to help Ray boost enrollment, within the limits of empowerment?