ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author hopes to provide a useful insight on leading national sport systems as well as some principles that have driven enduring impact. Linked to ‘providing and promoting challenge’, the need to embrace and enable urgency is crucial when leading national systems. A key requirement for leaders of national systems is the ability to foster positive, two-way relationships with a diverse range of individuals: including influences that come ‘top-down’, ‘bottom-up’, and ‘laterally’. If a national system is to be successful, then bringing people with coaches is clearly a key objective from a leadership perspective; especially when they need to drive changes quickly and, in the long-run, enhance the capacity and capability of each sport to be self-sufficient. In contrast, and reflecting its size, history, and politics, Canada operated a federal model where the national system had to co-ordinate activity across a range of provinces.
