Influence Without Status 

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By Dr Tom Brownlee

Photo by Eugene Chystiakov on Unsplash

It was wonderful recently to have the pleasure of chatting with Dr Jon Bartlett, Performance Pathway Manager at British Cycling, as part of our High-Performance Sport MSc. We talked about all things talent management and development and it was a great opportunity to pick Jon’s brain about his varied experiences across sports and countries. 
 
One of the things that stuck out to me was Jon’s use of the phrase ‘influence without status’ when we were talking about junior practitioners trying to have a voice in industry. This is perceived as a challenge to many, so I was keen to hear his tips. 
 
Once again, it seems that impact can still be had in industry through patience, building relationships, and knowing when and how hard to push an opinion. There’s certainly a lot of nuance at play but I loved the phrase. Something for us all to strive for at the right time! 
 
It was especially nice to hear someone at Jon’s level acknowledging that more junior members of staff can, and should, still look to make a difference. This was a chat I learnt a lot from and I want to extend our thanks again to Jon from the Graduate School of Sport and Professional Practice and School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences

T.Brownlee@bham.ac.uk

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