Sports/Entertainment
Turn passion into profit
How to get the most out of your team
By John Nank
Smart Business St. Louis | January 2008
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In the sports and entertainment industry, the challenge of competing for the attention
of the consumer is daunting
enough. But when Peter
McLoughlin was named CEO of
St. Louis Blues Enterprises during the summer of 2006, he
faced yet another challenge.
Responsible for the management of the National Hockey
League franchise’s nonhockey
operations, McLoughlin had the
task of continuing to reignite
interest in a product that was
just one full season removed
from a yearlong absence from
the market, the result of a labor
dispute that wiped out the
2004-2005 season. After implementing rules changes intended
to increase scoring and entertainment value, the league set
records for average and total
attendance during the 2005-2006 season, and McLoughlin
has continued to work to win
back fans. With his staff aligned
behind one distinct responsibility — to provide a unique and
exciting entertainment experience — McLoughlin employs a
leadership style that emphasizes constant communication
and accountability. Smart
Business spoke with
McLoughlin about how to turn
passion into profits and how to
get the most out of your
employees.
Foster alignment through communication. One of the keys to
leadership, for me, is to communicate with your people
about the goals of the organization and the direction you’re
all headed in.
Communication has always
been one of the foundations of
how I manage and lead an
organization. As people hear
you articulate the goals and the
vision of the direction that
you’re going, they can share in
that and participate in the development of that mission.
Everyone gets on the same
page.
When communication fails,
mistakes get made and inconsistent messages get out. When
that happens, your customer
gets confused. When the customers are confused or don’t
like what they are hearing, they
will maybe make the decision to
spend their money elsewhere.
That’s why alignment is key.
We’re creating a culture of the
St. Louis Blues here. It’s a great
brand with a 40-year history.
In order for us to be successful and to compete, we all have
to be aligned.
Take every opportunity to interact
with your team. We have regular
top-level management meetings
so that we can make sure all of
our department heads are
aligned and are communicating
and sharing strategies and plans
together, and then it’s up to
those department heads to communicate those things to their
people. We try to use e-mails to
all the employees to let them
know of events and activities
and developments that are coming up so that they’re not surprised and they hear it from us.
As we’re at the press and
we’re talking about strategies
and objectives, that’s also a great way for people to read the
morning paper or hear on radio
shows what’s going on with the
team, and we want to make
sure everybody is informed of
what we’re going to be saying
and what the objectives are.
It’s making people throughout
the organization feel a part of it.
That can be anything from a
broad staff meeting, which we
do often in terms of the events
that are coming into our building and everybody’s role in
terms of activating around that
event. And it comes down to
simple things like having an all-employee luncheon or
Christmas party and using that
opportunity to take the microphone and make some points
and give people an opportunity
for question-and-answer so they
feel engaged and feel a part of it.
Commit to success and hold people accountable. A big challenge
is getting the most out of your
people. What I mean by that is a
combination of setting goals,
encouraging people to meet
those goals and holding those
people accountable.
When you’re working in a
company, in a business environment, you become close with
the people you’re working with,
and you want everyone to be
successful, yet you also have to
hold people accountable, including the leader. The challenge is
getting everyone committed to
being successful and working
hard to achieve that.
Encourage dedication to common
goals. You’re always looking for a certain passion within people
to go along with their experience and with their particular
skill set.
If someone brings passion and
dedication and shares the common goal of wanting to win
back the fans of the Blues, pack
the house, provide great customer service and be part of a
team that is going to win the
championship in the National
Hockey League, that’s what I
look for, someone who is really
passionate about those things.
We’re in a fun business, and
that helps. Professional sports
and the great concerts and family shows that come through the
Scottrade Center are a fun business to be a part of. There is an
underlying enthusiasm there,
and the key is to turn that
enthusiasm and passion for what we do into profitability by
selling tickets and selling sponsorships and selling food and
beverages and merchandise and
reaching out to customers so
that they feel good about spending their money here.
People who are very committed and hardworking and are
driven to succeed are the kinds
of people that are going to go
that extra step to make an
organization successful. You
have to have your own personal
pride and personal drive and
work ethic and the collective
sense that everyone is working
for the same goals.
When you have that combination, it really leads to great success.
HOW TO REACH: St. Louis Blues Enterprises, (314) 622-2500 or www.stlouisblues.com
