Welcome back to the Director Download podcast, hosted by Grady Sheffield, the director of Campus Recreation at Towson University, and powered by Campus Rec Magazine.
From his start in outdoor recreation to leading Campus Recreation and Wellness at Furman University, Ian Brown was ready for his journey to the director role. In this episode, he dives into the countless mentorships and relationships that helped prepare him to lead and shaped his view of leadership today.
Brown explores early career challenges — like personnel management and learning to adapt leadership to different personalities and institutional needs — along with how practice has helped him become good at bringing structure to chaos and building workflows. He also explains how he’s leading his team to execute strategic plans through objectives and key results while leaning on key performance indicator dashboards to show weekly growth. Finally, Brown looks at Furman’s $5.5 million renovation and how the department is ensuring the student experience is always the priority.
Listen to the episode now for leadership lessons, advice on using data to inform decision-making, and more.
Episode Highlights:
- Brown’s career path from Towson University outdoor rec to a director role at Furman University.
- How critical feedback at his first directorship became a “do-over” opportunity to clarify vision, structure and accountability in his next.
- His move from feelings-based to data-driven decisions with Excel, AI tools and Power BI dashboards.
- How he brings structure to chaos by building programs, policies, systems and workflows.
- Inside Furman’s $5.5 million renovation — filling in pools, expanding functional fitness, adding a climbing wall and more.
- The lessons he’s learned about personnel management, vision casting and not every mentor giving the right advice.
- What it really means for a director to be a “shield” between administration and frontline staff.
- The hidden work of coalition-building, consensus-making, and developing “executive presence” as a director.
Find the full episode on YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
