Team GB and Paralympics GB have the aspirational target of becoming the first nation to win more medals after hosting the Olympics and Paralympics. It is a target set by UK Sport following London 2012, and while it is a hugely challenging one, high performance sport must have high aspirations to be successful.

I feel privileged to chair the English Institute of Sport (EIS), we are the "team behind the team" and our role in supporting Olympic and Paralympic success for Britain is to work closely with sports to help them improve their elite athletes’ performance through our delivery of science, medicine, technology and engineering.

Like the athletes, EIS expert practitioners and the support staff for Rio 2016 are fully focused on the upcoming Games. Their role is to ensure the athletes arrive in Brazil in the best possible condition, and maintain this condition, so that they have the maximum chance of achieving success.

But while the athletes and support staff are quite right to solely concentrate on Rio 2016, our job as sports leaders and administrators is to scan and plan for success beyond. That means designing and crystallising the Tokyo 2020 strategy so that after Rio 2016, there will be no time lost in refocussing. Other nations are improving all the time, so in order to remain high in the medal table, we must hit the ground running at the very start of the four year Olympic and Paralympic cycle to Tokyo.

Just realigning our plans and goals is not enough. There is immense pressure not only on the athletes, but also coaches and performance directors. It is essential that rest and recovery is not limited to athletes, but also coaching staff and leaders have a chance to recharge batteries to ensure they will be able to give their best in the next cycle.

Sports governance and leadership is understandably not the most exciting aspect of sport, but it is certainly one of the most important. Good governance and leadership won’t win you medals, that is the preserve of athletes, but poor governance and leadership can create obstacles that may prevent athletes from realising their potential and producing winning performances. In sport that is a totally unforgivable scenario.

We are currently seeing significant media focus on sport governance, accusations of corruption and growing concern over doping at the highest level of sport. We have seen, as insidethegames readers will know well, senior figures at the very top of the IOC, IAAF and FIFA come under the spotlight in recent months.

In my time as EIS chair, professional rugby player, coach and Chief Executive, I cannot remember sport collectively facing such a significant challenge. It vividly highlights the importance of good governance and illustrates what can happen when it is lacking.

But ensuring that the right checks, measures and processes are in place on its own is not enough. For us to protect and preserve all that we hold dear in sport, we require sports leaders to be proactive when they know there is a situation or individual that is falling short of sports laws or values. Governance and leadership development has come a long way in recent years, it is now the time for sports leaders to stand up together and be counted.

Too often we have seen “survivor leadership” being practiced, when challenge and courage is required. The turning of a blind eye rather than a recognition that we all share responsibility for values and standards within our industry.

It has often been media, such as this publication, that has brought to light issues of governance, corruption or doping, but in reality we should not be relying on the media to identify problems that we need to fix. In the run up to the Rio Games we need to collectively address some of the issues and noise, while ensuring our athletes and performance staff are not distracted and keep focussed on the job in hand.

The issue is now a priority for the sector and was highlighted in the new UK Government strategy for sport recently unveiled by Sports Minister Tracey Crouch. The strategy calls for the leadership and administration of sport to be fit-for-purpose. This will ultimately benefit everyone involved in sport from elite athletes through to those participating at grassroots level.

At the EIS I am delighted that we have a strong Senior Management Team in place led excellently by National Director Nigel Walker. In addition, we have a Board that are ready to check and challenge everything we do. We have just announced three new appointments in GB Rowing performance director Sir David Tanner, England Hockey chief executive Sally Munday and business leader Vic Luck. Having this quality of individual on our Board, with significant knowledge across various fields, provides essential expertise and strong challenge.

Alongside UK Sport and our partners, the EIS is committed to playing our part in developing and driving the highest possible standards of governance and leadership both domestically and internationally.

If we are passionate about continuing to use the power of sport to shape people’s lives right across our society, from experienced elite athletes to young people enjoying sport for the first time, it is vital that we get this right.