As this session of the Leadership Skills Series demonstrated, we can all become better leaders by developing trusting relationships.
For the latest edition of our Leadership Skills Series, we explored the art of persuasion. All leaders in sport have the potential to influence others’ thoughts, feelings or actions through effective communication and interpersonal techniques.
The session highlighted four related areas of focus.
Trust is rightfully acknowledged as the cornerstone of effective leadership and the foundation of relationship-building. To unpack all of that we turned to the Trust Equation. It is a conceptual formula used to describe the components that build trust in professional and personal relationships. It’s often represented as: 
This is what each component means:
Credibility speaks to words and credentials. How authentic are we?
Reliability is the perception of a person’s integrity. Do you do what you say? Are your actions connected to your words?
Intimacy involves the feeling of safety or security when sharing information with someone. How safe or secure does the client or colleague feel in sharing with us?
Self-orientation reflects the degree to which a person’s focus is directed towards themselves as opposed to being focused on others. What are our motives? For our benefit or the benefit of others?
The higher the numerator (credibility, reliability, intimacy), the greater the trust. Conversely, the higher the self-orientation, the lower the trust. Ultimately, the equation serves as a mindful tool to enrich discussions, elevate trust levels, and deepen relationships within our teams.
When leading a team or a department, it matters how you are perceived by others. The ability to self-assess your personal status is another strategic tool wielded by seasoned leaders to convey confidence and authority. It includes an assessment of your:
Such elements can be ranked on a scale from 1 (‘low status’) to 10 (‘high status’) and, when done sincerely, this can be an invaluable guide for navigating various workplace scenarios and can even foster emotional intelligence, which is pivotal in forging genuine connections with athletes and team members. It can also facilitate the development of more impactful leadership skills that inspire and motivate with greater efficiency.
Flows of logic are the pathways our minds create to connect ideas and evidence to reach a reasoned conclusion. They are essential in critical thinking, problem-solving, and, of course, forming persuasive arguments. Flows of logic involve a sequence of statements or steps that follow one another in a rational and coherent manner. These frameworks can take three different forms, depending on your scenario:
These can be indispensable guides when constructing persuasive arguments. By grounding our narratives in these logical flows, we enhance storytelling capabilities and foster deeper connections with our teams. This pragmatic approach ensures proactive, relevant support while avoiding unnecessary complexity, thereby maintaining clarity and engagement, particularly in high-pressure situations where decisive leadership is paramount.
If you can put those three factors together then you can be better at delivering your message. Mindful communication is another tool upon which you can rely. This idea urges leaders to remain present and deliberate when communicating. It can help a person to:
The members in attendance discussed the success and failure of these elements in the context of people that ‘think to speak,’ and those that ‘speak to think’.
Here are some effective mantras to keep in mind:
Final reflections
As members reflected on the transformative potential of incorporating these persuasion techniques into their leadership repertoire, they described the following as essential steps towards mastering persuasiveness in your leadership approach:
In the final part of our interview, Dr David Fletcher discusses the importance of building helpful thought patterns and developing the correct habits.
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Their mindset is a good starting point, says Dr David Fletcher. “If you can train the psychological aspect and manipulate the environment, the way to check that you’re getting it right is that you’ve got athletes walking into training and competition situations with a challenge mindset,” he tells the Leaders Performance Institute.
“In other words, they perceive the demands as an opportunity to perform, an opportunity for growth, an opportunity for learning, as opposed to a threat to their ambitions where they end up in a panic-stricken state,” he continues. “That’s your acid test of whether your resilience training is working.”
Fletcher, who is the Professor of Human Performance & Health and Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor for Sport, Health and Well-Being, at Loughborough University, has little time for toxic positivity – the pressure to display positive emotions to the suppression of all else – “we’re not robots or machines,” he says. “What we’re looking for is the majority of the time they’re stepping into arenas where they’re up for the challenge and they see it as an opportunity.”
There is an element of metacognition in the way that the best athletes harness challenging circumstances to their advantage. “I don’t want to go into too much jargon, but resilient athletes enter a higher level of functioning,” says Fletcher. “Hopefully your initial emotions are ones of excitement, you’re up for it, but if you are a little bit more anxious and uncertain, there’s another stage of cognitive processing where you evaluate that emotion and the best athletes can give themselves a safety net. You’re not sure on the initial context and you’ve got a bit of anxiety running through you, but you’re still able to interpret this negative emotion in a positive way. This is a skill that we’ve seen in some of the world’s best athletes. They’re able to say ‘well, actually I’ve been anxious before, the anxiety is going to help me drive through pain’ or ‘the anxiety is actually going to help me focus more on what I need to focus on’. Whereas a lesser athlete, when they have some of those negative emotions come in, they will then spiral into an unhelpful thought pattern.”
Fletcher has been talking to the Leaders Performance Institute for a series that looks at how psychological resilience can be developed, the influence of the environment, as well as any other considerations for coaches in sport.
In the fourth and final part of our interview, Fletcher discusses the reframing of unhelpful thought patterns with a view to developing athlete resilience in an environment that successfully balances challenge and support.
What types of thinking patterns prevent the development of resilience?
David Fletcher: There’s a host of different things athletes can tell themselves. For example, ‘if I mess this up this is going to be the end of my career’ or trying to second guess what the crowd is thinking. ‘What are people in the crowd thinking of me? or ‘what will my parents think?’ or ‘what are my teammates thinking?’ There’s all sorts of traps and distractions from optimal thinking patterns that will get in the way of being resilient in the moment
What steps can athletes take to prevent these unhelpful thought patterns hindering their performance?
DF: People need to stay in the present. That’s the first thing. So don’t think about the previous point if it’s a tennis match; or if you think ‘what if I win this competition? How much money will I earn?’ You need to stay relatively positive, focusing on what you need to do versus what you need to avoid doing. What are some of the key tactics I need to focus on staying relatively positive? As soon as you get distracted from those things then some of these more unhelpful thinking patterns can creep in. We do a lot of work around developing habits of behaviour in order to reengage at different times. Again, take a tennis player, for example, the idea of resetting between each point. The obvious one is when you hit the ball into the net and you’re dwelling upon that, but even if you hit great shots you have still got to reset for the next point. It helps to go through a physical behavioural pattern where you might turn your back on the opponent, you may look down at your racket and straighten some of the strings, using that as a cue to restraighten some of the thoughts in your mind and refocus on the next point as opposed to dwelling on the previous point, which would be something that could compromise your resilience.
How can athletes build the correct habits?
DF: A lot of it is around putting together everything that we’ve discussed. So starting with basic fundamental psychological skills training about learning how to better set goals, not just focusing on outcome goals but also incorporating into the process performance goals and, most importantly, getting the balance right between those factors and practising imagery techniques and developing those. Then bringing these into training contexts and situations where we optimise that challenge and support over time. You’re merging the two together to try and harness that psychological development and then you’re trying to bring that all together under a challenge mindset over time.
Does that go beyond competitive situations?
DF: This is an important point to emphasise when we’re talking about the development of resilience. It’s not just about that moment in competition. It’s about handling everything else that goes with elite level sport. There’s a broader consideration around training camps and lifestyle. For example, you’ve got a holding camp then you go into the Olympic environment. So how do you train for all of those types of things? I’ve attended meetings about the distractions present at the Olympics. Coaches discussed how we can train our athletes not to be distracted by some of those things and we’re also doing what’s called ‘what-if’ scenario planning. So what are some of the challenges and stressors that our athletes have encountered previously within the Olympic Village? One example is an athlete getting on a bus that took him to the wrong venue. Social media has also become an issue for a lot of top level athletes. So again, it adds some novel dimension to this idea of resilience.
As we wrap up, do you have any final thoughts?
DF: There’s a lot being written and said about resilience, with plenty of research available, but it’s another thing to develop on the ground. It is fundamentally reliant on relationships. The first thing you should do is hire a skilled psychologist and ensure they have the support of coaches, performance directors and the broader leadership and management within your organisation. Otherwise there is only so much they can achieve in teaching psychological skills and strategies. Perhaps the environment is wrong, say there’s too much challenge and not enough support, where the psychologist cannot input effectively. Or the other way around. There’s too much support and not enough challenge and the environment’s too comfortable. Then you’re never going to create and coach truly resilient athletes when it comes to the moment of competition. You need buy-in. It’s going to be a collective effort of working together to help craft that environment to help the athletes perform together. Some of the other considerations are around trying to monitor the environment and really understand the players and the support staff on an individual level because you do want to be able to assess and monitor whether you’re having an impact and, if you’re not, what you need to do accordingly. If you’re not monitoring things effectively then that can be a challenge too.
Read our interview in full:
Part II – Psychological Resilience: Everyone Has a Trainability Bandwidth
Part III – How the Training Environment Can Influence an Athlete’s Resilience
Though it may not be as trainable as some people claim, Dr David Fletcher identifies some of the personal qualities that define psychologically resilient athletes.
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“The short answer is both,” says Dr David Fletcher, the Professor of Human Performance & Health and Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor for Sport, Health and Well-Being, at Loughborough University.
“Your personality characteristics have a large genetic component,” he continues. “The physiologist Per-Olof Åstrand once said ‘If you want to be an Olympic champion, choose your parents wisely’ and he was talking from a physiological point of view, but there are certain personality characteristics that do give you a real head start.
“But the good news is that there is a trainability bandwidth, which means psychological skills can be trained. However, they are trainable but not as trainable or developable as some people might claim.”
Fletcher is talking to the Leaders Performance Institute for a series that looks at how psychological resilience can be developed, the influence of the environment, as well as any other considerations for coaches in sport.
In the second part of our interview, he discusses the necessary personal qualities, trainable psychological skills, and the caveats for all teams looking to develop their athletes’ psychological resilience.
What are some of the personal qualities or psychological factors that are important for developing psychological resilience?
David Fletcher: There’s almost a whole shopping list here. I mean there’s probably about 50 years’ worth of research which has looked at some of these personal qualities or psychological factors that are important. I can list a few that we know, such was self-confidence, which underpins resilience. We know optimal levels of motivation self-determination are important. We also know certain personality characteristics are advantageous, such as the Type A behaviour pattern [commonly people who are highly competitive, ambitious, work-driven, time-conscious and aggressive]. There are other important social-related qualities, such as people who are able to ask for help and engage in social support. They tend to handle stress better and be more resilient. There’s a raft of factors that go into making a psychologically resilient individual and there’s parallels with the physical aspects of training for sport.
You have previously said that it is important to understand the differences between personality characteristics, psychological skills and desirable outcomes. Can you please explain that point?
DF: Personality characteristics are enduring and distinctive. In other words, they stay fairly stable over time and they’re distinctive in that they are what make us individuals and separate us from other individuals. They are quite stubborn and don’t change very easily. That’s not say that they can’t change. They will do during periods of extreme adversity, or indeed extreme success, they can alter personality, but by and large they stay fairly constant. On the other hand, psychological skills are much more malleable and amenable to training, such as goal setting-imagery, self-talk or relaxation strategies. There are other skills such as the ability to plan or proactivity that don’t receive quite as much airtime in the sports psychology literature but I would say they are equally important in developing resilience. Now, it’s important to distinguish between those because, as a psychologist going in and working with an athlete, that has implications for how, as well as how often, you assess those qualities because you probably need to monitor those amenable to change more regularly than personality characteristics. You also mentioned desirable outcomes so it’s probably best if I give an example here. If we take certain personality characteristics, like levels of self-esteem and traits for confidence, they stay fairly consistent and essentially they refer to your general tendency to believe in yourself and your capabilities. That’s the personality-type characteristics that are relevant here, but you can also do a lot to enhance your self-confidence using skills like goal-setting, imagery and self-talk. Consistently, the literature shows and that those tools can help to develop self-confidence. So what we’re trying to do is merge those skills with their physical qualities. When a performer is placed in difficult, stressful positions, we ask the question ‘to what extent do you believe in yourself in this specific situation?’ That will be a factor of both your personality and how well you’ve learned these skills.
Is there much variation amongst athletes in different sports? Are certain traits more prevalent in athletes than the general population?
DF: The scientific literature hasn’t fully unravelled that but elite level athletes do have certain characteristics and traits are more prevalent than in the general population. These include high levels of self-confidence, optimism, openness, proactivity. Part of the reason is these help them perform in demanding situations. They have that sort of head start. The analogy is right there with physical characteristics. In men’s basketball, for instance, we tend to see people who are over six foot performing at the higher levels. One thing I find interesting, and it’s a trap I’ve seen some researchers and practitioners fall into, is to not confuse the characteristics for high performance with characteristics that are likeable, socially desirable, ethical or to assume that they help support mental health. One example is narcissism. So narcissists are individuals that crave adulation, they tend to perform well in arenas where they get that adulation. So in an Olympic final, you’ve got a huge crowd who are who are going to celebrate your successes; so narcissists particularly like high pressure situations because of the potential that that brings them for this adulation. That’s a personality characteristic that again would give you a head start in an Olympic arena but narcissism isn’t a particularly pleasant or desirable characteristic. These are very important considerations whether you’re working as a psychologist or just generally working in high performance contexts. Selfishness, perfectionism and obsessiveness tend to be advantageous for developing resilience and for high performance but they’re not advantageous for mental health, sustaining relationships or marriages. That’s why we sometimes see individuals who are very high performance who struggle in other contexts. When we start to unpick some of these personal qualities and what they’re all about it certainly gets quite interesting and present an ethical challenge for psychologists and coaches when working with these individuals. How do we help them not only as a performer but more holistically as a person?
Read our interview in full:
Part III – How the Training Environment Can Influence an Athlete’s Resilience
We bring you insights, reflections and a range of tips from the Brisbane Lions, San Antonio Spurs, Melbourne Business School and beyond.
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The renowned leadership consultant was onstage at the Leaders Sport Performance Summit at Melbourne’s Glasshouse speaking about her book The Leading Edge, in which she proposes a framework for leadership based on notion that when we are able to lead ourselves we are better equipped to steward others through periods of change and development.
An audience of more than 200 Leaders Performance Institute members sat with rapt attention as Ransom joined coaches and leaders from organisations including the Brisbane Lions, San Antonio Spurs and Melbourne Business School, all of whom laid out how they are working to ensure their people can navigate the shifting sands of high performance in years to come.
“Research suggests some of the most in-demand skills by 2030 will be how we work together, connect, and build empathy,” Ransom continued.
Here, in light of those skills, we explore eight ways those who took to the stage are working to future-proof their teams.
The recent renaissance in Australian cricket – the men’s and women’s teams are reigning world champions across four different formats – has not been a happy accident. Andrew McDonald and Shelley Nitschke, the head coaches of the men’s and women’s teams respectively, stressed the need for thorough performance planning, skilful execution and finding the space to pick up lessons along the way.
Andrew McDonald, Head Coach, Australia men’s cricket team
Shelley Nitschke, Head Coach, Australia women’s cricket team
Next steps:
Burnout is a universal problem, with New Zealand and Australia suffering some of the highest rates in the world, according to leadership consultant Holly Ransom. She argues that while stress is inevitable, and can be abated, burnout can be entirely avoided. In her view, the conditions necessary for eradicating burnout stem from empathetic leadership and, when a leader adapts their habits, it gives permission for others to do the same.
Holly Ransom on the notion that we can’t sustain leadership, without leading ourselves first.
Next steps:
1) Complete an energy audit – when are our natural highs and lows in a day, and how are we using them?
2) Establish your building blocks – do the little things that help you build momentum.
3) Set your micro-breaks – take time to get mini hits of new energy.
Kit Wise of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology [RMIT] and Budi Miller of the Theatre of Others, an innovative performing arts company, were invited onstage to share their approaches to fostering creativity and risk-taking in their environments.
Professor Kit Wise, Dean, School of Art, RMIT
Budi Miller, Co-Artistic Director, Theatre of Others
Next steps:
The New Zealand All Blacks and San Antonio Spurs are worlds apart in sporting terms but share numerous commonalities when it comes to bringing to life and sustaining a winning culture. Beyond results, both are renowned for creating environments where people and innovation flourish, as the All Blacks’ Mike Anthony and Spurs’ Phil Cullen explained.
Mike Anthony, High Performance Development Manager, New Zealand Rugby Union
Phil Cullen, Senior Director of Basketball Operations and Organizational Development, San Antonio Spurs
Next steps:
New Zealand Rugby have identified five factors that enable their group to flourish:
1) Connection – players take pride in serving their community.
2) Balance – the group looks for learning, stimulation and edge.
3) Fun – a big part of balance.
4) Learning – athletes learn by doing; so what environment will facilitate the best learning?
5) Family – the organisation has worked to bring families in while also helping them to understand the expectations of an athlete in high performance sport.
The Spurs have their three core values:
1) Character, which is based on values.
2) Selflessness, which is culture-focused.
3) ‘Pound the Rock’. A metaphor inspired by 19th Century Danish-American social reformer Jacob Riis. His Stonecutter’s Credo perfectly captures the Spurs’ drive for championships:
“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”
The Stonecutter’s Credo, Jacob Riis
The Brisbane Lions men’s team, under the stewardship of Senior Coach Chris Fagan, have in recent years returned to prominence for the first time in a generation. Amongst the factors responsible for their rise is their ability to out-learn their opponents, as High Performance Manager Damien Austin explained.
Damien Austin, High Performance Manager, Brisbane Lions
Next steps:
Models for change are all good and well – change is inevitable, so perhaps they are entirely necessary – but what are some of the so-called ‘soft’ factors that enable a leader to influence change? Professor Jen Overbeck was on hand in Melbourne to dispense some tips for explaining and justifying change to others.
Jen Overbeck, Associate Dean, Melbourne Business School
Next steps:
Wellbeing and performance are indivisible, yet there is more we can all be doing to ensure our people can flourish. At the Glasshouse, Emily Downes of High Performance Sport New Zealand and Sonia Boland from the Australian Institute of Sport provided an insight into their work helping people to thrive amidst the challenges presented by high performance sport.
Emily Downes, General Manager – Wellbeing & Leadership, High Performance Sport New Zealand
Sonia Boland, National Wellbeing Manager, Australian Institute of Sport
Next steps:
As women’s sport continues to evolve, the system will need the athletes and the coaches to fill the spaces created. Given the hitherto piecemeal approach to developing women’s sport, and the often misunderstood differences between men and women athletes, this is far from a given. Helene Wilson of High Performance Sport New Zealand and Tarkyn Lockyer of the AFL are two individuals meeting this challenge head on.
Helene Wilson, High Performance Sport New Zealand
Tarkyn Lockyer, Australian Football League
Next steps:
