31 Jan 2024
ArticlesBen Baroody tells us the World Series winners needed to find values that meant something to everyone in the organization.
Culture often precedes results
The Texas Rangers’ transformation under General Manager Chris Young and Manager Bruce Bochy saw them go from 102 losses during the 2021 Major League Baseball season to the World Series just two years later. Bochy, for one, could not have enjoyed a more successful first campaign in Arlington.
It is tempting to attribute part of the turnaround to the organization’s increased focus on personal development, particularly when Ben Baroody was promoted to Director of Leadership & Organizational Development, Player Enrichment Programs, and Mental Performance in November 2021. But the truth, as he told us himself, is that the groundwork had been laid for years by the staff, coaches and players independently of on-field results.
“I’ve been here nine seasons and there have always been a lot of positive elements to our culture,” Baroody told the Leaders Performance Podcast in January.
The team did, however, revisit their values in light of that 2021 season. Baroody continued: “It came down to refining our core values – who we are and what we represent, how we live out those values – and [establishing] a belief in what we can accomplish together when everyone has a clear picture of what those priority values are. [Then] it’s easier to embody them and be held accountable to them. We know what matters most and what we are working towards.”
The Rangers values include “be a good teammate”, “compete with passion” and “dominate the fundamentals”. “On the surface they seem over-simplified but they mean a lot and can be applicable in a lot of different ways.”
Your values need to be reinforced daily
Too often teams fall prey to the words they stick on the clubhouse wall and the Rangers were no different in the past. “We’ve been victims of that,” said Baroody. “I think that every organization is.” One solution, he added, is continuous reinforcement “through meetings, through presentations, through discussions – they aren’t just on a wall somewhere – they are truly part of how we operate, they are included as we constantly evaluate our decision making and in our evaluation of personnel, both players and staff. They are the main component of our performance reviews from a staff standpoint.”
Values, when they are perceived as meaningful, can be applied by people on a 24/7 basis. “You can boil them down to the most obvious application, but when you think through how you’re structuring your day, how you’re structuring your week, your season, your lifestyle. They can be applied 24 hours a day and we’ve tried to really live them out and not be selective in when we embody them,” Baroody said.
They should resonate beyond your sport or competition
The Rangers’ values are defined by all domains of the organization. “We all have clarity into what they mean for us personally in our different sub-departments,” said Baroody. The same goes for staff and players. In fact, it is a fundamental development exercise for young players at the Rangers’ minor league affiliates. “We’ve put it to them to speak amongst themselves, have collaborative discussions, to create the definitions around those [values] and to set forth the behaviors that exemplify those values.”
At a staff level, “it comes down to simplicity and clarity in having values that are applicable to everyone in the organization whether you’re a player, whether you’re a scout, whether you’re a coach, whether you’re an analyst – you know what it means to the organization as a whole.”
Even if you’re a non-playing member of staff you’re still “leading with a competitiveness. The communication and collaboration and care you have for others – that’s how you’re exemplifying being that good teammate.”
It doesn’t end with winning
The process did not end with the Rangers’ World Series victory in November. “It reinforced we’re on the right track with culture,” said Baroody. However, “as soon as you think you have it figured out, you’re close to being humbled.” The word ‘culture’, as he explained, has its roots in agricultural cultivation. “[Your culture] has to be cultivated so you’re always going to have to pull some weeds and tend to things, and give it water and give it sunlight. It can’t be stagnant.”
Therefore, he does not perceive a hunger issue as the team prepares for Spring Training. “There’s pride, there’s accomplishment, there have been celebrations, but there’s definitely not been contentment and our focus is on building on 2023 with a competitive focus on 2024 and beyond. And I think that in itself is a good insight into who we are and who we aim to be and what we try to represent.”
Listen to the full interview with the Texas Rangers’ Ben Baroody:
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29 Jan 2024
ArticlesFrom the English Premier League to the NBA via the AFL, the Leaders Performance Institute Think Tank gives coaches, managers and directors the opportunities to share lessons and ideas around the performance questions of the day.
The Think Tank is designed to connect general managers, coaches and directors of performance – the people with responsibility at the highest levels of world – sport with each other and the ideas that have served their peers best.
The discussions on the day were wide ranging, as the participants delved into five common problems and identified possible approaches and solutions.
Renewal is a continuous process in sport, which is not to say that it is always easy, frictionless and without complications. If you are the person tasked with delivering upon your team’s vision, consider:
It is often incumbent on the head coach to provide the energy to the playing group, but who is looking out for the energy of the coach? At a time when coaches fear coming across as ‘weak’, here are some tips for coaches seeking to protect their personal energy.
Succession planning is hard, particularly when one considers that generation-defining coaches are more a product of circumstance than formal programmes. Nevertheless, how can we give aspiring coaches a better chance?
No one has the fully come to terms with talent development pathways, hence the ever-present questions around attributes, development gaps and purpose. What can we do to better identify and then develop our young athletes?
No other area is as widely misunderstood by coaches and practitioners as artificial intelligence and its role in sport. There is, however, no need to stray from your performance principles in putting them into practice. Remember:
Participants
Mo Bobat, Director of Cricket, Royal Challengers Bangalore
Michael Bourne, Performance Director, Lawn Tennis Association
Matti Clements, Executive General Manager, Australian Institute of Sport
Steve Cooper, football manager
Chris Fagan, Senior Coach, Brisbane Lions
Rob Key, Managing Director of Cricket, England & Wales Cricket Board
Marc-Oliver Kochan, Managing Director, Red Bull Athlete Performance
Sean Marks, General Manager, Brooklyn Nets
Tabai Matson, Director of Performance & Development, Harlequin RFC
Sara Symington, Head of Olympic & Paralympic Programmes, British Cycling
Jess Thirlby, Head Coach, England Netball
Simon Timson, Performance Director, Manchester City FC
Gregor Townsend, Head Coach, Scotland men’s rugby team
23 Jan 2024
ArticlesMembers of the Leaders Performance Institute answered this question from their own experience and shared responses ranging from environmental renewal to the power of positive storytelling.
The notion of ‘belonging’ can be simply defined as ‘a sense of connectedness to others and what you are doing’. The Cambridge English Dictionary extends the definition of belonging to ‘a feeling of being happy or comfortable as part of a particular group and having a good relationship with the other members of the group because they welcome you and accept you’.
Psychology research shows that in cultures and environments that show autonomy, competence and belonging, individuals will elevate their engage in tasks and activities they are asked to commit to.
It’s clear from both the literature and lived experiences of the group that creating belonging is a powerful tool for a harmonious and high-functioning environment. The aim of this particular roundtable was to share best practices and examples of how we are trying to foster belonging in our environments.
It starts at the induction stage
In one of the breakout groups, they reinforced the idea that the process of creating positive belonging starts at the induction or onboarding phase and how important it is to dedicate time and intent towards this process to set the right tone. The work to create belonging continues week on week during this onboarding phase, with the acknowledgement and value that an individual or individuals bring to the team. From a team perspective, it is an opportunity to acknowledge the variety and diversity of backgrounds, skills and views of those in the department or organisation from the outset.
In summarising this first point, there was an excellent reflection that how we make people or an individual feel is the most important thing. Every interaction matters and what you do is about making them feel the way you want them to feel.
Setting the stall out around the culture
There were a number of reflections on how to give your environment the best opportunity for positive belonging. Identify the values and culture expected of individuals within your environment, and perhaps most importantly, find practical ways to instil them. Is everyone in the environment crystal clear on what the behaviours and expectations are? If you have this in place, there can be collective accountability. Similarly, it is important to be consistent in positively reinforcing, noticing and celebrating positive examples of those behaviours.
A couple of people on the call also suggested that coach buy-in is really crucial in this process. If the head coach buys into the values then the majority of people in the environment tend to follow, such is the influence the head coach carries.
In setting yourselves up for success, create opportunities for athletes, coaches and staff to convene and build the culture together. Creating opportunities for discussion on values and behaviours supports the idea of creating a sense of belonging. It is widely acknowledged that engagement, contribution and a love for what you do leads to a sense of belonging, therefore lies the challenge in ensuring we are bringing this to life.
Finally, there was a discussion around language and its importance. There was a fantastic phrase shared on the call that ‘above-the-line language is powerful, but below-the-line language is powerless’. There is a responsibility to own the standards of the language.
The power of storytelling
A common response from the group around effective ways to instil belonging was utilising the power of story. Find the story that connects to the people that you’re working with, whilst recognising the significant cultural differences that exist in the environment. The story that you use must align with the culture. One environment on the call shared how they leant on metaphor in creating an overarching theme that is reframed every year.
Story also presents the opportunity to connect those across the backroom staff, athlete population and other forward-facing roles. There was a suggestion this should also extend to family members of those involved, bringing them into the culture and environment, knowing the importance of the environment off the field. Do they feel that sense of belonging as well?
Finally, we also discussed the impact story can have around connecting individuals to the cultural environment of the country that you are in. It also presents the opportunity to embrace the culture that individual is bringing into the environment.
Create opportunities for shared experiences & collective input
Responses from the group indicate that every interaction matters and it is important to be mindful of that. Therefore, how are you intentionally creating opportunities for shared experiences and opportunities for collective input from different stakeholders?
A simple initiative to instil is celebrating ‘the good’ when done well and highlighting small wins and successes.
Encourage active listening and understanding of everyone’s opinions – providing a space and opportunity for everyone to have a voice in key decisions is found to be an effective way of supporting belonging in an environment. To ensure the above is both effective and a success, organisational leaders require an openness and receptivity to ensure the environment is designed to be safe.
There were also a number of reflections around the power of ‘inclusive initiatives and rituals’ that bring people together. Finally on this point: are you formally capturing information from the stakeholders in your environment in a consistent way? This is a simple tactic to remain on the pulse of the environment, ensure those in the organisation have a chance to provide feedback and contribute to decision-making and the state of play on the culture.
Providing space to better understand the ‘whole person’
One of the final key buckets of discussion around instilling a sense of belonging in your environment was formal and informal opportunities to better understand the whole person. We should strive to provide space to celebrate authenticity and our true selves. Does your environment provide an opportunity for employees to breathe and express themselves?
A foundation stone of the High Performance Strategy in the Australian Olympic System is the athlete’s voice. The idea is to provide opportunities to understand one’s journey, both as an athlete and as a person. The self-determination theory concept is something that is really key in this piece and its relatedness to belonging. Creating opportunities to understand the whole person allows for further insight around ones intrinsic motivation and the opportunity for honest, open conversations within the environment.
Final reflections
At our Leaders Meet: High Performance Environments event in Melbourne back in 2023, we ran an Open Spaces session on this exact topic. The aim of the session was to allow the audience on the day to share stories, experiences and perspectives on belonging. Five things came through strongly from those in the room that day around what we can do to enhance belonging in our environment.
15 Jan 2024
ArticlesHelene Wilson led the Northern Mystics to the ANZ Premiership in 2021 but not before taking her playing group on a individual and collective development journey.
“Working in netball, in a woman’s environment, and coming from a background of being a teacher, I think that learning is incredibly important,” she told the audience at September’s Leaders Meet: Driving Step Change in Female High Performance at Manchester’s Etihad Stadium.
“And how do we create an environment where high performance comes from out-learning your opposition and people are on a journey together to get there?”
Wilson, who currently serves as Manager of High Performance Sport New Zealand’s [HPSNZ] Women in High Performance Sport programme, was primarily at the Etihad to discuss her five years as Head Coach of the Northern Mystics, a netball team in New Zealand’s ANZ Premiership.
She took the Mystics’ reins in 2017 and would eventually lead the Auckland-based franchise to success in the 2021 Premiership Grand Final, ending their 24-year wait for a national championship. But not before the team bottomed out in 2019. “We were the wooden spooners,” she said.
The team had performed promisingly in the preceding seasons but, in 2018, the unforeseen departure of goal shooter Maria Folau due to personal reasons left the Mystics underpowered. It showed on the court and Wilson admitted that she was perhaps fortunate to retain her job at one stage given the turmoil behind the scenes, “but the players wanted to come back and play for the team because they believed in what we were trying to do.” Two years later they were champions.
Beyond reaching and winning a Grand Final, Wilson and the Mystics wanted to rewrite the history of netball underachievement in New Zealand’s Northern Zone, where Wilson coached the sport for three decades.
“The Northern Zone has the biggest number of participants in netball – a third of our netball-playing population is there. There is also a population of ethnic diversity, age diversity, socio-economic diversity,” she continued. “We had 17 netball centres across that area and I inherited a narrative over that time that we’re talented – more than anyone else – but it’s actually a curse in high performance because that doesn’t matter.”
There had, according to Wilson, been a history of disharmony in the Mystics ranks. “The landscape of where we come from, and thinking about the land, it was actually quite disjointed. Auckland, our biggest city in New Zealand, is groups of little villages that are quite insular and quite different to each other. And we were also sitting on volcanoes and literally it was pretty explosive the way we used to behave.”
By the time they won the championship in 2021 and went close again the following year, this was a team transformed. “We won the Premiership after 24 years of trying, but really the learnings, what happened between 2017 and 2019 and up to 2021 was massive and it’s not just about me and what I did – it was about what we did together.”
Finding energy and bringing clarity to the changing room
The “catalyst for change”, as Wilson describes it, was her involvement in HPSNZ’s Te Hāpaitanga: Women in High Performance Sport Coaching Initiative. Its pilot programme ran in 2019 with Wilson serving as a mentor to women applying to be high performance coaches.
The cohort visited a ‘marae’, a Māori meeting ground, of which the focal point is the ‘wharenui’, the communal house where people meet. A wharenui, with its ornate wooden carvings and elaborate design, is steeped in Māori metaphor. It provides a space for collective, inclusive, reflective practice (‘Rongo’ in Māori) that enables people to reengage with problems in the world beyond (‘Tū’) having formed a consensus on the best solutions.
“There is an energy about it,” she said. “The process and energy is like a coming together and moving apart in a state of clarity, which is collectively built together. The process of ‘Karakia’ – transitioning from one realm to another – takes us from the worlds of Tū and Rongo.”
It was a cultural element that resonated first with Wilson then with her playing group. “You don’t need to know it’s Māori,” she said. “If I stood at the front and tried to be Māori I think people would think I’m a fraud and I’ve got to be respectful, not being Māori, but having a deep understanding because I do come from New Zealand.” Wilson encourages coaches working in other regions or nations to find the cultural artefacts that are authentic their groups. “There’s stuff around us everywhere that you can apply in different ways and it’s the framework that is key.”
Coming away from the pilot programme, Wilson drew on the work of corporate anthropologist Michael Henderson who wrote a book in 2014 entitled Above the Line. According to Henderson, people will come to a team with their own beliefs, which play out as behaviours. People’s values are born of their beliefs and behaviours and, in a team setting, these all help to construct the group’s collective behaviours. These eventually become the team’s culture.
At the Mystics, group behaviours tended to be a product of the disharmony that denoted the team’s decades of under-achievement. The group would seemingly generate a lot of heat but not necessarily much light.
It ultimately comes down to the leader. “The mistake we often make is starting at values rather than giving space for beliefs to be heard,” said Wilson. The trick was to create a space where everyone felt empowered to share their beliefs. “We came together as a group and said ‘everyone’s a leader. The standard we walk past is the standard we are prepared to accept’ and it’s super important not to walk past unacceptable standards. So we redefined our environment so that everyone on our team was a leader and ‘leadership’ was simply our actions and our behaviours. It wasn’t the role or the position we were given.
“We needed to have a better understanding of what being valued and contributing to value looked like and how that would affect performance. So there was intense learning at this time because the players wanted to be a leader but there needs to be clear evidence of what that means for performance – and intense learning is how do we care, listen and bring those diverse opinions to the table, as well as skillsets the people bring. I think we learned that together as staff, performance experts and players.”
Learning from the ‘moment of truth’
In his 2021 book Belonging, Owen Eastwood cited Harvard professors (the late) Richard Hackman and Ruth Wageman, specifically their renowned 2008 publication on corporate leadership teams entitled Senior Leadership Teams: What it Takes to Make them Great. ‘Of all the factors we assessed in our research,’ they wrote, ‘the one that makes the biggest difference in how well a senior leadership team performs is the clarity of the behavioural norms that guide members’ interactions’.
It was on Wilson and Sulu Fitzpatrick, who was appointed as the Mystics captain in 2021, to create the right environment. “We were trying to learn what stuff we will deploy in that circumstance to ensure that the collective performance outcomes we needed were going to happen. In the Māori world we call this ‘Kotahitanga’. ‘Ko’ meaning a central point’; ‘Tahi’ meaning one; ‘Kotahitanga’ meaning collective unit.”
For the Mystics, Kotahitanga meant reaching a consensus through ‘Wānanga’. “It’s a word that means coming together and meeting to discuss, collaborate and consider,” Wilson told the Etihad audience. “It could look similar to a team meeting but it can take many forms and Wānanga happens in many ways. Conceptually, it happens in the world of Rongo; you’ve got to go deep. At a Wānanga, I put a concept on the table, a picture of performance that I may see as a head coach, or someone else may put it there depending on who’s taking a lead that day, and the Wānanga takes the form of questions, from multiple perspectives, and we keep going until we get some sense of alignment. It doesn’t come with any level of expertise or experience, it comes with everybody’s level and everybody contributes.”
The Mystics would typically hold a team-wide Wānanga once a week and any time the group deemed one necessary. Wilson’s role was to ensure: “enough creative tension in the room to drive performance and shift performance but also making sure that people were able to learn the art of listening, hearing, weaving different perspectives and energy that people brought to the Wānanga.
“Wānanga can get heated, it can be soft and gentle, it can be all of those things, but Wānanga is about is that you sit there in the world of Rongo until you get it done. Sometimes we had training or practice [in the world of Tū] straight after and we were running late because the Wānanga is more important than the physical practice – practice had to happen whenever it needed to happen based on the Wānanga.”
Wilson explained that there were three broad categories of people, characterised through their ‘energy’, who would join a Wānanga: people who connected to others from the heart, those who had insight from their intellect, and people with the drive and willpower to perform. “My shift as head coach was to connect to those three levels of care of where I was with an individual.”
It was not easy. At first, there was a lack of intent, decisiveness and the results did not necessarily translate into performance. “I think setting this up was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done and one of the spaces where I learnt so much as a coach.”
Crucially, the group bought-in, even after the underwhelming 2019 season and the disruption of the pandemic. In time, the group developed its own lexicon, which included the term ‘moment of truth’, meaning a reference to the key moments in a match as defined by players and coaches individually, who would then weave their ‘moments of truth’ together in a Wānanga. “We would stay there until we were ready to define the moment of truth that was going to give us the greatest learning going forward.”
As she said, it was not always Wilson who led the Wānanga. She recognised the need for others to take the lead in order to feel that they belonged and that their input was valued. ‘We look for proof of our values from our leaders,’ wrote Owen Eastwood in Belonging. ‘We do not want our leaders’ personal beliefs forced upon us – we want our tribe’s authentic values articulated.’
That is where Wilson felt the key knowledge sat in any case. “My learning was to sit at the back and know that my knowledge was not sufficient; that the knowledge was in the room and I was there to sense the problem and the Wānanga would sort out what the problem was. I needed to be the last one talking in the room.”
In Part II, we explore how the coaching staff helped the Mystics players to transfer their personal and collective development to the court.
In the final virtual roundtable of 2023, Leaders Performance Institute members identified five trends they expect to occupy their attention in the next 12 months.
Are there any industry trends that may impact you this year? If you reflect on the themes that are coming through strongly, what are you seeing in your environment and how do we best prepare for these possible eventualities?
There were some excellent points made around the importance of being proactive with the topics and trends below. It’s clear we know that these trends are on the horizon as we are indeed talking about them, so what can we be doing now so we aren’t as reactive when they inevitably do arise?
Before we delve into some of the big themes to consider for next year, below are a handful that came to the fore in the same roundtable format from this time last year:
In summarising all of the responses and suggestions from the group for expectant themes in 2024, it became clear from the input that there were five areas that came through particularly strongly. Here, we reflect on each in turn.
1. Athlete life skills and development needs
The first theme of conversation centred around life skills and developing performance behaviours for this generation of athletes. Reflections from the conversation stated there is a continued need for young athletes in their teenage years specifically to gain more support and develop specific tools to deal with the pressures of life but also the experience of developing and competing in elite sport. Some environments are discussing how to invest in their performance support teams, focusing more resource towards wellbeing and psychology to set athletes up well with the skillsets to cope better through their athletic journey.
As the conversations developed, a big point of discussion was around athlete readiness and in some instances, being more disciplined in not rushing them through the pathway. As the high performance spectrum, we can be premature in the assumption that athletes meeting performance benchmarks are automatically ready to move but in many examples we see struggles in coping with this transition. To this end, there is often a lack of clarity for the athletes of who turn to or how to handle challenging moments. In the modern athlete, the group believed that life skills are more limited than generations before, so a shift to a more bespoke model of support is being employed to increase the quality and control the speed of the transition.
One of the organisations, as part of the group discussions, shared some insights they gained from a brain scientist speaking to their staff and the knowledge that brain development isn’t concluded until the age of 25, so we must continue to consider skill development and coping mechanisms beyond teenage years. The final reflection on this point is that young people in this day and age are generally more values-driven and have access to information and schools of thought much earlier in their lives – there is less acceptance to just follow orders and demands, therefore how we consider shaping athlete support should be collaborative to generate optimal buy-in.
2. The use and influence of artificial intelligence
When thinking about the potential of artificial intelligence, where do we start and stop? This was a question suggested in the conversations around how to critically think about the possibilities artificial intelligence can provide – we need to ensure there are clear boundaries. There is a nervousness around how quickly the technology is moving. Although we agreed that artificial intelligence and machine learning can improve efficiency and help identify blind spots, there is a cautiousness not to de-humanise performance programmes and to keep using a human touch.
A number of organisations on the call have begun using artificial intelligence for opposition analysis, leveraging matching statistics to predict winning performance indicators. If we are to fully utilise the ability the technology gives us, getting the basis of your data infrastructure right is critical before leveraging these sources and innovations to get the best output.
In predicting ahead and assuming a large amount of sporting organisations will utilise artificial intelligence, we briefly discussed the skillset of the analyst in the future. If artificial intelligence can speed up some of the traditional processes overseen by analysts, is there a shift more towards the communication and presentation of the data as opposed to the data collation phase of the process?
3. The growth of women’s sport
A trend that many of you won’t be surprised to see was the exciting developments around women’s sport. Although these developments are hugely positive, there is some nervousness around the trajectory and speed of the growth, in particular the challenges these can pose. It was shared that there is some uncertainty around wages, transfer fees if relevant in that sport, facilities and player support services and what ‘good’ or the ‘right’ approach looks like.
There was an extended conversation around support services for players and in particular what are the optimal performance frameworks for women athletes. To this point, a lot of thinking and structuring has mirrored the men’s game, despite there being clear differences in the profile of the athletes.
In reflecting on some women’s sport in Australia, one participant explained there is still a large number of teams sharing staff between women’s and men’s programmes. There isn’t enough staff on the ground with the relevant expertise for the setup to be conducive to a real high performance environment. The sports haven’t kept up from a staff and expertise point of view, versus the demand of women athletes making the sport and professional career.
Finally, we discussed the paucity of women coaches across elite sport. There is a lack of mentorship for women athletes, especially within the pathway and we are still in a position where there is a higher percentage of men coaching women athletes. There is also an apparent education gap which also needs addressing to better understand the experiences and requirements of women athletes.
4. Storytelling around athletes and staff
A really fascinating thread of discussion covered the theme of storytelling and how content creation which can often be witnessed more so on the business operations side of an organisation is beginning to align closer to ongoings across performance operations. There is an increasing appetite for athlete content and sport is seen as an untapped genre for this. With a thirst for learning more about the ongoings of modern athletes, this naturally brings in stories from the lenses of those supporting the athletes – coaches and performance staff as an example. Staff are stepping more into the limelight because of this trend.
What are some of the potential implications of this? From the athlete lens, there will be queries around whether they should engage in it or not. The impact on performance staff will naturally increase and more people will be aware of the team behind the team. There could be the opportunity for those digesting the content to understand the pressures that come with supporting athletes, but also from the positive viewpoint, provide a connection opportunity to show the pathway for working in high performance sport. If there are more eyes on our athletes, what could that mean for us?
5. Upskilling coaches in the use of data
We are experiencing a wave of younger coaches transitioning into our environments who are digital natives or technology-savvy individuals. There is a gap with some coaches who are less certain around the use and experience of technology and performance metrics. The real trend of discussion here centred around thinking more explicitly around data visualisation to help coaches resonate with the right points to inform their coaching. Many environments are working on using less data but more impactful visuals to support decision-making, which is all a part of bringing coaches and other performance disciplines on the journey where it is only a very small percentage of their worlds.
We’ve highlighted those that generated most conversation within the group discussions, but there were other trends shared at the outset of the call which can be seen below:
We asked Hockey Canada Head Coach Danny Kerry who has worked with both during his 30-year coaching career and highlight four factors in his personal development.
He cites renowned coach developer Nigel Redman in his response. “Nigel uses this phrase: men have to battle in order to bond, so we have to have gone to battle first. ‘You’re a tough nut so I’ll be around your nonsense’ – sorry – you can see my biases playing out there. Whereas [as Redman says] women have to bond first before they battle.”
Kerry, who led Great Britain’s women to field hockey gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics, is at pains to tell the audience at Manchester’s Etihad Stadium that this yardstick should only be used in general terms and may even be an oversimplification. It is, however, illustrative of the dynamics of which a coach must be aware.
He continued: “If you spend time and energy to understand the dynamics that are playing out within high-performing female teams, if you spend the time and energy to talk to those things, spend the time and energy to build the relationships between those players so you can understand what particular perspectives individual athletes carry, why they think as they do, what their life experiences are, that level of trust in the relationship goes up significantly and then they will literally run through brick walls for you. If you don’t do that, as soon as the challenge and threat comes they can be [slow] to it.”
He then reflects on the transition he made from coaching Great Britain’s women to the men’s programme in 2018. “I tried that approach, if I’m blunt, with the men and it was effective to a degree, but if I had my time again I would probably put them into some form of battle or get them to understand each other in that environment along with some of this other work.”
Kerry, who was joined onstage by Emma Trott, the former Women’s Junior Endurance Coach at British Cycling, spoke at length about his personal development as a coach three decades into his career and the evolving demands of his players.
Here, we highlight four factors that shaped the coach that took the reins at Hockey Canada in March 2023.
“I was the classic coach. All about hockey and very hard-nosed. Very cycle and task-oriented, Xs and Os,” said Kerry. However, as he said, when it came to people’s feelings and relationships, “I received some pretty blunt feedback then tried – and failed – to adjust”. He quickly realised he was doing himself a disservice. “I say I failed but it’s still not my sweet spot. So my big learning, whether it was male or female, was around how relationships develop as an entirety and with individual athletes.”
It led him to adapt his behaviour and the most notable example was his pitch-side presence during the penalty shootout that followed the draw in Great Britain’s gold medal match with the Netherlands in Rio. “I always positioned myself high; the reason for that was, one, I was task-focused and, two, athletes pick up on your anxiety as a coach and, being pitch side, that’s not a great thing. You don’t want to add to their anxiety as a coach, so actually being up high helps with that,” he continued. This time, however, he reflected and changed his custom. “I remember just thinking literally ‘what does this group need from me now as a coach and what doesn’t it need?’ And so at that point in time, my ability to ask myself that question at that most pressurised moment, probably of my career, was to self-regulate. All they need now is a ‘we’ve done this, we’ve rehearsed this, our processes, all good?’ Everyone nodded and off they went. I wouldn’t have been able to do that previously. It’s still a struggle, but that was a good example of being able to regulate yourself to then help the athlete be in the right place they need to be to perform.”
As a male coach in a female environment, Kerry is aware of the need to afford athletes personal space when it comes to issues such as the impact of the menstrual cycle on training history, volume and conditioning, particularly as there is still “some debate and ambiguity about what the science is saying”. While working with Great Britain’s women, he would defer to the team doctor in such matters. “It was led by our doctor, a person seen to be on the ‘outside’. We didn’t want athletes to think we were encroaching on something so personal to them. That needs to be handled with incredible skill.” He discussed it in terms of “managing the bell curve and deviations from the group”. “It’s not a science, it is a sense, it’s a craft. What is optimum for this group of athletes as a whole can mean that some people adapt ahead of the bell curve, others struggle because that’s not what they wish for themselves, but that’s an optimum for the entire group,” he said. “All facets of coaching, whether that’s sitting in a meeting discussing the players, whether that’s discussing how we push collectively as a team, whether that’s what we’re going after and how we’re going after it. It’s understanding that you’re trying to find an optimum for that particular team and then helping those people below the bell curve find their value in that, finding what works for them. That is the craft of coaching and, in my experience, that doesn’t get discussed in coach development.”
Kerry was initially taken aback by the Canada women’s often literal interpretation of his instructions. “There’s a lot you can unpack there,” he said. “You can unpack it from the angle of gender, you can unpack it from the angle of your understanding of what’s going on. How are they feeling? Is there literal interpretation because they don’t want to get it wrong? Are they doing it because of the way they’ve been coached all of their life? Are they taking it literally because of the dynamic playing out within that female group? [They could ask themselves] Am I trying to do that because I’ve got a 200-cap athlete next to me?
“There’s a whole raft of psycho-social dynamics playing out there. So based on the experience I’d had, just talking to that very quickly; almost trying to create environments where [I’m asking] does it require me to talk to them? Does it require me to remove myself from that room and get them to sort it out themselves? Does it require me to use data, which involves the assistant coach of the programme leading that? Making these decisions as a head coach requires identifying some of these dynamics that are going on.”
Kerry warmed to the topic and added: “Quite often when people talk about performance, they’re talking about a very objective domain, whereas I think it’s more about these aspects. What is the greatest burden of that environment? What environment are you creating to ensure the most optimum versus the learning curve? What’s your impact on that? How can you create an environment between your athletes that allows them that peer to peer conversation that Emma was talking about? How quickly do you set those things up because they are, in my experience, the single greatest inhibitor to the team and the acquisition of skill?”
There have been occasions in the past where he wishes he could have coached female players differently. “If I had my time again, I would definitely approach it in a different way, but at the time, I didn’t have that experience having been in hyper-masculine environments.”
Kerry believes that leadership skills are fundamental to performance. “You want people to lead even without the title,” he said. “[With Great Britain’s women] we had a discussion about that very early on talking about everyone has the capacity to lead in their own way that’s congruent to them. So if I were to summarise, normalising leadership as one of the fundamentals of performance is one of the key aspects of your job [as coach], so talking to that, raising awareness of what that is and how it can be done, part of that is raising self-awareness in the athletes, how they can influence others, is absolutely fundamental. It’s right up there with are you fit enough? In terms of female role models, I’d like to think the women’s hockey programme has some incredible female role models, someone like Kate [Richardson-Walsh] and others and now stepping into different domains whether that’s big business or sports. I’m very proud of that.”
He continued: “We have some stereotypical views of what it takes to lead, actually. Breaking that down and allowing these athletes to lead congruently to who they are is one of the things I’m most proud about. So Kate leads in a way that’s congruent to her, Alex [Danson] is a very different leader but still effective, and I’m now trying to do the same with field hockey Canada.
“There’s a moral dimension to having a team that’s well-led, there’s also a huge performance dimension to having a team that’s well-led and a depth and granularity to what leadership is. By the same token, whether we’re leading or following, we talk about that responsibility and what it means to follow well. The difference in my experience with male teams and female teams is the female teams seem to implicitly understand the importance and significance of that and really buy-in quite quickly”.
In the final instalment of this Performance Support Series we explored ways that we can all improve when it comes to debriefing performance.
Over the course of the three sessions, we are focusing on three core areas as part of this topic:
For the final part of this learning series, the focus of the content and conversations centred around implementing effective debriefing to create a learning culture in your team.
Outcomes of the session included:
Debriefing as a critical component of a high performing organisation
In setting the scene for this virtual roundtable, we leaned into the work of Arie De Geus, who was one of the early thinkers in the space of systems thinking and how we can learn and ally new learning to create a competitive advantage. De Geus was quoted as saying that ‘the only competitive advantage the company of the future will have is its managers’ ability to learn faster than their competitors’. Effective debriefing forms a key role in creating a true learning organisation and allowing you to use learning as a source of competitive advantage.
Combining the work of De Geus, Peter Senge in his work for The Fifth Discipline suggests that the highest performing organisations consistently learn and put systems in place where they are able to extract information and collective intelligence. When thinking about the topic of debriefing, there are often questions considered around to how we should do it and when. Answering these questions and systematising will support a shift towards a culture of learning.
Before we move into exploring specific elements of debriefing, we also explored the difference between traditional organisations and those who are termed learning organisations.
Senge defined organisations as where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire. Pedlar provides a definition of a learning organisation as being able to facilitate learning of all its members with the aim of continuously transforming itself.
How are we currently implementing debriefing?
Reflecting on how we are currently implementing debriefing provided an opportunity for those on the call to share their experiences of this process in their environment. There were some differences in responses to how debriefing is leveraged.
As part of this conversation, there were some interesting reflections on the nature of debriefing in some of our environments. A point was made around debriefs or reviews leading to us slipping into planning or a solution mindset. We can experience tangents and not effectively staying on the task of the debrief – effective debriefing requires intent and discipline.
There were also some reflections on debriefing tending to focus on the eventuality of a negative outcome such as a defeat, as opposed to when we win. Participants on the call shared that in the debriefing process, often there is a lack of action, something that other members of the team or players pick up on. Actions are crucial for buy-in – it is easy to review and reflect, but to generate actual change is where the impact of a debrief comes in.
Skills for effective debriefing
We’ve discussed the importance of debriefing and how it is currently being implemented in our environments, but it is also important to consider the skills required for debriefing to be effective. When the question of what skills are required were put to the group, these are some of the responses that followed:
For effective debriefing, having a framework or system in place will elevate its impact. We discussed a simple framework that can be used by anyone as a benchmark:
Planning for action. Planning for the debrief is important, particularly how the debriefs will happen and the skills required to make them effective. Often it is easy for debriefs to become emotional – a process in pre-planning helps to keep things on track.
Action. This is the doing part.
Reflection. How do you reflect accurately, especially in an emotionally charged environment, whether positive or negative? Reflection is a key still to aid questioning and listening.
Relating back into action. Take the learning and do something with it. If you do not do this, it is a waste of time. Debriefing is about initiating change and continuous improvement.
To summarise this section, having the ability to reflect, appraise and reappraise is considered a cornerstone of lifelong learning and performance.
Challenges in debriefing
The group highlighted a number of challenges that are associated with debriefing. The idea was to identify what often gets in the way of being good at debriefing, allowing us to evaluate how we currently approach debriefing. There were six key challenges highlighted that we should be aware of.
To summarise
The influence of debriefing is a topic often talked about within the Leaders Performance Institute. We all know the importance of it but there is a feeling that there remains vast room for improvement in how to do it effectively. As we rounded off this virtual roundtable, we reflected on some of the key considerations and opportunities for debriefing, to ensure you engage in it more effectively in your environment.
It’s worth noting that debriefing is free, yet presents a fantastic opportunity for continuous improvement without financial resource. With any sort of debriefing, using a process to embed and plan out debriefing is a positive first step in its impact. Remove outcome bias and instead focus on the learning, decision-making and impact areas – outcome bias will sway the quality of the debrief. Be sensitive of time and, where you can, engage in debriefs immediately after the performance. Keep them short and to the point. Gather as many facts as possible first, allowing you to be dispassionate and objective. As an observation, watch for people proving vs. challenging themselves. Reflection skills are powerful so ensure you practise them to elevate the quality of the debrief. Finally, keep a journal and a log of the key learnings from the process.
The Bees’ men’s under-18s coach discusses her career journey and the lessons she’s learned along the way.
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“There’s no shortcuts, even though everyone seems to want them these days,” she tells Henry Breckenridge and John Portch on the Leaders Performance Podcast, which is brought to you today by our friends at Keiser.
“Time on the grass, working in different environments, working under different people as leaders will help you to understand what it looks like for you.”
Bedford, who has also coached with underage women’s teams at the Football Association [FA], Leicester City Women in the WSL, and served as an assistant coach at Arsenal Women, talks enthusiastically about her first six months Brentford.
In her new role she is a pioneer. One of the few women coaches operating at the top level of the men’s game.
Elsewhere in this episode, she delves into the importance of her mentors, who include Mo Marley, the current Head Coach of England Women’s under-23s.
Bedford recalls a time at an FA training camp when, at Marley’s side, she encountered the senior women’s England squad. She says: “Every senior player that walked passed her gave Mo a hug and I was like ‘I want to be Mo, I want to have that impact’. But actually, the more I worked with Mo, whilst I love her to bits and still have tremendous respect for her, how Mo leads is not how Lydia leads.
“You learn loads of things, good and bad, from people that you work under and then you find your own way.”
Elsewhere on the agenda, Bedford spoke about:
Henry Breckenridge Twitter | LinkedIn
John Portch Twitter | LinkedIn
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In the final Leadership Skills Series Session of 2023, we focused on this increasingly essential skill, from the required mindset to the need to understand your boss.
It is a popular topic of conversation within the Leaders Performance Institute for those overseeing departments or who have direct lines into executive leadership or board level personnel.
Throughout this session we focused on some key concepts for managing up effectively, taking time to discuss and share best practices around:
Your mindset towards the relationship
Before exploring some of the practical examples of effectively managing up, we need to set the tone through ensuring the right mindset is in place to approach this. Leaning on the work of Richard Boston in The Boss Factor, we focused on four different mindsets you could engage with as part of the relationship and process of managing up.
Boston offers a useful framework to reflect on this mindset towards your relationship with your boss. The key insight from Boston’s framework is to consider the impact of this mindset on the relationship, notably your engagement, motivation and ability to manage up. These are the four mindsets on which we focused:
Understanding your boss
We previously explored your mindset towards your relationship with your boss. As an extension to this point, understand their drivers and pressures so you can both support them and understand their point of view will boost you ability to be collaborative in the conversations.
What can you consider about your boss or direct report which will support these conversations?
Understanding yourself
We’ve evaluated the drivers and pressures of the person you are managing up to. As part of this process we also need to increase our self-awareness around our trigger areas. Before engaging in these interactions, do you have a clear understanding of your own thoughts and feeling to the below?
Proactively develop the relationship
Finally, how can we proactively develop the relationship to make managing upwards effective and collaborative? Below are nine considerations for you to reflect upon:
Iain Brunnschweiler explores the impact of our behaviour upon others and asks where we as leaders may have a more positive influence.
This demonstration of frustration is clear for all to see, despite his young age. To compound matters, the opposition coaches, having both prowled angrily around what passes for their technical area, pointing and shouting for the whole game, join in the protests against the teenager who is officiating the game, as a part of her development.
This was an actual scene that I witnessed last weekend in an under-9s grassroots game.
Behaviour can be contagious. It can spread like wildfire. And it isn’t restricted to those directly in contact with you, especially if you are in a position of hierarchical influence.
Now, I could write an article pointing out some of the clearly unhelpful adult behaviour that seems to emerge on the side lines of kid’s sport, however, for the moment I will leave that for the governing bodies to address. The area of interest to me here is the impact of role modelling.
There are two clear examples above of where individuals have been influenced by the role modelling of people of significance to them. The young goalkeeper will have seen and be mimicking the behaviours of one of the many keepers displaying this approach on TV. For the impressionable mind, that’s what goalkeepers do. They complain about every decision. They run directly at the referee when any decision is made. They shout and throw their arms in the air in disgust.
Secondly, the coaches on the side lines – probably two incredibly well-meaning parents who have committed their free time to support youth sport – are doing what they’ve seen on TV, or live from the stands. Standing up for the whole game, allowing the emotion (attached to the score line of the clearly very important under-9s match) to spill over into behaviours they would never normally enact within the bounds of normal life. Shouting at the children within their care, shouting at the child who is learning to referee, whilst being accountable for the experience for all of these impressionable young folk.
The point of real interest for me (and hopefully others who have the privilege and responsibility of being in a leadership role) is to consider which of our behaviours are contagious. How aware are we of the impact of our behaviour both directly upon others, and indirectly through the role modelling we demonstrate? What are the things we see in others around us that mimic our behaviour, and how comfortable are we about this? How can we raise awareness of these factors?
One great way is opening yourself up to feedback. I received some highly valuable feedback in the past from a colleague, about getting the best out of my team. She generously pointed out a specific behaviour (one of my preferences) that she didn’t think helped the team get in the appropriate state for a given meeting. It was brave of her to give me this feedback, and I valued it hugely. She skilfully raised awareness of a learned behaviour, and allowed me to consider how I responded. I committed that day to make a change.
Organisations will often commit to a set of values, sometimes written on the walls or company documents. In many cases the words ‘honesty’ or ‘integrity’ might appear. Yet how often are people within the organisation encouraged to provide genuinely honest feedback to leaders around the impact of their behaviours? How often do we ask how we make others feel at work? I’ve experienced some feedback-rich environments, and I’ve experienced some that felt very unsafe. The former was certainly far more enjoyable to work in, and far more productive for all. Once awareness has been raised, one still has to consider whether they will take action or not.
Some examples of contagious behaviour that I’ve seen are:
The workaholic. A key leader spends enormous lengths of time at the workplace. They are online even when they are home.
The standards monitor. A key leader is incredibly hot on standards of clothing, office space, and punctuality. They will regularly call out colleagues who are not achieving the leader’s expected level.
The time-giver. A key leader regularly is seen taking time to speak to colleagues, getting to know them.
The HIPPO. Within meetings, the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion is always the decisive one. They shut down others in order to make the call, based on their perception.
The joker. A key leader is regularly seen making jokes and having fun within the work place.
The calming influence. A person of hierarchical position who demonstrates a calm, thoughtful and logical approach at times of pressurised decision-making.
The above are just a few examples of contagious behaviours, and I will let you decide to what extent you perceive these attributes to be helpful, or a hindrance, within the workplace. This will no doubt be relative to the context and the complexity of the organisation and the people surrounding the leader.
However, in my experience, the contagion is very clear and obvious. We see miniature versions of these behaviours permeating throughout the organisation. This becomes the culture.
One successful and overt strategy to utilise role modelling within the work place that I have seen has been the deployment of experienced professional players within an U-21s team. Southampton and Brighton & Hove Albion Football Clubs have very successfully deployed Ollie Lancashire and Gary Dicker respectively into player-coach roles. These players, both in their 30s have role modelled the behaviours, approaches and attributes that a consistently high performing player possesses, all at very close proximity to the club’s top youth talent. I’m sure there will be other examples of this within sport, military and business.
Behaviour can be contagious. I have, as most of us who are sporting parents, felt all of the emotions that come to the surface when a loved one is either doing well or doing badly in front of you. I have the urge to shout in support, to shout words of encouragement or at times words of despair. However, I remember watching a video that Arsenal FC pulled together where they interviewed young players about what they wanted to hear from their parents on the sidelines, and the messaging stuck with me. “I don’t want you shouting from the side of the pitch… I just like it when you clap when I’ve done something well” or words to that effect. I now have a strategy of holding my hands behind my back when I’m watching my kids, to remind me of this video. This physical act helps me. Hopefully my side line approach would be perceived as helpful role modelling to other parents who want the best for their kids.
Questions for leaders:
So, if you are not happy with the behaviours you see in front of you, consider how you can act. As Ghandi once said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. Role modelling has a huge impact. If it is contagious enough through a TV screen to affect an 8-year-old and a couple of adults at a kids match, imagine the power of this in person.
And, by the way, if you know an adult who behaves like this in kids sport then please pass this article onto them! As I’m 100% sure that coaching kids looks very different from coaching professionals.
Iain Brunnschweiler runs the Focus Performance Consultancy. He is a former professional cricketer, has authored two published books, and most recently was the Head of Technical Development at Southampton Football Club.
