By Sarah Evans

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Make It Stick

Starting With Why

How Great Leaders Inspire Action

Framing the topic

In our final Leadership Skills Series Session of 2022, we look at how our members can enhance their influencing skills within their environments. We began the session by framing what influencing is and how we might be able to enhance these skills and be more effective with our communication. Influencing doesn’t happen in a vacuum, it’s linked to who you are, your personal brand and how people feel about you. It is something that has to be nurtured and worked with over a period of time.

‘The key to successful leadership today is influence not authority’ – Kenneth Blanchard, American business consultant

What influencing meant to our members:

• People like to be treated and influenced in different manners. You can’t influence them when you’ve just met them, it takes time to build the relationship and trust.
• Empowering ideas in others alongside your own so they have added buy-in.
• Influence can create stronger buy in than telling someone to ‘do something because I said so’.
• Influence is a process of education.
• To influence can be to work to make the thing look like a good idea, so the team move to a position to want to do it.
• Enabling and empowering others to ‘do’, ‘act’, ‘change’.
• Influencing is an element of leadership, involving ‘moving people’.
• An emotional bank account with others – if that is in credit it is easier to do the moving and shifting.

What behaviours do we see from those that influence well?

• Clarity of purpose and values.
• Trust and relatedness is a feeling of positive influence.
• Listening and empowerment, they ask a lot of questions to get to understand you – empathy.
• They listen, they take in your opinions, they are objective. They state the inconvenient truths.
• People feel heard, valued, engaged.
• People feel trusted, empowered, and are invested in the outcomes.
• They have power without playing authority.

Outcome thinking:

Event + Response = Outcome

Focus on what you want to achieve and then, because of that, think about how you need to behave.

Wheel of Influence:

Pull behaviours

Responsive:

• Seeking to understand & explore the other person’s point of view.
• Explorative questioning.
• Staying open.

Passive:

• Giving in too soon.
• Feel ‘unworthy’/low status.
• Not challenging.

Push behaviours

Assertive:

• Sharing our perspective.
• Clear on what we want.
• Evidence-based persuasion.
• Giving effective feedback.

Aggressive:

• Aggressive/attacking.
• Refusing to listen.

How do we make our points ‘stick’?

1. Simplify – strip your message down to its core. Less is always more. What is the key message you want your audience to go away with?
2. Grab their attention by surprising the audiences expectations.
3. Make your communication more concrete and less abstract:
   • Use relevant examples/personal stories to bring your points to life.
   • Add weight and quantify your point with relevant and compelling facts.

Four Ps model – for getting people on board with the need for change, and giving confidence in our new direction.

1. Picture (what) – setting out a positive vision of success. The outcome we are determined to achieve.
2. Purpose (why) – explain the reason for it. What’s the problem we’re solving?
3. Plan (how) – a step by step plan as to how we are going to phase-in the change and support people – the aim here is to reassure people.
4. Part (who) – give individuals clarity on where they can best add value.

Thoughts and reflections from our members about the model:

• It helps in reviewing a current programme – picture what we want it to look like in three years’ time and how we get there.
• The model provides a logical flow of information.
• We discussed What (1) vs Why (2) and which should come first in the framework.
• One of the group suggested that the person and credibility of who is delivering the message is probably most important.
• It is not just a one-off pitch but how you weave some of the stuff into every conversation and interaction; keep them mindful of it and provide reminders.

By John Portch

As 2022 comes to an end, there has already been some considered reflection upon the last 12 months – but what about the year ahead?

At this year’s Leaders Sport Performance Summit at London’s Twickenham Stadium, the Leaders Performance Institute spoke to a number of our speakers to ask: what are they most optimistic about heading into 2023?

There answers were varied and cover two instalments – Part II will be available on Thursday – but there were also some common themes, such as a general sense of excitement and anticipation.

“Personally, I’m really excited about travelling more,” said James King, the author of Accelerating Excellence. “I cannot wait to get back out to the States more and get in front of some of the top organisations out there to test what I’ve been learning about and working on behind the scenes over the last few years.”

For some, such as actor Dom Simpson, star of The Book of Mormon in London’s West End, there is optimism to be found in a return to the usual routine. “We’re looking forward to some normality in the performing arts world,” he said. “We’ve obviously just come back after the break for the pandemic, the theatres were closed for about 18 months. We’ve had closures for Covid in the building; audience numbers haven’t been the same. You’ve seen shows closing that you wouldn’t expect to close because of the knock-on effect of the finances involved.

“I’m looking forward to a bit of normality and seeing new and exciting projects happening. We’re allowed to see those flourishing because the world is so back open again and we’re given that opportunity to create new shows. Seeing the West End as a real entertainment source for the UK.”

Sport is a step ahead in that regard, with the England women’s national football team winning the Euros this summer in front of almost 90,ooo spectators. They head into 2023’s Fifa Women’s World Cup as one of the favourites to wrest the crown from the United States.

“I’m excited by the growth of the team,” said Kay Cossington, the Head of Women’s Technical at the Football Association. She spoke the day after England drew 1-1 in Norway and five days after the Lionesses dispatched Japan 4-0. “Over the past week, I think we can see the depth of squad that we’ve got with these players. We’ve got some fantastic players who are coming through the system and that’s credit to the national coaches and the development teams that are part of the pathway and I’m really excited to see how good we can be by 2023, as a team and as a sport too.”

The growth of women’s football in England is part of a wider societal shift and offered some diversion during a year of hardship for society at large. It is perhaps with the struggles of the latter in mind that Carl Gombrich, the Academic Lead and Head of Teaching & Learning at the London Interdisciplinary School, spoke of his cause for optimism in 2023.

He said: “I don’t think the old ways of doing politics, probably back to Thatcher, are working any more. There are some people out there with some very radical and interesting ideas. Whether they get heard or whatever they can attach themselves to a mainstream political party or not to get traction, I don’t know. But it this way, I am positive in a sense because I don’t think the status quo can go on that long, that means there will be change, which might be quite exciting change.”

Back in the world of sport, British bobsledder Montell Douglas, relishes the change that 2023 will usher in on a personal and professional level. “I’m most excited about change,” said the athlete who switched from sprinting to the bobsleigh, becoming the first British athlete to compete at both the Summer and Winter Olympics.

“I am an ever-evolving human in sport and away from sport, but I love a challenge and I always have done and I think that’s how I’ve got to where I’ve got to regardless of what I’m doing whether it’s life, family, home work. It’s the same thing, she continued.

“I love having constantly trying to grow and push myself, but when it’s outside your comfort zone, which it very much right now is, I’m taking on stuff that I’ve never done before ever in life. Even if I use my experience, I’m most looking forward to seeing how I fare in those circumstances and, actually, what are you going to be like? Now that you are actually going to take on this challenge, what’s that going to look like for you? And also seeing the result of me as a human and me as Montell not the athlete, what becomes of that.”

By Luke Whitworth

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Learning to Learn – A New Take on Senge’s Learning Organisation

Peter Senge & the Learning Organisation

The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organisation

Framing the topic

The intention of this series on learning was to stimulate thought, curiosity and reflection around the overarching theme of learning. (The summary of Part I is here and the summary of Part II is here.) Across this series, we have explored a number of concepts to support thinking around how learning can be a source of competitive advantage for your organisation. We need to learn faster because the rate of change will be faster than ever.

Learning objectives:

• The role of leadership in learning organisations.
• How have you learnt your leadership to date?
• The skills and attributes of leadership who create learning cultures.

The role of the leaders

‘The wicked leader is who the people despise. The good leader is who the people revere. A great leader is he who the people say, “we did it ourselves”’

Lao Tzu, circa 500 BC

‘Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time leading yourself – your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct. Invest at least 20% leading those with authority over you and 15% leading your peers’

Dee Hock (Founder of Visa Inc.)

You are the leader of the ship… What should be your role?

• Captain.
• Ship designer.
• Helmsperson.
• Navigator.
• Head engineer.
• Entertainment officer.

Author Peter Senge believes that the role of the leader should be the ship designer. The reason for that is that the designer had the concept and vision for the ship – it is about the whole thing. The other roles outlined are specific roles and not necessarily the wider system.

A Leader as a designer

What are the traits of the ‘designer’ leader?

• Sees the ‘whole picture’.
• Vision, targets and metrics.
• Role and responsibilities.
• Systems and processes.
• The learning environment – teacher / mentor / coach.

The fundamental thing a leader can do to create and sustain a high performance organisation is creating a learning environment. The leader has the responsibility to create a space for learning.

A leader designing a climate of safety

What are the conditions to create a learning environment? Psychological safety is a fundamental part of this.

Leaders can increase the likelihood of a team member’s psychological safety by demonstrating specific behaviours. A study by McKinsey looked into the relationship between leadership behaviours and outcomes, outlining coefficient effects around: significant effect (+) and conditional effect (-).

We talk a lot about challenge and support in high performance environments. The research suggests you can’t challenge without trust and also developing consultative and supportive leadership. Combining the above led to a positive impact on team culture.

Question: How have you designed your thinking about your environment to enhance learning opportunities in your team/organisation?

• The art of listening and how important this is as a leader. It takes time, dedication and persistence to get good at this and start asking quality questions in your teams.
• Understanding self and how you show up. It’s important to state that this is a journey but the notion of understanding how to lead yourself before others is important.
• ‘Heat moments’ – when things are challenging and stressful, these are growth opportunities. Allow your team members to have these moments so they can learn and grow.
• Self-values. Leading by the values you believe in yourself rather than leading by what the textbook says – being true to yourself in how you lead.
• Understanding context and speed of change around us, and how that affects learning.

How to create a learning organisation

• Be curious.
• Lead by being a coach / mentor / Teacher.
• Plan to Plan.
• Design the system for people to learn on the job (peer coaching).
• Lead by seeing initiative as a series of experiments.
• Use data to get to the facts.

Leadership styles

The most effective leaders used the most ‘styles’ in a given week.

Rules of thumb: pacesetting and commanding leadership should be used sparingly, and the visionary, democratic, affiliative coaching styles should be used regularly and in larger proportions.

Daniel Goleman’s six leadership styles:

1. Visionary: motivates people towards a vision. Language such as ‘come with me’. Give their team a general direction and goal to achieve, but let them reach that goal in whichever way they deem appropriate providing self-confidence and empathy.
2. Coaching: developing people for the future. Language such as ‘try this’. Skills of this style include developing others, self-awareness and empathy.
3. Affiliative: creates harmony and builds emotional bonds. ‘People come first’. Characteristics of this style are empathy, building relationships and communication.
4. Democratic: forges consensus through participation. ‘What do you think?’ Collaborative, team leadership and communication.
5. Pacesetting: sets high standards for performance. ‘Do as I do now!’ Conscientiousness, drive to achieve and initiative.
6. Commanding: demands immediate compliance. ‘Do what I tell you’. Drive to achieve, initiative and self-control.

Speakers:

Lorraine Brown, Head of Performance, GB Climbing

Rob Pountney, Chief Operating Officer, Breaking GB

Moderator: 

Edd Vahid, Head of Academy Football Operations, The Premier League

At the 2022 Leaders Sport Performance Summit at London’s Twickenham Stadium, we heard from Lorraine and Rob who have been at the forefront of two new sports, and how they preparing for Olympics whilst staying true to the culture of their sports.

• We have had a cultural shift in climbing from participation to performance.
• We have to make sure the pathway is really clear, and look at ways to identify how to add value on a daily basis.
• You have to stay true to your own sport, it is easy to think you have to be like the other sports who have been well established. Keep the roots and culture of the sport whilst making the transition to Olympic sport and the increasing demands it brings.
• What does talent look like? Once we have talent, how do we help them progress? How do we create the experiences to help them fulfil their potential?
• Lots of athletes coming from other sports, migrate to climbing for its culture. How can we still be an outlet for other athletes who want to try something different?
• Breaking is about pushing the individual boundaries of your own creation which makes the training environment very challenging.
• The idea of making sure it is fun has to be top of the pile. We don’t have the fear of change right now, we are trying to find the way the sport should look based on the culture of the sport. We have the freedom to make bold decisions.
• Every day we have to accept the different behaviours from our athletes, they are more independent and have more control over their schedules. Coaches and team managers have to work with the athletes whilst embracing the individuality and creativity of the athletes.
• How do we maintain that cultural element but also raise the standard and expectation and develop the right environments for athletes and coaches to thrive in.

Speakers:

Andrea Furst, Sport Psychologist, England Rugby and Surrey County Cricket Club

Helen Richardson-Walsh, Performance & Culture Coach, Tottenham Hotspur FC

At the 2022 Leaders Sport Performance Summit at London’s Twickenham Stadium, we had a peer-to-peer interview between Andrea Furst and Helen Richardson-Walsh, who worked together as psychologist and athlete to win Rio 2016 Olympic Hockey Gold for Great Britain. The pair talked us through how they were able to create a winning team environment and the importance of the role psychology can play in performance.

• Fostering trust between the psychologist and athlete is key. The athlete trusting that they are having a confidential conversation has such a positive impact.
• Allowing the players to sit down and set the culture helped to get player buy-in straight away, and it was credit to the head coach to allow that to be the starting point.
• When your vision is ‘winning’ it can leave you with a very empty feeling or feel very disappointed even if you’re on the podium. There is something more than just winning.
• The biggest thing a head coach can do with regards to culture work is give it time. To have the whole staff and players group involved and integrate it into every day behaviours.
• ‘How do you want to be remembered?’ It is about what can you do on the hockey pitch, but also who can you be off it. To be role models for women in sport, to stand up for what you believe and use your voice for good.

GB Women’s Hockey Vision:

• Be the Difference; Create History; Inspire the Future.
• The vision, values and behaviours make you accountable. The language was everything everyone had bought into and would use regularly. You knew what was expected of yourself and of one another.

Individual mindset: Knowing your ‘A Game’

• It is so important for every individual to understand their performance mindset before they go out to play and take responsibility for this.
• Knowing this allows you to understand how to be consistent.
• This is a skill and it can be learned.
• You then share your A game with the rest of the team, and the team understand you better plus they know how they can help you to stay on your A game. It is for a team work on; and it normalises it.
• If it matters to the head coach, it matters to the athletes. The head coach sets the tone, if they disregard psychology or integrate it, it filters through to the players and makes a huge difference.

A session brought to you by our Partners

Speakers:

Joel Shinofield, Managing Director, Sport Development, USA Swimming

Jatin Patel, Head of Inclusion & Diversity, Rugby Football Union

Moderator:

Shona Crooks, Head of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, Management Futures

We kicked off the second day of the 2022 Leaders Sport Performance Summit at London’s Twickenham Stadium with Joel Shinofield and Jatin Patel delving into how they are able to weave Inclusion & Diversity work into the fabric of their organisations.

Inclusion:

• Be inclusive first, and be really intentional with it. You want to foster an environment where people can be themselves and contribute.
• You need to ensure that when you bring in diverse talent, you have to provide them with the support to ensure they thrive.
• If you understand inclusion better, it will make engaging with diverse groups much easier.

What are you doing to make your organisations inclusive?

• Bystander training – how do we get teams to have more effective conversations and have the confidence to speak up? How do you ask better questions of each other?
• You have to invest in it. USA Swimming have a grant programme for clubs to move into new facilities. If you are able to access to the sport in your community, you are much more likely to be involved in the sport.
• Water has been an incredibly divisive tool in American history – pools were off limits to black families, so we have to acknowledge that first and intentionally increase greater access. We have to look at the ways in which we have excluded people to then help us find ways to include them.
• Rugby United – primarily aimed at black and Asian communities. England Rugby first looked at insights from these communities, their engagement, positive and negative experiences and tailor the approach to the specific communities. Ultimately it is about how we bring that cultural awareness into the broader game of rugby.
• Education is key, how to take responsibility of how to be more inclusive.
• On each of our teams there is someone who has DEI training. It is therefore woven into our coach development programmes. You have to make it part of your fabric.
• It is a strategic imperative as well as an outcome and output. ‘Drip drip’ it, don’t just have milestone big events, have it woven into every day and make sure it is pushed on the agenda constantly.
• Cognitive diversity starts with inclusion – how are you welcoming people in with new ways of thinking into your organisation?
  • Weekly department meetings, anyone can put something on the agenda, no matter your role.
  • How we approach specific groups where we know we haven’t done enough with in the past – there is a big gap in female coaching at the moment. Therefore we need a better pathway for young female coaches.
  • Data is crucial to understand how you haven’t served communities in the past so you can change it.
• Talk about it! Make it part of your everyday thoughts and conversations.

By John Portch, with additional reporting by Luke Whitworth and Matthew Stone

The Leaders Think Tank is at once a network and a knowledge platform.

It is designed to connect people with responsibility for performance at the highest levels of world sport with each other and the ideas that have served their peers best. The top jobs in elite sport are often lonely places and always comprise unique challenges. The following is a record of the Think Tank meeting that took place on 14 November at Twickenham Stadium in London. A behind-closed-doors event, the account that follows is a general one and aimed at presenting the lessons learned from the conversation.

1. Continuing to evolve as a leader

Some of the participants have held senior roles for more than five years and we keen to ask the others: how they ensure their continued development and while continuing to win both individually and collectively.

Key points:

• Some leaders have the charisma to project their presence and aura around an environment and when their invest themselves in others they can have a positive impact on the collective.
• Emotional regulation is essential, particularly around the big games. Normalise conversations about the pressure that big games bring, use them to renew the focus on your processes.
• Could you even ask athletes, past and present, what they wanted or want from a coach?

2. The next generation athlete

Does the current generation of young athletes love sports? There are several valid reasons why in current high performance systems they may not, but what steps can we take to ensure their continued development and adaptability?

Key points:

• Have you considered your physical environment? If it reinforces a sense of hierarchy or implies that there is a pecking order then younger athletes may be more reticent and your coaching efforts may be ineffective.
• Consider the language you use to encourage learning. Making sure the words and terminology do not dictate.
• Provide young athletes with the space to self-analyse and self-reflect. With skilful questioning, the coach can encourage enthusiasm in an athlete’s development.

3. The art and science of coaching

The perennial question about the art and science of coaching takes on further layers with the development of sports science and data science – where does the balance sit in modern sport?

Key points:

• In some ways there’s no change. Data and science informs and should not constrain. Take curated, quantitative data and tell stories in a qualitative style.
• Do the sports and data scientists on your staff complement your coaching style? Knowledge is one thing, but you must fill positions with the right person helping to build the right mindset.
• Avoid language such as ‘we’ve always done it this way’.

4. Long-term development in a short-term world

You can win and plan to win at the same time but it is not easy to find a balance in a world where results and outcomes are all too often the focus. There are, however, some steps that leaders can take.

Key points:

• Scenario-based training designed to upskill athletes can be useful when there are time constraints, while post-match debriefs are a useful way of planning the training week ahead.
• Can you pit your academy talents against your senior players? The latter will always be the focus ahead of the weekend, but younger prospects can benefit from the intensity.
• Clarity in desired behaviours, a clear philosophy and consistent language all help engender alignment around how you play, how you coach, and how you support athletes.

5. Managing expectations from top to bottom

Knowing what it takes to win is essential but success can create a lot of white noise, particularly for younger athletes who may not fully understand how they were able to scale the summit.  How can you manage expectations at all levels?

Key points:

• It comes back to behaviours. With senior players driving the processes within a playing group, there is room for humility and continued development.
• Psychological safety – safe interpersonal spaces – are useful for enabling athletes to explore their boundaries and risk low-cost failures for further high reward.
• A coach can manage the narrative and take athletes on a journey where a fleeting success is not the destination.

Participants

Sir Andrew Strauss, Chair, England & Wales Cricket Board

Craig McRae, Senior Coach, Collingwood FC

Damien Comolli, President, Toulouse FC

Emma Hayes, Manager, Chelsea Women FC

Jess Thirlby, Head Coach, England Netball

Mike Anthony, Head of High Performance, New Zealand Rugby

Phil Cullen, Senior Director of Basketball Operations & Organizational Development, San Antonio Spurs

Sara Symington, Head of Olympic & Paralympic Programmes, British Cycling

Simon Timson, Performance Director, Manchester City

Stuart Lancaster, Senior Coach, Leinster Rugby

Trent Robinson, Head Coach, Sydney Roosters

Speaker: Craig McRae, Senior Coach, Collingwood FC

Moderator: Roger Kneebone, Director of Surgical Education, Imperial College London

The third session of the 2022 Leaders Sport Performance Summit at London’s Twickenham Stadium saw Roger pick Craig’s brain around his approach to coaching, how he works with his athletes, and the importance of coach wellbeing.

• Sport is often about survival, and you move from survival mode to living mode, then back to survival mode towards the end of your career.
• We often learn winning behaviours through losing. There is a formula to losing just as there is a formula to winning.
• When you experience something, you then build a level of comfort. So the more you can experience an environment the more you are comfortable in the pressure. Life is about experiences and putting yourself in positions to learn and grow.
• “I don’t actually like the term ‘mastery’ as it alludes to being full and I feel far from full. I’m always learning and wanting to grow,” explained McRae. “I never want to put a ceiling onto what I want to achieve, I learn things from different opportunities, and life takes you in different directions.”
• Craig explained the importance of planting seeds for future careers whilst he was still competing. When it came time to retire, it was then obvious where his passions lay and because of this preparation, it was obvious to him that it was in coaching.
• How do you go from being a master in playing to transitioning to being more of a novice in coaching?

“Having a mentor is key. I would video every session, so I could watch it back and reflect, and constantly look to get better. As coaches we review the game a lot but we very rarely review ourselves and the processes behind the programme.”

• Handling pressure is about the ability to be just present and be at ease with the moment. The inexperienced vs the experienced player is all about managing the moment. Execute and repeat the behaviour so that when you are under pressure, you don’t actually have to think about it, muscle memory takes over and you are able to execute.
• Our ability to stay in the moment and execute the next moment is critical. It’s like a windscreen wiper, you will make mistakes in games and then you have to be present to execute the next moment, wash away the mistakes and fix it for the next one.
• “We have a winners’ mentality – on a Monday morning you won’t know whether we have won or lost, we repeat the same processes over and over and stick to these, not changing things because we have won or lost. If you repeat those behaviours long enough they will be there when you need them.”
• “I don’t like players lying down at the end of the game, you have to do the same processes and go again. We lost but we’re not losers, we get up shake their hands, and get ready for the next game.”
• There are two kinds of pressure to consider: the impact of a mistake, and the impact that the mistake can have on you.
• You can be a winner even if you lose. You can learn from the experience and improve. It is perilously easy to lose that sense of who you are, and having a mentor and the support you need is crucially important.
• McRae highlighted that it’s so important to play in a grateful state. It’s so important to keep that fun element of play and gratitude towards performing.

Speakers:

James King, Author of Accelerating Excellence: The Principles that Drive Elite Performance

Greg Newman, Chief Executive, ONYX Capital Group

For this session at the 2022 Leaders Sport Performance Summit at London’s Twickenham Stadium, we heard from James King about his lessons from the world of trading and how they apply to high performance.

Ambition, talent and effort dictate success in every field. Performance is never a coincidence, and it always aligns with a specific set of principles.

There are four mechanisms, each of which contain principles to help our rate of progress. No one can predict success, but if you align yourself with more of these principles you stack the odds in your favour.

1. Perform from your sweet spot. To excel you need to pursue goals that align with your strengths, interests and values.

Three questions you have to ask yourself:

1. What are your strengths?
2. What are your interests?
3. What are your values?

We need move away from ‘you can be anything you want to be’, towards, ‘you can be more of who you really are’.

2. Acquiring Skill. Instead of the time spent training, it’s the time spent training under specific conditions:

1. Focus on the foundations
2. Learning by doing
3. It’s on you
4. You need challenge to change
5. Training must be specific
6. Create uncertainty
7. Variability

3. Emotional Control. To perform when it counts is the measure of elite performance. Luckily this is a skill, and like any skill with the right training you can optimise it.

4. Innovate to stay ahead of the rest. Danger is becoming a one-hit-wonder, how do you keep improving?

James then welcomed Greg Newman on stage to discuss how he was able to utilise these principles in practice.

• Negative feedback is crucial, and you have to be told when you need to do something better.
• This culture is described as Radical Transparency. Within this, accountability is huge. Everything is being said to make you and therefore the team better.
• It’s not ego, you have to have belief. It takes the ego to believe, but it takes deep humility to understand that everything is about learning.
• We have a formulaic approach to goal-setting, being objective about the obstacles you are going to face and how you are going to overcome them.
• North Star approach – you have to set a North Star and have it seemingly unachievable. Every time someone has a break through, it shifts the expectations of everyone else. The perception of potential then shifts.