A podcast brought to you by our Main Partners

The rise of Toulouse FC has been both fast and meticulously planned.

Le Téfécé were Ligue 2 champions in 2022 and, last season, won the Coupe de France – their first major trophy in 66 years.

Toulouse also finished 13^th in their first season back in Ligue 1 – well clear of the relegation zone. Not that Damien Comolli, the club’s President since 2020, is resting on this laurels.

“Everyone said ‘well done on staying up’ but we’re not interested in staying up – we never mentioned staying up – we said we want to finish as high as possible,” he tells the Leaders Performance Podcast.

“There are games that we feel we should have won and could have won. We lacked this cutting edge, this winning mentality at times, we should have got more points, we should have finished higher than 13^th in the table.”

Damien Comolli has overseen the Toulouse’s resurgence under new owners RedBird Capital Partners, but he couldn’t have done it without his ‘truth teller’, the club’s Head of Strategy & Culture, Selinay Gürgenç Comolli, and Julien Demeaux, Toulouse’s Head of Data.

Both Selinay and Julien joined Damien for this episode, which is brought to you by our Main Partners Keiser.

The theme is Toulouse’s upwards trajectory and what it is going to take to help establish the club at the vanguard of European football.

On today’s agenda:

• How Damien is working to prevent Toulouse being a ‘one-season-wonder’ [9:00];
• His view on the importance of having a ‘truth teller’ in Selinay [12:30];
• Selinay on the importance of the club’s strategic committee [22:00];
• Julien on the comparative immaturity of data usage in football [32:00].

Henry Breckenridge Twitter | LinkedIn

John Portch Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen above and subscribe today on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and Overcast, or your chosen podcast platform.

By Iain Brunnschweiler

Picture the scene: it is day one of the men’s Ashes, the biennial Test cricket series contested between England and Australia, with the famous cricket ground at Edgbaston in Birmingham bathed in glorious June sunshine. The moment is set. This is one of the most historic, most competitive and highest pressure sporting events of the year.

Zak Crawley, England’s 25-year-old opening batsman, could have been forgiven for feeling the pressure. At the time, his batting average was much lower than one would historically hope for an international batsman, and a bumper crowd awaited the first ball from Australia’s captain Pat Cummins. Yet Crawley crashed the ball through the off side for four runs, with one of the most dominant shots you could ever see, to spark an eruption of rapturous applause from the crowd.

This was different. What proceeded to unfold over the next six hours or so was without doubt one of the most scintillating days of Test cricket you could ever see. England played with a freedom and a joie de vivre uncommonly seen in elite sport. Joe Root made an impeccable unbeaten hundred, including some outrageous shots, against some of the best bowlers in the world, and all delivered with the biggest of smiles on his face.

The England men’s cricket team produced some quite remarkable, yet publicly divisive, performances against the Australians this summer in a series that was drawn 2-2. The media labelled it ‘BazBall’ (a phrase which Coach, Brendon McCullum, and captain, Ben Stokes, refute), however, it is clear to me that there is significantly more behind England’s approach than simply smiling and smashing it. There has clearly been a process of strategic thought, some well-considered internal communications and an integration between those in dark trousers at executive level (Managing Director and Performance Director) with those in the white trousers on the pitch.

In my experience in elite sport, seeking genuine alignment of philosophy, leading into strategy and ultimately performance, is like searching for a unicorn. Every organisation will have a VMOST [Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategies, and Tactics] or similar, but how often is the MD really singing off the same page as the practitioner on the grass? How often when the going really gets tough, do we see players overtly playing for themselves and their own agenda, rather than that of the team and the organisation? Unfortunately it is all too common for misalignment to occur somewhere along the chain of command.

What can other sports, and businesses learn from the approach that England have adopted? I believe there are three headline areas:

• Strategic alignment 
• Performance psychology 
• Change management 

Let’s consider these one by one.

Strategic alignment 

England have consistently provided the media with a stated intention: they want to entertain. They have seen that this format of cricket (Test cricket is played in whites with games often lasting five days) has witnessed declining attendances in most of the world. England have strategically aligned themselves, from the Managing Director, Rob Key and Performance Director, Mo Bobat, through to the Coach (McCullum) and team captain (Stokes). They have taken the responsibility to seek to have a bigger purpose than just winning a game or a series – they are inspiring a nation and inspiring an audience with a specific style of play. Of course, they are doing everything they can to win every game, but at the heart of things, this is about something bigger. This is about keeping this format of the game alive by playing a brand of cricket that will entertain, regardless of the result. Not every team in the world has the resources at their disposal to deliver this super attacking approach – with the likes of Stokes, Root and younger players Crawley and Harry Brook, offset with the experienced bowling attack spearheaded by Jimmy Anderson and the now-retired Stuart Broad.

It was clear to me, that even when things got tough, losing the first two matches of the series against England’s ultimate enemy, that every player was clear on the strategy, and they did not deviate. Despite incredible levels of scrutiny and challenge from high profile media personnel, they were trusted from the upper echelons of Key and Bobat, and provided the psychological safety to be themselves.

Did the Aussies have genuine strategic alignment too? Currently the best team in the world, with many of the world’s best players, they are an outstanding unit. However, at times it looked like they were not sure whether to try to match England’s uber-positive tactics, or to maintain a more traditional approach and seek to grind their opposition down. I listened to a podcast recently where one of the phrases used was that the Australians were ‘fighting fire with water’!

Questions to ask yourself: 

• How aligned is your organisation both philosophically and strategically? 
• What is the ‘bigger purpose’ that might get more out of your team? 

Performance psychology 

England believe that players are at their best when they focus on their strengths. McCullum and Stokes have facilitated a psychologically safe environment whereby every player is encouraged to understand their strengths (just like when Crawley played his imperious cover drive) and then to deploy them with 100% commitment. Under the immense heat of battle, it is incredibly easy to become within yourself and therefore more risk averse. This leads to missed opportunities and can easily swing the momentum back in the opposition’s favour. We saw England batsmen and bowlers attacking the game with such a refreshing and entertaining approach that it seemed infectious. It also is very apparent that the players are enjoying their sport! Typified in many ways by pace bowler Mark Wood. Not only capable of bowling at extreme speeds (he hit a top speed of 96mph!), but falling over, joking around both on and off the pitch and generally demonstrating a level of joy that is normally reserved for the under-10s team. How often have we seen bland, almost robotic performances in sport…pre-defined patterns of play dictated by control-freak managers and directors. This is normally caused by personal insecurity and our ‘audit-driven’ approach to simplify the complex for a spreadsheet or boardroom. This England team are encouraged to do the opposite. To seize the moment and to play the game as they see it, with a personal plan focusing on what they individually do best. Genuine leadership and belief from the top, that the individual skills within the troops need to be unleashed. Rare indeed.

Questions to ask yourself:

• How well do you and your staff know your strengths? 
• To what extent does your environment encourage every individual to play to their strengths and enjoy their role? 

Change management 

England are administering a change programme. Any of us who have operated in more senior roles will no doubt be very accustomed to the challenges that come with delivering change within an organisation, let alone promoting it to the outside world. This normally comes with doubters, as change is hard. One of my observations during this period of time, has been how the commentators and media (mainly the ex-players in their 50s and 60s) have struggled to comprehend England’s approach. ‘It’s just not cricket!’ they have cried, ‘Why would you play such high risk shots, surely you would be better off getting out defending it!?’ or ‘Why would you choose to declare at that point!?’ This to me is like the member of staff who has been at an organisation for a long time, struggling to get their heads around a new approach. However, by the conclusion of the series, I think even the stalwarts are finally starting to understand. England DO care about winning, they just care more about entertaining a global audience with a brand of cricket that will inspire a future generation. They have consistently explained this to everyone who will listen, and the penny seems to finally be dropping. Change is difficult, but with an inspiring vision, consistent communication and a core of early adopters it is possible.

Questions to ask yourself:

• When leading on change, how are you going to deal with the doubters? 
• To what extent have you considered your messaging your vision to all stakeholders through the change programme? 

In summary, I was absolutely captivated by this summer’s Ashes series. The viewing figures released by Sky Sports in the UK, and the levels of social media engagement, also indicate that England are achieving their lofty goal of having a higher purpose. Most importantly to me personally, my two kids aged 10 and 7 have been captured by the entertainment. They wanted to watch the highlights every morning, and then run out into the garden to emulate their heroes, Ben Stokes, Joe Root or Mark Wood. This is a new era for the game, an exciting one, and one which I believe we can all take learning from.

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.

“I don’t know how common it is per se – there are moments when I regret it!”

By John Portch

Zach Brandon, the Mental Skills Coordinator at Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks, tells the Leaders Performance Institute that he is currently studying for a masters in Organizational Leadership at Arizona State University.

“There is never a perfect time to begin a new course, but it’s been cool because it’s put me outside my comfort zone,” he says. “It’s very much more business and organizational leadership-driven, but the work and research I’ve been able to do as part of it, has enabled me to see and learn what people are doing in these other settings and where I think there is a lot of potential transfer or application to sports settings.”

One such example is the practice of job crafting. “In essence, job crafting allows staff to customize some of their tasks and responsibilities in ways that might be more meaningful and aligned with their personal values,” Brandon continues. “I find this practice fascinating because it creates opportunities for staff to develop range in their roles and positively impact the organization in ways beyond their traditional job description.”

The Diamondbacks’ Mental Skills Department has experienced job crafting first-hand. “Although our main responsibility is providing mental performance training for our players, we’ve been able to slowly expand our reach to other facets of the organization, including injury rehab, coach development, scouting, and business operations.”

The question of employee wellness is another that is influencing Brandon’s work in the clubhouse. He says: “Building a robust, systematic, and preventative approach to employee wellness requires that leaders address policies, practices, and perspectives in their organizational culture.

“Perspective begins with organizational values and addressing if, and how, employee wellbeing is prioritized in the culture. This requires that leaders and staff be intentional and progressive with their language surrounding mental health.”

He says it is important that coaches and leaders recognize that their personal wellbeing can influence those around them. “Research has even shown that coaches with elevated stress levels can negatively affect the mental health of their athletes. At the end of the day, coaches and leaders need to model how to appropriately invest in one’s mental health and wellbeing. ‘Do as I say, not as I do’ doesn’t work. Athletes and fellow staff will look to their leaders for guidance in these areas so it’s not something that coaches can afford to ignore.

“Ultimately, leaders play a pivotal role in showing those they serve that self-care isn’t selfish. In reality, supporting wellbeing and resilience for your employees is really a competitive advantage, especially with the ever-increasing uncertainty and complexity found in work environments, which often lead to stress. Leaders should aim to install comprehensive prevention strategies within their organizations rather than rely on reactive support as issues arise.

Brandon explains that it is important that coaches and leaders establish a safe and supportive environment for athletes and staff to discuss mental health – a key step to normalizing it. “Enhancing policies might include ensuring that staff have trusted and affordable mental health and wellbeing resources available to them, and their families, or opportunities for temporary flexibility as it relates to scheduling and the location of their work.” he says.

“Practices could include initiatives that strengthen peer-to-peer support, such as mentorship programs or community groups; promoting personal development, with continuing education and training as prime examples; and encouraging physical and mental wellness through initiatives such as meditation classes.

“Additionally, research suggests that athletes, particularly at the elite level, perceive coaches as less effective when stressed.”

Beyond leaders, Brandon argues that mental wellness needs to be ingrained into the fabric of an organization’s culture and not treated simply as a program. “It can’t just include initiatives where employees participate in exercise challenges, yoga or mindfulness classes or company-run social events – expecting staff to participate in activities and wellbeing initiatives outside of their normal workday is an inadequate approach to promoting mental wellness.

“I am interested in how you can promote those wellness questions within the margins. All of those activities I describe do influence a person’s wellbeing, but a significant portion of people’s daily stressors are a product of their actual work environment and the demands placed on them. In addition to these activities, organizations would be wise to identify the on-the-job stressors that staff experience and design resources, or support, accordingly.

“It’s been interesting to think about things from a more organizational and system-wide perspective. It’s not just the idea of how things apply with one particular team but across a collective organization. Most organizations want to develop resilience. We want to develop resilience too, not only within individuals but within sub-teams and the organization as a whole. Leaders are architects of organizational culture and, thus, play a critical role in cultivating resilience and wellbeing for those serving the organization.

“Learning about the role leaders can play in this process has been interesting and offers a valuable opportunity for organizations to invest in their people.”

Download the latest Performance Special Report, Staying Agile: Managing Disruption and Optimising Preparation During the Pandemic – detailing the work of the English Institute of Sport with its teams and athletes.

Download Report

An article brought to you by our Partners

By John Portch

When it comes to learning there is still a notable discrepancy between sport and the corporate world, where executive coaching has become the norm.

More than half of FSTE 100 CEOs are believed to use an executive coach. “The senior leaders of those organisations recognise the need to find time to step away, reflect and be coached,” says Dave Slemen, the Founder of Elite Performance Partners [EPP], a search, selection and advisory firm working across elite sport and specialising in performance.

“The number of CEOs, head coaches or performance directors in sport using coaches is not that high – we did our own research. It’s interesting that it’s a cultural shift that needs to be made within sport. I wonder how important it is in terms of that organisational purpose and culture that has an impact on learning.”

Slemen opens the floor to Scott Drawer, the Director of Sport at Millfield School in Somerset, and Simone Lewis, who currently works as a Technical Leadership Expert with Fifa.

The panel came together for this EPP Webinar, titled Creating Effective Learning Organisations, to discuss why organisations that prioritise learning are gaining a critical competitive edge.

Leaders Performance Institute members logged in from across the globe to hear the trio discuss the creation of learning cultures, tips to ensure your staff are continually engaged in self-development, and useful models of feedback to ensure that learning is captured and applied.

You need to make learning happen

Often sports organisations talk about learning but there needs to be a concerted effort to ensure your coaches and staff are continuously engaged. “It’s no different to training an athlete,” says Drawer, whose background includes time spent working for UK Sport, England Rugby and the Team Sky Innovation Hub.

“You’re fundamentally trying to change your memory state. There’s some underlying physiology and neuroscience that drives that. You’re trying to drive information and behaviours from short-term memory to long-term memory; and there’s some tools and techniques to do that based on really good pedagogy.

“The way I describe it: the best coaches we have are often the best teachers; and the best teachers can be the best coaches. We often forget some of this foundational knowledge that exists in pedagogy and andragogy.”

Drawer’s time away from sport has helped him to coalesce his thoughts. “If you’re really serious about this, you have to be deliberate and focused about it and create time to let it happen,” he continues. “You have to really think about how you’re going to structure those opportunities.”

The role of leaders in creating a culture of learning

“It’s very hard to have a learning culture if it’s not enforced by senior leaders,” says Lewis, who is an advocate of role modelling. “You can learn as an individual without [necessarily] being in a learning culture.” It is complex, although Drawer outlines some tips for teams looking to develop a culture of learning. “You have to feel safe and supported as an individual where you’re not going to be ridiculed for asking questions or questioning the norm. At lot of that starts with the leadership in any organisation,” he says.

“‘Psychological safety’ is used in lots of contexts, but you have to feel it. Equally, an individual has to feel vulnerable enough to want to expose themselves. All of that is around that principle of safety. Once you have that, it’s then around the support that you put around them. If I’m going to ask a question, I’m given freedom to explore it.”

Lewis has also found that leaders often need help when structuring difficult conversations. “Giving and receiving feedback is hard,” she says. “Using things like ‘greens and reds’ and neutral language, always starting with the positives, and then following up with the things that can be improved upon. ‘You and me agree’ is another one. ‘You go first, what do you think?’ then I offer my opinion and we discuss it rather than me as your boss diving in with feedback. BAR is another one: behaviour, affect, request. Using the ‘affect’ and ‘it makes me feel’ can be really powerful for giving and receiving feedback to bring about learning and change.”

Inevitably, as Slemen points out, some people will be resistant to change, either openly or secretly and he asks Drawer how he might overcome such reluctance. “I need to understand why they’re resistant,” says Drawer. “There could be some fundamental psycho-behavioural reasons why that’s the case because of their previous learning experiences.

“My experience is that the brilliant people, the brilliant leaders I’ve worked with in a number of domains, they make you feel safe to go and explore.”

Learning is not a case of cause-and-effect, so time and support are both requisites. “That means better resources, that means putting time aside, that means having a leadership that recognise your next competitive advantage is going to be in that space.”

Help people to self-reflect

Lewis explains that the key to supporting individuals in their learning is to raise their self-awareness and helping them to self-reflect. She says: “It’s about helping them reflect on what they know, how they learn.” There are a number of tools freely available and Lewis suggests the ‘so what? /now what?’ model as an example. “‘Everything’s gone on, so what have I learnt? And then the key question is what am I going to do about it? What am I going to do differently? What am I going to implement?’” she continues. “If you’ve had a whole season let alone a whole game it’s about distilling the key learning and what I’m going to take forward. Build a habit and a system of capturing that and sharing it, if that’s relevant, whether that’s sticky notes, voice mails or old-fashioned note-taking – find a way that works for you.”

Learning experiences need to be designed and tested. Says Drawer: “If I knew intervention X would definitely give me Y, I would be doing it all the time and that’s not the real world. You need to try lots of things and see how individuals respond.”

Teaching curiosity

Studies around andragogy – adult learning – demonstrate that adults need to see immediate value when learning. “You’ve got to find ways of making that happen,” says Drawer. “If you feel supported in doing that, that will just evolve over time. If you encourage the opportunity for people to question because they genuinely want to understand, and then create the space, we can test an idea and explore it.”

Lewis suggests that mentoring, including support for those who have never worked with mentors before, is important. As is peer to peer learning and communities of practice. “We’re social animals, we learn together, but in terms of adding a bit of structure around a project, say, with a group of people in your organisation, [it helps to use] action learning principles or just giving a little guidance around how to define the problem better, how to be creative in brainstorming solutions for how to move forward with a project.” That way people learn, solve a problem, and become better leaders in the process.

Maintaining a long-term learning lens

Performance is always the inevitable focus, so how can teams and individuals retain a lens on learning when the pressure to obtain results begins to tell? “I’d never polarise one or the other,” says Drawer, who puts himself in the position of a coach. “Of course, you’ve got to win, but there are still opportunities to learn, there are still coaching moments and it’s therefore probably the time and effort you spend on that versus the reality of trying to get an outcome. Whatever you do, even if you’re focusing on one thing, there’s still opportunities to do that. You just have to acknowledge that’s the reality of that environment that you’re then in.”

He believes that leaders need to be pragmatic when trying to exploit learning opportunities when everything is what he terms “full gas”. “There are ways that we can capture and sort this unstructured data so that you don’t miss the moments of long-term opportunity,” he says. “Every time you’re having a conversation, all that unstructured data, body behaviour, language – all of that is quality information that you can learn from. By the time you get to the end of the season, when you’re doing a full debrief, you can pull on it and extract themes; and that might help you move.”

Staff learning can also be periodised, just as training might be for athletes. Drawer discusses psychology theory about how leaders can structure learning opportunities, but preaches patience. “It can take you a year to understand the rhythms and culture of the organisation / ecosystem you’re going into,” he says. “Anyone coming in will need that and be able to recognise when those opportunities are and when you’re most likely to be in a position where your brain is free, you’re not cognitively loaded, and you’re ready to do those things.”

By John Portch

“The whole idea of self-development, leadership and learning is such a passion of mine,” Jon Bartlett tells the Leaders Performance Institute.

Within a few minutes, the Elite Basketball Performance & Program Operations Advisor at the NBA explains just how interconnected people development, people management and process development is.

When each is done poorly, there tends to be common themes, such as a lack of investment in people, a lack of clarity, misalignment, and fear of challenging the status quo. These return time and again throughout our conversation and Bartlett cites the distinction between ‘discussion’ and ‘dialogue’ in making his case.

“In sport, we often skip the idea of engaging in dialogue – that is being open to and listening with intent to everyone’s viewpoint, willing to understand their perspectives, place value in their backgrounds and their experience – and instead we go straight to the discussion/debate narrative. Without recognising it, the situation quickly becomes a ‘me versus you’ with the actual problem not being addressed or solved.

In the first instalment of our two-part interview, we explore the steps teams can take to promote better people development, people management and process development.

Jon, what is the first step leaders can take towards creating shared understanding, language, meaning, vision and clarity within their teams?

JB: The obvious one, and it’s easier said than done, is making it visible. Does everyone know what the plan and strategy is? Is it evident within the environment you’re working in on a daily basis? Is there alignment between the owners, the board, the GM, coach, performance director and then all the different verticals underneath? Are there routine checkpoints along the way to determine progress or is it just an annual check-in to see how it’s going against the plan? Are there actual processes and opportunities to review the plan as it’s happening and emerging? Is the work of those who are non-athlete facing and those who are athlete facing aligned to the wider goals? Are the actions and words consistent? It’s easy to put words up on a wall, but are the actual actions and behaviours aligned with those?

How can goals and values be effectively communicated to staff members?

JB: It’s about taking people on a journey. In an ideal world they’re somewhat part of the conversation, or involved some way in developing the goals and values. This way you likely get to the point easily and quickly around how those values are embodied. For big staff groups though where this isn’t always possible there are opportunities through behavioural frameworks. If you’ve got a certain set of values and behaviours in which we’re going to operate, what are the actions that embody those values? And how can you live those on a daily basis? I think in having that shared language and that shared understanding, the co-creation and sharing of that responsibility, you’re then reaching all the different verticals. There are many ways to achieve this but, ultimately, I think the more people involved in the process the more buy-in and engagement there is early on.

What about the role of those below the leaders?

JB: To achieve alignment, the heads of department are critical in sharing the values, the language, and the processes. One thing I’ve thought about hard is giving flexibility to staff on how they do their work and how it contributes to the bigger picture. Empower and allow them to carry out how they do their job on a daily basis, but then collectively identify how that work contributes to the bigger picture. Now you’re meeting them in the middle. That is key to that alignment. If it’s just being told constantly, ‘this is what you need to do, this is how you need to do it’. I don’t want to work like that. Flip it around: the work you want to do and how you’re doing it; how is that contributing to the bigger picture? What  piece of the puzzle are you in contributing to the overall strategy? It’s both top-down and bottom-up.

How can organisations track both progress and the development of behaviours?

JB: You always want to be able to track if something is going in the right direction through constant touchpoints on where it’s at, what’s the progress, where’s it getting to, but it’s also a case of tracking what isn’t working as well, what needs to be dropped. So, I like the idea of asking how do we spend our time? And what are we spending our time on? Then you’re almost thinking what’s the problems we’re trying to deal with? Are we asking the right questions? Are we trying to solve the right problems? If you haven’t got the initial plan, vision and strategy, then what are you actually tracking? I think that’s key: you’ve got to have the first part first in order to then track your progress along that lifecycle.

What are some of the signs of poor process management?

JB: This is really talking now to how things are done, the methods in which we account for planning, ideation, creation, implementation, review and evaluation. I think, done poorly, there’s gaps at every stage. Done well, there might be one or two ‘getting there’ stages, which might need tweaking. Done great, there are processes and frameworks contributing to every step of that process, it’s a well-oiled machine and it effectively contributes to decision making. For example, if there’s no review or evaluation of a process, then there’s very little learning happening. And no learning means the same thing is being done over and over; when you want different results and you do the same thing it’s basically insanity. In sport, if you do the same thing over and over, recruit the same, go through the same cycle and expect different results, nothing changes. One of the themes that I think interchangeably gets regarded as poor staff incompetence is just poor process management. Sometimes, it just needs better oversight and better management of the process and then often this can lead to better action plans and development for staff.

Change often comes during losing streaks, periods of staff turnover and other turmoil. How can teams begin to find opportunities in those moments?

JB: You’ve got to ask: what’s the problem? What’s the question we’ve got to ask ourselves? Change is inevitable in sport, it’s a constant. That’s why I think context becomes so important. To get a group of people to work together towards a common goal you have to ask: was there even a common goal established at the start? If there wasn’t, then that’s the problem, not necessarily the people underneath, because they didn’t necessarily know what they were doing. The opportunity is there to ask the right questions and if you don’t know what the questions are then get people in to help ask those questions and find out what the problem is. Subsequent to that, all staff have the opportunity to be a part of something. What do you want your role to be in this and how are you going to contribute to it in terms of turning it around and changing it? Some people will be ‘I’m out of here, I’m done’. Some people don’t have the choice. But in a way, you’ve got to come back to: what is the problem? Poor results isn’t the problem, that’s the outcome. You’ve got to find out what’s leading to those poor results. Context is key and that’s the opportunity.

What is the right way to win over stubborn people within a team?

JB: We are talking here in the context of change, I guess, and with that how you go about convincing someone with a certain mindset and philosophy of practice tweaking how they do things, so they’re aligned to how an organisation or department wants to operate. The first thing is learning about what their perspectives are, what their background and experience is and what their modus operandi is. Gaining understanding of this means building a relationship and respecting that background. Equally it provides the opportunity of asking: ‘how can their background, practice, methodology, philosophy contribute to us trying to answer this problem?’ You want to get to a place where you get them to come up with a solution of how they contribute to the actual problem as opposed to saying, ‘this is where we’re going and this is where we need you to operate.’ Again, it comes down to that ‘dialogue versus discussion’ concept. They might not agree with the vision, strategy and pathway, which might mean a separation of ways, but if they are engaged then for me it’s about identifying with that individual how they align and operate the agreed vision and philosophy of the department.

A Human Performance article brought to you by our Main Partners

By Sarah Evans

Recommended listening/reading

Keiser Podcast: How Leaders Can Overcome Resistance to Change

How to Create Energy in Athletes Performing Under Great Scrutiny

Framing the topic

This was session two of our new Performance Support Series, which focused on exploring the topic of ‘Making Wellbeing A Core Component Of Your Organisational Culture’, led by Dr Meg Popovic. In the last session, Meg explored culture, wellbeing and learning through an organisational / systems lens. In this session we delved into the ‘Team of Teams’ phase of Meg’s framework and the thinking of relational intelligence through subcultural understanding. There is one more session to follow, and across all of the sessions, we will look to explore three questions: how do you see? What do you see? How do you use what you see to make it better?

What is a ‘subculture’?

• Commonalities individuals share with one another – guidelines of social behaviour, overarching values that guide and reflect behaviour, known symbols (to the people within) and modes of operation that convey meaning to persons in shared system
• A smaller, more manageable unit of that culture as a whole, and differs from parent culture by embracing certain attributes. Thus, there are clear differences and specific commonalities between subcultural norms, values in the broader culture.
• Individuals of a subculture are socialised to adopt cultural definitions and perspectives, and to assert cultural identity and sense of community. They validate identity from each other and present themselves to the external society.
• Within a subculture there are varying degrees of commitment to the core of subcultural identity.
• Individuals who express high level of commitment are known as the ‘ideal type’.
• Subcultural criteria creates feeling of belonging and shared commonality. It also defines boundaries between insiders and those on the periphery.

How does this work in high performance sport?

If you want to design a new role, and have it contribute to something you’re already doing, how do you know what is possible and how do you know it will work? Ask yourself, what is the outcome I / you / we want to seek?

Success in this is when the leader hits the mark on the programme or process of the subculture. Failure, or when it falls flat, is when you’ve missed something or missed the mark within the subculture.

Meg Popovic: ‘Today we become team of team ethnographers tasked with investigating staff subcultures using this framework’:

1. How do you see?
2. What do you see?
3. How do you use what you see to make it better?

What is Relationship Systems Intelligence?

• The ability to interpret oneself as an expression of the system.
• What happens is not only personal but it also belongs to the system.

The ‘third entity’: Imagine each staff system is a living organism, a collection of parts.

• It has a life of itself, an identity that people feed into.
• The essence that emerges as an expression of the relationship or system – the voice of the system
• What is created as a function of interactions (experiences, events, behaviours etc.) in a relationship or system – the space between and among people.
• The ‘more’ in the more than the sum of the parts.

Group exercise

Step 1: Pick TWO staff departments.

Step 2: Subcultural analysis. Explore subcultures of two sub groups, think about the following for each sub group.

1. SKILLS: 1-2 capacities to be great at tasks in role
2. QUALIFICATIONS: Professional and education to obtain roles in department.
3. TIME: Busiest? Most free? Most stressful?
4. LONGEVITY: Length of time working for Club?
5. COLLECTIVE HISTORY: Describe the department 10 years ago?
6. PASSION: What are they most passionate about?
7. CREATIVE: If you could give this department a song, what would it be?

The shadow

The framework that is dragged behind, that which is in the background, seen or unseen, acknowledged or not acknowledged, but there is gold in there too.

Part of the growth process is shining light on the dark parts, and not being ashamed of those dark parts or making them wrong, but instead bringing them in and integrating them. This can happen on an individual level or on a group level.

Step 3: Deeper subcultural work – ask the following questions for the same two sub groups.

1. KNOWLEDGE: What is the wisdom this group holds for the club?
2. STATUS: How is success gauged within this group? What makes someone an outsider in this group?
3. SHADOW: What are a few qualities within this staff group’s collective shadow?
4. CONFLICT: What is the DREAM BEHIND THE COMPLAINT within the broader club environment?

Task before next session: Next Level Leadership – The Wellbeing 1%

Do one small thing for each department (or someone in the department) that honours who they are. Recall the dream behind the complaint, and think about what would connect with them. It doesn’t have to be a grand gesture, just something small, but we all know we operate in a world where the 1 per cent matters. Bring back to our group later this month to celebrate with each other.

By John Portch

In June 2021, Harlequins became English rugby’s most unlikely champions when they defeated Exeter 40-38 in the Gallagher Premiership final.

Six months earlier, the team were languishing sixth in the Premiership table and were without a lead coaching figure following the departure of Paul Gustard as Head of Rugby.

A series of swift and profound decisions transformed Quins’ campaign. Firstly, Gustard was not directly replaced. Instead, the reins were taken by Director of Rugby Billy Millard, with support from coaches Jerry Flannery, Nick Evans and Adam Jones.

Off the field, the club sought the counsel of performance coach Owen Eastwood, who has worked with organisations including Gareth Southgate’s England men’s team, the British Olympic team, NATO and the South African men’s cricket team, in an effort to revive their fortunes.

“Everybody was looking at them and saying ‘there’s no energy – are they not fit?’ Eastwood tells the 2021 Leaders Sport Performance Summit at London’s Twickenham Stadium. “The team was struggling, they weren’t playing well, and they were getting a hard time for that.”

Eastwood’s role was vital. “We were lost in our DNA and Owen Eastwood started spending time with the club,” says Millard, speaking on a different day at Twickenham, where Quins lifted the Premiership trophy. “We excavated the history of Harlequins.”

By June, both the men’s and women’s teams had taken their leagues by storm, playing fast and frenetic rugby on their way to being crowned champions. Both were aided in part by the cultural reset that laid the foundations of both triumphs.

Back to Quins’ roots

As the Leaders Performance Institute speaks to Millard, it is clear that part of him still cannot believe the turnaround that took place. “You don’t have seasons like that,” he says.

His mind goes back to Harlequins’ last Premiership triumph in 2012. “We played a certain style, we behaved a certain way. Quins have always been entertainers – that’s why we’re ‘the jesters’ – and we just had to tap back into that, which we did. Our owners [Duncan Saville and Charles Jillings] set a vision, we stripped it right back, and that vision was aligned right through the playing squad.”

Sitting beside Millard is Danny Care, Quins’ scrum-half who was a key part of that earlier success. He says that he and his teammates had ‘fun’ as the club raised its game. “I think the main thing we did is that we said we were going to do it our way, we’re going to do it the Quins way, we’re going to go back to our roots, back to what we feel is the way we like to play rugby, do it with a smile on our face,” he says. “And we went and did it.”

“In 21 years of professional sport I’ve never seen it so strong,” adds Millard. “If we lost a game, which we did on the run to winning it, there was no panic, as long as we were doing what we said we’d do and play a certain way, everyone stayed true to that.”

Back in January, Eastwood had spotted the lack of energy. He would conduct 52 interviews with players and staff as he sought to make his recommendations. He says: “Just through some changes in the environment, different philosophies, all of a sudden, this team had this unbelievable amount of energy, and they were the same conditioned group and they were the same people. Something shifted that created this unbelievable energy – and that was the environment, the culture.”

TRUE values

As Eastwood, who joined the Quins board in August, began his research into the club founded in 1866 – the fourth-oldest rugby club in the world – he quickly unearthed characteristics that lent themselves to a neat and powerful acronym: TRUE, which stands for ‘tempo, relationships, unconventional, enjoyment.’

“Owen said this acronym had been around forever,” says Millard. “’Tempo’ – Harlequins play with tempo. ‘Relationships’ – everyone says relationships are important, but we live and breathe that. Our relationships are the foundation of what we do.

“We’re ‘unconventional’. As [prop] Joe Marler says, that means we can do whatever we want. Pretty close. And enjoyment, so T-R-U-E. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s Quins for nearly 160 years.

“[Eastwood] spoke to us about all these amazing stories about relationships and unconventional and enjoyment; and we all tapped into that.”

Care takes up the theme. “I think it’s the main reason we were successful come the end of last season,” he says. “To revisit what the club is all about, I think, for players, sometimes you’re in a hard situation as a player. You feel that you can’t really speak out and say what the coach doesn’t want to hear. But when we did have this reset, I think it was a great opportunity for players, coaches, staff to sit in a room and each of them describe what we needed. I’ve never known an environment where we’ve felt more empowered because we were asked questions.”

Belonging cues

As Care says, the Harlequins players were asked for their input to help shape training and preparation in the absence of a head coaching figure. Tabai Matson would be installed as Head Coach during the subsequent off-season but, there and then, the players led the way and, most importantly, felt heard by Millard and his support staff.

He says: “The coaches fully gave us that trust and listened to us. Then, as a player, you then feel empowered and trusted to go out on the weekend.”

As befitting Quins’ ‘unconventional’ label, changes were made behind the scenes, including the abolition of the ‘captain’s run’ [the traditional final captain-led training session on the eve of a match] and Quins consistently found a level of performance befitting their talent.

Eastwood believes that a fundamental factor was the ‘belonging cues’ the players increasingly received from the coaching staff. It stems from his research into the relationship between energy and hormonal states.

“Fundamentally, from a hormonal point of view, when we go an compete, we will be stressed,” he says. “The two biggest energisers in our hormones are adrenaline and cortisol. It’s not hard to find them when we’re competing, but if we’re only fuelled by them then a) is it sustainable? And b) that type of fuel will have consequences. People in those states can have tunnel vision, they can find it hard to talk. More widely, people who are marinating in cortisol and adrenaline can get into a self-preservation mode and find it hard to connect with other people. People who are fuelled by cortisol and adrenaline can find it hard to be vulnerable; if they don’t understand something they may not put their hand up and say it.

“So what we want to do is create this balance, from a hormonal point of view, when we are in a competitive environment. The cortisol and adrenaline will be there, we don’t need to ramp it up, actually we need to calm it a bit. And what hormones like oxytocin, around our connection with other people; dopamine, which is that motivator pushing us forwards towards the goal; serotonin, which has a regulatory effect on our mood. What we really need to do is, in our environment, promote those hormones. I think there’s a simple way of understanding it and it’s all related to energy.”

Therefore, belonging cues, as Eastwood argues, can have a positive impact on a person’s energy and hormonal balance. “When people receive belonging cues, it’s a massive energiser. So many experiences I’ve had of going into teams where people, they trust me and they’ll talk to me and they’ll say, ‘I don’t know if I belong here, I feel a little bit like an imposter, I don’t know if the coach respects me. I feel like every single thing I’m doing, even training, off the field, I’m being judged and people make decisions all the time about whether I should stick around here.’

“When that happens, again, people start marinating in cortisol, stress hormones and adrenaline. They go within themselves. If they don’t understand something or if they’ve got a weakness in their game that they want to develop, they’re not going to put their hands up and say that because they feel unbelievably vulnerable. We also know that our short-term memories are affected when we’re in that state as well.

“When we feel a sense of belonging, that we actually belong here, that people respect us, we’re in a completely different hormonal state. Our dopamine, oxytocin levels are raised, we’re able to focus on our job and our teammates, if we don’t understand something we feel comfortable in saying that.”

“It was definitely different to what I’ve been used to,” says Care. “I’ve never felt more trusted, empowered, respected, but also then there was a massive responsibility on us as senior players to lead it and the younger players to follow.”

Millard says that the approach is here to stay and, when it comes to recruitment, there is “a method to the madness,” adding, “you’ve got Danny and the leaders telling stories and Owen Eastwood saying ’70 years ago, this is what Quins used to do’ and these young kids are like ‘we’re bigger than this, the spotlight’s on us now but there’s so much that came before us and, in 20 years, we’re still going to be playing this way.’”

This article originally appeared in our Special Report Enhancing Your Environment: Nurturing positive high performance set-ups. It also features insights from English Premier League Brentford FC, Major League Baseball’s Toronto Blue Jays and Google.

Download Report

By John Portch

Chad Morrow, a command psychologist with the US Airforce, succinctly identifies the elephant in the room when it comes to multidisciplinary work.

“When you hire people who are usually at the top of their game and they’ve then got to slow down to work together,” he tells the Leaders Performance Podcast. “I think everyone says they want to do that but if they’ve never done it, I’m not sure they want to do that.”

He goes on to explain that healthcare professionals in the military can recoil when they understand that being embedded can come with limited support. In truth it is not always so different in elite sport.

In our discussion on the creation of holistic teams, we also touch upon:

• Why we need to teach practitioners to talk about ROI [13:00];
• A typical job analysis in the military [16:30];
• How data emanating from your shop floor can be a crucial leadership assessment tool [23:00];
• The pitfalls to avoid in setting up transition processes for service personnel [29:30].

John Portch: Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen above and subscribe today on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and Overcast, or your chosen podcast platform.

On International Women’s Day, we reflect on the pivotal roles played by women across high performance sport.

By John Portch

From the front offices to the locker rooms via the psychologist’s couch, we bring you ten performance lessons from the Leaders Performance Institute vaults that continue to resonate today.

1. Athletes need to feel a sense of belonging

The WNBA is renowned for its advocacy of social justice issues and one of the its leading lights, the Seattle Storm, have been at the vanguard under CEO and President Alisha Valavanis. Backed by one of sports few all-female leadership groups in Force 10 Hoops LLC, the Storm has won three championships and made every effort to ensure the players find an inclusive, cohesive locker room where everyone is committed to representing the Storm’s vest.

“It starts with establishing personal relationships and building relationships on trust and connection so that players can share with us what their hopes are off the court,” said Valavanis, speaking to the Leaders Performance Institute in 2020. “There’s a real intentional effort to learn all about all of the individuals in our organisation and we certainly have conversations with players on how we can support them and make sure that everyone is clear what it means to be part of this organisation.”

2. Engage your athletes in their development

When athletes feel secure then you can empower them in both their personal development and the collective. “I’m a big believer in getting players to collaborate, present back, research, share with the group, present to the coaching group and vice versa,” said Jess Thirlby, the Head Coach of the England netball team on the Leaders Performance Podcast in 2020. “It’s a good way for me to check understanding from the group and it helps inform how to set direction and invest my energy when I hear the playing group back and they’ve demonstrated really sound understanding of themselves and the opposition and, not only that, but coming up with ways in which we’re going to pit strengths against their weaknesses.”

3. Make space in your schedule for independent development

Thirlby’s emphasis on empowerment is matched by Lucy Skilbeck, the Director of Actor Training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art [RADA]. “One of the things we’re looking at is how we can develop a more facilitative relationship with the student and how we make more space within the timetable for the student’s independent development,” she told a Leaders Performance Institute Webinar in 2021. “We’re also looking at how can we foster in them a greater sense of independence and understanding of themselves as artists and actors; as people who can make and create work as well as deliver other people’s work. Pedagogically, how do we work with them to facilitate the growth of their individuality rather than a monocultural process?”

4. Take a step back

Paula Dunn is the Head Coach of the Paralympic Programme at British Athletics. Ahead of the delayed Tokyo Games, where her team claimed 24 medals, she spoke of the perils of micromanaging. “I thought I had to be in charge, I had to be tough, I had to work the longest hours, I had to have all the answers,” she said. “It’s never good to have a decision made by one person, so I’ve tried to work with my team, understanding what their motivations are, and just being honest when I just don’t know something or if I’ve had issues.”

5. Is the athlete’s real competition the challenge of fulfilling their potential?

Anne Keothavong, the Captain of the Great Britain Fed Cup tennis team, is engaged in the development of the nation’s players and knows that no corners can be cut. As she told the Leaders Performance Institute in 2018, the challenges can differ from player to player. She said: “Every player represents a different case, depending on where they’re ranked and how old they are, how long they’ve been playing professionally, and what targets they need to hit. I’m not involved on a day to day basis but when I see them in a training or competition environment I’m looking out for whether they’re improving, consistently working on those goals, and the other things they want to focus on to help make them a better tennis player.”

6. Track athletic development through relevant tests

The best data can be linked to specific tests and Kate Weiss, the Director of Sports Science at the Seattle Mariners, walked viewers through a hypothetical process with a pitcher at our February Webinar. “When they come in, we’re going to test range of motion, we’re going to test movement capacity; how are they going to move in a general sense and a baseball-specific sense,” she says. “We’re going to look at the different components of strength, speed, power, we’re going to look at body composition. All these different things that we know contribute to and help support what they do on the field. Then what we’re going to do is look at the on-field data and link that back and go ‘OK, maybe there’s issues with their shoulder separation on the mound.’ We’re going to look through everything and go ‘OK, is it coming from a range of motion issue? Is it coming from just a movement capacity issue?’ Or if it’s not those things maybe it’s just a coaching issue that we have to work on and come up with specific drills.”

7. Data: spend less time capturing data and more time analysing and feeding back

“For data capture and analysis, we have a mantra at the EIS: ‘we should spend less time capturing data and more time analysing and feeding back’,” said Julia Wells, the Head of Performance Analysis at the English Institute of Sport. “That’s something that’s been rooted in us since the inception of our Performance Analysis team.” She and her team supported Great Britain’s athletes at the 2020 Tokyo Games and, as she told the Leaders Performance Institute in the aftermath, they prioritise harnessing the latest tech and relationships with the end users. “The software available now is immense,” she added. “There’s so much to choose from, which can be a challenge but we honed in on data visualisation and our ability to translate data into usable insights.”

8. Do not attempt to separate emotion from performance

Sports Psychologist Mia Stellberg feels attempting to shut down emotions is counterproductive for athletes. “The more they can understand emotions, they can explain and understand what they are feeling or how that feeling came to occur is the first step,” she told the Leaders Performance Podcast in 2021. “We can never control anything that we are not aware of. So you need to be aware of your emotions, sometimes this is the most tricky part of my work, to talk about emotions to young guys at age 20 who just want to rule the world, play and win the title! Then the second step is understanding how that feeling occurs or what needs to happen before it pops up, so if we want to prevent negative feelings we have to understand what happens before it comes so that we can learn how to control, how to prevent.”

9. Embrace risk, expand comfort zones

Mental performance coach Véronique Richard, who has worked with Cirque du Soleil as well as a variety of sports organisations, attempts to cultivate ‘risk-friendly’ environments. “Risk needs to be part of your environment,” she told the Leaders Performance Institute in 2018. Richard strives to foster the conditions for enhanced skill development in the athletes and performance artists with whom she works. In short, she introduces an element of chaos. “By working through that mess, people actually increase their repertoires of thoughts and actions, which contributes to creativity,” she said. “First, I ask the athlete: ‘what are you avoiding not because you’re not skilled enough but because it makes you uncomfortable?’ There’s all sorts of things we don’t do because of discomfort; it can be technical, tactical psychological, emotional, personal, ego and then, as a leader, your role is to find the right stimuli to bring the person to explore discomfort and bring people to work in this zone of discomfort; and if you manage that successfully you actually expand their zone of comfort.”

10. Do your athletes know where to turn for help?

In 2019, the Australian Institute of Sport established its Career & Education Practitioner referral network, as Matti Clements, the acting CEO, explained in her former role as Deputy Director of Athlete Wellbeing and Engagement. “That is practitioners who can provide high level expertise on vocational pathways. It’s referral-in and we’ll cover the costs of all podium-plus-level athletes and coaches,” she told an audience at Leaders Meet: Wellbeing. The AIS also provides help for the athlete wellbeing & engagement managers with the provision of a personal development programme. “This is so that we can ensure a level of risk management and skillset across those people. What we’ve done is invite the whole system, including professional sports, into that education and we’re creating community practice hubs so that they can actually have some peer support; it’s led by us, but there’s peer support there.”

A video brought to you by our Main Partners

Written summary here.

“A friend helped me to think about the difference between calling someone out and calling someone in,” says Dehra Harris, the Assistant Director of High Performance Operations at the Toronto Blue Jays.

“When you call someone out there are relationship stakes. I might fire you, I might do something at you; there’s going to be something happen versus if I’m calling you in, it can be very direct but I’ve removed the relationship stakes by saying at the beginning of the conversation: ‘I appreciate that you’re here, I see all the hard work.’”

Harris is moderating the latest Keiser Webinar and is joined by Duncan Simpson, the Director of Personal Development at IMG Academy, and Dusty Miller, the Head of People and Culture at British Fencing, as well as a host of Leaders Performance Institute members from across the globe.

The conversation covered a range of topics, including the importance of providing informal learning opportunities, meeting athletes where they are, and the value of applied learning.