By Luke Whitworth

The ability to lead courageous conversations is a skill in which all coaches and practitioners can excel, but it requires revisiting from time to time.

That was the premise for this recent Leadership Skills Series session, where members of the Leaders Performance Institute were invited by our friends at Management Futures to explore:

• How to create the conditions for courageous or difficult conversations
• How to navigate these conversations effectively

There are two key principles:

1. It is not enough for you to have the courage to say what it is that you want to say – people must feel safe enough to hear it. In psychologically safe environments, people are more receptive to difficult conversations; and leaders can find more frequent opportunities to explore tricky topics.
2. We are striving for actionable insight. The point of having important conversations is that something changes in the aftermath. It’s not just an opportunity to download or speak your truth.

What is ‘skilled candour’?

When we have explored this topic in the past, we referenced the term of ‘radical candour’, which coined by executive coach Kim Scott, who argues in her 2017 book Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing your Humanity that leaders have a ‘moral imperative’ to step into difficult conversations and challenge with skill. This requires courage because it is simply easier to avoid such conversations.

Scott’s idea has influenced Management Futures, who fashioned their own concept: ‘skilled candour’, which underlines the skill behind the action.

On that note, psychological safety is essential so that people know that you are coming from a well-intended place. If there isn’t a belief that there is trust or positive intention, it may well trigger the ‘inner chimp’ (the primitive, emotional part of our brains, which is there to protect you but, in certain circumstances, can arouse feelings of defensiveness).

When the chimp has been triggered it’s unlikely that you will have a productive conversation.

The aim must be to create a sense of safety so we can be honest and speak directly:

Image: Management Futures

Ruinous empathy: this is where we say what needs to be said in a clear and direct way. When you want to spare someone’s short-term feelings, you don’t tell them something that they need to know. You care personally but fail to challenge them directly, with ruinous consequences.

Insincerity: when you neither care personally nor challenge directly. You offer insincere praise to a person’s face and criticise them harshly behind their back.

Aggressive: when you challenge someone directly, but don’t show you care about them personally. It’s praise that feels insincere and feedback that isn’t delivered kindly.

We asked the practitioners and coaches in attendance where they thought they sat on the skilled candour graph. A straw poll delivered a striking insight:

Ruinous empathy: 45%

Insincerity: 3%

Aggression: 12%

Skilled candour: 39%

There are five key skills to enable your preparation, delivery and summary of a courageous conversation.

1. Check your assumptions: we make up a lot of stuff about people. We imagine what’s going on in people’s lives, what they think about us, what their motives are. We imagine what they’re going to say in that conversation and how they’re going to react. And then we work our responses around that where we can tie ourselves up in knots, and we’re having a conversation in our heads rather than what’s truly happening. So strip out your assumptions.
2. Have a clear outcome: declutter the nonsense. What is the outcome that you want to have and what is a good outcome for this conversation? This will help you get an actionable insight.
3. Manage your body language and tone: so many of us are so busy that we just leak out impatient, stressed and busy signals. Non-verbally, we’re sending out some different signs, so it is important to be present, be composed and give high quality attention. What we don’t want to be doing is to be half in a conversation and half out as people pick up on it. Giving someone your full attention is a gift, and they will feel it, and they will trust you.
4. Maintain a two-way dialogue: difficult conversations should be two-way. What are your thoughts? This is how I feel. How do you feel? This is what I would like to happen in the future. What are you going to do? What help do you want? Make sure you’re really using your active, listening and really great, powerful, open questions as well.
5. Agree specific next steps: what are you going to do differently? How are you going to make sure it happens? What support do you need and make sure that it’s specific? Get right down into detail with the actionable insights.

The SBI feedback model

The Center for Creative Leadership’s SBI feedback model is a useful tool for both positive and constructive feedback. ‘SBI’ stands for ‘situation/standard’, ‘behaviour’ and ‘impact’.

Below is a simple example of what this could look like – the key is what we want to get straight to the point:

Situation/standard: To begin, we should guide the person to recall the exact time and place where the action we’re discussing occurred. The more specific we are, the better, as it will help them visualise their surroundings and actions at that moment. This provides the context for the feedback.

Example: ‘It’s really important in team meetings that everybody gets the chance to share their opinions and feels heard’.

Behaviour: Outline the specific actions or behaviours that prompted the feedback. As with the previous part, it’s must be as detailed as possible. We’ll achieve this by providing two key pieces of information:

1. What was the behaviour?
2. What did they do specifically that causes you to think that this was the behaviour they were demonstrating?

Example: ‘I’ve noticed in the last couple of meetings that when people have come up with an idea you’ve immediately said something negative about it’.

Impact: We should highlight what we believe the impact of their actions was. This impact could pertain to you, the team or other individuals. As with the previous section, it needs to be detailed and is divided into two parts:

1. Who did it impact on and how?
2. Why do you think this was the impact?

 Example: ‘You’ve talked about why it’s not possible and the impact of that is that it’s draining the energy out of the room and stopping people speak up’.

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By John Portch & Luke Whitworth

The performance director glanced at the complicated data on the head coach’s half-time board and later delivered a blunt assessment.

“I said to him: ‘I had you when you were a player – I know you wouldn’t understand any of this – so why are you telling this to our players?’”

The performance director in question shared this story at a recent Leaders Virtual Roundtable entitled ‘Effective Integration and Interpretation of Data in Coaching’.

It quickly dawned on the coach. “He went: ‘yeah, I’m sorry, I hold my hands up’. That was powerful because he could see it.”

Ideally, a coach would have both the working knowledge and the confidence to make targeted and effective data-influenced interventions that remove confusion or ambiguity.

Over the course of an hour, members of the Leaders Performance Institute, drawn from a mixture of analytics, sports science and coaching backgrounds, discussed the steps they are taking to improve the data literacy of coaches at their organisations. They homed in on four factors.

1. Educate coaches from the outset

Performance practitioners: engage the coach early in their tenure. Data can be another string in their bow. “You don’t want to burden them,” said one participant from the Australian Olympic and Paralympic system, “but how can you elevate them and enhance them as a coach?” The key is to explain that data is there to support their intuition as a coach. Even AI should be no more than a ‘co-pilot’. Data analysis should support the work of the coach and “give them confidence in their decision making.”

Furthermore, as analytics career pathways evolve, more teams are establishing hybrid coaching and analytics roles. “Some of the best analysts are good interpreters and translators for coaches,” said one attendee working in English football, “and some of them have taken that on themselves to think ‘I can go and progress in this’ if they’ve got an interest in pushing on with the coaching area as well.”

2. Too little or too much? Timing is critical

“Timing is everything with coaches,” said one member, while making the distinction between ‘teaching and developing’ and the ‘telling and giving of answers’. “The timing of when you plant the seed or present something new to a coach is really the start of the success or failure of what you’re trying to do.” Another attendee suggested that a practitioner must consider “what is it that you’re going to provide? And what is it you’re going to hold back?” A third offered an example of this in practice: “We’ve introduced not just new technology, like tools and hardware, but also a large number of new datasets and data metrics for the coaches to understand.” An astute practitioner will foster a curious mindset and understand “when it’s OK to give the coach a little bit more to stretch them and when we will hold something back.”

3. Highlight the link between data and performance… selectively

When a curiosity-driven coach uses data to support their intuition, they can do their most effective work. “I always tend to try and attach myself quite closely with any analyst to marry up the science and the art,” said an age-group cricket coach in England. “It’s about getting the data and then allowing that coaching gut feel and observation to take place as well.”

From the analysis side, it requires someone able to move beyond their specialisms to communicate readily with the coaching staff and other colleagues. “The positions of technical directors or performance managers within this space are critical to make the decisions about what we translate and how we do that,” said a member. “My experiences of things when they’ve gone well would be with practitioners that have those professional skills to communicate and give what is needed rather than give too much.”

4. What’s the priority? A coach must decide

It’s on the coach to establish the need for their performance team. “The practitioners shouldn’t overwhelm the coach, but also the coach shouldn’t overwhelm the practitioners,” said a participant from the British Olympic and Paralympic system. “Do they truly have a priority? Do they truly know what it takes to win?” The coach needs to be clear on how the data is to be used, whether it’s to inform development, to pose exploratory questions, or to make a decision. “Coaches can fall into a trap. They want to know everything, but do they truly need to know everything? What are they actually prioritising?” From there the team can decide “what are they going to double down on and ask where the gaps are for exploration.”

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By John Portch & Luke Whitworth

“I very rarely see organisations that are genuinely working towards the same goal.”

Alignment is perhaps more crucial than ever in high performance, yet as this practitioner noted, it is absent too often.

They were speaking at a Leaders Virtual Roundtable that dug into the topic.

“We’ve got a large team of staff, whether that’s coaches, practitioners, athletes, and that starting point of knowing where you’re going or what you’re aiming for is really important,” said one attendee who works for a Premier League team. “Then we build a strategy around that. So what we’re looking to do and the type of things we’re trying to do – and the things we’re not going to try and do.”

“I think the point of making it intentional is a huge one for us,” said another participant who works in the NWSL. “That’s been a huge emphasis with us as a staff this year – just making sure that we are all aligned and all on the same page.”

It takes time and effort and, over the course of the conversation, the participants shared their experiences and offered some best practice tips to help you and your team.

Alignment starts at the top

The consensus was that alignment flows from the top of an organisation. The table said that senior leaders must articulate an organisation’s goals and consistently reinforce them.

“Ownership has come in and been very clear about the goal of the club,” said the practitioner from the NWSL. “We want to be a leading global sports franchise, not just within the soccer space, not just within the women’s football space.” It is a lofty aspiration but all staff members understand the aim.

Find the low-hanging fruit

Next is identifying the obstacles, “the low-hanging fruit”, which means “each department approaching the general structure of practice by identifying what’s important and then identifying how you’re going to measure those things,” as a participant working in Major League Baseball explained. “Then you break that down into its subcomponents and figure out how you’re going to identify where the lowest-hanging fruit is to then solve those problems.”

Frequent check-ins

Find opportunities to check against your team’s objectives. As one attendee said of their team’s meetings, “we started with the end goal for the end of the season and how we are going to break that up.”

It requires “crystal clarity,” as another attendee put it. They said: “do we reduce the amount of interpretation, and then on the back of that, how are we checking for understanding?” It cannot just be a case of the leader “broadcasting” messages of expectation or definitions. “What’s actually being heard and understood? How frequently do we check that?”

Develop a common lexicon

Words are critical in ensuring that athletes are presented with a united front. “That comes with knowing what are the goals, the mission, the vision of the club,” said the same attendee, “and then all being able to speak from a common language.”

“It’s in how we use strategy and try and bring it to life,” said another attendee. “I’ve seen staff buy-in, not only in one-to-one meetings or annual reviews, but day to day. They are using the language that exists in our strategy – we’re talking the same way, and we’re trying to achieve the same things.”

Let staff shape how your vision comes to life

As a leader, it is also critical to understand staff motivations and aspirations. “There’s so many compartmentalised pieces to some environments,” said one attendee with knowledge of the British sports system. “How do we actually align where there are different motivations and aspirations?”

“If you get buy-in from people and input from day one, I always find that more impactful,” offered one participant. When people are invested it leads to smarter ideas and strategies – and everyone understands how they can help to achieve them.

Make accountability the norm

Each department must articulate their goals within the bigger picture. One attendee said: “We all have a vision of what each department is working towards and who’s going to be responsible for those elements.” A team can also ask, “‘this is what this department is working on – is that getting us to where we want to go?’”

Where your values are on the wall, they can serve as a useful conversation-starter. One attendee, who works as a director of performance, spoke of approaching a staff member “standing in front of our strategy and saying, ‘where’s the work you’re doing? Where does it fit in our strategy? The acid test is they say, ‘oh, yeah, I work on this, and I know I contribute to that’. If they can’t do it then that’s on me, because we haven’t made it really clear where their work fits.”

Where there’s progress, you can celebrate the wins. “People get the chance to be appreciated. ‘OK, this is what you’re working on, this is how it’s going’” said the participant from a club in the NWSL, “and we can celebrate the victories where we’ve started to move the needle towards that ultimate goal.”

Be agile in your programmes

Alignment is not fixed, it requires constant revisiting. As one attendee said, “when we start to add more staff and the structure sometimes becomes redundant” as reporting lines change. The risk is “you have people who are tied to titles and roles that may not function anymore.”

Therefore, it is important to move beyond grand gestures of alignment and place emphasis on those day to day interactions. “The behaviour layer”, as one attendee phrased it. “‘If we do this well, we would see this, this and this’. So now you actually have things to hold people to or, if they are demonstrating it, celebrate it. ‘Great! Let’s have more of that’. If they’re falling short, ‘let’s have a conversation. Why aren’t we seeing some of that? It’s taking it from the grand gesture to the day to day: ‘demonstrate it, live it, breathe it’.”

By John Portch & Luke Whitworth

“What makes a good coach?” asked Collingwood Captain, Darcy Moore, at the Leaders Sport Performance Summit in Melbourne last month.

“The coach knowing their players, having good relationships and understanding what they need – this sets you up for success. They also let talented people around them do their jobs. This is particularly important when the pressure comes and you need to remember that everyone is there for a reason.”

With those words, Moore, a renowned orator amongst AFL players, neatly captured some of the performance conversations happening across the Leaders Performance Institute.

Here, we pose five questions, all of which were answered in some shape or form during February. We hope these to help you on the path to being a better coach or leader.

1. Are all elements of your performance team truly integrated?

Dr Robin Thorpe has instant reservations when performance departments describe themselves as ‘integrated’.

“It’s become a new trend or buzz term in high performance,” said the former Director of Performance at Red Bull. “I’d be really interested to see how many self-proclaimed integrated departments and processes actually are.”

Thorpe was speaking at the first session of ‘The Future of Performance Sport’, a three-part Virtual Roundtable series brought to members by the Leaders Performance Institute and Exercise & Sports Science Australia

In a truly integrated department, he argued, there has to be “positive and respectful challenge between staff and then between the disciplines” and he is unconvinced that this is always the case in many environments.

“Not to be controversial, but I would think that in some of the areas or places where true integration is preached, there might actually not be any collaboration whatsoever,” Thorpe added. “And so, without collaboration, there might not be any friction points or any challenge, so it might only be perceived as an integrated process.”

2. What does it take to prepare for when the pressure is on?

There’s plenty those goes into it, as high-performance specialist Rachel Vickery said during a Leaders Virtual Roundtable.

For one, a coach’s words and actions are critical in high-pressure moments. “As soon as something is set up as a threat – ‘if we don’t win this we’re not making the playoffs’ – the stress response kicks off,” said Vickery. “If we can flip that to opportunity – and I’m not talking about rainbows, crystals and unicorns – I’m talking about intentional language; ‘how clean can we play this?’ The language is really important in those moments.” She also spoke of a Premier League coach who worked to de-escalate his own arousal state before giving half-time team talks. It also important for coaches (and their teams) to not fall prey to the notion or narrative that an undemonstrative touch line figure is somehow disinterested.

3. Where does AI (appreciative inquiry) fit in your planning?

Appreciative inquiry is a social constructivist-informed model that seeks to engage people in self-determined change. The model, which was devised in the 1980s by David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva, is inherently positive. It focuses on discovering and amplifying the best of what already exists (individually and collectively) within a system or organisation.

The idea was discussed in great detail at our most recent Leadership Skills Series session.

Appreciative inquiry stands in contrast to most change models, which tend to identify problems and seek to fix them.

4. What is the key to bridging the generation gap in teams?

The generational gap in sport applies to athletes and coaches, but the term just as readily applies to coaching and performance staffs, as was discussed in this Leaders Virtual Roundtable.

One environment, in preparation for the 2026 Commonwealth Games, is asking its athletes and coaches a series of questions as they seek to bridge the generational gaps.

“We’ve been getting athletes into a room and asking ‘how are you experiencing this environment?’” said the attendee who shared the story. “We ask ‘do you feel like you’re developing? And do you feel like you’re successful along with your wellbeing is being looked after?” They ask coaches: “What is your intention in terms of the environment or the experience that you’re trying to create for athletes?”

There has been some positive outcomes. “This insight has led to some activities that coaches and athletes can engage in to bridge that gap and make it more likely that people are collaborating efficiently and effectively on the path to get that goal.”

5. Do you platform terrible ideas?

It may sound counterintuitive, but you really should.

David Burt, the Director of Entrepreneurship at the University of New South Wales, delivered a presentation at the Leaders Sport Performance Summit in Melbourne in which he lauded the value of exploring ‘terrible ideas’. His rationale was sound: it reduces the negative emotions that can cloud creativity and reduces the impact of power dynamics in a team environment.

Burt said: “Terrible ideas allow you to develop new skills and meet different people in the process. There is a surprising amount of value in implementing a little bit of resource in them to drive another layer of growth.”

By John Portch

John Longmire stood down as Senior Coach of the Sydney Swans in November – fewer than two weeks after his onstage appearance at the Leaders Sport Performance Summit in London.

Having fashioned a reputation as one of the finest coaches in the league during his 14 seasons in charge, Longmire has taken a new position as the Swans’ Executive Director for Club Performance. He handed the coaching reins to his assistant, Dean Cox, as the club’s succession plan swung into action.

“I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that maybe it’s time,” Longmire told his players in a moving farewell speech. He had first discussed the idea of stepping away with the team’s management 18 months earlier and returned to the topic midway through the 2024 AFL season.

Longmire’s 333^rd and last game in charge turned out to be October’s Grand Final, which Sydney lost to Brisbane. Overall, he took the Swans to four Grand Finals and won one flag, in 2012.

The Swans’ list and performance infrastructure are the envy of most in the league. In fact, few departing coaches ever leave their successor a team in such good shape.

This may have been on Longmire’s mind at the Kia Oval – a ground where, as a 16-year-old back in 1987, he played in an infamous exhibition game for North Melbourne against Carlton.

“It was labelled the ‘Battle of Britain’,” he said while directing Leaders Performance Institute members towards the YouTube highlights. Those that click through can expect a litany of violent fouls.

“It was my first game, and I was absolutely petrified,” he said with a smile.

Longmire then returned to his time as Senior Coach and we’ve picked out four nuggets of wisdom.

1. Don’t become set in your ways

Injury put paid to Longmire’s playing career in 1999 (he won the AFL flag in his final game for North Melbourne) and, three years later, he became an assistant to Sydney’s then Senior Coach, Paul Roos.

Longmire was 31 years old at the time – still young enough to be a contemporary of the players he was now coaching. By 2024, both he and the sport had changed.

“The older we get, the further we get from that age demographic,” he said, “and the more rigid, the more set we can become in our ways and our beliefs – that’s the real danger.”

Longmire consciously moved with the times, but his wisdom would have counted for little if his players did not pay attention. “I know what it takes for a successful organisation to stay competitive,” he continued, “but I am the one that has to bend and move.”

One example was his gradual shift from focusing on the team’s leadership group to spending more time with the younger players. Longmire would watch and listen to them without judgement and, when necessary, “bring them back to where you know high performance teams like to operate.”

2. Find your truthtellers

“The best cultures are the ones that keep moving and adjusting to the ecosystem,” said Longmire, who emphasised the coach’s role in that process.

“I walk amongst our playing group during our warm-ups and that’s a case of sensing the mood, working out who’s talking to who and what they’re talking about.”

He also leaned heavily on his most empathetic players (“those that don’t just walk past your office – they walk in and say: ‘how are you going, coach?’”). The relationships he shared with those players were “ever more valuable” because they were his best eyes and ears in the changing room.

“Make sure you water those relationships because they’re the ones that will keep you in a job.”

3. You’re not bulletproof – don’t try to be

For all his stature as a coach, Longmire was keen to remain “connected and relatable” to his players and staff. As he said onstage in London, “the coach is no longer looked upon as being bulletproof” whatever their standing may be within the game.

His final speech to the players and staff as Senior Coach attested to that belief. He weaved in personal stories and his voice cracked at times. He wiped away tears too.

It called to mind the weekly ‘storytelling’ sessions that Longmire made a key feature of the Swans’ environment. He told the Leaders audience that players and staff share stories or complete a series of tasks for discussion each week. Recent examples included writing ‘a letter to your 16-year-old self’. These sessions are popular with players and staff alike.

“Sometimes it’s a photo of something that mattered to you and quite often there’s tears involved,” he said. “The way I looked upon coaching 25 years ago is completely different now – these 18, 19, 20-year-olds need to be able to relate to you. If you can show that you’re human, you get a lot more back.”

4. Look beyond winning and losing

Winning cannot be everything, even for a proven winner.

“If we measure ourselves on the ultimate success, there’s a lot of years of being unhappy,” said Longmire. A coach must find other factors, such as the personal development of players or staff. He said it is critical to have more in the ‘plus’ column than the ‘negative’.

“Identify, enjoy, and celebrate those moments. And make sure you get joy out of the journey.”

An article brought to you in collaboration with

By Luke Whitworth

Nearly three-quarters of practitioners believe that their organisations could be better at using data to make decisions.

That is according to a straw poll of attendees at a recent Virtual Roundtable hosted by the British Association of Sport & Exercise Sciences [BASES] and the Leaders Performance Institute.

We have collaborated with BASES on a three-part series called Advances in Performance Analysis and kicked things off with a first session, titled ‘The Influence of Performance Analysis on Organisational Strategy’.

Leading the conversation were Natasha Patel, the Director of Sporting Analytics at US Soccer, and Simon Wilson, the Director of Football at League 1 side Stockport County.

They began by leading a discussion of the biggest challenges facing people who use data analysis in sport. There were four that stood out:

1. Integration: it is difficult to set up efficient datasets that allow different data points to intertwine. One attendee referenced performance analysis and skill acquisition as particular sticking points. The sheer volume of metrics collected can lead to a lack of clarity and inability to prioritise.
2. Communication of data: data should tell a story but, at present, it is hard to visualise and communicate to athletes in a way that ensures data or analysis is understood and actionable.
3. Buy-in: as one attendee observed, those in charge of the budget occasionally lack the understanding around the value of performance analysis so won’t invest in it or see value in other disciplines. Similarly, head coaches often call the shots but do they truly buy-in? There is also the question of how you measure impact. Departments are being encouraged to demonstrate the influence of their work.
4. Data management: it is a time-consuming process to regularly assess data quality, validity and reliability – time many simply don’t have. A participant observed how one can get stuck in a mindset of data collection versus the type of analysis that can truly have a performance impact. In fact, knowledge translation is another sticking point, particularly given the general lack of education around performance analysis.

Patel and Wilson, who began their careers in sport as performance analysts, shared a series of considerations rooted in clear principles, effective communication and strategic benchmarking when leveraging performance analysis to drive organisational success.

Establish key principles

Both Patel and Wilson continually referred to the importance of key principles. These, as Wilson explained, must outline how you are going to work and how data and analysis inform this; this allows for more creativity (and alignment) when you move through the layers. Patel, who worked at Premier League club Southampton across two spells, explained that from the beginning of her first spell, between 2011 and 2019, there was immediate buy-in from the technical director, who valued data and video analysis hugely.

Have a clear game model

A game model – a common requisite in football as well as other sports – can inform everything that follows, including data analysis. Patel said she better understood the coaches’ needs and how they want analysis delivered when there was a game model to follow. She and her colleagues were able to gain the buy-in of coaches when being intentional in spending time with them. This allowed the analyst to shine when they were able to take information from the coaches themselves and the athletes, turning it into digestible data and visuals that could help everyone. Similarly, Wilson explained how Stockport’s game model has informed their squad building and helped to generate a well-filtered target list of players who may improve the team.

Consider the end user

As Patel said, it is important to consider the end user and what performance analysis looks like to them. Once you have identified the end users, you can then work out how to get the best process for them and, subsequently, enable the trickling of information to help influence the end user, whether that be to help support or challenge their way of thinking. She referred to this as ‘stakeholder mapping’. In her second spell at Southampton, between 2022 and June 2024, Patel came to understand that each stakeholder had a unique information threshold and that more education could have been provided in-season for different stakeholders. This was a good reminder to Southampton that as performance analysis teams and departments grow and mature, so does the quantity and depth of insights.

Know the journey

Wilson, who has been with Stockport since 2020, shared that at the beginning of their current seven-year plan, they adopted a version of the Elo Rating System (derived from the world of chess), with support from a third party, to showcase the quality differences between clubs, leagues and countries. Wilson explained that the system provided objective insights into how much better the team needed to be and how they needed to grow to progress through the leagues. Engaging in this benchmarking exercise then informed the business case of how much to invest in players, staff, facilities and other infrastructure.

Patel spoke more specifically about the influence of performance analysis on player and athlete auditing and the amount of impact it has had in this space. When primarily operating in an academy environment, there are also decisions to be made around retaining and transitioning players. These metrics formed a core part of how decisions were made at Southampton, whether they were to challenge opinions and assumptions or to simply create more productive conversations. As a matter of course, Patel’s department collected athlete maturation data, leveraged the Premier League’s game-wide injury data and, finally, garnered insights from character profiling.

By Luke Whitworth

It has been more than a decade since writer, actor, producer and comedian Tina Fey compared the world of improv to sport.

‘I became immersed in the cult of improvisation,’ she wrote of her career ascent in Bossypants in 2011. ‘I was like one of those athletes trying to get into the Olympics. It was all about blind focus. I was so sure that I was doing exactly what I’d been put on this earth to do, and I would have done anything to make it onto that stage.’

Fey had a point, and the ability to improvise is also an essential leadership asset.

‘Improvisation thrives at the pivotal intersection where planning and strategy meet execution,’ wrote Bob Kulhan, another highly regarded improv comedian, in his 2017 book Getting to ‘Yes And’.

A recent Leadership Skills Series session used Kulhan’s premise to explore how improvisation can enhance your leadership. Here, we explore some of the elements that emerged during the discourse.

How does the ability to improvise elevate performance in both individuals and teams?

There are three elements:

1. Improvisation develops collaboration skills by raising an individual’s self-awareness of how they interact with others when there is a need for collaboration.
2. It can build people’s confidence and personal impact when they are speaking up and sharing ideas.
3. Listening: improvisation can build people’s openness to different perspectives and strengthen their active listening skills.

How do the principles of improvisation correspond with the skills required for effective leadership?

This is where it is useful to visit The Four C’s of improvisation:

1. Creativity: this is fundamental when seeking to foster a growth mindset. Improvisation instantly allows you to step into a space of creativity because you can’t really engage in improvisation without thinking in a more playful and open way.
2. Critical thinking: this encourages you to tune in and listen to what someone is saying without any kind of noise around what you’re hearing. You are able to listen to what someone is saying with an open mind, which allows you to think differently about what they’re saying.
3. Collaboration: it is essential in improv work to want to work productively with others. ‘We are equal and are going to collaborate around this technique; sharing and building on ideas.’
4. Communication: be curious when listening to what someone else has to say and do so without judgement.

The role of psychological safety

Google initiated its two-year Project Aristotle in 2012 with a view to better understanding what makes teams successful. The organisation studied 250 attributes in their 180 teams and learned that psychological safety is by far the most important factor in determining a team’s performance.

Psychological safety can be defined as ‘a shared belief that it is OK to speak up candidly with ideas, questions, concerns and even mistakes’. It is a driver of innovation, creativity, engagement and productivity.

Additionally, an improvisation mindset is fundamental to how we might create a psychologically safe environment.

It can allow you to have more open conversations. If there is a feeling of being able to speak up without being judged and critiqued, you are likely to witness a higher level of participation and engagement in your teams.

We know that teams function better when there is a mutual feeling of respect and security.

Psychological safety increases people’s willingness to be open and accountable. This can lead to getting more ideas on the table and increased contributions from across the team.

Common signs of psychological safety:

• ‘It is safe to ask questions.’
• ‘I can ask for help.’
• ‘We all contribute.’
• ‘I can be myself.’
• ‘We can make mistakes and talk about it.’
• ‘Everyone in our group takes responsibility for what we do.’

Tina Fey’s rules of improvisation

In Bossypants, Fey outlined some of the improv principles that have supported her work and career:

• The first rule of improvisation is to agree. Start from an open-minded place, always agree and say ‘yes’.
• The second rule is to say ‘yes, and…’. You are supposed to agree and then add something of your own. If you are really listening to understand what the other person is saying, you start to see creativity take place and the building of ideas because you are engaging your brain to think in a more creative way.
• Make statements. Whatever the problem or challenge might be, your role in this particular communication is to be part of the solution.
• Remember: there are no mistakes, only opportunities.

Questions to help you become a ‘Yes, And’ leader

Kat Koppett, the author of Training to Imagine and herself an esteemed improv specialist, suggests a series of questions that can help people in sport to reflect on becoming a leader in improvisation:

Firstly, ‘what can I notice here?’ What am I tuning into in terms of what others are communicating? Pay close attention to what others are communicating verbally and non-verbally. What are your senses telling you about how the other person is showing up?

Secondly, ‘what can I accept here?’ This is really important, especially for leaders who are often looked up to as the ones who have the answers. Let go of your personal agenda and allow others to influence your thinking.

Thirdly, ‘how can I build on these ideas or perspectives?’ It’s important to consider that the goal is not to debate competing ideas but to co-create something.

LASER: a five-pillar approach to using improv in the leadership space

Neil Mullarkey is one of the world’s premier improv actors and, in 2023, he released his book In the Moment. In it, he details some practical skills to help leaders demonstrate the behaviours that help create the conditions for teams to be more creative.

There are five:

1. Listen – be curious, notice what is being said and what is not being said.
2. Accept – accepting is not the same as agreeing, be aware of your own agenda.
3. Send – listen-to-link, build momentum with the other persons idea or perspective.
4. Explore – remain curious and explore your ‘filters’ and assumptions.
5. Reincorporate… an earlier idea and build on it.

By John Portch

Elite sport has long looked to dramatic arts for inspiration and Budi Miller, the Co-Artistic Director at the multi-centred Theatre of Others, sees the parallels.

“An actor is an athlete,” he told an audience at the Leaders Sport Performance Summit at Melbourne’s Glasshouse, while accepting the obvious differences.

“We use our bodies, we use our emotions, we use our intellect, we use our voices – we use everything we can to get you to believe that we are who we say we are.”

Miller took to the stage alongside Kit Wise, the Dean of the School of Art, Design and Social Context at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology [RMIT], who shared his own views on the trainable psychosocial skills in talent development in the arts.

Here, we explore Miller’s thoughts on addressing questions of self-awareness, fear and resilience in a learning environment.

Self-awareness: the base for all development

As an actor learns to use their body, emotions, voice and other facets, Miller explained that it “requires a sense of awareness” and “from that awareness we [develop] an authenticity.” This ‘authenticity’ includes the taking of calculated risks as actors stay true to themselves. Miller helps actors to develop a deep awareness of their bodies and actions as well as a healthy attitude towards self-inquiry.

There is also a collective element. “We have an agreement that when we walk through the door we meet each other at our best.” That can be anything on any given day “and then everyone in the room is doing what they’re doing best at this moment; and what happens is they start to work and everyone’s level has increased”.

Fighting fear and constraints

Miller mentioned that fear can get in the way of talent development. In response, he emphasises the role of playfulness and fun in learning environments; that when actors are free of fear, they can stay motivated and free of unnecessary stress and self-consciousness. It’s a process he describes as the “de-socialising of the body”

He also cited the “speed of fun”, which is a concept devised by Miller’s former tutor Christopher Bayes at the David Geffen Yale School of Drama. The concept encourages actors to be present and spontaneous, enhancing their performance by keeping them in a state of flow and playfulness. “Bayes said that ‘fun is faster than worry and louder than the critic’ and it forces you to be on the front of your actions”. It is a primal rhythm that actors use to stay in the moment and maintain a high level of energy and engagement. “As opposed to thinking about the binary of ‘good and bad’ you’re just in. That happened. Get back to the rhythm, get back to the pace.”

Miller also advocates for a “body-first, not psychology” approach. “Psychology is a response to what’s happening in the body,” he said, adding that he will take actors through a series of fear-relieving exercises. “The body is leading me first; so if you have the awareness of understanding your body and how the body works, you can change the pattern that’s getting in the way.”

The role of the coach and collective in building resilience

Miller discussed resilience as it stems from a sense of connection in a supportive environment. The topic was raised in light of the risks posed to actors who chase external validation. “Whenever you use an external stimulus to identify your self-worth you are always secondary,” said Miller, who spoke of actors chasing grades and roles rather than finding internal fulfilment.

It takes an empathetic teacher and Miller made his point by referring to the Hindu faith where the god Shiva told his wife, Parvati, ‘through you I know myself’. Miller sees the struggles of his students and recognises that he was in their shoes once upon a time. “By integrating this empathy you’re able to change them without them even realising they’re being changed just by that energetic connection.” Miller must embody the traits he is training in others if he is to best engage students in their own development. “If I have the courage to have that vulnerability and just allow myself to be present, then we get to look at what the actual problem is, because oftentimes the problem is external.” As with playfulness, there is a collective element. “How can we as a team interact to solve this external problem together without the walls between us?”

By John Portch with additional reporting from Henry Breckenridge

“One of the great things about the job is there’s no typical day,” said Michael Bourne. “There’s gate posts and structures in place to keep us on track, but my job is very much to adapt to that.”

The Performance Director of the Lawn Tennis Association [LTA] was a guest on the Leaders Performance Podcast in early July, where he discussed his remit.

“I break it down as if we want to deliver performance, then performance equals the talent that you’ve got multiplied by the exposure you can give that talent to them to develop and grow, minus interference.”

When it comes to high performance, tennis has several traits that separate it from other sports and this is reflected in the LTA’s provisions. For example, the organisation offers full-time multidisciplinary support to players from under-10s through to elite level, but player needs vary from individual to individual. They provide coaching too, at camps and competitions, but players tend to have private coaches.

It is a balance and one that he has been trying to strike during his four years in the role, which began during the first year of the pandemic. “It was a huge learning curve for me,” said Bourne, whose non-tennis background has never held him back.

Here, we reflect on his thoughts about his role.

He has a firm focus on the mission

Bourne, who has worked in sports science for organisations including UK Sport, the UK Sports Institute and the England & Wales Cricket Board, has a clear understanding of what the LTA is trying to achieve and why. “Our mission is to be world-class and respected at player development,” he said. “The slightly longer answer to that is that we create a pathway for our most talented players to go on a journey to becoming elite professional players, whether that’s in the tennis game or wheelchair tennis game.” It requires continuous self-evaluation on both his part and the LTA’s as well as acknowledging how the challenges faced evolve. Bourne emphasised a people-first approach. “However you cut it up, we are a performance-based industry and you have to have great people to do great things.” He spoke of “passion and care”. “We have a team of individuals who deeply care about the journey these players are on”. Passion is one of the LTA’s values and the sight of others in service to players is one Bourne finds “very humbling”.

Michael Bourne, Performance Director at the LTA. (Photo by Shane Anthony Sinclair/Getty Images for LTA)

His role in driving change

In addition to being mission-focused and people-centred, Bourne places a premium on critical thinking. He also believes that having great ideas is one thing, but being able to apply them is quite another. “You can have the greatest thinking and the greatest ideas in the world, but if you can’t drive and implement change, then it’s for naught,” he said. “Ultimately, leadership is about being able to drive and support change.” His team bring their tennnis-specific expertise and Bourne ensures everyone is aligned around the work that needs to be done. “It gets the balance between my background and their backgrounds in the right space.”

He does not assume things will happen on their own

Bourne readily admits his expertise is not rooted in tennis. Nevertheless, the necessary traits and skills are made familiar to him through his staff. He has set up a clear chain of direct reports and basic processes, but it needs constant attention. “Don’t just trust that they’re going to happen all the time – make sure that you’re around enough and verifying whether the communication, the connection that’s supposed to be in place, is actually in place; and if you need to step in and just give the person that support or just give that reminder of what we’re trying to do to prevent those dreaded silos developing people ploughing their own furrow”.

He relishes the daily challenges

Bourne feels that his role is inherently challenging; and that’s alright. “I feel like in these types of jobs, if your job is easy, something is wrong – I don’t think they’re meant to be easy,” he said. “If they’re easy, then you’re missing something or you’re not pushing when you need to push. There’s always more.” It feeds into his attitude towards the challenges faced by the LTA. “It should be unacceptable in a high performance environment to know there is a challenge and to take no steps to do anything about it.” There will often be “brutal facts”, as he put it, “then it’s my job to ensure that we’re all leaning into that and in the right way in a professional way and in a safe way; having the right types of conversations that we need to have.”

Listen to the full interview below:

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