By David Clancy, Richard Kosturczak & Ronan Conway

‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’

African proverb

Cohesion is an invisible thread that binds high-performing teams together.

Without it, even the most skilled groups falter. As Peter Guber, the CEO of Mandalay Entertainment and Co-Owner of the Golden State Warriors, LA Dodgers and LA FC said, “Without social cohesion, the human race wouldn’t be here. We’re not formidable enough to survive without the tactics, rules, and strategies that allow people to work together.” This principle is as true in modern business organisations and elite sports as it was in our evolutionary history.

High-performing teams aren’t just thrown together without thinking. They are intentionally built through careful design, clear communication, and shared goals. It’s about finding the blend where roles, responsibilities, and diverse perspectives align, allowing every individual to leverage their strengths for the benefit of the collective.

So, how do we achieve that cohesion, especially in environments where team members may not fit neatly into traditional roles? How do we ensure that the whole team operates as a cohesive unit, even when differing opinions and reporting lines exist?

Finding the sweet spot

Cohesive working requires creating an environment where finding the sweet spot means aligning team members’ roles and responsibilities in a way that meets both organisational goals and individual capabilities. It’s about meeting in the middle – ensuring that while everyone contributes their unique expertise, they also respect the collective objective.

Leaders play a pivotal role in facilitating these moments of alignment, ensuring that when opinions or methods differ, the focus stays on finding the most effective solution, rather than reinforcing silos, judgements or personal agendas. In this sense, cohesion is about not just collaboration, but collaboration that works toward shared objectives, adapting as needed to meet challenges in real time.

The building blocks

The foundation of a cohesive team lies in four critical elements:

1. Clear roles: Every member of the team should have a well-defined role, even if that role isn’t conventional or part of a traditional organisational chart. The key is to align the individual’s expertise with their contributions to the team’s goals, ensuring everyone knows what they’re responsible for – and how they contribute to the big picture.
2. Adaptability: In a dynamic environment, roles may shift depending on the context or challenge at hand. Leaders must ensure that team members are flexible and willing to step outside their comfort zones, taking on responsibilities that might not align with typical job titles.
3. Trust: Open lines of communication are mission critical for a team to gel. Trust allows for honest dialogue and ensures that differing opinions or approaches are respected, not dismissed.
4. Decision-making model: A clearly articulated framework for decision-making provides structure and coherence, thus ensuring that everyone understands not just what decisions need to be made, but who is responsible for making them, and how they are executed.

These building blocks allow for cohesion even in complex or unconventional team structures.

Identifiers of high cohesion

How a team clicks: does it work in harmony? Knowing where to look is essential for identifying how well a team is functioning together. Here are some concepts to look at for indexing this sense of ‘teamwork’.

• Role clarity: Are team members clear on their own responsibilities and those of others?
• Conflict resolution: How well does the team resolve differences in opinion, methods or strategy?
• Collaborative decision-making: Are decisions made through collective input, even when the final call rests with one person?
• Mutual accountability: Do team members hold themselves and each other accountable for delivering on expectations?

These markers are crucial for evaluating is a team functioning as a tight unit. You could use these identifiers as a means for tracking and measuring how well the team is doing.

When these indicators are robust, the team’s ability to perform at a high level is elevated.

Ensuring that everyone is on the right bus – and in the right seat on that bus

Ensuring that people have the right roles and responsibilities in a team isn’t as simple as matching a title to a task. Often, it requires rethinking traditional organisational designs. Instead of relying on predefined job descriptions, high-performing teams focus on matching skills, expertise, and interest to the actual needs and musts of a team. This flexibility ensures that individuals are positioned to succeed, even if their role falls outside a traditional org chart.

The best approach is to identify the key outcomes the team needs to achieve and then allocate responsibilities based on who is best suited to drive those outcomes. It’s not uncommon for someone to hold responsibilities that cross functional boundaries, but as long as clarity exists, cohesion can still thrive.

The goal is not to fill predefined slots but to build a dynamic, flexible system that adapts to the needs of the moment, such is the demands of elite sport.

Good on paper vs good in reality

It’s easy to assume that a team looks perfect on paper – each role clearly defined, each person seemingly in the right position. But the reality is often far more nuanced. Good on paper might mean that organisational charts, roles, and responsibilities are technically correct, but it doesn’t account for the personal dynamics, communication styles, or agility of the individuals involved.

Good in reality, on the other hand, refers to teams that function well in practice, in the training room, on the field – when it counts, when pressure comes. This requires fluidity, acknowledging that roles may overlap, opinions may diverge, and people may need to step outside of their ‘assigned’ lanes to help the team succeed. Cohesion in the real world demands malleability, trust, and a willingness to change when necessary.

Managing differing opinions

It’s quite common for teams to have two people with different opinions or views reporting to different leaders. This could be shaped by the individual’s personality predisposition, such as are they more Type A and Type B, for example. These differing views, opinions and traits can create friction – but in high-performing teams, this diversity of thought is seen as a strength, something to be amplified, if positioned well. It pushes the team toward innovation and deeper problem-solving. The key is to ensure that these differing opinions don’t lead to disjointed decision-making and fragmentation.

This is where a decision-making model becomes critical. Leaders should establish processes that guide how decisions are made, who gets the final say, and how differing viewpoints are resolved. For instance, a performance director may not need to make the final call on a return to play decision, but having the A-Z flow will make this decision ‘cleaner’. Each professional stays within their expertise, but they collaborate through a framework that aligns with the team’s overarching goals, such as getting the player back on the pitch after an injury.

Overseeing the decision

Who oversees the decision-making model depends on the structure of the team, but it’s crucial that not every decision needs to reach the top. In well-functioning, cohesive teams, there are levels of authority and autonomy, allowing for faster and more efficient decision-making. Sometimes, well-oiled departments have decentralised command structures, often seen in the military. For example, a doctor doesn’t need the performance director’s approval to prescribe treatment, but the doctor and the PD must work within an established system that ensures consistency and alignment with the team’s overall strategy and vision from a sporting director.

The model should be overseen by those who understand both the day-to-day operational needs and the bigger picture. One needs to be able to zoom in, but also out. This is often a middle ground between front-line team members and senior leadership; this ensures that decisions are informed, timely, and strategic.

Cohesion reading

As a leader, you have likely accumulated a bank of time in teams and groups, from school, university, your organisation, etc. Thus, you have experienced a wide spectrum of people dynamics, cultures and environments. Think of the moments where something felt ‘off’. The energy seemed blunted. People were preoccupied with relational issues, toxic rhetoric, or disgruntlements. In these environments, the task at hand sometimes became secondary. On the flip side, when a team felt closer, it felt ‘right’. In these moments, energy flows… it bends… it adapts like a river. People are locked in, focused on the team vision. Why? Because these relationships are grounded on bone-deep trust and mutual respect.

Call it intuition. Gut feel. Emotional intelligence. This is how you gauge how cohesive a team feels, like a barometer for linkages.

The next time you walk into a team meeting or the changing room, allow yourself a moment to take a reading of the room. Pause and step back. Take a breath. Watch your people. Track their body language and eye contact. How do they greet each other and interact? Listen in. Note the intonation, the laughter, the silence. This is all data.

Is the energy flowing or is it stuck? Notice what you are picking up. Trust it. Take note.

Connection is a separator of great teams

If role clarity, conflict resolution, collaborative decision-making and mutual accountability are the bricks in the house, connection is the cement that binds it all. The quality of our team interactions is heightened when we feel psychologically safe with others, valued and respected. We remain open and engaged and are less likely to shut down or retreat into a corner.

So, how do we foster this connection more?

The elite coaches and managers take no chances in this area. Connection must be intentional. It is not something that one assumes will happen in a performance café or at a team-building Christmas party per se. Just as time is allocated in the weights room to build muscle, elite teams dedicate time to strengthen the collective muscle. This can be bridged by facilitating conversations with individuals to enable them to take stock and interact on a meaningful level. In doing so, they reinforce their connections between teammates, the jersey, their why, legacy and their higher purpose.

A great example of this deliberative connection-building comes from Europe’s Ryder Cup win in 2023 at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club. Post victory, Rory McIlroy reflected on when his team started to take shape, under the leadership of Luke Donald, their team captain at the time, and European Captain for the 2025 Ryder Cup. On a practice trip in the lead-up to the tournament, putting greens, driving ranges and tactics boards were swapped for an ‘amazing experience’ around a fire pit. The team reflected on topics like ‘why they love the Ryder Cup so much’, and ‘having parents that sacrificed a lot for them’. This moment helped galvanise the European team.

Now to The Last Dance. In 1998, Phil Jackson, the Head Coach of the Chicago Bulls, gathered Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, and co. He asked them to write about what their Bulls team meant to them before each player read aloud to the group. After they all had their turn, Jackson symbolically lit the tin cup filled with papers on fire, and all the Bulls watched on and felt more connected. “One of the most powerful things I’ve ever seen”, said current Head Coach of the Golden State Warriors and former Chicago Bull, Steve Kerr. The rest is history.

Final thoughts

Building cohesion and connection is about far more than getting the right people in the right roles – it’s about finding that sweet spot where collaboration thrives, even when team structures or opinions don’t fit the mould.

The successful teams of the past, whether this is Manchester United Football Club under Sir Alex Ferguson, the All Blacks of 2011 to 2015, or the Red Sox after they broke the curse, they all built strong foundations of trust, clear communication, and adaptable roles.

Teams can become great, making decisions that are informed by a diverse range of perspectives yet aligned toward shared goals. By implementing robust decision-making systems and processes, and fostering environments where flexibility, connection and trust are prioritised, high-performing teams can unlock their full potential…navigating complexity with confidence, and a higher sense of team.

David Clancy is a Learning and Development Consultant at the Houston Texans and Director at The Nxt Level Group. He is also the Editor of Essential Skills for Physiotherapists: A Personal and Professional Development Framework, which is available now from Elsevier.

Richard Kosturczak is a Market Specialist at The Nxt Level Group and Specialist Physiotherapist.

Ronan Conway is a Team Connection Facilitator, who has worked with teams including the Ireland men’s rugby team and Dublin GAA, Ireland’s most decorated Gaelic football team.

If you would like to speak to David, Richard and Ronan, please contact a member of the Leaders Performance Institute team.

By John Portch

What do the likes of Michelle Obama, Malcolm Gladwell and Matthew McConaughey have in common?

Yes, they’re all respected figures and leaders in their field, but something else sets them apart.

“The most overwhelming thing when you meet these people, when you ask them questions and you start to get an understanding of them, is that they’ve worked on themselves first and they continue to do the work on themselves,” said renowned author of The Leading Edge, Holly Ransom, who has interviewed them all.

She continued: “You can’t actually lead others until you can lead yourself, and you can’t sustain your venture with others unless you’re continuing to challenge the way that you’re leading yourself.”

Ransom was speaking at the Leaders Sport Performance Summit in Melbourne in February where she identified the reason why the Obama approach is easier said than done.

“One thing that’s quite striking is we’re very good at doing the knowing, absorbing, the taking in – and we’re saturated by it. We get constant pings on our phone, we’ve got emails coming in at all hours, we subscribe to all these sorts of channels, people [are] sending us the latest research. Very rarely do we actually pause to go ‘what might that mean for me?’ ‘I’ve just read that really interesting article. What am I going to do with it?’”

It has led, she said, to a gap between leaders’ awareness and application. “Most of us know that there are elements that we could change, that we might want to challenge [but] there’s often a gap with the ‘doing’.”

To underline the point she asked the Leaders Performance Institute members in attendance to join small groups to discuss a time when they changed an opinion or belief in the last 12 months. Most found it difficult to identify an example and one even said the exercise felt “weird”.

Yet here was a room of people whose roles are rooted in leading change (from processes to performance) inadvertently admitting how difficult it is for them to adapt themselves.

For Ransom, who also serves as a Director of Port Adelaide Football Club, the solution lies in establishing good habits. She encouraged the audience to ask themselves: “are my habits still serving me? Are they serving my life? Are they serving my leadership?”

Even if the answer is ‘no’, there are still steps that all leaders can take to re-establish healthy habits.

Manage your energy, not your time

One potential consequence of failing to take care of oneself is burnout, with Ransom revealing that Australia and New Zealand have some of the highest rates of burnout in the world.

She challenged the notion of life as a ‘marathon’ or, if it is, then “it’s a marathon of F45s”. “I think we need to change the way that we’re thinking,” she said. “We need to challenge ourselves to be thinking about managing energy and not thinking about managing time.”

Ransom raised another famous aphorism, that we have the same amount of hours as high achievers such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Pablo Picasso or Thomas Edison and therefore others should be capable of similar feats in their own field. “I think the modern version is that we’ve got as many hours as Beyoncé.”

But it doesn’t work like that. As Ransom pointed out, there is a body of research that revealed that the major difference in sports between the world No 1, No 15 and N 105 was not time spent in the gym or in training (that was roughly equal across the board). Instead, “what was really different was how they manage their energy and specifically how they manage their energy to peak at key performance moments”.

Perform an ‘energy audit’

Ransom suggested that everyone in the room conduct a personal ‘energy audit’, which she rooted in three questions:

1. What are your natural high energy moments?
2. What are your natural low energy moments?
3. How are you currently employing those moments?

Ransom believes people should tackle their most important tasks when their energy is at its highest so that they “get the return on energy they deserve”.

She said: “What can you block that out for? What should that be allocated for? Even experimenting with that alone can fundamentally help you change your results and outcomes.” It provides the basis for good habits, whether you’re a morning person or a night owl (most people in the room were morning people).

On the flip side, numerous people (particularly men) report that their lowest energy levels are between 8am and 10am on Monday, which is often when organisations hold team meetings.

“It doesn’t mean you change it, but it does mean that maybe that time can best be used to manage energy,” she added. “The most powerful thing that you could actually do for that group of people that you lead is think about how we influence that energy in that moment so we don’t get the contagion of that negative energy running through more of the day or more of the week.”

With a little help from your friends

If you can self-reflect with help from your peers, all the better. “One of the things I’ve noticed is that people who do this well have certain people in their corner or in their ‘personal cabinet’,” said Ransom, who then outlined ‘four Ss’ for consideration:

1. Supporters: “Think about whether you’ve got these people in your corner; or there could be an opportunity to cultivate some new relationships.”
2. Sages: “Who can you go to and pick the brain of that’s going to help you think through some of the challenges that are on your plate and can be candid and open about how they’ve navigated similar situations before?”
3. Sponsors: you need people to go into bat for you. “The decision about you or the decision about your project or whether your idea often happens in a room that you’re not even in at a time when you’re not even aware that the conversation is going on.”
4. Sparring partners: “Who’s the person that’s actually going to push back and give you that critical feedback and say ‘could you’ve done that differently?’ or ‘I’m not sure that message is going to land if you deliver it like that’. We all need someone that can be our sounding board.”

What protects your energy during the day?

Ransom asked the room to think of things that make them happy, that add value to their life. Whatever the answer for each individual, life invariably prevents people doing those things, particularly in high performance where up regulation is usually the order of the day.

“What I’m saying and challenging around this is do not let ‘perfect’ be the end of the world,” she said, explaining that finding three minutes to deregulate is better than holding on for half an hour.

Instead, she recommended “microbreaks” throughout the day. Her idea was that you may not have time to dance or sing along to your favourite song (if such an idea makes you happy or lowers your heartrate), but you can incorporate desired elements into your day.

“What’s the version, the smallest edible snackable version of the thing that you know will add value to your life?” This can be incorporated into your morning coffee or on your way to grab your lunch.

“It’s an easy way of bringing it into the routine and the rhythm of your life.”

‘Chief role model’

Ransom encouraged Leaders Performance Institute members to view themselves as a ‘chief role model’ for their team. As a starting point, she asked everyone to consider one thing they could try doing for the first time – something that it would be good for people to see from their leaders.

She cited examples that leaders often raise: “‘I’ve not been great at practising self-care. I could do with being a little bit more deliberate about showing that to my team’” and “‘I’m not really good at asking for feedback I could do with getting more critical feedback and having a challenger in my network’.”

It is critical to keep doing the things of which you are proud; the things that you role model well because “you know it makes a difference to the environment you’re in [and] it makes a difference to you”.

By David Clancy & Richard Pullan

“Your network is your net worth.”

Porter Gale, former VP of Marketing at Virgin America and a leading business and marketing advisor

In today’s fast-paced world, high-performing individuals and teams face increasingly complex cognitive demands. These challenges are not just about processing information but also about managing stress, navigating uncertainty, and maintaining clarity amid competing priorities. This is where the power of strategic and intentional network building comes into play.

There are several means available to help build this network. They include purposeful twinning with others, developing an ecosystem of critical friends and identifying a web of second-opinion teammates. Each of these connections provides leaders with the means to make more informed and rounded decisions, make perspective shifts as well as provide objective feedback.

Twinning

‘Twinning’ refers to the practice of forming reciprocal partnerships with other teams or organisations that share similar goals, challenges, or conundrums – perhaps they might even be competitors, if the context makes sense. This is a huge part of what the Leaders Performance Institute does, in fact, forging ‘partnerships’ with teams and individuals. This is how the Houston Texans of the NFL became professional friends with the Texas Rangers of MLB, as an example. This symbiotic relationship allows for mutual learning and growth, where both parties can share best practices, resources, and insights. A term we often hear is ‘collaboration over competition’ – we can all row the boat faster if we are willing to exchange protocols, philosophies and pain points.

Professional sports teams all face their unique set of struggles but, oftentimes, there are numerous similarities with these. Sharing best practices and ways to approach challenges is a significant benefit downstream of this pairing. By ‘linking’ with another team, leaders can expand their knowledge base, reduce the isolation often felt in high-pressure roles, and benefit from other viewpoints.

In terms of innovation, if teams are open to sharing what they do (to a degree), how they do it, etc, they can draw on the experience and solutions already implemented elsewhere. This save them time, effort, and energy. Food for thought.

Critical friends

Critical friends play a unique role in leadership, deliberation and decision-making. A critical friend is someone who offers candid, constructive feedback and is unafraid to challenge assumptions. This is ideally someone outside the team/ franchise. They are trusted individuals who can act as a sounding board for ideas, provide a second perspective, and offer checkpoints when needed.

Creating and nurturing these ‘friends’ requires energy and effort, but the payoff can be huge. As an example, if you are ideating a new return-to-play system and method, bouncing ideas off someone with exposure to this in another environment could help make your system better. A no-brainer if you ask us!

We have witnessed the benefit in relation to cognitive demand also, as critical friends offer a safe space to validate thinking and refine or rethink ideas. Critical friends help prevent blind spots, biases and assumptions by encouraging the leader to pause and reflect before executing a critical task. The best critical friends strike a balance between support and challenge. They are not afraid to disagree, but they do so with the intention of helping the leader grow.

Second-opinion teammates

Second-opinion teammates (teammates being a crucial word) serve a similar purpose, offering alternative viewpoints to ensure a more well-rounded decision-making process, such as another set of eyes on an MRI report and image for a hamstring injury.

Particularly in high-stakes environments, seeking a second opinion reduces cognitive stress by distributing the weight of responsibility and allowing leaders to feel more confident in their choices. Knowing that a trusted colleague has reviewed the same data or proposal with rigour and objectivity can provide a sense of reassurance and clarity.

Strive to stock a bullpen of second-opinion teammates. It’s a game-changer.

Mentorship

“The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves”, said Steven Spielberg. To create themselves entails helping one to find their way. Consider giving a project to a more junior member of staff from a senior ‘mentor’, rather than the ‘easier’ option, of giving the project to a ‘middle manager’ who has done the type of project before. That’s an example of what this could look like.

Mentorship is a timeless strategy – one for managing both the emotional, physical and intellectual demands of leadership. This is typically someone with more experience who can offer guidance, advice, and lessons learned from mistakes, and successes. Great mentors provide leaders with the tools to think more effectively for themselves, enabling them, giving them their own toolkit; this helps them navigate complexity, prioritise, and mitigate stresses. They leave breadcrumbs behind.

Mentors can help leaders manage cognitive demands by offering perspective on what truly matters, helping to sift through the noise and focus on the signal i.e. what is essential. They also provide historical insight, showing leaders that many challenges they face are not new and can be tackled using time-tested methods. This reduces the sense of overwhelm that comes with thinking one must always reinvent the wheel. The issue you are facing has been faced and solved before.

Moreover, mentors are invaluable in helping leaders manage their wellbeing, as they can provide reassurance and encouragement when times get tough and they can acknowledge that these times come with the intense world of competitive sport.

Building a network

In high-pressure environments, leaders often find themselves juggling multiple competing priorities, balancing short-term, ‘urgent’ demands with long-term, ‘important’ goals.

Here are five reasons for nurturing a network to help with this:

1. Perspective: By offering alternative viewpoints, these individuals help leaders avoid tunnel vision, providing the clarity needed to make more informed decisions. As author John C. Maxwell said: “one of the greatest values of mentors is the ability to see ahead what others cannot see and to help them navigate a course to their destination”.
2. Stress relief: They provide a safe space to vent frustrations or discuss difficult situations, reducing the emotional and cognitive strain on the leader.
3. Cognitive load reduction: They help leaders prioritise by distinguishing urgent tasks from important ones, easing decision-making and reducing the burden of figuring everything out on their own.
4. Feedback loops: They offer real-time feedback, allowing leaders to course-correct early, reducing the mental load associated with second-guessing decisions.
5. Confidence: With someone experienced offering reassurance or advice, leaders can make decisions with greater confidence, reducing self-doubt, fracturing under duress and mental fatigue.

What makes a good mentor?

The best ones share several key traits that make them invaluable in helping leaders grow and meet the demands of high-performance sport.

Here are five traits we often see:

1. Trustworthiness: A good mentor must be someone the leader can trust implicitly. This relationship relies on openness and honesty and, without trust, it can’t function effectively. Trust hinges on credibility, reliability and that willingness to be vulnerable. Look up the Trust Equation for more on this.
2. Empathy with objectivity: They need to be empathetic to understand the leader’s challenges, but objective enough to provide clear, unbiased feedback. A mentor must challenge, but from a place of care, not criticism.
3. Experience and expertise: Particularly for mentors, having a depth of experience is critical. They need to offer insights that come from having walked the same path or navigated similar challenges.
4. Active listening skills: The ability to listen without immediately offering solutions is key. Great mentors and critical friends give space for the leader to articulate their thoughts fully before stepping in with advice or feedback. ‘Beware the advice monster’, as Michael Bungay Stanier wrote in The Advice Trap. And, as Stephen R Covey proclaimed in his book The Seven Habits of Effective People, ‘seek first to understand, then be understood’.
5. Encouragement to reflect: The best mentors help leaders reflect on their own experiences, pushing them toward self-discovery and growth, rather than always offering the answers themselves.

And let’s not forget that mentors need mentors. This could be your partner at home, as an example.

So, here’s our challenge for you reading this article today – take on a mentorship role in some capacity, to give back…to pass the ladder down, as it were.

Final thoughts

In today’s fast-paced and ever-evolving landscape in high-performance sport, a leader’s success isn’t just defined by individual strength – but by the strength of their network. Jobs these days in sport are complicated and complex. It is now rarely possible for one individual to serve a function fully without seeking support from other disciplines, to deliver the final solution to a given problem.

By cultivating relationships through twinning, critical friends, second-opinion teammates, and mentorship, leaders create a support system that fosters psychological safety, collaboration, and continuous learning. These connections enable leaders to confidently navigate complexities, make incisive decisions, and lead afront with impact. After all, just as every great athlete stands on the shoulders of their team, no leader can truly flourish without a trusted network standing behind them.

David Clancy is a Learning and Development Consultant at the Houston Texans and Director at The Nxt Level Group. He is also the Editor of Essential Skills for Physiotherapists: A Personal and Professional Development Framework, which is available now from Elsevier.

Richard Pullan is a Director at The Nxt Level Group, the Visionary Founder of The Altitude Centre, and leads the training of clients for flash ascents of Everest and other 8,000m peaks, while also preparing professional athletes and elite sports teams. He is formerly of Sporting Health Group.

If you would like to speak to David and Richard, please contact a member of the Leaders Performance Institute team.

By David Clancy

‘Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn’.

Benjamin Franklin, American statesman and polymath

The motivations behind a learning ecosystem

You must want to create a learning organisation. It needs to be identified as a strategic and cultural pillar, and modelled from the top down. This gives it a chance.

Imagine the locker room of a Super Bowl-winning team: how does this group go from ‘good to great’, to borrow Jim Collins’ words? The answer lies not just in player availability, exceptional talent or game tactics but also in something more subtle: a learning ecosystem.

In environments where the pursuit of knowledge is seen as important as the pursuit of success, teams are not just built, they’re sculpted, layer by layer, through continuous learning, reflection and adaptation. If we want to develop the players to their highest possible level, we need to develop the staff and coaches too.

The drive behind fostering this goes beyond mere survival in a competitive landscape. It’s about thriving, about ensuring that every individual in the team environment feels compelled to grow, not just for their own sake, but for the collective strength of the group. It’s the difference between a team that reacts to change and one that anticipates it, between a team that executes a plan and one that evolves the plan as they go. Some of the reported benefits of nurturing a learning environment include enhanced adaptability, continuous improvement, increased engagement and motivation, better problem-solving, cohesion and innovation.

High-performing teams understand that learning isn’t a box to be ticked; rather, it’s a pursuit of betterment. It’s a culture, an ethos. Simply understanding that when presented with a similar situation, behaviours may change, is a sign of learning. As an example, ‘Plan, Do, Check, Act’, an iterative four-stage management method for the control and continuous improvement of processes would lead to refinement of how behaviours take place in situations. When learning becomes a core value across a team and its various departments, it nudges forward-thinking, fosters resilience, and can contribute to sustained success.

Five key elements of a learning environment

Building a culture of learning is like constructing a well-oiled machine, where every part has a role to play. At the heart of this are a few critical parts:

1. Psychological safety: The foundation of any learning environment is the assurance that it’s okay to make mistakes, but to learn from them and to not repeat them is the crux. Without this feeling of safety, creativity and collaboration may not take place, and with it, the chance for true innovation. Psychological safety, the term coined by Amy Edmondson of Harvard Business School, encourages one to create a space where ideas are welcomed and failures are treated as opportunities for learning rather than reasons for reprimand.
2. Shared vision: Learning for the sake of learning can lead to aimless wandering, with no clear path as to what and why to learn. A shared vision and mission align individual learning with the team’s broader goals. As an example, if a sports team suffered numerous hamstring injuries in pre-season, the sports medicine and performance department might review their practice and methods – is there a more efficient or effective way? – a better way of mitigating and managing these injuries? The team behind the team might decide to conduct an analysis of trends to look at patterns; a thinktank involving ‘experts’ from other teams to give inputs and create a cross-discipline task force to examine the cases. This becomes learning for a reason – how to improve the management of this hamstring issue. When everyone understands the ‘why’ behind their efforts, which leads to buy-in, their pursuit of knowledge becomes crystal clear, and laser-focused – and their contributions are more impactful.
3. Knowledge flow: In a high-performing team that models learning by example, information doesn’t just trickle down from the top – it flows freely in all directions. This flow of learning and development is sustained through mentorship, open communication channels, and a culture that values the sharing of knowledge capital as much as the accumulation of it.
4. Reflection and feedback: The engine of continuous learning is reflection, both self-reflection and collective, group reflection – call it collective intelligence. Feedback loops with honest and open communication, whether in the form of one-to-one conversations or team retrospectives, provide the insights needed to refine skills, adjust strategies, and become increasingly proactive in the way things are done.
5. Autonomy and ownership: Empowering people to drive learning at different levels is a game changer. When team members feel they have control over their learning journey to a degree, they are more likely to take initiative and seek out new knowledge that can help them with their task at hand, be that player care in a rehab setting, for example, or the various dimensions of bringing a player from another country into the team. Personal ownership of one’s development fosters a deeper commitment to growth and a stronger alignment with team objectives.

Pause for a moment and reflect on these questions:

1. Who has a learning environment that you know of?
2. What does it look like?
3. Imagine: how would it feel or how does it feel?

A further question:

How do you take these components and breathe life into them?

Five strategies to implement

The following strategies are as much about mindset as they are about action:

1. Lead by example: Leaders must embody the learning culture they wish to see. This means not only encouraging learning but actively participating in the process, whether through visible personal development efforts (e.g. being present during a learning lab), or by sharing lessons learned from their own mistakes if they feel comfortable doing so, revealing vulnerabilities and admitting that they may not have all the answers.
2. Encourage curiosity: Curiosity is the lifeblood of a learning culture. Cultivate it by celebrating inquisitiveness and making space for variations and exploration. Whether through dedicated innovation time (e.g. sharing of ideas over a creative breakfast every Monday), cross-functional projects, or learning stipends, give your team the tools and white space to pursue their interests and passions.
3. Integrate learning into the workflow: Don’t treat learning as something that happens outside of work only, or as a special task, or at the end of the season. Integrate it into the day-to-day when possible, whether through regular knowledge-sharing sessions, peer coaching (e.g. a buddy system), or embedding learning goals into project objectives. It must be seen as important, otherwise urgent tasks will keep encroaching and make it difficult to happen. Allocating time blocked off gives learning the best chance to happen, with little feeling of overwhelm; this is critical especially in environments where there is a feeling of chaos, busyness and intensity in-season.
4. Embrace cognitive diversity: Some of the best learning environments are those that welcome different perspectives, those ‘rebel ideas’, as author Matthew Syed once wrote. Encourage diversity in hiring, but also in the day-to-day – seek out voices that challenge the status quo and ways things are done. Can you create structures that allow these voices to be heard and valued?
5. Measure learning: As management consultant Peter Drucker once said, “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”. If you are trying to create ‘buy-in’ to the idea of developing a learning culture, you must articulate how you will measure its impact. Examples could include monitoring relevant key performance indicators (i.e. completing X amount of continuous professional development courses to stay certified), player performance metrics, and injury rates and recovery times. Other areas to appraise could be staff engagement and retention rates, regular assessment and feedback loops – and adjusting tactics based on data and information (e.g. how a learning path has informed a new protocol in the training room). Create a system for housing your knowledge, a learning management system, to use as a repository and index of resources. Use it also for learning initiatives, courses and paths that can be linked to the measurement strategies above.

Three typical obstacles and how to overcome them

No journey of learning is without its hurdles. Here are some common roadblocks and why they may emerge:

1. Complacency: When teams reach a certain level of success, the hunger for learning can fade. They’ve won; why keep learning at the top of the mountain? This feeling often emerges from a false sense of security, believing that what got them to this point will keep them there. The best way to combat complacency is by constantly raising the bar, setting new challenges, and fostering a mindset that views success as a milestone, not a finish line. Look at the New Zealand All Blacks from 2011 to 2015 and the current South Africa Springboks for exemplars of this worldview; that you must keep raising the bar of standards and execution.
2. Overwhelm: With the fast pace of modern work, finding time for learning can feel impossible. This challenge emerges when learning is seen as an ‘extra’ activity rather than a core part of roles and responsibilities in a job spec. Integrating learning into the daily routine as a habit and breaking it down into manageable, incremental steps can help overcome this sense of it as a heavy burden.
3. Siloed knowledge: When knowledge is hoarded rather than shared, the collective intelligence of the team suffers. Oftentimes this leads to groupthink, a practice of thinking or making decisions as a group, resulting usually in unchallenged, poor-quality decision-making. This boxed off and not shared knowledge often stems from competitive environments or unclear incentives. The remedy is a culture that rewards collaboration, connection and transparency, where knowledge sharing is seen as a mark of confidence in knowing your area of expertise, rather than a loss of personal power.

Navigating the obstacles

Resistance to learning initiatives is almost inevitable, but it’s how you respond to this resistance that counts. When faced with pushback, consider the following:

1. Understand the root cause: Resistance often emanates from fear: fear of change, fear of the unknown, or fear of being exposed as less competent and skilled at your job. Take the time to understand what’s driving the resistance. Is it a lack of confidence? A fear of losing relevance? Job insecurity? Perhaps it’s simply a misunderstanding of the purpose and key initiative? Once you know the root cause, you can tailor your approach to address it.
2. Reframe the story: Often, resistance comes from a perceived misalignment between the learning initiative and the individual’s or team’s goals. Reframe the narrative to show how learning aligns with personal and professional growth. Highlight success stories, provide clear examples of how learning has led to tangible benefits, and make the value proposition irresistible.
3. Start small: Change agency can be intimidating, especially if it feels like a massive overhaul. Start with small, manageable initiatives that demonstrate quick and easy wins, like embedding learning into daily activities. These successes build momentum and energy – and make the case for larger changes down the line when needed.
4. Involve the team in the process: As well as a commitment from senior leadership (signified by protection of time, shaping of intent and the financial commitment to learning and development), people are more likely to buy into a change if they feel they have a stake in it. Involve the particular team in shaping the learning culture; solicit their ideas, incorporate their feedback, and make them co-owners of the process as the system matures.

Final thoughts

Creating a culture of learning for high performing teams is not just about setting up training sessions or mandating workshops. It’s about embedding learning into the fabric of the team’s identity, mission and their values. Potential outputs range from staff skill enhancement and personal impact development to staff retention, less attrition and increased internal promotions. Increased unity around a performance philosophy and its implementation comes from ‘breaking bread’ over learning moments. The potential for opportunities for horizontal working with coaching, player development and scouting departments is another positive by-product.

If you want to do this right, you need to grasp an understanding of the deep motivations that drive people to grow, to build the structures and processes that support that growth, and to navigate the inevitable obstacles with agility, courage and empathy. High-performing teams aren’t just good at what they do, they keep getting better by reviewing what they do, learning from that and finding the right inputs to move forward.

Systems, processes and people development: it begins with a culture of learning.

As Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.’

David Clancy is a Learning and Development Consultant at the Houston Texans and Director at The Nxt Level Group. He is also the Editor of Essential Skills for Physiotherapists: A Personal and Professional Development Framework, which is available now from Elsevier.

If you would like to speak to David, please contact a member of the Leaders Performance Institute team.

By Luke Whitworth

‘Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We.’

This powerful quote from the legendary basketball coach Phil Jackson rings as true today as it did in his 1995 book Sacred Hoops.

Trust is a fundamental component of team cohesion – a topic that formed the basis of August’s Leadership Skills Series session for Leaders Performance Institute members.

That session features prominently in this month’s Debrief but, before we get into it, we wanted to thank those of you who have already completed our Future Trends in High Performance survey.

As members of our Institute and community, we’d love for as many of you as possible to complete the survey and, in doing so, gain access to the insights we unearth. You can complete the survey here.

Without any further ado, let’s reflect on some of the key moments for members at the Leaders Performance Institute.

Growing cohesion, quickly

‘Cohesion’ is defined by Gain Line Analytics as ‘the level of understanding between the component parts of a team system’.

Gain Line – who have worked with elite teams in business and sport for the past decade – contributed to last month’s Leadership Skills Series session, which explored the dynamics of team cohesion and the datapoints that can help you to build that cohesion at speed.

They express their findings through an equation: Skill x Cohesion = Capability. They suggest that even if a team has highly skilled individuals, their overall capability will be limited if they lack cohesion. Conversely, a team with lesser skill levels but high cohesion can outperform more skilled but less cohesive teams.

Leaders Performance Institute members were invited to share ways in which they feel cohesion can improve performance. They suggested:

• Knowledge of strengths.
• Communication.
• Willingness to accept challenge from each other.
• Empowerment.
• Shared understanding of strategy.

What works when growing cohesion at pace? Here are five recommendations:

1. Create a strong sense of belonging

Send strong belonging cues from the outset and develop your inclusive leadership skills. In fostering belonging, allow people to share their personal story and cultural background, widening your ‘us’ story to encompass everyone’s unique background. It’s important to not overlook the past, so look at connecting the team to its heritage. Shine a light on key moments and individuals from which we can draw inspiration or lessons. Finally, ensure you create a shared vision together for the legacy this generation want to leave behind.

2. Acknowledge shared responsibility for building high trust relationships

Relationship mapping is a practical way to reflect on your relationships with other members of your team and encourages shared responsibility. Base your score on how well you know each other, your openness to each other’s thinking, and the quality of your collaborations. Where are you areas for opportunity to elevate trust or relationships?

3. Teaming skills: speaking, listening and psychological safety

The fastest way to improve collaboration is to get individuals to think about their part in the process and getting good at the balance between speaking and listening within the group. Are people speaking up? Do we have that level of psychological safety? Are they listening?

4. The use of ‘getting to know each other’ questions

Skilled questioning can be powerful in developing relationships and cohesion. What are some examples of ‘getting to know each other’ questions? Here are some examples:

• Can you think of something challenging you’ve achieved which you’re proud of?
• A behaviour you would like to change, which you recognise can frustrate others?
• A strength you’d like to make more use of in your role or in life?
• What is something you admire in others that you’d like to make a strength of yours?
• What is something that has helped shape who you are today? Share how it has shaped you.

5. Increase knowledge of your ‘A-Game’ strengths and weaknesses

What do your athletes and staff do when they are on their ‘A-Game’? When you are bringing you’re A-Game, what is it that they are bringing too? Knowing this allows everyone in the team to know what they are looking for – then the team has a collective responsibility. Equally, when you are not on your A-Game, what do you see?

Addressing the challenges surrounding performance analysis in high performance environments

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. We then 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.

By Luke Whitworth

Mutual understanding and coordination is crucial for sustained success.

That is the view of data consultants Gain Line Analytics, who were co-founded by former Australia rugby international Ben Darwin and Simon Strachan in 2013. They have since worked with numerous clients in both sporting and corporate environments.

The company has developed a concept it calls ‘Cohesion Analytics’ to help measure both understanding and coordination within teams. Its proprietary algorithms can evaluate key metrics that influence team performance, such as communication patterns, trust levels and the effectiveness of a team’s collaborative efforts. The resulting analysis can provide recommendations with a view to improving team cohesion, which may include changes in team structure, training programmes or other strategic adjustments.

Gain Line’s insights into the topic formed the basis of a recent Leadership Skills Series session for members of the Leaders Performance Institute. The outcome was a suite of tricks and tips for swiftly developing team cohesion.

What is ‘cohesion’?

Gain Line defines cohesion as ‘the level of understanding between the component parts of a team system’. They believe that cohesion is made up of:

• People: understanding each other.
• Position: understanding of role.
• Programme: understanding strategy and ways of working.

How does cohesion influence performance?

Attendees at the Leadership Skills Series session identified five ways in which they believe cohesion can improve performance:

1. Knowledge of strengths.
2. Communication.
3. Willingness to accept challenge from each other.
4. Empowerment.
5. Shared understanding of strategy.

The Gain Line view on the important role of cohesion in performance can be expressed through the following equation:

Skill x Cohesion = Capability

Ultimately, they suggest that even if a team has highly skilled individuals, their overall capability will be limited if they lack cohesion. Conversely, a team with moderate skill levels but high cohesion can outperform more skilled but less-cohesive teams.

The equation challenges the assumed portability of skill. For example, if you bring talent and skill from one system, how confident can you be they that they will take all of that ability into the next system?

It raises another important consideration for people and teams who are focusing on improving: when a team is constantly adapting to changes, it can detract from their ability to improve and refine their skills and performance.

How can you develop cohesion at pace?

Gain Line makes five recommendations, which include practical tips and considerations:

1. Create a strong sense of belonging

Send strong belonging cues from the outset and develop your inclusive leadership skills. In fostering belonging, allow people to share their personal story and cultural background, widening your ‘us’ story to encompass everyone’s unique background. It’s important to not overlook the past, so look at connecting the team to its heritage. Shine a light on key moments and individuals from which we can draw inspiration or lessons. Finally, ensure you create a shared vision together for the legacy this generation want to leave behind.

2. Acknowledge shared responsibility for building high trust relationships

Relationship mapping is a practical way to reflect on your relationships with other members of your team and encourages shared responsibility. Base your score on how well you know each other, your openness to each other’s thinking, and the quality of your collaborations. Where are you areas for opportunity to elevate trust or relationships?

3. Teaming skills: speaking, listening and psychological safety

The fastest way to improve collaboration is to get individuals to think about their part in the process and getting good at the balance between speaking and listening within the group. Are people speaking up? Do we have that level of psychological safety? Are they listening?

4. The use of ‘getting to know each other’ questions

Skilled questioning can be powerful in developing relationships and cohesion. What are some examples of ‘getting to know each other’ questions? Here are some examples:

• Can you think of something challenging you’ve achieved which you’re proud of?
• A behaviour you would like to change, which you recognise can frustrate others?
• A strength you’d like to make more use of in your role or in life?
• What is something you admire in others that you’d like to make a strength of yours?
• What is something that has helped shape who you are today? Share how it has shaped you.

5. Increase knowledge of your ‘A game’ strengths and weaknesses

What do your athletes and staff do when they are on their ‘A game’? When you are bringing you’re A game, what is it that they are bringing too? Knowing this allows everyone in the team to know what they are looking for – then the team has a collective responsibility. Equally, when you are not on your A game, what do you see?

By John Portch

Women’s football is not the right environment for some coaches and practitioners, particularly expansion franchises.

That is the view of Lucy Rushton, the former General Manager of NWSL expansion team Bay FC.

“Of the people I know working in male football, 95 per cent probably would never consider coming to the women’s game,” she told an audience at June’s Leaders Sport Performance Summit at Red Bull in Santa Monica. “And, to be honest, they probably wouldn’t be right for the women’s game either. I’ll say that. I think the person that you’re looking for, especially in expansion, is someone who’s willing to challenge themselves, willing to go outside the box.”

Bay represented Rushton’s first role in women’s football. She built her reputation in the men’s game in a series of scouting and analysis roles at the Football Association, Watford and Reading. In 2016, she left her English homeland to join Atlanta United as Head of Technical Recruitment & Analysis. The team won the MLS Cup two years later. Between 2021 and 2022, she served as DC United’s first female GM.

Back at Bay, the team were finding their feet following a tricky start to their inaugural season when Rushton unexpectedly resigned in late-June. Her departure shocked observers, but her achievements during the year she spent in southern California were considerable.

It is an exciting time for the club, who attract average crowds of nearly 15,000 to a stadium that is not their own. They speak enthusiastically of planning a new practice facility and stadium. Crucially, the ownership group have the means and the will to make it all happen.

But beyond supportive owners and astute marketing initiatives, what does it take to get a new team off the ground? The Leaders Performance Institute explores four factors put forward by Rushton.

1. A vision that informs your culture

Bay want to be the best team in the world and renowned for their people-first approach. They plan to get there by adhering to their B-A-Y values (Brave, Accountable, and You). Rushton explained each in turn:

• Brave: “being bold in the industry, pushing boundaries and innovating”.
• Accountable: people “being responsible for their actions and being willing to push themselves forward”.
• You: this stems from Bay’s desire to “celebrate each other as individuals so you can bring your true, authentic self to work every day”.

2. Finding the right personalities

Rushton believes it takes a particular type of personality to thrive in an expansion environment. “You have to have someone that’s more risk-OK,” she said. “To bet on themselves to go ‘I can go there and make a difference.” Her appointment of Head Coach Albertin Montoya showed that they can be male. “A lot of males would find it refreshing to come to a female team because it’s a different environment, with a totally different feeling, vibe, boundaries, rules.”

It is crucial, however, that you hire for diversity of background and experience despite the inherent challenges. “It’s much easier to sit in a room with people who are like you,” said Rushton. “It brings added work because you’re taking yourself outside your comfort zone – you have to be willing to do that.”

3. Elevate player care and support

Rushton explained that while male players tend to consider the bottom line above all else, female players are compelled to prioritise their living conditions. It led her and Bay to use all available mechanisms – housing, support staff, medical care – to tempt players to this corner of southern California. “How are we on a day-to-day basis trying to help them a) be in the best position they can be for the longest possible; and b) live a nice lifestyle out of football?”

It has given Bay considerable pulling power beyond the US. Three ceiling-raisers arrived in the form of Barcelona’s Asisat Oshoala, Madrid CFF’s Rachael Kundananji, and Arsenal’s Jen Beattie. Others are sure to follow.

4. Managing challenges and setbacks

Bay have had their fair share of challenges in year one, but the club has not been fazed. They went as far as dropping a player over a disciplinary issue on one occasion. It likely cost them the game, but the senior leadership believed that team values were more important. “It’s in those difficult moments that you set the culture,” said Rushton. “It showed our players and our staff what’s acceptable and what’s not.”

By John Portch

Pat Cummins’ decision to put India in to bat first in the 2023 Cricket World Cup final divided opinion.

The Australia captain won the coin toss and defied conventional wisdom by electing to field during the first innings when most teams might have preferred to set their opponents a formidable target. On top of that, the dry conditions on that November afternoon at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad appeared to favour batting first.

“I’d have batted first,” said India captain Rohit Sharma. “It looks a good pitch, it’s a big game, let’s put runs on the board.”

Cummins obviously disagreed. “It looks a bit of a dry wicket; bowl on it during the day and back ourselves to chase whatever we need to,” he said before pointing to the weather. “Dew is one factor, it gets quite dewy here at night. It feels like this venue has got better and better to bat so hopefully the same today.”

Dew can make it easier to bat under the lights as the ball skids onto the bat, but some accused Australia of overthinking the conditions. It is easy to dismiss those criticisms in light of Australia’s subsequent six-wicket victory – and sixth men’s World Cup triumph – but they do point to the traditional thought processes that tend to govern cricket.

Andrew McDonald, Australia’s Head Coach, picked up on this two months later at February’s Leaders Sport Performance Summit in Melbourne. “An important piece is that this group is making decisions not on what’s happened in the past,” he said.

In cricket, the captain is tasked with most on-field team decisions during play and, the day before the final, McDonald and his coaches spent two hours weighing up the pros and cons of batting first and second; and yes, the dew was discussed. “We had great fun solving these problems and then said to Patty: ‘this is our recommendation. Over to you, mate, because ultimately you’re accountable at the toss’.”

There were several factors beyond the dew that supported their recommendation, but the underlying story is one of how McDonald, who was promoted to Head Coach in April 2022, has worked to engender trust between players and coaches while also streamlining the team’s high-performance systems.

“One of our philosophies in the Australia cricket team is on the day you have to be less dysfunctional than your opponent,” said McDonald with a combination of pragmatism and humility.

Here, we explore what that philosophy entails for Australia’s men.

‘Environment’, not ‘culture’

McDonald insists on referring to the team’s ‘environment’ rather than its ‘culture’, even as he admitted that it may just be words. However, given that he had served for three years as an assistant coach to his predecessor, Justin Langer, and could quickly take the pulse of the team upon taking the reins, one should give McDonald the benefit of the doubt.

“We felt as though ‘culture’ was quite rigid and it was almost the players coming in and needing to conform with what the team required,” he said, indicating that he had thought deeply about the idea. “We’ve shifted to ‘environment’ and made sure that people could commit to that.”

The Australia men’s team is on the road for more than 220 days per year and, if they are not competing at home, they are almost always touring in far flung foreign lands from the West Indies to the Asian sub-continent. It can be isolating, stressful and even boring. Therefore, it was a good idea, McDonald argued, to let his players shape their environment.

“We wanted to create some safe spaces for people to operate in and make sure that they could be themselves. Hopefully that shines through in the way our players represent the country,” he continued.

The players and coaches’ families are also free to join them on tour whenever possible; and it works both ways. McDonald encouraged all-rounder Mitchell Marsh to fly home mid-World Cup to visit his ailing grandfather, who passed away during the tournament. Anyone reading that line with reservations should note that Marsh, with the full support of his teammates, returned to hit an unbeaten 177 in his next match against Bangladesh.

Getting the creative juices to flow

Another key decision McDonald made was to complement structured training sessions (coach-driven with the coach at the heart of the work being done) with unstructured sessions where the players choose what they want to do within the wider strategy. His aim was clear: “when you’re trying to build a team to problem-solve under extreme pressure on their own, you’ve got to give them choice in the training activities they do” as this will get their “creative juices flowing”.

This is also dependent on the team having the right players at the outset across the three main formats in which Australia compete. McDonald joins Cricket Australia Chairman George Bailey and former Test all-rounder Tony Dodemaide on the three-person National Selection Panel.

McDonald, however, felt that too often the interested parties operated in silos and true collaboration would only come from sitting the key decision-makers down at the same table. There is now better dialogue between the coaches and the panel, with McDonald serving as the go-between.

He said: “Selectors ultimately have the final decision, but knowing what the coaches and players are trying to achieve, and the style we’re playing, I think it streamlined our decision making and we could move more quickly.”

‘We had to throw chaos at India’

Australia lost their opening two matches in the World Cup group phase. The first, a six-wicket loss to the hosts India in Chennai, offered some mitigation. Afterall, India were the favourites and would eventually reel off ten wins in a row on their way to the final.

The second, an ignominious 134-run defeat to South Africa, provoked greater introspection. Yet the team emerged from the post-match review committed to doubling down on the aggressive style they had adopted in the buildup to the tournament.

The Australians, as McDonald explained, were not going to throw 18 months of collaborative planning down the drain. “Every conversation with coaches was about where we thought games would be won and lost in India,” he said. These conversations were data-informed. “The eye test can lead you towards a certain bias,” he added. “We always have our checks and balances there with our data scientist to make sure that we’re on task.”

Their approach received its first memorable vindication when Australia claimed a 2-1 victory in a one-day international [ODI] series in India six months out from the World Cup. “That checkpoint was important in terms of belief for our playing group.”

It helped them at 0-2 in the group phase and in the World Cup buildup when they lost batter Travis Head to a fractured left hand. Head was given every chance to recover, which is just as well given his match-winning 137 runs off 120 balls in the final.

It did, however, prompt the team to amplify the aggression that led Australia to win their next nine matches, including avenging that opening defeat to India in the final itself.

“We knew that India were probably the better team on paper so we had to throw chaos at them,” said McDonald, explaining that the shift was to a style more akin to short-form T20 cricket. “A lot of things go into building that.”

The team had developed its capabilities in the harshest conditions, seen evidence that their style could win matches, and so they didn’t “throw the baby out with the bath water”.

That meant that come the final, when match referee Andy Pycroft tossed the coin and Cummins called correctly, the Australia captain had every confidence in his planning and preparation when electing to field.

“I think it was a great reflection of the work the data team put in with the coaches and the collaborative approach that Patty invites as a leader,” said McDonald.

“If we keep presenting decent options to him then he’ll keep listening to us. If we don’t, then he’ll probably shut us out. That’s our challenge.”

By John Portch

Leaders don’t always know how best to have those difficult conversations.

They may recognise the need to take someone to one side, but if they are unable to broach the topic in a skilled and productive way, then a small problem can quickly escalate.

At the 2023 Leaders Sport Performance Summit in London, Jide Fadojutimi and Marianne O’Connor from Management Futures led an onstage skills session explaining what to do and what not to do when approaching someone to have a ‘courageous conversation’.

What is a ‘courageous conversation’?

The term was 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 devised a skills grid to illustrate what it takes to lead a courageous conversation. O’Connor and Fadojutimi shared Scott’s grid with the Leaders audience but changed the top-right quadrant from ‘radical candour’ to ‘skilled candour’:

Image: Management Futures

“We’re going with ‘skilled candour’ because it’s a skill we can all learn and build,” said Fadojutimi of Management Future’s way of teaching the topic.

The three pitfalls to avoid

The arrows on the grid suggest that the path to skilled candour lies in giving people a sense of psychological safety and the feeling that you care about them. The grid also suggests three pitfalls, which were discussed at length by Scott in Radical Candor:

1. Ruinous empathy: when you want to spare someone’s short-term feelings, you don’t tell them something they need to know. You care personally but fail to challenge them directly.
2. Manipulative 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.
3. Obnoxious aggression: 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.

The five steps towards skilled candour

O’Connor explained that there are five steps you can take to help develop your ability to approach conversations with skilled candour:

1. Master your story: if you hold negative views of a person it is going to hinder your ability to make them feel safe. O’Connor said: “It’s really important that you master your story and any assumptions you might have about the other person and what’s going on for them”.
2. Create safety: this starts before you have the conversation in both the broadest and narrowest sense. Do not ambush someone in the corridor and don’t shut the conversation down once you’ve made your point. Bear this in mind when the other person is feeling challenged, vulnerable and defensive.
3. Provide skilled feedback: this means evidence-based feedback free of judgement. “To be able to give evidential feedback, you need to talk about what you observed and the impact that it had,” said O’Connor. “It just helps to keep the conversation safe and on track.”
4. Open a two-way dialogue: don’t just download information on someone without being curious about their perspective or seeking to understand what might be at play for them.
5. Make the other person feel heard: after a balanced conversation, it’s important for both parties, as O’Connor said, “to agree next steps or further action so that things don’t get lost in translation.” This enables both parties to feel accountable and understand what they need to do next.

By Luke Whitworth

The Paris Olympics have made history as the first Games where 50 per cent of the medals will go to women.

On top of that, 11-time Olympic medallist Allyson Felix led an initiative to introduce the first-ever nursery for competing mothers and their children at an Olympic village.

These are steps in the right direction at a time when the Games have shown us there is still much work to do to better support female athletes and their health.

One can look at the world records involving the United States’ women swimmers at La Defense Arena in Paris, to name an example close to Leaders Performance Institute hearts, and wonder what potential could be unleashed if the sporting world adopted more female-focused approaches to training, recovery and mental preparation.

On that front, there is some superb work being done by our friends at Sport Wales, who shared insights with Leaders Performance Institute members in early July, and that’s where we begin this edition of the Debrief.

How to increase education around female athlete health

Our Women’s High Performance Sport community group has proven to be a mainstay for the female members of the Leaders Performance Institute.

The community has made it clear that they believe there is a shortfall in education for staff around female athlete health.

With this in mind, we welcomed Dr Natalie Brown, a Research Fellow working as part of a collaboration between Sport Wales and Swansea University with the Welsh Institute of Performance Science [WIPS].

Brown led a rich conversation about her work and suggested some practical ways in which you can make positive inroads when it comes to female athlete health education:

• Invite people external from your female health and the performance team to come in and join the conversations, raising different questions.
• Balance individual needs versus sport specific challenges with whole system support.
• Specialist areas need to consider the female specifics as ‘normal.
• If you’re working as a lone ranger in this space, consider how things are being embedded, knowledge is being passed on, and progress to creating a team is happening.
• Language is a really important area. Don’t exclude anyone, but also correct. Underpinning language with evidence has been effective. Language can also be the key to confidence to talk about the topics and roll it out with athletes.
• Consider behaviour changes and the role of psychology in female health.
• Always provide the evidence of why behind knowledge, advice, support. Especially considering the volume of information, including misinformation, being shared around these topics at the moment.

Additional reporting by Rachel Woodland, Lottie Wright and Sarah Evans.

A six-step approach to driving cultural change

Those of you who read last month’s Debrief will know we touched on the theme of cultural leadership courtesy of Dr Edd Vahid, who placed the topic at the heart of his three-part Performance Support Series for Leaders members.

In July, he followed sessions one and two with a specific focus on cultural change and the effective steps that can be taken to create and deliver a new culture. In session three, Vahid shared a six-step approach:

1. Existing status – where are we? Honour the strengths of the existing culture; combine this with data, intelligence and insights, whether that be critical incident reviews, walking the floor, interviews or focus groups. Finally, check in on people’s experience of the four enablers.
2. Move into the idea of vision and purpose and being able to inspire and aspire. This means giving a clear articulation of where you’re going; matching this with the culture and the strategy. Communicate the value of change. Why are we changing, and how do you create a level of urgency and commitment to seeking change?
3. Identify those who align to the target culture. The guardians play a fundamental role. John Cotter talks about the idea of a ‘guiding coalition’ and it has real validity here.
4. Design. What are the short-term wins? Consider the work around removing barriers and instituting change.
5. Behaviour. What are the critical behaviour shifts you want to see? What are you going to recognise and celebrate and be explicit about in terms of the culture? Consistency and regularity are important.
6. Continuously monitor your progress to help reinforce the change.

What role can AI play in coach and people development?

An interesting question was posed in one of our coaching community group conversations: how can or is AI supporting work in the field of coaching and people development?

When it comes to coaching and learning in general, AI can be a divisive topic. It is common to hear that there is an art to coaching that needs to be protected and that a machine or technology can never connect with a human being.

Nevertheless, those on the community call in July agreed that there is value and opportunity for technology to support elements of people development. We tried to establish what those might be, whilst also testing what AI could come up with during the session.

Three things in particular stood out:

1. Efficiencies – many of you who operate in this space will be aware of the amount of time and resource it takes to collate data and identify the best ways to support efficiencies in your teams. AI can smoothen this process and, in some instances, identify trends you might not have thought about.
2. Access to content – this point does tie to the above quite closely. AI-powered virtual assistants can support by providing instant access to information, answering queries and aggregating trends.
3. Personalisation – AI enhances e-learning platforms by personalising the learning experience, adapting content to the learner’s pace and style, and providing interactive and engaging materials.

Why improvisation is an underrated leadership skill

Those of you who have been involved in the Leaders Performance Institute membership for a while and have attended some of our events, you’ll likely remember we have dabbled into the world of comedy to see what we can learn from the likes of the Upright Citizens Brigade who feature in Dan Coyle’s Culture Code and also comedian Stuart Goldsmith who spoke at our London Summit back in 2019.

We returned to the topic of improv comedy in July’s Leaders Skills Series session, which began with a line from renowned improv actor Bob Kulhan: ‘improvisation thrives at the pivotal intersection where planning and strategy meet execution’.

The session used Kulhan’s premise, set out in his 2017 book Getting to ‘Yes, And’ to explore how improvisation can enhance your leadership. Below, 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.

Neil Mullarkey is another 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.

We also explored Mullarkey’s LASER model during the session:

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