By Luke Whitworth

As part of our final Performance Support Series virtual roundtable series of 2023, we are focusing our attention on the overarching topic of performance planning.

Over the course of the three sessions, it is the intention to focus on three core areas as part of this topic:

• Leading with purpose: the relationship between personal and professional purpose on shaping organisational and team planning.
• Goal harmony vs team harmony: how can you create team alignment to galvanise and focus your team performance?
• Debriefing: implementing effective debriefing to create a learning culture in your team.

 The importance of leading with purpose

Leading with purpose was our first port of call and the aims of this particular session were to reflect on and share what we value and what our professional purpose is. Why is the notion of leading with  purpose important when considering Performance Planning? We are operating in both a complex world and landscape, such is the pace of high performance sport. This quote below from Ronald Heifetz et al (2009) in The Practice of Adaptive Leadership captures why this is important.

“When you understand your orienting purpose, you can understand and make day-to-day decisions in that larger context… When things get tough, you orienting purpose serves as a reminder to you and to others of the reasons you are seeking to lead change.”

Harry Kraemer (2011) supports this thinking by suggesting that ‘becoming the best kind of leader isn’t about emulating a role model or historic figure. Rather, the leadership must be rooted in who the leader is and what matters most to them. When the leader truly knows themselves and what they stand for, it is much easier to know what to do in any situation. It always comes down to doing the right thing and doing the best you can’.

Living and leading with purpose is so important in a complex world.

Engagement is driven by clarity of values

What makes us have a great day at work or engaging effectively with the environments we are in? Evidence from researchers Jim Kouzes & Barry Posner (2007) points to our engagement being driven by clarity of values, in particular alignment of organisational and personal values. Finding alignment in both values is a multiplier and developer of oxytocin. Do your personal and organisational values connect?

The late Steve Jobs talked of this dynamic – “I thought deeply about this. I ended up concluding that the worst thing that could possibly happen as we get big and as we get a little more influence in the world is if we change our core values and start letting it slide, I can’t do that. I’d rather quit”.

The science of connection

How does purpose create trust and joy? As part of this next segment of the conversations, we explored why being clear on our ‘why’ creates a sense of wellbeing and joy.

Research by Paul J. Zak shows that having a sense of higher purpose stimulates oxytocin production – as does trust. Trust and purpose mutually reinforce each other, providing a mechanism for extended oxytocin release, which in turn produces happiness. Joy or engagement with others comes from doing purpose-driven work with a trusted team.

Are you connecting your values? Do you have a real sense of purpose? Does that give you joy? A simple but effective exercise for you and your teams to do is a ‘professional purpose statement’. Take the time to reflect or write down what that purpose is. Start with the words: ‘my professional purpose is to…’.

How to find purpose?

It can be challenging to find and define your purpose. To help guide this discovery, there are a few simple questions you can ask yourself or have members of your team reflect on themselves to identify core values and purpose:

• What are my strengths?
• What inspires me?
• What fills me with energy, accomplishment and passion?
• What impact do others say that you have?

In summarising session one as part of this series of learning, we leaned into the work of Hubert Joly, businessman and Harvard Business School faculty member, on five core principles of purpose leadership. Joly suggest that these five principles include the below:

1. Being clear about your purpose – how are you connecting to your company purpose?
2. Being clear about your role – not your job title.
3. Being clear about whom you serve.
4. Being driven by values.
5. Being authentic.

By Iain Brunnschweiler

Your heartbeat is racing, and you’ve got a sick feeling in your stomach.

You are about to walk into a meeting with the rest of your leadership team and you know that you’ve got something to say to add value to the conversation. However, the dynamic in the room means that you already know that you will hold your tongue and won’t feel comfortable to say what you really think.

Sound familiar? If it doesn’t, then you’ve done extremely well to navigate a career thus far without this experience!

For the majority of us, this kind of feeling may have occurred a handful of times, or it may have occurred hundreds of times. You might be reading this thinking that this is exactly how you will be feeling either tomorrow, or later this week.

Seeking optimal

This situation surely cannot be optimal. It cannot be optimal for the individual who is suffering the anxiety-inducing thoughts, and it certainly cannot be optimal for the business who is deploying this group of people to work together.

Whether in business, music, sport or military, the ability for us to maximise the combined forces of those ‘in the room’ is absolutely paramount for success. And, more importantly, for the humans involved to feel comfortable enough to contribute and feel valued.

One of my key focus areas in recent years has been supporting people to work better together. In sports, a key objective has been to look at what is broadly termed ‘co-coaching’.

Co-coaching is the ability for multiple coaches to work together in the same coaching session. With growing support staffs, often in elite team sports today there will be two or three technical coaches, along with multiple other specialists such as strength & conditioning coaches, analysts, psychologists and physiotherapists. With all of these expert practitioners on the same field at the same time, the coordination of their roles and responsibilities is paramount. So, co-coaching could describe two coaches working together with the same squad, in the same session. Or it could be an entire support staff of seven or eight working together at the same time. This can get pretty complicated, and it is very easy for their to be a lack of role clarity, which results in a lack of impact on player development.

In my experience, there are three broad, fundamental qualities needed to co-coach effectively. They are:

1) Having an aligned purpose or intended outcome.

2) Having clarity on individuals roles in order to achieve the outcome.

3) Having a level of respect for the other members of the team and the contribution they are making.

The special sauce

As my old boss, the relentlessly successful Simon Timson (currently the Performance Director at Manchester City) once said to me, we need “no precious professional boundaries”. What the heck does that mean, I hear you cry!?

Well, I learned, and then experienced exactly what that meant during my time at England Cricket. We had a performance support team comprising technical coaches, an operations team, a physio, S&C coach, analyst, psychologist and education/welfare coaches. Similar teams will be present in many sports performance/development environments.

However, I have rarely experienced these teams operating anywhere near optimally together. And that’s where Simon’s wonderful phrase comes in.

For example, as the head coach of a national age group team, I embraced the view of the physio. This is not uncommon, he is a highly qualified technical expert in his field. However, it was not just his physio-medical view that I would be seeking. I would also genuinely embrace his view on the way a batter had approached an innings, or the field setting that we were going with during a youth international match. That’s what it means, that is what Simon meant. As a staff, we were aware that there was a high level of technical expertise in our own fields, but the special sauce was that we trusted each other to provide a view that wasn’t necessarily in our lane. The fast bowling coach could genuinely provide a view on the gym programme or the analyst discuss the education provision. This feeling that we had amongst us is rare. Too many times I have seen people being shut down because the leader in the room was not open to a level of cognitive diversity. Their mind was shut to the fact that someone deemed to be a non-technical coach might actually have value to add.

So what led this group to come to this place? I think there was one fundamental skill that we worked on, got better at, and evolved: listening.

It sounds simple, but how often do you REALLY listen to your colleagues? Listen to understand. Listen with all of your senses. Listen for the story behind the story, for the values or beliefs that might be guiding the narrative. To create and hold space for the contribution of others, as a leader, rather than to fill it with your own preconceived ideas or to confirm your own biases.

Listening is a whole lot harder than it sounds. Especially when the heat is on, and decisions need to be made. Listening takes energy and it takes attention. It is also really easy to hear what you want to hear rather than what is really being said. I have often asked a player “How was training today?” To which the answer is almost invariably “Good, thanks”! Only by asking a better question such as “What did you learn in training today?”, or “What made you think the most in training today?”, and then really listening carefully to the answer have I unlocked conversations with players that I never thought I would have.

So when you reflect on your own contribution to a team, or specifically a team meeting, please do consider the role you are playing. Are you causing anxiety in others, to the point at which they may not say the one thing that could be critical to success? Are you creating and holding the space to genuinely listen? Because if you aren’t, then you’ll almost certainly be making much worse decisions due to not having the full picture from all of the minds you’ve got in the team.

Questions for leaders:

• How aware are you of how members of your team are feeling in different meetings?
• To what extent do you embrace the thinking of someone who may not be a technical expert in that area? (Some call this a ‘naïve expert’)
• How much of your energy and skill are you protecting to genuinely listen?

Iain Brunnschweiler runs the Focus Performance Consultancy. He is a former professional cricketer, has authored two published books, and most recently was the Head of Technical Development at Southampton Football Club.

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By John Portch

How well are you serving your female athletes and what more could you be doing?

That was the question at the heart of Leaders Meet: Driving Step-Change in Female High Performance, our two-day event at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester.

On day one, speakers from organisations including Hockey Canada, British Cycling, High Performance Sport New Zealand, Harlequins and the UK Sports Institute all answered that question in their own way.

This is a snapshot of their responses, four factors pulled from the discourse to illustrate that while female sport has come on leaps and bounds in a relatively short period of time, there is still a long way to go before female athletes, coaches and practitioners achieve parity with their male counterparts.

1. Coaches: are you doing enough of the right things?

Male and female athletes are more similar than they are different, but there are differences, such as in bonding dynamics or the need to ask ‘why?’ on the training pitch (this is a trait more widely noted in female athletes than male). The most astute coaches recognise this and adapt accordingly. Danny Kerry, the Head Coach of the Canada women’s field hockey team, has worked with male and female coaches and has, following considerable self-reflection, learned to tweak his approach to male and female cohorts. Emma Trott, an Academy Coach at British Cycling, has called upon her own experience as a rider to inform her work with Britain’s young prospects to develop her coaching style. Kerry and Trott arrived at the same conclusion: when trying to optimise athletes, it is the environment that gets the performance out and that comes down to the coach.

What they said

Danny Kerry on managing team vs individual dynamics:

“All facets of coaching [consist of] trying to find an optimum for that particular team and then helping people adapt to the bell curve, finding their value in that, finding what works for them in that is the real craft of coaching – and in my experience that doesn’t get discussed in coach development.”

Emma Trott on listening to athletes:

“People don’t listen all the time. We hear what we want to hear and we want to hear it because we’ve already made a decision in our head about how we’re going to impact something rather than listening to what is actually being said. It’s that question: ‘How are you?’ ‘Yeah, I’m fine’ – what does that really mean?”

Next steps

• Coaches need to be empathetic to the needs of female athletes and that often requires the coach to be mindful of their own conduct and adapt accordingly.
• The issues that arise from female biology are numerous and there can be limiting factors on performance. However, it is important to understand that gains can still be made when the athlete is not at 100%.
• The coach needs to understand what is required of them at any given point in time. Sometimes it will be heavy instruction, at other times they need only offer words of encouragement or a serene demeanour.

2. Is everyone on your team speaking up?

In 2017, Helene Wilson took the reins of a talented but under-achieving Northern Mystics side in the ANZ Premiership, the national netball league of New Zealand. Two years later, they finished bottom of the table but, in 2021, were crowned champions. Wilson, who worked concurrently as a mentor at High Performance Sport New Zealand [HPSNZ, where she works full-time today], realised that her playing group were skilled but their diverse backgrounds, rather than representing a strength, created division and hindered alignment in the pursuit of high performance. That needed to change.

What she said

Helene Wilson on the HPSNZ Te Hāpaitanga pilot programme [launched in 2019, it initially paired 12 emerging women coaches with experienced mentors, giving them guidance through workshops] and how it influenced her coaching at the Mystics:

“During this time the penny dropped for me. We were busy teaching the coaches about tikanga, the customary system of values and practices. I realised that space for ambiguity where we translate our different approaches and lenses to what really drives high performance was missing in my environment.”

Next steps

• Understand that everyone is a leader and leadership is defined by your actions and behaviours. Some have more responsibility in their role, but everyone has a role to play.
• Ensure that everyone feels included while also not fearing rejection, because they are the first to comply, first to be passive, and not speak up when you really need them to.
• Deploy yourself against a problem last. Lead from behind rather than from in front.

3. Removing the physiological barriers to participation

In the afternoon, Dr Nikki Brown, the Associate Professor in Female Health at St Mary’s University in London; Emma Brockwell, a specialist women’s health physiotherapist at PHYSIOMUM, a female pelvic health specialist clinic; and Dr Amal Hassan, the Women’s Team Doctor at Harlequins, took to the stage to explore issues in female physiology, from skill acquisition during the menstrual cycle, being able to show up as best you can, and the risks presented by fashion over function in the use of sports bras.

What they said

Nikki Brown on breast health:

“It’s important to recognise that breasts will impact participation. Half of school girls drop out of participation because of their breasts, with one in three adults seeing the breasts as a barrier to participation. Then there’s that performance aspect, with breast support, because [an athlete’s] breasts will move during activity, and it changes how they move, it changes their confidence, changes their breathing, changes their muscle activity and movement patterns.”

Amal Hassan on the impact of the menstrual cycle:

“Periods can be a barrier to participation, a perceived barrier to skill and technical development through a season, can have health implications that really impact their performance, and it can stop certain players from developing at crucial points.”

Emma Brockwell on issues related to female pelvic floor dysfunction:

“It’s understanding that pelvic floor dysfunction is not just in the perinatal population or the older population. In fact, it occurs in younger girls and female athletes.”

Next steps

• There is more work to be done in normalising the conversation around periods, breast health or other concerns. These terms cannot remain taboo.
• What is your ethical code? If you’re encouraging a practice you need to put in place a structure, decide who is leading the programme, who is driving the educational aspects, and who are your go-to people for answers.
• Teams with bigger budgets can fit out a sophisticated programme or offer bra-fitting assessments, but action could be as simple as putting up a bra-fitting poster in a changing room or on the back of the toilet door. Even little nudges can make a difference or spark a conversation about breast health issues.

4. Bridging the gap between innovation and research in women’s sport with practical application

The UK Sports Institute [UKSI] has a major aim: to develop a nationwide programme to advance the science, medicine and application of female athlete health and performance support. However, as Richard Burden, the Co-Lead of Female Athlete Health & Performance at the UKSI, explains, there is a gap between innovation and research and delivery in female high performance environments.

What he said

“When delivering education sessions you can’t assume that because you’re talking to female athletes they know about the menstrual cycle, they know about bra fit – they don’t all know about these things. Even when it comes to female coaches, you can’t assume they know how to prioritise for female athletes.”

Next steps

• It is important to find ways to increase the translation and applicability of research.
• You have to bring athletes and coaches on a journey through knowledge generation, education and the delivery of a programme.
• Ask yourselves: are we giving them a reason to engage? How can we be resourceful? How can we create more time? How can we improve practicality?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On today’s agenda:

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

Henry Breckenridge Twitter | LinkedIn

John Portch Twitter | LinkedIn

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

By Luke Whitworth

In more recent times, buzzwords such as ‘belonging’, ‘experience’ and ‘connection’ have re-surfaced as key considerations for the design of your performance environment.

Friend of Leaders, the author Owen Eastwood, has often referred to a piece of research conducted within the UK Olympic system, which outlined that “70% of our behaviour is determined by what environment we’re in”.

So if we are to obtain the behaviours we seek, the look, feel, engagement and connection to and within the environment is crucial in making this a reality. As part of this Leaders Performance Institute member Virtual Roundtable, we sought to explore how those on the call are trying to drive engagement and connection to get the best out of others in their environment, and collectively, what we think are the most effective and impactful ways of doing this.

1. Being intentional

Before we think about best practices in bringing people together, the notion of engagement and connection requires intent. As part of the responses from the group on this particular roundtable around what is important to get right when looking to drive engagement and connection, a number of responses suggested that upfront work needs time and attention first and foremost.

What does engagement and connection look like for you in your environment? What is the definition of this and what sorts of behaviours and interactions do you want to see that aligns to this?

One attendee shared that the process of fostering engagement and connection takes time and needs patience. Don’t jump to conclusions if you aren’t seeing rapid changes in behaviour, stick to the process and give it the opportunity to cultivate in your environment.

2. Focus on individual relationships

Now we’ve appreciated the need to be intentional and have patience, we can look at some simple things that can have a positive impact of moving things in the right direction. The most common response from the group was placing an emphasis and focus on developing relationships with individuals in the environment. Simple, but effective. How often are you creating these opportunities for your people?

Ensure that individuals in the environment are connecting with one another on a one-to-one basis and not just in groups. It provides an opportunity to better understand someone, creates opportunities to listen and engage with intent and often is more comfortable for people than group settings.

Within many high performance sport environments, we often hear the challenges with the siloing of information or practice. A very simple way to prevent this from happening is building relationships and understanding of others, especially when operating in different disciplines. Linking back to point one about intentionality, many of these types of interactions happen organically, but we also shouldn’t be blinkered to the idea that not everyone engages in them organically.

3. Understanding others on a human level

A common phrase in the industry is the idea of knowing the person before the performer. This isn’t just in the context of athletes, and it absolutely extends to staff within the environment. Getting to know someone personally provides an opportunity to learn more about their purpose, ambitions, objectives and development needs. If we are able to support our people by combining ideas to develop their practice, that also tap into the core parts of their personality or purpose, we will likely witness a higher level of impact and buy-in. Plus, it drives a heightened sense of belonging and their place within the environment which we know is vitally important to get the best out of one another.

Specifically related to development needs, are you making sure you are taking that insight you are collating and providing opportunities for people? As leaders, authenticity and reliability are valuable traits, so it’s important to do what you say you’re going to do or taking the time to progress ideas and opportunities for people.

4. Organisational alignment

Taking the point above a step further, we also want to strive to connect our people to the values and larger goals of your organisation. The notion of higher purpose is powerful, and if we are able to outline common and shared goals within the organisation or environment, a strong chain of people, beliefs and understanding is created. One attendee on the call had suggested tapping into the concept of action learning in this process – action learning consists of insightful questioning and reflective listening, focusing on providing clarification, reflection and solution-orientation. Integrating your people into this process and the wider goals of the organisation seems simple, but many on the call still felt it’s an area for improvement.

5. Balancing structure and freedom

Allow people to be themselves but in a productive way. A final common response from the group around important considerations for engagement and connection, was finding a balance of structure to support staff and athletes to head in the right direction, and a sense of freedom that allows them to feel like they can be themselves in the environment.

It’s important to show your people you care, which is why finding the balance of structure and freedom is important. Often people don’t know what they don’t know, which is why some structure is effective – provide space to experiment with a bit of support wrapped around it.

By Rachel Woodland

In our second round of Women’s High Performance Sport Community Group calls, we discussed personal development both in terms of what this has looked like for members of the group and what it might look like in the future.  

Our US ‘call’ for this period was in fact a discussion that took place in person over breakfast at our Leaders Meet: People Development event in June at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.  

That morning we were joined by Shelby Baron, the Coordinator of Player & Coach Services at the United States Tennis Association and the Texas Rangers’ Senior Director of Baseball Operations, Michaelene Courtis, and Mental Performance Coordinator, Hannah Huesman. The trio explored the moments of progression in their careers; their experiences of what works as well as what else is needed.  

A month later, in July, the Women’s High Performance Sport Community Group came together to share their thoughts and experiences on the second call. 

Here, the Leaders Performance Institute picks out ten thinking points (networking and relationship building stand out for us) from across both conversations.  

1. Be sure to plan  

Several people mentioned planning their personal development better. This might be from a logistical point of view and when it makes sense to focus on development based on the seasonality of a role; at a time when full commitment can be given. Or planning what to spend time on in a more deliberate manner, be that based on current gaps or where someone would like to be in the future. We also discussed who might input into the planning aspect and the consensus was that seeking the input of others was key. It’s not all about what we need either: what do we want to learn? It is also important to have objectives and goals, which can be personal too.

2. Protect time for development…  

It sounds obvious, but the importance of protecting time for development, even when in amongst the weeds and firefighting, was a point clearly made. As leaders of others, how are we helping with this or role-modelling this? 

3. … and time and support for development in your role  

One way which helps ensure development happens is creating opportunities for development to take place organically through what’s needed from our roles. This might not always be people and leadership skills. At the breakfast in Texas, it was said that “in order to lead, you have to go and do it. Going out and doing the work is the best development you can have.” For this to be most successful and long-lasting we need to ensure that the right support is provided. For Hannah Huesman, one of the most valuable growth opportunities has been being the ‘middle person’. It challenges you to think about how to connect with people, collate information and deliver it to others.  

4. Put the person before the performer  

When planning our own development or supporting others, we have to be kind to ourselves, or to them, and put the person first; we can even demonstrate vulnerability. We should show genuine interest in them as a person. This will make sure the individual is at the centre. When supporting others, we shouldn’t take the responsibility of developing others lightly. We want to be there based on the experiences we have engaged in. That might be us being open with our own line managers, or as line managers encouraging those you line manage to discuss next moves, whether that’s inside or outside the current place of work.  

 5. Network and build relationships  

By far the most commonly mentioned successful – and desired – development tool has been networking and building relationships with others. This can be done in a deliberate manner. Whether that’s using networking for adding to our diversity of thought and understanding other people’s experiences by finding ways to connect with people who are not like ourselves. We tend to look for and find commonalities with people, but we should be aware that we can learn from anyone. It’s working for some to do this within their organisation as well as by speaking to those outside of our organisations by joining community groups, sharing current practices of your own. Some take consulting, or trustee, or non-executive roles, including those outside of sport.  

It’s common that people seek out differences, be that different sports, different levels within an organisation or different perspectives in terms of leadership execution and problem-solving; or in different areas of expertise within sport, new environments, and even in new tools emerging for communication. Others have sought out leadership positions that mean that they’ll be a leader of range of people.  

Whichever method people have chosen for networking and building relationships it’s in pursuit of the right spaces to connect, and to share stories and experiences. Sometimes it’s to deliberately seek differences and challenge thinking, other times it’s to normalise some of the challenges that are faced across sports, roles, and cultures; and it’s to also help us understand what is possible and know that others have done what we’re seeking to do. If you’re in a position that is less common, making yourself ‘available for networking’ could be powerful for others who aspire to follow in your footsteps.  

6. Consider relationship mapping  

To help make networking and relationship-building purposeful and focused, the act of relationship mapping can be a useful tool. In Texas, everyone in the discussion agreed on the importance of relationship mapping. Building these relationships creates an impact in the environment that makes a difference to performance.  

7. Try reciprocal mentorships or ‘reverse mentorships’  

Formalising this further, mentorships and reciprocal or reverse mentorships were discussed. They elevate collaboration between two people and provide more opportunity for quality learning. Some invest in personal coaches, be they specialists in leadership or from areas outside of sport. What people want from a mentorship will differ, but taking time to consider this for ourselves or those we support could prove fruitful. We spoke about the recent story of Debra Nelson, an educational assistant at sport and educational charity Football Beyond Borders, who recently reverse mentored Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, at his request. 

8. Take risks  

A few community members said that being brave and taking risks was positively impacting their current development. Some of this meant putting themselves in new situations, reaching out to people they didn’t think would respond, or exploring new sports. Sometimes we might need it to be others that take risks on our behalf and support us as we find the confidence to shape a role that may have traditionally been a male-dominated space.   

9. Reflect  

Several members of the group mentioned being deliberate in reflection on their development, a good practice for ensuring learning. For example, 360-degree feedback might help with this, and kickstart the planning process again, ensuring some ‘bottom-up’ input to our journeys.

10. Look at the bigger picture  

And what can organisations be thinking about at a broader level? The following were suggested:  

• Sharing examples of women working in positions we might aspire to be in.  
• Providing spaces for women to engage with leaders and decision makers to support them in their understanding of the experiences women are facing, and then providing space for them to support changes.  
• Taking a step back, creating an environment where people feel safe enough to share their experiences.  
• Collecting data to support the experiences shared.  
• Taking ownership of developing those in positions of responsibility, so that part of their role becomes being great at developing people and planning for succession with diversity in mind.  
• Being willing to be challenged differently as and when there are more female leaders in your organisation.  
• As discussed in our last series of calls, evaluating current strategies to ensure an effective recruitment strategy that identifies and supports excellent people.  
• Considering that currently not many women athletes have vast levels of financial security when they retire from competing, so there’s a competitive advantage for organisations to develop and prepare players for that next phase in their careers.  

Ultimately, we were reminded to ask women first – don’t assume you know – and in general we should think about the individual needs of each person we’re working with and build a development plan from there.

By John Portch

There is a consensus across sport that teams at their best are defined by a series of recognisable characteristics.

They include the ability to have honest and open conversations, an emphasis on behaviours that build trust, and a belief in the collective before the individual.

As with much of performance, they are often easier said than done but most teams understand their importance and continue to work towards those qualities in their daily work and habits.

Here, the Leaders Performance Institute lifts some insights from our vaults that we hope can help you to plot a course with your teams. We are not saying that all the athletes and coaches in the examples cited below have nailed it, but their approaches may help you to stay on track.

‘Great cultures are built on connection’

Adelaide Crows midfielder Rory Sloane served as team captain between 2019 (when he was co-captain alongside Taylor Walker) to 2022 and, with time, learned the skills to handle difficult conversations in a way that put his teammates at ease.

Sloane had fewer concerns about his on-field captaincy than he did his off-field abilities. “Off-field stuff has always been my challenge absolutely – that’s something that I’ve always had to work on massively over the years,” he told an audience at Virtual Leaders Meet: Evolution of Leadership in 2021. “I wasn’t someone that loved confrontation at all, and that’s where I worked really hard over the years just on my relationships with people to be able to then have those conversations.”

He cited the influence of renowned American leadership specialist Brené Brown. “There was something she said: ‘Sit next to someone when you’re having those conversations rather than across’; because I reckon I used to always come across very aggressively, so sitting next to someone was something that really helped me just have those conversations.”

Sloane’s development as a leader was aided by Dan Jackson, who was appointed the Crows’ Leadership Development Manager in 2020. “We’ve spent a lot of time talking about connection, and it’s a theme I keep seeing across elite sport, and also across corporate organisations – great cultures are built on connection,” said Jackson.

Another with a keen sense of the importance of connection was three-time World Series winner and 10-time MLB All-Star David Ortiz.

During this 20-year career in the US, the Dominican helped to transform the fortunes of the Boston Red Sox. During that time, he came across innumerable prospects in Spring Training, each hoping to play alongside a man who would enter the MLB Hall of Fame in 2022 in his first year of eligibility.

One such hopeful was Leaders Performance Advisor Bobby Scales, who joined the Red Sox’s Spring Training at Fort Meyers in Florida in 2007. Having been handed the number 76 (“an awful number”) Scales knew he needed to do everything in his power to impress Manager Terry Francona and the Red Sox’s decision-makers.

“I would arrive at 5:30am for the workouts that typically didn’t get started until 9am because you never know what might happen. Lift, eat, sort equipment, adjust to any changes, whatever needed to be done,” wrote Scales in 2002. “I remember the third or fourth day of camp at about 5:50am. I had just changed into shorts and a t-shirt and, out of the weight room having finished his workout, comes ‘Big Papi’.

“‘Hey, what you doing here? It’s too early,’ he said in a deep voice with a heavy Dominican accent.

“‘Papi’, I said, while pointing to the #76, ‘man, unless you’re early they forget about you!’ Part of me was kidding, part of me was dead serious. His answer was something that I’ll never forget.

“‘Nah, you get invited to this camp, you have a chance to help us win a World Series and we gonna do that. Get your bat… let’s go hit!’

“He didn’t know me from the next guy but I was in that clubhouse and I had the same uniform on. At this point of his career he had been a three time All-Star, a World Series champion and a World Series Most Valuable Player. At 6am he was changing his shirt post-gym workout and heading to the batting cage.

“With his actions he was saying ‘we win things around here, this is how we work and you’re part of it’. This was his routine and he was going to do this whether I was in the building or not. I happened to be there so this was his opportunity to show me the culture in the building without saying a word. Leaders such as ‘Big Papi’ act with intention because they have a vision of where they see themselves and their club and a clear plan of how they can get there.”

‘Without connection, it falls short’

James Thomas, who currently serves as Director of Performance Services at Manchester City, told the Leaders Performance Institute how he worked to engender trust in the coaches with whom he has worked as a performance director.

“Unless you spend the time to build the connection with somebody I’ve often found it falls a little bit short,” said Thomas in 2022 while still serving as Performance Director at British Gymnastics.

“I’ve always taken the time to stand next to a coach during training, watch, ask questions, be inquisitive, and give them a sense that I’m interested rather than coming in and make a big change. It might not need a big change, but unless you talk to people and find out, you’ll never really know. It’s probably quite simple, but I just stand, watch and ask questions and try to be humble. I’ve come in, I’m not going to fix everything for anybody, but I’ll happily try and help. But I need to know about what you feel, what you think the issues are, and what you think doesn’t need fixing. What you think is great and really sacred to the sport, what needs to be maintained for the next few years.”

Sometimes, it is not even the head coach who is the prime source of the information needed – a point to which Leaders Performance Advisor Meg Popovic, who previously worked with the Toronto Maple Leafs, makes with reference to equipment staff.

“They’re always connected to the pulse of the players,” she wrote in 2022. “These staff team members know the make, model, year, brand, variability, and functionality of every piece of equipment a player uses or wish to try out. They understand the engineering, while finding delight in the new trends in the market that have the potential to improve performance and evolve the sport. They are applied-historians of the industry and the trusted mechanics whom players rely on to tune up, repair, and remodel themselves as living, breathing, sporting machines.”

They are vital and often put themselves out in long and arduous shifts and, Popovic recommends that coaches demonstrate their appreciation on a regular basis.

“This group wants to be (and should be) acknowledged personally for their long hours and often difficult, unseen efforts,” she continued. “A thank you, a coffee, or helping hand could quickly relieve resentment and amplify the energy flowing in this very important staff group.  Also, as they are of the giving-type, asking equipment staff how they’re doing could go a long way as their innate way of relationship is to be in the service of everyone else’s needs, requests, and demands.”

Such traits can have a profound impact, although they take some work. “Anyone involved in elite sport knows that you can’t get to the elite level without systems,” said Jackson. “I mean building in routines that become habits and then those habits just become natural.”

By Luke Whitworth with additional reporting from John Portch

What is the current state of play in the space of performance analysis? To help us explore this question, we sought to understand some of the current challenges leaders in this space are facing and, similarly, what they feel are some of the untapped opportunities in how performance analysis can continue to be a valuable resource to performance outcomes.

Current challenges

When analysing the responses from the group, as expected there were some commonalities in current challenges.

Collaborating with other disciplines

The most common was the ability to collaborate and work with other disciplines, whether this be with individuals operating within technical, tactical or physical domains. Specific to some of the responses, was the relationship between performance analysis and coaching as well as the under-appreciation of physical data in some regions. Reflections from different sports alluded to the fact that coaches are at different stages in their understanding and utilisation of performance analysis, so it can be challenging to work in an optimal and collaborative way. There was an appreciation that many coaches work in subjective terms, so adding context to objective data and information is important to meet the coaches where they are at. Finally as it pertains to collaborating with other disciplines, a further challenge shared was working to keep all parties happy with what is collected and presented considering resource, timelines and what is needed to be prioritised within the programme.

Clearly defined processes

In evaluating the challenges, there were a number of responses that aligned to processes and ways of working. Clearly defining the role and purpose of the department was one that featured. Secondly, information siloes was another popular response and is likely to be a by-product of the challenge already outlined above. Finding out what is most important in terms of data collection and analysis also featured, suggesting that in some programmes there isn’t perhaps that clarity around the role and purpose of the department in alignment to the overall performance model. As a final thought on this overarching theme, the group suggested that there is a need to have space for strategic thinking to continue to evolve processes and answer questions around the future trends or direction of their respective sports.

Working with the modern day athlete

There was an appreciation that the modern day athlete has some differences in how they operate and obtain information compared to more mature athletes. We come onto some potential solutions for this later on, but it was clear to see that those participating in this particular roundtable are thinking about ways to better connect, educate and present information to their athletes. The key question around this is how and what is having the most impact?

Collation vs analysis

We are in a data tsunami was one of the comments on the call and it’s fair to say that’s a pretty accurate representation of where high performance sport is with performance related data and information. Some of the specific challenges that sit within this bucket included: the split between video analysis and data analysis. Data is more ‘buzzy’ at the moment but video can’t be forgotten as it continues to be a key method of analysis. One participant shared that we are in danger of doing more collating and not enough in-depth analysis. This chimes with the notion of knowing what is important to the programme and then being able to use data in actionable ways to support that.

What are some interventions or best practices to support these challenges?

Collaborating with different disciplines

To ensure the group left the roundtable with some best practice ideas, we had discussions around how some of these challenges were solved or being worked on. A simple suggestion that has had a positive impact was removing the notion of analysts being sat in one office, grouped together and instead integrating them in the same operating spaces as the coaches.

A couple of organisations on the call alluded to how they have renamed departments, one of those being to a Coaching & Analysis department, combining both disciplines. Analysts are an extension of the coaches, but one particular team are encouraging their coaches to become analysts in their own way. There was a consensus that the days of separate departments are gone.

Alignment is something teams have worked at to encourage collaboration between disciplines. Many organisations use a ‘what it takes to win model’ which is the performance backwards approach – something akin to this is a good way of aligning everyone to an end goal. In facilitating this type of model, ensure everyone is given access to others’ information and data. Often, departments can be too protective and it’s damaging to clarity and decision-making. Make the information readily available for all.

Be intentional around the development of non-technical skills with staff. If practitioners are talking and engaging in informal conversations, there will be a better understanding of the problems and questions being asked.

Finally, one environment on the call shared how one of the analysts has developed an interactive report where all disciplines feed into it for the team’s monthly meeting. Disciplines having to input into this report gives ownership and during discussions, it has allowed for more objective viewpoints as opposed to emotional ones that can sometimes arise.

Working with the modern athlete

This process can be influenced before you even interact with the athlete. The group discussed the importance of looking at the recruitment of analysts. It was suggested that individuals that have some experience in a teaching or pedagogical context is advantageous to supporting the interaction with the athletes. We need to look beyond just looking at the technical skillset of being an analyst, but other skills that will help deliver the technical element of the work. The ability to deliver information to people is what separates the good analysts from the best ones.

We will often experience athletes wanting information laid out in black and white, hence the importance of quality non-technical skills. Get to know the players so they feel more comfortable in being challenged. Insights profiling of the players has also seen positive outcomes to better understand learning preferences and styles.

Finally, athletes tend to spend the most time communicating and working with the coaches. Working through the coaches is a simple way to convey and communicate messages. It is also worth bearing in mind that your best players may not have the best physical stats.

Collation vs analysis

To prevent over-collating and under-analysing, it’s important to instil clear processes so that when you are in the height of the season, distraction is reduced. Focus on getting processes well defined in the pre-season so you can almost ‘set and forget’ and work on an automation scale.

If the data we are collating is not informing decisions or aligning to the outcomes of our model, there is no point collating or keeping existing information. It is important to pause and review whether the data is genuinely helping us to make decisions.

Finally, there was an appreciation that there is curiosity around what we don’t know, which is a parallel stream we should be thinking about, but it shouldn’t be the performance analyst’s role to explore this. This is where specialist expertise from data scientists to find the hidden messages and investigate largest data sets is better associated.

Opportunities in the future

Below is some insight from the group around what they see as being opportunities for the practice of performance analysis.

• How do we make our analysis more predictive instead of being ‘objective historians’?
• Have you thought about your domain through a different lens i.e. a coach thinking like an analyst and vice versa? That will help filter the available information and help you to reach the decision point.
• A recalibration from being over-reliant on objective data and a higher level of integration around the human element.
• Moving into a space where we are creating our own data and not having to stick to the traditional ways of data collation.
• Continuing to be innovative and creative in how we work in an interdisciplinary way.
• Balancing the science with the art of coaching and observation.
• Guiding technology rather than being guided by it.
• What do collaborative opportunities with other sports look like around sharing of processes and approaches?
• Learning from other environments, notably the business world and big data technology organisations.
• In some sports, access to data in-game is becoming more readily available which has the ability to influence coaching and in-game decision making. How do we maximise these developments?
• The field of performance analysis continues to grow, meaning there are students and younger practitioners looking for opportunities. How can we facilitate this better or collaborate with institutions delivering education?
• The development of technology allowing for easier insights into big datasets.

By John Portch

The Leaders Performance Institute asks Rohan Taylor how he stays in touch with his instincts as a coach.

“I’m on that journey, to be honest,” says the Head Coach of Swimming Australia. “I’m very comfortable now, today, to say it’s my number one skillset that I think I have to keep front and centre. I see instinct and intuition as a collection of knowledge and experience that touches me on the head and says ‘have you seen this before?’ so I need to stop and listen and tap into it.”

Taylor explains that he welcomes data but that he “won’t let it override what I feel”. “When I made the most successful moves or the most successful decisions or things that I’ve done really well, it’s been driven by my instincts with information informing me,” he continues.

It is not just decision-making around Swimming Australia’s programming either. “In a room when I’m talking to a group of people, I’m looking around to see is there a connection happening here and I rely on my instincts to tell me where to pivot if it’s not.

“My instincts tell me ‘you’re probably not hitting the mark’. I rely on them heavily and I’m very confident in them. And if I make a mistake, I make a mistake. It doesn’t faze me. I learn from that and it’s all about continual improvement for me.”

Taylor, who is currently with the Australian Dolphins at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, was a major contributor to our March Special Report Navigating Your Way Through Major Competitions. Here, he reflects on his style as a leader and where he can continue to improve and develop.

Responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.

What is the key to getting the big decisions right and managing them effectively?

RT: I’m always a big believer that I’ve got to surround myself with people smarter than me and build that trust. Getting a big decision right is speaking to the right people to tell me what I need to hear and not what I want to hear; getting the right feedback. Because you can go to people and say ‘yeah, that’s the way to go’ but then they’ll ask questions and make me think a little bit more. So I’ve vetted my decision-making with trusted people around me. I think that’s a really important part. But for the piece I’m doing, is I’m trying to influence a greater number of people. Now I can’t go and have those conversations with everybody. So what I do is, those people around me are my influencers, they’re the ones that if they agree, the likelihood is that everybody else will follow along because they trust them even if they don’t trust me. So my decision making is making sure I spend the time informing and collaborating with the right people and then we’ll move forward together and be aligned; and if I don’t do that I usually find myself having to eventually do that anyway. So if I make a unilateral decision, I likely have to follow up by going back to those people to bring them onboard. So I spend the time talking to them before I go out and do that.

Is that when you feel at your most confident and in command?

RT: Absolutely, because you know you’ve got buy-in from the right people. Also, the thing is that I’m quite comfortable to make flexible moves on the go, but I’ll do it through the right people who will influence me, but it’s a two-way street. I’m very confident in saying ‘hey, here’s the direction’ but I’m also confident that if there’s a need to move one way or another that I’ve got people around me who will help me to make that adjustment if I need to. And they trust me.

How carefully do you choose your words? What can you say to an athlete? What do you prefer not to say?

RT: In this day and age you’ve got to be very careful. That’s the challenge and that’s the learning that all of us in leadership; and the coaches, who are leaders in their own right, are having to check their language, their feedback, because it’s a different world we live in now, from the point of view of sensitivity. For me, it’s the level of trust with the person you’re giving feedback to has a lot to do with it as well. Even then, I err on the side of caution more than anything. There’s times I’d like to say ‘pull your head in, you’re being a dickhead’ and although I want them to hear that, but I have to deliver it a different way. I think about what I feel like saying, and then I think ‘OK, I’m going to walk away and re-frame this and is there a message I need to try to deliver and then work it out?’ It takes a lot longer, to answer your question! You’ve got to take time to deliver things if you want to be impactful. At times it’s exhausting, to be honest.

How do you ensure you are protecting your own time and mental resources?

RT: Well, I moved where I’m living now. I moved 400m from the beach on the Sunshine Coast. I relocated for environmental reasons and that was absolutely a targeted move for my family. At some point today, I’ll be in the surf having a swim or go out on a jetski. I’ll go and play and that’s giving me to have that hour to myself or with my wife or walk or whatever. That’s simplistic me. I have targeted times where I just lock in on things and I’ve learned to disconnect now; I’m better at that. So I either physically remove myself or put myself in a different space or I go and read a book or something – usually I’m reading books about leadership so I’m not really getting out of that space! But I am actually refreshing my mind around re-engaging in that learning. I go and watch my girls do sport and that’s always a great little release. So I think I’ve got the balance right. The big thing for me is the balance is not about 50% this or 50% that, it’s 100% this and 100% that. So if I’m going out for an hour to spend on the jetski and go wave-jumping or surfing, I’m 100% into that. I’m not going out there thinking about something else. That’s to me is balance. That’s utopia to get to that point. Then I feel that I’ll be fine.