{"id":1134,"date":"2019-08-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/take-a-seat-at-the-knowledge-table\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:30","slug":"take-a-seat-at-the-knowledge-table","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/take-a-seat-at-the-knowledge-table\/","title":{"rendered":"Take a Seat at the Knowledge Table"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n Aug 07, 2019 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Take a Seat at the Knowledge Table<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Leadership & Culture<\/a> <\/div>\n
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https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/take-a-seat-at-the-knowledge-table\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n
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Three themes from the recent meeting of the elite Leaders P8 Network took place on 24 June at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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The P8 is at once a network and a knowledge platform. It is designed to connect people with responsibility for performance at the highest levels of world sport with each other and the ideas that have served their peers best. The top jobs in professional sport are often lonely places and always comprise unique challenges. We\u2019ve found, over the six years that we\u2019ve been running the P8 network, that those challenges are most sturdily met when shared. The following is a record of the P8 meeting that took place on 24 June at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta. A behind-closed-doors event, the account that follows is a general one and aimed at presenting lessons learned from the conversation, rather than specific challenges or approaches faced or taken by any individual participant.\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Participants<\/strong><\/p>\n

Frank de Boer, Head Coach, Atlanta United FC<\/p>\n

Josh Boyd, Assistant General Manager, Texas Rangers<\/p>\n

Steve Cannon, Executive Vice President, Southern Company<\/p>\n

Thomas Dimitroff, General Manager, Atlanta Falcons<\/p>\n

Andy Friend, Head Coach, Connacht Rugby<\/p>\n

Erik Neander, General Manager & Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations, Tampa Bay Rays<\/p>\n

Justin Schaff, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Atlanta Falcons<\/p>\n

Mark Shapiro, President & CEO, Toronto Blue Jays<\/p>\n

John Thorrington, General Manager & Executive Vice President of Soccer Operations, LAFC<\/p>\n

Gregor Townsend, Head Coach, Scotland Rugby senior men\u2019s team<\/p>\n

Chris Womack, Executive Vice President and President, External Affairs, Southern Company<\/p>\n

1. Meeting challenges in the workplace<\/strong><\/p>\n

Elite sport is a world where new and unprecedented problem sets emerge with increasing regularity and so the question is: how do you establish a system, tied to your organisational culture, that can handle complex problems? Here were some ideas:<\/p>\n

You cannot be an insecure leader.<\/strong> There has to be enough security and peace from a leader so that you can empower other people.<\/p>\n

Be hands off but eyes on.<\/strong> The top decisions must be the leaders there are those that need to be made by your staff in aid of their professional development.<\/p>\n

Find the right messaging from coaches.<\/strong> Your messages have to be clear and to the point. Coaches must also have the confidence to share in the right way and athletes will respond accordingly.<\/p>\n

Empower leadership groups.<\/strong> If you empower athletes within your group are encouraging them to uphold the team culture and police their peers when necessary.<\/p>\n

Allow staff to make mistakes.<\/strong> Undoubtedly there will be occasions when staff need to be cut but there should be scope for staff members to learn from any inevitable mistakes.<\/p>\n

2. Feedback: what to know<\/strong><\/p>\n

Feedback for athletes and staff alike needs to be accessible, actionable and justifiable, which is often easy to say but harder to deliver upon. The participants outlined some of the crucial components for feedback.<\/p>\n

Values\u2026 it always comes back to values.<\/strong> Values provide the framework for all feedback, which allows for constructive appraisals. In good culture, the staff are able to link the coaches to the players and vice versa and if there is collective belief in the values then feedback can be delivered in a suitable manner.<\/p>\n

Feedback should stimulate learning.<\/strong> After action reviews [AARs] common in the military, where four tasks are considered: 1. What was supposed to happen? 2. What did happen? 3. Identify three things to sustain 4. Identify three areas for improvement.<\/p>\n

Does it require a meeting?<\/strong> Only have meetings if you\u2019re tackling a problem. If it\u2019s taking people\u2019s time and it\u2019s not tackling a problem, if it\u2019s just feeding back, then do it electronically.<\/p>\n

3. Making an impact as a leader<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peter Drucker\u2019s memorable phrase, said to have been made famous by former President at Ford, Mark Fields, looms large throughout the afternoon: \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast.\u201d The conversation continually returns to culture. Could it be, then, that culture can be your strategy? Here are some of the key findings from cross the table.<\/p>\n

The value of culture.<\/strong> If you don\u2019t establish a culture of being successful and winning, then you won\u2019t get through the difficult times when you need to bind together. Culture will also enhance the successes.<\/p>\n

Successful cultures celebrate achievement.<\/strong> Celebrating achievement is powerful; and if you want to learn then you need to highlight best practice and the traits you want to see.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t influence everyone… so choose wisely.<\/strong> You can\u2019t influence everyone \u2013 if you\u2019re trying then you\u2019re wasting your time. If you can influence the five people under you then they can influence the five people under them.<\/p>\n

Leadership training can be valuable.<\/strong> Some teams have experimented with mic\u2019ing up coaches, which leads to communication and tactical re-thinks.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n

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