{"id":1420,"date":"2018-03-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-in-coaching\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:42","slug":"leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaders Virtual Roundtables: Driven Benevolence in Coaching"},"content":{"rendered":"<!-- blocks\/hero-editorial -->\n<!-- inc\/hero-editorial -->\n<div class=\"hero es-hero__editorial hero--var-1\" role=\"banner\">\n\t<div class=\"hero__image\" style=\"background-image: url(https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/Insights-Driven-Benevolence-Featured-Image.jpg);\">\n\n\t\t<div class=\"hero__overlay grad-overlay content-bottom\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"container\">\n\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"hero__content\">\n                    \n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"hero__content__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t                            <p class=\"es-label es-label--md\">\n                                Mar 20, 2018                            <\/p>\n                        \t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\" class=\"theme-dark hero__back-link back-link es-label es-label--sm\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"icon icon--md icon--arrow-left\"><\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"hero__title\">Leaders Virtual Roundtables: Driven Benevolence in Coaching<\/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    <section class=\"es-section theme-light hero__sidebar-wrapper container\">\n        <div class=\"hero__sidebar\">\n                            <div class=\"category-list\">\n                  <div class=\"es-label es-label--sm\">Category<\/div>\n                  <a href=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/category\/coaching-development-performance\/\" rel=\"tag\">Coaching &amp; Development<\/a>                <\/div>\n                            <div class=\"share-list\">\n                  <div class=\"es-label es-label--sm\">Share<\/div>\n                  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/\">Facebook<\/a>\n                  <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/&#038;text=Leaders Virtual Roundtables: Driven Benevolence in Coaching\">Twitter<\/a>\n                  <a href=\"mailto:?subject=Here's a Leaders In Sport article for you &amp;body=Check out this article: Leaders Virtual Roundtables: Driven Benevolence in Coaching. https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/\">Email<\/a>\n                  <a href=\"#copyLink\" id=\"copyButton\" class=\"copy-link-clipboard\">Copy Link<\/a>\n                  <div id=\"textToCopy\" class=\"font-hidden\">https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/<\/div>\n                <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n    <\/section>\n<!-- blocks\/section -->\n<section\n  class=\"es-section flexible-section  text-only theme-light\"\n    >\n                <div class=\"container\">\n                                    <div class=\"bg-striped-pattern__inner section-padding-top section-padding-bottom\">\n                <div class=\"es-section__inner col-parent col-parent--stack-sm\">\n                                            <div class=\"es-section__sidebar es-section__sidebar--sticky col col--12 \">\n                                                            <p class=\"es-section__label es-label es-label--md\">An online meeting of Leaders Performance Institute members on 8 March 2018.<\/p>\n                            \n                            \n                            \n                                                            <div class=\"es-section__text content-area\">\n                                    <p><h4>On 8 March we sought to explore the importance of driven benevolence. The definition of driven benevolence is \u2018the relentless pursuit of excellence balanced with a genuine desire to compassionately support athletes and oneself.\u2019<\/h4>\n<hr \/>\n<p>This theme arose from a recent research study led by Sergio Lara-Bercial (Senior Research Fellow in Sport Coaching, Leeds Beckett University) as he observed 17 coaches with experience of winning medals across multiple Olympics &amp; World Championships, to understand what made them serial winners. Alongside this topic we also discussed other challenges associated with the art of coaching in the modern era.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The group discussed:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Coach &amp; athlete wellbeing<\/li>\n<li>Creating a sustainable environment<\/li>\n<li>A coaches\u2019 development journey<\/li>\n<li>Ingraining the aspects of ruthlessness and benevolence into the culture of the club<\/li>\n<li>Is the key to benevolence the respect that develops between the athlete and the coach?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>The participants:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sergio Lara-Bercial, Senior Research Fellow in Sport Coaching, Leeds Beckett University<\/p>\n<p>Edd Vahid, Head of Academy Coaching, Southampton FC<\/p>\n<p>Iain Brunnschweiler, Coach Development Manager, Southampton FC<\/p>\n<p>Peter Vint, former Senior Director, United States Olympic Committee<\/p>\n<p>Mick Poulton, Elite Performance &amp; Development Manager, Geelong Cats<\/p>\n<p>Heath Younie, Coach Education Manager, Adelaide Crows FC<\/p>\n<p>Andy Rock, Academy Manager, Bath Rugby<\/p>\n<p>Jon Daniels, Rugby Management, Llanelli Scarlets<\/p>\n<p>Neill Potts, Former Head of Athletic Performance, Scotland Rugby Union<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sergio<\/strong>: Between the Olympics in London and Rio, we were able to interview 17 serial winning coaches who had repeatedly won gold medals at the World Championships or at the Olympics. So for example Rafa Nadal\u2019s Head Coach would not qualify for this as he has success with only one athlete. This is a select group of coaches who collectively have around 150 gold medals. We wanted to understand their motivations and their personality types, and what was contributing to this enormous success. We only found 30 coaches across the world that could meet the criteria. We found that the coaches were on this continuum that we called \u2018driven benevolence\u2019. If you break it down there are two elements: being driven and being benevolent. Driven is about a passion for excellence that\u2019s relentless. However just this wasn\u2019t enough, they needed to balance this with a genuine desire to do good by others and to be compassionate to their athletes, but also to themselves as coaches. We then found that there were five key elements to being driven in this environment and three key areas to being benevolent.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Driven:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Unwavering high standards<\/li>\n<li>High sense of purpose and duty<\/li>\n<li>Pathological desire to win<\/li>\n<li>They were all in, in terms of commitment<\/li>\n<li>They had 20:20 vision (being able to look into the future to see what needed to be done)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Benevolence:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>They tended to put people first<\/li>\n<li>They wanted to understand the people they work with<\/li>\n<li>They were very optimistic<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>How does this idea of driven benevolence sound to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Andy<\/strong>: When you look at it from a coach-to-athlete relationship level, there are clearly some characteristics that you would recognise as being really powerful. In our sport, the same as others, when the pressures are incredibly high, fingers are pointed in lots of different directions. I guess the interest from my side is how these teams are sustainable in an environment where coaches are often under immense pressure. I\u2019m keen to hear the experiences from the guys at the other clubs who have coaches who have been able to sustain that strength of relationship and that drive to be on the journey with the athletes. That\u2019s one area that really stood out from the study.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Heath<\/strong>: It\u2019s interesting that the team that just recently won our title in 2017 (Richmond Tigers), one of the things that came out of their coaching staff was around compassion, and authenticity around shared vulnerability. They spent a lot of time working in that space. In our code, we push the athletes to the limit, but we only have them for 25 hours a week due to their collective bargaining agreements. It\u2019s how much time you can balance the technical, physical and tactical elements versus what we call the dynamics of our system. Richmond have invested a lot of time, and it\u2019s no surprise that they\u2019re being able to win.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Coach &amp; athlete wellbeing<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Edd<\/strong>: The element that resonated most with me from our work at Southampton was the coaches looking after themselves. We invest a huge amount of time in our coach development programme in trying to improve the marginal areas around the coach. One of the things we\u2019ve invested in this season is the basic fundamentals of coach wellbeing. It is the coach looking after the staff and the players, are they maintaining a healthy work-life balance? Are they investing enough in themselves? Ultimately when they get in front of players they need to be at their best and I think that is often neglected, certainly that\u2019s what stood out to me in the article.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Heath<\/strong>: That\u2019s an interesting point. We meet regularly to meditate as a coaching group together. All coaches are under pressure. Our coach is under an enormous amount of scrutiny week to week, so he in particular would meditate daily. He exercises daily and meditates daily, they are his two ingredients to staying well and having good wellbeing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Edd<\/strong>: We certainly see mindfulness as a gain area in our coaching department.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Heath<\/strong>: Five years ago when I joined, they had invested in meditation and mindfulness, but the players were too immature at that stage. It was pushed on them very quickly. What we\u2019ve done is introduce it, but it\u2019s not forced upon them with regards to a certain technique. We offer meditation from a transcendental meditation practice and then simple, guided meditation. I\u2019m not sure if you are aware of the Muse Headsets (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.choosemuse.com\/\">http:\/\/www.choosemuse.com\/<\/a>). All players are expected to meditate in some form. They do it formally, three times a week. It\u2019s been an 18month process we have slowly drip-fed because athletes cannot always do it and it is tough to measure. Our coaches join the players, so there is a level of modelling occurring.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mick<\/strong>: In many ways I\u2019ll reiterate some of the comments Heath has made, it\u2019s been a good opportunity for our sport to get an understanding that people are the things that the game is really about, and there\u2019s an inevitability around the understanding of each other and the strength of relationship is so important. The point that I wanted to pick up on was something that I\u2019ve been involved with in our sport for the last few years that is around the development of coaches who we hope one day will become the next Senior Coach. The Serial Winning Coach research has really guided that process. One of the big pieces is around collaboration. Heath touched on players and coaches meditating together, and the opportunity that brings about to collaborate and shared understanding is so vital to the mental wellbeing. I really like the piece in the article about you wanting to be understood. Coaches at the top level have to have this understanding of other people, they have to be open, they have to be curious, and they have to ask the right questions.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15674\" src=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Insights-Driven-Benevolence-Body-Copy-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"406\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Heath<\/strong>: Your Senior Coaches need to be prepared to be vulnerable to sit there and say \u2018I need this just as much as the players\u2019. It\u2019s a case of I\u2019m in it with you, I\u2019m not bulletproof\u2019. I find that really powerful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mick<\/strong>: Sergio the article describes it really well, and what we are all thinking about now, which can be misconstrued and fluffy, but what the article really hones in on is the fact that these guys are not pushovers, but it\u2019s that ability to know the difference between an unbelievably demanding approach to now I need to understand and take the emotional<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sergio<\/strong>: I don\u2019t want to give the impression that these guys are all about hugging etc, because they are still doing all of the other really hard stuff. What we found that it was a continuum really. They make people understand that they work on this continuum between driven and benevolence, but they also understand when they need to be really driven and when they need to be more benevolent, I often describe this as being \u2018chameleon\u2019, the fact that these guys can change colour depending on the needs and context. It is that balance of when and how.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mick<\/strong>: I think you make a great point when you talking about being paid to make big decisions. Whenever possible they make sure they cover all angles and all points of view, and there are consequences, which the athletes respect. One of the challenges I see with coaches every day, is developing the language of players and between that was a \u2018shit\u2019 performance to that was a great performance, there are a whole other opportunities within that. So I think that piece around considering all angles, can help athletes understand that it is not one thing or the other, it could be a whole range of things in between. I think one of our responsibilities to let our athletes understand that and developing this language around their own performance that is a bit more sophisticated.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Creating a sustainable environment &amp; coaches development journey<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sergio<\/strong>: For me one of the key elements that came from the research is that these guys had been doing this for 20-30 years, and had been successful in a sustainable way. Heath, you mentioned sustainability before, to me that is a key element because I think you can be successful being only driven, but if you want to be sustainable for the long term and take people on this journey with you, you have to be benevolent as well. We also spoke to 23 athletes and I remember one of the guys saying \u2018the dictatorial coach is a thing of the past\u2019. Players are more powerful, they are smarter and also talk to each other. That element of sustainability goes back to looking after the coaches. You can be successful but burn out in two years which is what happened to Pep Guardiola in his three year spell at Barcelona.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Edd<\/strong>: Sergio, did you get an insight into what influenced the coaches in their development journey?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sergio<\/strong>: A few things came out. First, out of the 17 coaches, 13 had been Olympians themselves but one of them only had won a medal at the Olympics, so there was a really strong sense of unfinished business, they were making amends a little bit. There were 5 of them who had a car crash whilst they were still athletes and had to retire, so again there was a sense of unfinished business. We asked them about what their parents did as a profession, a lot came from the education, military or in the health professions. A lot said I had to be a coach as teaching was in their genes. There was obviously a strong link in their upbringing to coach.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Iain<\/strong>: Sergio, I think that\u2019s a really interesting point, what\u2019s going around in my head is how much of the benevolence factor is almost rooted-deep in these coaches. Did you get the sense that any of the coaches had all of the 5 drive factors and then developed the benevolence? Or was it more for the sake of wording, naturally occurring.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sergio<\/strong>: Let me turn that question back to you as well before I give you the view on what I found! Are you or the coaches you work with more one extreme or the other? What\u2019s the sense?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andy<\/strong>: From the majority of coaches I have worked with over the last 10 years I think we still have a tradition of people coming in who are very technically and tactically minded, especially with ex-players who can be inherently selfish can still have massive drive. In terms of understanding people, the desire to help and support the development of the individuals not just as performers but as people is something we really struggle with. We\u2019ve got lots of people who are hugely driven for the game, but don\u2019t understand people. From a rugby point of view it is a real challenge with the offset of the \u2018fluffy\u2019 side of things which people don\u2019t get in a naturally manly driven sport. We\u2019ve got the challenge of characteristics of people in the big roles.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15675\" src=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Insights-Driven-Benevolence-Body-Copy-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"363\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Neill<\/strong>: From my experience I would say it is a bit of a mixture. People come with their own natural tendencies. Two of the very successful international coaches were very much the driven side and had to learn the benevolence piece but were also very skilled at using people in their staff to cover up their own shortcomings, so they could use other people in the group to help bridge that gap with players more frequently and periodically, they would also be able to do that piece as well. The two that had it naturally who were both very tough guys with working class backgrounds, which struck me. They were guys that had come through blue collar upbringings and really from that sort of background had learnt to deal with people, whilst having this tough edge and leading by example.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jon<\/strong>: From my point of view the drive to win and the drive to succeed is more consistent in the winning coaches I have worked with than their levels of benevolence. That said, they all have an understanding for what is required to get the best out of human beings and individuals. They were all skilled in that area but they would be quite strong and forceful, but still with the feeling that they need to get the best out of people. Some naturally lean towards benevolence, others learn through their process of development by either learning it themselves or bringing in people who can do that for them. It\u2019s interesting how that balance works. I think this conversation wouldn\u2019t have taken place a decade ago, it\u2019s more prevalent now, we all reflect the society we live in.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sergio: <\/strong>We found something similar to you guys; some of them were naturally leaning towards being benevolent. We had one of them who came from a really strong working class background from a farm and he kept saying how he learnt to coach from working on a farm, particularly around the processes for keeping the cows fed, as he put it. Some of them really had to learn it and one of the coaches from the Netherlands, whose quote was \u2018I learnt the hard way\u2019 because these guys are extremely driven and extremely meticulous. This guy, for example, a large part of his travel budget was shipping this container around the world with the weights that they want to use with fitness training because he doesn\u2019t trust the weights in the local gyms and he\u2019s got everything measured to the gram. He has an eye for detail, but the reverse of that coin was that he was always stressing everyone out and stressing himself out to the point that he broke down and he literally broke down and had to stop coaching; then he realised that he had to change. But then we did see a general disposition for them to understand every requirement to be benevolent, particularly because they want to be successful all the time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The evolution of benevolence <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Jon:<\/strong> In terms of this mix of benevolence, something I\u2019ve witnessed within our industry, is as more foreign and international players come into our environment, the diversity of the group has led to an evolution of more benevolence within the group anyway; the different experiences from different cultures and respect then that ends up being more sympathetic of everyone\u2019s needs. Also, forgive my ignorance, in Aussie rules football, my assumption is that they\u2019re mainly Australian players so you don\u2019t ha have that diversity of multinational teams that we\u2019re getting to in rugby; certainly within English football it\u2019s huge at the moment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mick:<\/strong> I\u2019m happy to pick that one up as Mick from Geelong; you\u2019ll be pleased to know we don\u2019t have any Welsh players over here yet but we certainly have some Irish players. Yeah, you\u2019re right, we\u2019re talking about a homogenous group of mono-cultured athletes for the most part but I think the shift, and we\u2019ve seen it recently with the new collective bargaining agreement between the players and the club, and the league is this need or this desire for athletes to be treated as human beings first. Athletes are very comfortable with the fact that coaches can be ruthless; I like your wording there that it\u2019s ruthless and not heartless. I\u2019m much more likely to be ruthless at the right time when I respect you as an athlete and as a human being and I think that\u2019s what our players are certainly looking for.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Heath:<\/strong> I\u2019ll use the terminology; you say ruthless \u2013 I use the terminology \u2018fierce love\u2019 and that I mean by that is our coaches in the AFL they\u2019re as driven as much as anyone in most clubs. I was fortunate enough to work with one who tragically passed away a few years ago. He was as fierce and driven as any coach I\u2019ve ever worked with. I only happened to work with him for nine months but he dealt with me with a level of love; and the players respected that. They didn\u2019t always get told he love them or anything like that but the way he coached is with what I called \u2018fierce love\u2019 and he got the best out of them in a way that was a combination of the two things that we\u2019re speaking about.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mick:<\/strong> It\u2019s a great word \u2018love\u2019 and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s one we use often enough in sport.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Heath:<\/strong> You\u2019re spot-on and we don\u2019t tell each other how much we\u2019re teammates or how much you love each other; you spend so much time with each other; as coaches, we spend as much time with our athletes as our players and something as our families yet we, as men, we don\u2019t tell the players what we love about them, not just as an athlete but as a person; and that\u2019s quite strong because in this day and age they don\u2019t get the cup filled up as much as they should from a positive point of view. P the coaches that can do the balance and show that fierce love, in my opinion, from what I\u2019ve seen, they get the best out of their athletes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Understanding that the coach needs to be ruthless<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sergio:<\/strong> One of the things that came across from the research with quite a few of the athletes is that they understood the need for the coach to be ruthless because that\u2019s what they\u2019re paid for and they\u2019re going to be held accountable to that. They\u2019re there to make tough decisions, as you said before, and they just wanted to know that whenever you\u2019re making those decisions they\u2019re considerate of the athletes\u2019 needs and what it means for the athletes. And as long as they know that their coach is not making decisions willy nilly they can take them. They need to know that no matter how hard you are, you\u2019re still considering the athlete has human beings and understanding their needs; that came across really strongly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mick:<\/strong> There was something in Sergio\u2019s article that I really liked and it goes back to individual sports and the athlete might stay with them for their career; in other sports, coaches will see athletes come and go but for the coach to actually understand that for that athlete and in that situation it might be number one on their list or number 45 on their list, that\u2019s their only opportunity to connect with you. So as a coach I have an enormous responsibility to allow that athlete to be the best version of themselves regardless of whether that\u2019s a gold medallist or playing in a second-tier competition for the whole season. I think that coaches\u2019 decisions have to be made in context of the player\u2019s career and it\u2019s their only career; and sometimes we forget about that athlete too quickly because they\u2019re not going to be a gold medallist; and just making a team for some might be their utopia.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15676\" src=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Insights-Driven-Benevolence-Body-Copy-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"416\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Is the key to benevolence the respect that develops between the athlete and the coach?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Jon:<\/strong> Do you think that the key to benevolence is the respect that develops between the athlete and the coach? In my experience, that respect is consistent as well; the respect that allows the coach to make demands of the player; for the player to accept the fact that they have to make self-sacrifices and they accept that because of respect; and if the benevolence is a means of developing that respect between the athlete and the coach.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Iain: <\/strong>I\u2019d agree, Jon, and I\u2019m just scribbling some notes about the fact that we think it\u2019s almost easy to think we\u2019ve got good benevolence on one side and this ruthlessness on the other, but actually it\u2019s the interplay of the two; so the coaches that are able to maintain a good level of rapport and empathise with players, that gives them the permission almost to make those more ruthless decisions and get the respect. I think that\u2019s right at the heart of it; the really skilful coaches, the ones who maintain rapport, and then they\u2019re able to deliver a very honest clear message; it tends to be received better because of that so they\u2019re not mutually exclusive.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andy: <\/strong>I think that\u2019s a great point around \u2018fierce love\u2019 and you can package it up in lots of different ways but the authenticity of the relationships that underpin those moments. In our sports, when you\u2019re driven to achieve great things, sometimes that ruthlessness and the decision-making and taking a group somewhere; it\u2019s a huge part of the role a coach has but the mechanisms to move forward and develop a relationship are really important. How much of that is deep-rooted in terms of the behaviours and that real drive to help people develop as an inherent motivation for the coaches. I love the simplicity of fierce love but actually the complexity of it in real terms out there on the ground and working with athletes is quite something. How can we see more of that in the future, especially with regards to coach development itself; how can we actually influence these things with regards to coach development programmes versus how much do we expect that these things have developed over months and years and decades of the coach\u2019s work before they even got into the sport? It\u2019s similar with our athletes, how much of their psychology has been determined before they rally set foot on our training fields. That\u2019s my one real question. Sergio knows that I love the research and there\u2019s some real gold in there but I think there can be great impact on the programmes that you can put in place and, like you say Jonathan, around the expectations that we have around society about wellbeing etc. but equally how much of it actually develops when you\u2019ve got coaches who have the driven benevolence that leads towards it. I know there\u2019s a danger in our sport of seeing what great clubs are doing elsewhere and we try to repeat it; we\u2019ll bring in a psychologist and someone to work on wellbeing but it\u2019s just another part of the programme and it\u2019s sat over there and our coaches are still driven, they\u2019ve still got fantastic technical and tactical knowledge but it\u2019s not actually the things you\u2019re all talking about because it\u2019s not integrated in a way and not being lived by the people who are actually still leading the environment. I like some of the points that you\u2019ve made but I\u2019m not sure how it helps each of us move forward in terms of getting what we need in our own environments.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Heath:<\/strong> Whether it\u2019s deep-rooted in the coaches or not; in our organisation, you can get caught up in the skill, the tactics, the fitness side of things, and we tend to do that. And it also depends on where your club or organisation sit on the ladder; the reality is that you\u2019ve got to get your foundations sorted out first. There\u2019s no point spending time on mindfulness if your skill level isn\u2019t up to it. That also is the challenge; what I also believe is that you have to be able to put things in the programme to build relationships; You have to manufacture that time because the reality is that once you get in season it\u2019s just game after game. I think programming, as hard as it is, the organisation has to make a decision on whether this part of your programme is really important. But you\u2019ve got to find the balance of not overdoing it and underplaying the tactics and the technical. But you have to put in the programme for it to work.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ingraining the aspects of ruthlessness and benevolence into the culture of the club<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Neill:<\/strong> I\u2019ve got a couple of questions on the back of this, if that\u2019s OK? If the coach is ultimately a transient position, largely dependent on results, how important is it that these aspects of ruthlessness and benevolence are ingrained into the culture of the club and the organisation so that it becomes part of the fabric? That\u2019s one question; the second question would be, from the research, it is possible to identify some of these traits as part of our recruitment process if you\u2019re looking for this to be a key component of a coach that\u2019s going to be successful in the future?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Edd:<\/strong> I think to try and respond to the first one, I think, as Andy said, it sort of sparked my interest around this; coaching development has to be around the individual and then, to pick up your point, Neill, also working on the environment; so if we can give individuals the skills or the tools or the support to be better by ultimately giving them an environment that will give them a chance to nurture that. Maybe the point around manufacturing opportunities to start that process and make sure people are comfortable with that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sergio:<\/strong> If I can come in quickly there on the first question; in terms of the environment, something that I felt came from the players and athletes that we interviewed is that they felt it was authentic and genuine that none of the soft stuff that was done was a gimmick. You can do all the nice things but deep down if their coach is going to go crazy then their confidence is going to go down really easily. It takes forever to build up and it takes two minutes to get torn down. Whatever these guys were doing that was ingrained in their personal philosophy, we said that characteristic was humanistic; and they kept coming back to that, that was their safety net. We called it their built-in compass of this humanistic philosophy that allowed them to always be on track, to not stray too far from this philosophy. What is the philosophy of the coach? Can we get to that in interviews or do we know coaches well enough before we bring them into our club to understand if their own personal philosophy matches the club? That creates problems, I feel.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15677\" src=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Insights-Driven-Benevolence-Body-Copy-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"373\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jon:<\/strong> Can I also ask: what is the philosophy of the club? Because if you\u2019re recruiting people of that style then the club has to be behave according to those values as well; maybe football in particular has a real conflict or a challenge there, the way they treat their managers in dismissing them very quickly mid-season; you\u2019ll hear of Premier League managers losing their job within six months of even being in there. It comes back to benevolence but the organisation has to have the conviction and the courage to live by those values as well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mick:<\/strong> I think that\u2019s a really important point that\u2019s been made here at the end and all of us online where are pretty committed to coach development and coaching excellence. At the end of the day, so much of our futures and the futures of the people that we work with is reliant on boards of management, and in the American sports owners, to have a deep understanding of what that means and we can\u2019t always assume that\u2019s the case. A conversation I had with an AFL club looking to appoint a new coach; we worked incredibly hard with the board to actually get them to the point of understanding what sustainable coaching and great coaching looked like; and people obviously sensed an understanding of the individual and the messiah coach, the guy with the fantastic record and the long-standing reputation, wasn\u2019t necessarily the first choice. There is a Hollywood approach; \u2018get the right man and everything will be solved for us\u2019 but if we take that view then we can potentially miss a skillset that\u2019s so important in the stuff that\u2019s been uncovered in this piece of research and of course in terms of what our athletes are looking for and what society needs. Boards are incredibly important in this piece and as coach educators we\u2019ve got the responsibility of trying to educate our boards make better decisions about their head coaches.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Managing up<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sergio:<\/strong> Interestingly Mick, one of the things that we found in terms of how serial-winning coaches spend their time, they told us they spent a lot of time managing upwards, influencing upwards and we felt that was important because they had the strength or the desire or the need to not only manage downwards to coaches and support staff but to really try and change the club. They saw what they needed and were maybe strong enough to, rather than try to protect their own job by being quiet and not making any waves, to come out and really change things from the top. And I found that surprising as well; I don\u2019t know about you, but in my world we haven\u2019t done that very well, trying to manage upwards.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mick:<\/strong> It\u2019s one of the most important bits of feedback that we get from our AFL coaches, who are senior coaches who have been through that process and they say that the skills in managing the board and managing upwards and keeping abreast of the major things.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Having a purpose <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sergio:<\/strong> I\u2019m going to go back a little bit. One of the points that was just made was around coaches being transient and never being sure how long they\u2019re going to be there for and what I picked up for these guys; and what I picked up from interviews with these coaches in football is that there are some guys that whenever they go into a club they just think that they\u2019re going to be there for the next eight years and they work in that way; and from the moment they get in there they try to change cultures and bring people on a journey. And there\u2019s coaches who go in there with the idea of \u2018well I\u2019m just here for the next three months\u2019 kind of thing. The serial-winning coaches, whenever they went with the purpose of building something that would last, they weren\u2019t there to survive, they were there to thrive. I\u2019m an Atl\u00e9tico Madrid supporter and I\u2019m a big Diego Simeone fan; and what I like about Simeone is the minute he got there; he thought he was going to be there forever; if they want him, he\u2019ll be there forever; he wants to be the Alex Ferguson of Atl\u00e9tico Madrid because he believes in the club; and he\u2019s always going in there with the attitude of \u2018I\u2019m here for the duration\u2019. Now that\u2019s difficult, but in the long-term, I think that probably pays off more than going in scared and trying not to rock the boat or trying to be short-term-orientated. What are your views on that?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andy:<\/strong> Going back to the last point, Sergio, and marrying those up, it\u2019s incredibly important if guys are going to influence upwards otherwise it becomes very reactive and you do everything you need to do on a seven-day cycle to just win the next game. Similarly, as Mick says, the mindset of the organisation as well as the coach\u2019s is key because your results always influence things in the end but you like to think they also want that person to be there for a long time and successful. It\u2019s a great point to recognise around the traits of the coaches that you interviewed but we certainly have examples on both ends of that spectrum of staff we\u2019ve currently got here at Bath, if I\u2019m honest with you. I think you really have to commend the guys who try to manage up and promote the values that are going to lead to long-term sustainable success. I sympathise with the guys who don\u2019t because of the shots being fired their way and sometimes they need to respond quickly to other forms of pressure. I would say it still resonates in terms of the coaches who genuinely have impact and try to achieve things sustainably; they\u2019re always thinking about the longer-term impact and the legacy they can leave rather than just the season that they exist in.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n                                <\/div>\n                            \n                            \n                            \n                                                    <\/div>\n                                        <div class=\"col visibly-hidden col--flex-align-right\">\n                                            <\/div>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n        <\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An online meeting of Leaders Performance Institute members on 8 March 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1421,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[22],"pathway":[],"topic":[],"sport":[],"class_list":["post-1420","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coaching-development-performance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Leaders Virtual Roundtables: Driven Benevolence in Coaching - Performance Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leaders Virtual Roundtables: Driven Benevolence in Coaching - Performance Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An online meeting of Leaders Performance Institute members on 8 March 2018.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Performance Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-15T05:12:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/Insights-Driven-Benevolence-Featured-Image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"375\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/\",\"name\":\"Leaders Virtual Roundtables: Driven Benevolence in Coaching - Performance Institute\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/Insights-Driven-Benevolence-Featured-Image.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-20T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-15T05:12:42+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/Insights-Driven-Benevolence-Featured-Image.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/Insights-Driven-Benevolence-Featured-Image.jpg\",\"width\":700,\"height\":375},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Leaders Virtual Roundtables: Driven Benevolence in Coaching\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/\",\"name\":\"Performance Institute\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Leaders Virtual Roundtables: Driven Benevolence in Coaching - Performance Institute","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Leaders Virtual Roundtables: Driven Benevolence in Coaching - Performance Institute","og_description":"An online meeting of Leaders Performance Institute members on 8 March 2018.","og_url":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/","og_site_name":"Performance Institute","article_modified_time":"2025-12-15T05:12:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":375,"url":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/Insights-Driven-Benevolence-Featured-Image.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/","url":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/","name":"Leaders Virtual Roundtables: Driven Benevolence in Coaching - Performance Institute","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/Insights-Driven-Benevolence-Featured-Image.jpg","datePublished":"2018-03-20T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-15T05:12:42+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/Insights-Driven-Benevolence-Featured-Image.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/Insights-Driven-Benevolence-Featured-Image.jpg","width":700,"height":375},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-virtual-roundtables-driven-benevolence-coaching\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Leaders Virtual Roundtables: Driven Benevolence in Coaching"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/#website","url":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/","name":"Performance Institute","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/1420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/1420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32449,"href":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/1420\/revisions\/32449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1420"},{"taxonomy":"pathway","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pathway?post=1420"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=1420"},{"taxonomy":"sport","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sport?post=1420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}