{"id":19224,"date":"2023-07-20T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-20T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=19224"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:11:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:11:12","slug":"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","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/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\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Getting 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\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 20 Jul 2023 <\/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

\u2018Getting 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\u2019<\/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\/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\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n\n\n
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Rohan Taylor, the Head Coach of Swimming Australia, discusses his instincts, managing his energy and choosing his words carefully.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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By John Portch<\/h6>\n
The Leaders Performance Institute asks Rohan Taylor how he stays in touch with his instincts as a coach.<\/h6>\n

\u201cI\u2019m on that journey, to be honest,\u201d says the Head Coach of Swimming Australia. \u201cI\u2019m very comfortable now, today, to say it\u2019s 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 \u2018have you seen this before?\u2019 so I need to stop and listen and tap into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor explains that he welcomes data but that he \u201cwon\u2019t let it override what I feel\u201d. \u201cWhen I made the most successful moves or the most successful decisions or things that I\u2019ve done really well, it\u2019s been driven by my instincts with information informing me,\u201d he continues.<\/p>\n

It is not just decision-making around Swimming Australia\u2019s programming either. \u201cIn a room when I\u2019m talking to a group of people, I\u2019m looking around to see is there a connection happening here and I rely on my instincts to tell me where to pivot if it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy instincts tell me \u2018you\u2019re probably not hitting the mark\u2019. I rely on them heavily and I\u2019m very confident in them. And if I make a mistake, I make a mistake. It doesn\u2019t faze me. I learn from that and it\u2019s all about continual improvement for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/em>. Here, he reflects on his style as a leader and where he can continue to improve and develop.<\/p>\n

Responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.<\/em><\/p>\n

What is the key to getting the big decisions right and managing them effectively?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RT:<\/strong> I\u2019m always a big believer that I\u2019ve 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 \u2018yeah, that\u2019s the way to go\u2019 but then they\u2019ll ask questions and make me think a little bit more. So I\u2019ve vetted my decision-making with trusted people around me. I think that\u2019s a really important part. But for the piece I\u2019m doing, is I\u2019m trying to influence a greater number of people. Now I can\u2019t go and have those conversations with everybody. So what I do is, those people around me are my influencers, they\u2019re the ones that if they agree, the likelihood is that everybody else will follow along because they trust them even if they don\u2019t trust me. So my decision making is making sure I spend the time informing and collaborating with the right people and then we\u2019ll move forward together and be aligned; and if I don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Is that when you feel at your most confident and in command?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RT:<\/strong> Absolutely, because you know you\u2019ve got buy-in from the right people. Also, the thing is that I\u2019m quite comfortable to make flexible moves on the go, but I\u2019ll do it through the right people who will influence me, but it\u2019s a two-way street. I\u2019m very confident in saying \u2018hey, here\u2019s the direction\u2019 but I\u2019m also confident that if there\u2019s a need to move one way or another that I\u2019ve got people around me who will help me to make that adjustment if I need to. And they trust me.<\/p>\n

How carefully do you choose your words? What can you say to an athlete? What do you prefer not to say?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RT:<\/strong> In this day and age you\u2019ve got to be very careful. That\u2019s the challenge and that\u2019s 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\u2019s a different world we live in now, from the point of view of sensitivity. For me, it\u2019s the level of trust with the person you\u2019re 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\u2019s times I\u2019d like to say \u2018pull your head in, you\u2019re being a dickhead\u2019 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 \u2018OK, I\u2019m going to walk away and re-frame this and is there a message I need to try to deliver and then work it out?\u2019 It takes a lot longer, to answer your question! You\u2019ve got to take time to deliver things if you want to be impactful. At times it\u2019s exhausting, to be honest.<\/p>\n

How do you ensure you are protecting your own time and mental resources?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RT:<\/strong> Well, I moved where I\u2019m 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\u2019ll be in the surf having a swim or go out on a jetski. I\u2019ll go and play and that\u2019s giving me to have that hour to myself or with my wife or walk or whatever. That\u2019s simplistic me. I have targeted times where I just lock in on things and I\u2019ve learned to disconnect now; I\u2019m 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 \u2013 usually I\u2019m reading books about leadership so I\u2019m 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\u2019s always a great little release. So I think I\u2019ve got the balance right. The big thing for me is the balance is not about 50% this or 50% that, it\u2019s 100% this and 100% that. So if I\u2019m going out for an hour to spend on the jetski and go wave-jumping or surfing, I\u2019m 100% into that. I\u2019m not going out there thinking about something else. That\u2019s to me is balance. That\u2019s utopia to get to that point. Then I feel that I\u2019ll be fine.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n

\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":19225,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[20],"pathway":[295],"topic":[298,308,334,338],"sport":[347],"class_list":["post-19224","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership-culture-performance","pathway-leadership-development","topic-communication","topic-influence","topic-leadership-of-self","topic-listening","sport-swimming"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Getting 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\u2019 - 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\/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\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Getting 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\u2019 - 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