{"id":734,"date":"2020-07-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/winning-the-lockdown-part-ii\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:15","slug":"winning-the-lockdown-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/winning-the-lockdown-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Winning The Lockdown: Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n Jul 20, 2020 <\/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

Winning The Lockdown: Part II<\/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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5 Considerations to ensure your team comes out of lockdown in a stronger position.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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The At Home With Leader<\/i><\/em>s podcast series has proven to be one of the most popular Leaders Performance Institute staples during the pandemic.<\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

From Mark Shapiro in episode one, through luminaries such as Eddie Jones, Sir Dave Brailsford and Emma Hayes, the series has checked-in at home in with some of sports finest leaders on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond.<\/p>\n

Twice a week, our Senior Product Manager Matthew Stone is joined by alternating co-hosts Steve Gera of Gains Group and sports psychologist Michael Caulfield to chat to head coaches, general managers and other senior leaders about how they are adapting, attempting to thrive, and ultimately contributing to the eventual reboot of the sports performance landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big takeaway for me thus far,\u201d Gera tells the Leaders Performance Institute,\u00a0\u201cis that the circumstances and constraints of today are really forcing people to plan and be thoughtful about changes. This time period is really going to spur new thinking and ways of working across sport. From coaches who need to communicate clearer over a Zoom call, to players needing to wear microphones to enhance fan engagement, we’ve discussed the ways sport will and won’t change on the series, but the best thing is that we’ve been incredibly thoughtful in those discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caulfield tells a similar story. \u201cEveryone I\u2019ve met – and I use the word \u2018met\u2019 – has just been so relaxed and at ease with opening up during this remarkable period. It\u2019s almost like they are reflecting on their careers rather than in the middle of a job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a lot of fun and something I know I’ve probably needed as well as our guests and listeners,\u201d adds Gera.\u00a0\u201cOne of the first things I noticed when Covid hit is that we were all separated from our teams. This has been a chance to form a new different team and one that is quite complementary to our core team at Gains Group.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is plenty more to come in the weeks ahead as sport continues to re-emerge and our guests continue to delve into the practicalities of returning to play, but first, the Leaders Performance Institute pauses to reflect on what some of sport\u2019s leaders are doing to emerge from the lockdown better placed than their rivals.<\/p>\n

In part II, we present five considerations to ensure your team comes out of lockdown in a stronger position.<\/p>\n

[Part I<\/a> discusses the efforts of sport’s leaders to strike a better work-life balance.]<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

5 Considerations to Ensure Your Team Comes Out of Lockdown in a Stronger Position<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

With teams across the globe seeking the performance opportunities while tethered to a home computer, our guests on At Home With Leaders<\/i><\/em>\u00a0have been charting pathways through the lockdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve noticed that most of our guests are really focused on getting the basics right when we get back to training and playing together,\u201d observes Gera. \u201cThat’s great because it demonstrates that as a community we’re keeping our focus on what matters most. There are also macro trends that we’ve discussed on calls that are going to accelerate, such as the personalisation of coaching, remote training, and education.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has also been a journey of discovery. \u201cWe\u2019re finding that our self-management skills are better than we thought and our ability to adapt is extraordinary,\u201d adds an admiring Caulfield.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis situation is sports free pass for spaghetti against the wall,\u201d Gera continues.\u00a0\u201cWe never have a moment to try something new because we’re worried\u00a0 it’s going to fail. But the return to play from\u00a0 the Covid shutdown should be viewed as an enabler for thoughtful experimentation and free us from the shackles of always trying to be perfect.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all have a free pass to try new things and make mistakes\u00a0 right now, and that is a good thing for the future of sport. Every 10 failures will turnout one success. Enough successes and we’ve really made a difference in the future of sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here the Leaders Performance Institute brings you five considerations to help ensure your team returns in a stronger position.<\/p>\n

1. Your communication skills as a leader<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

Communication is an ever-present concern and while there is a pressing need to reach out to your athletes you should work on yourself first. That is the view of England men\u2019s rugby Head Coach Eddie Jones as he contemplates northern hemisphere rugby\u2019s still to be determined return to play. \u201cYou\u2019ve got an ability now to improve your communication skills and that\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to do,\u201d he says from the office he has set up in a Tokyo hotel. \u201cWhen you\u2019re talking in this virtual way, your ability to get your message over quickly and concisely, and then check for meaning, is a lot more difficult than when you\u2019re face to face and you can pick up the body language of the people you are talking to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emma Hayes, Head Coach of newly crowned WSL champions Chelsea FCW, is thinking along similar lines. She says: \u201cWe\u2019ve got to be able to think about how on a daily, weekly, monthly basis we\u2019re checking in with people and, importantly, we\u2019re being trained in those areas, to identify when people are struggling. I think it\u2019s one of the biggest skills you need to have as a leader and, in my job, you have to recognise when people\u2019s body language is off or when their behaviour is off; and it\u2019s not always about what people say to you or tell you, it\u2019s in part intuition, it\u2019s in part knowing the individuals; that\u2019s why I think in the recruitment process it\u2019s so important to build relationships with your players, to really get to know who they are and where they\u2019re from because it gets easier to realise when they\u2019re going through a hard time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen there\u2019s a recognition that during that hard time everybody\u2019s approach will be different. They have to be open to the fact of working through it in a team approach and some individuals will be better at talking to one person over another and we\u2019ve got trust and confidentiality at the heart of it and we put at the front and centre of what our values are and it\u2019s certainly something I value. I\u2019m particularly pleased to see it having a growing importance in the men\u2019s game.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Setting goals with athletes<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

When your communication skills improve you can begin to tackle performance with tools that better enable you to reach athletes and help to establish mutual goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a young analyst in our coaching staff who is very good at looking at the different learning [traits] of the generations at the moment,\u201d says Jones, \u201cSo we\u2019ve been doing a fair bit of work on that. I just had a discussion with a young player yesterday and tried a different method and got him to finish the conversation by drawing up how he saw himself as a player and then how he was going to service his team. It was quite an interesting little exercise that I\u2019ve never done before and he sent a photo of his diagram to me and \u2018I said that\u2019s fantastic. You\u2019ve got a good understanding of where you need to go and that can be an identity map for you going forward.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes you more creative in how you get your messages through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dean Smith, the Manager of English Premier League side Aston Villa concurs. \u201cEvery player has human needs,\u201d he explains during his guest appearance. \u201cThey need to know that they\u2019re wanted, they need to know that they\u2019re going to improve, and they need to know that they\u2019re going to be successful in what they do so you give them pathways individually and collectively as a team of what your vision is for them and how they can achieve their goals; they set the goals and you set the goals with them.<\/p>\n

Smith, who sadly lost his father to Covid-19 before the Premier League resumed, adds: \u201cI\u2019m not usually one to go back but I\u2019ve watched every single game we\u2019ve played this season and there\u2019s so many things to take. I\u2019ve managed to do a review by video with every player from this season, which during the season I would never get the chance to do.\u201d It was timely, as relegation-threatened Villa return to action in June.<\/p>\n

3. Finding bridgeable gaps<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

With the NHL due to return in a 24-team playoff format, Kyle Dubas, the General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, has the league\u2019s leading lights in mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though we were in third place we still have significant ground to make up on the two teams ahead of us, that\u2019s the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Boston Bruins,\u201d he tells At Home With Leaders<\/i><\/em>. \u201cOne of the things we\u2019ve tried to do during the break is examine why are we behind those teams, what do we need to do to catch up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve looked at everything from our tactics to a very thorough exercise with our players on their technical development and the gains we want to make with them and how we can work on those during the break also.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has also been a preoccupation of the resurgent Brooklyn Nets, although Sean Marks, the team\u2019s General Manager since 2016, feels that it is an approach that preceded the pandemic at the Barclays Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to have the willingness to look at it in a daily basis,\u201d he explains on the podcast. \u201cThere are things that come up all the time; \u2018we do it this way – but why do we do it this way?\u2019 You\u2019ve got to ask yourself \u2018why\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been fortunate where I\u2019ve had really good staff members and some have gone on to other places and taken further steps, which is terrific for them, and their fingerprints will always be all over this build, but there\u2019s also new people who have come in and they\u2019re bringing their expertise and experiences from other teams. I think it\u2019s important that we stop for a minute and really ask them what have you seen elsewhere and why did it work there; or what have you noticed here?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou almost have to do a cultural audit because if you say this is what our culture is, you have to feel it and have people from the outside tell you what your culture is; it\u2019s very important that you don\u2019t just sit and parrot. That can hit you between the eyes; \u2018you\u2019re right I thought we were doing this all the time\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to have a reset button here, re-evaluate where we\u2019re going and whether we are true to our true to our values and cultures that we set out four years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

4. Anticipate changes – and make them<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

Leinster Rugby were flying high in both the Pro14 and European Champions Cup prior to lockdown and it\u2019s a momentum Senior Coach Stuart Lancaster is keen to maintain when European rugby returns to play. \u201cThe question is how do you stay at the top and the answer is to make change before change is necessary,\u201d he declares during his appearance in the series. \u201cOne of the things at Leinster that we need to do \u2013 and Head Coach Leo Cullen does this very well \u2013 is subtle changes within the coaching team or subtle changes within the playing group that constantly keep us moving forward and advancing as a team. If we were to stick with the same coaching team and the same playing group, doing the same things in the same way, then I don\u2019t think Leinster will stay at the top.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, how can you avoid complacency creeping in? Competition kills complacency; such is the competition from younger players coming through at Leinster that if you\u2019re a senior player, and you might be an Irish international or a British & Irish Lion, then there\u2019s no way you can sit and smell the roses, so to speak, because you\u2019ll get overtaken by some of these young players coming through. And if you look at the age profile of Leinster, we have a team of under 25s that are exceptional; and we\u2019ve also got some fantastic over-25s obviously. Those over-25s know they are being hunted by this younger group; and as long as you maintain that in a healthy, positive, constructive way, that\u2019s how you avoid complacency; and, of course, the internal desire to want to be the best club team in the world, to win the European Champions Cup five times, to want to keep winning the Pro14, to want keep producing a homegrown squad; 95% of the team in Leinster are from Dublin or Leinster province. That legacy of what Leinster were, what they are, and what we will become is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

5. Harnessing the discretionary aspects of performance<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sir Dave Brailsford told At Home With Leaders<\/i><\/em>\u00a0that he felt his riders at the Tour de France-winning Team Ineos cycling team were well placed to emerge from lockdown but there was the challenge of harnessing what he calls the more \u201cdiscretionary\u201d aspects of their performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we move through time, it seems more apparent: the influence of our environments on our behaviour is great. As leaders and managers, you think what kind of environment, what are the environmental factors that impact on us? If we could manage our environment to make it easy to do the hard things, as it were.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you were an architect building a high performance environment, can you articulate and say here are the real, pragmatic things that I would do or we could create or manage to be able to create that high performance environment; because if you create the high performance environment your behaviour adapts to it and you make it easier for people to perform optimally and you get that discretionary level of performance, if you put your mind towards creating it in the first place. There\u2019s a lot of dials that you can use to make that happen. I\u2019m pretty interested in that at the minute.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Last Word<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sam Walker: Why Society Has Forgotten What Competent Leadership Looks Like<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

Journalist and author Sam Walker has written extensively on the concept of leadership and has both presented and moderated at Leaders Sport Performance Summits in recent years.<\/p>\n

His appearance on At Home With Leaders<\/i><\/em>\u00a0was typically thought-provoking, particularly when reflecting on national leadership during this pandemic so far.<\/p>\n

He says: \u201cI think there was a little time after 9\/11 when people started talking about leadership as a topic and it was very much top of mind for a while, but that crisis in the US was different in that the point for all of was to get back to normal life; that was victory, that was doing our part, because the terrorists were trying to upend our lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we kind of just let it go, we just went back to our business and forgot and then stopped having that conversation prematurely and we\u2019ve not really had it since until now. And suddenly it\u2019s on everyone\u2019s mind because I think we\u2019re seeing inside of us what we actually want from leadership. We\u2019ve been in this period of growth and expansion recently and we haven\u2019t been forced to confront what we really want from leadership until now. It\u2019s really been frightening and fascinating to watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a perception that leadership is what you do in a crisis, how you respond. We think about first-responders; we think about people who do heroic things under pressure and that really is our definition of courageous leadership. What we\u2019ve forgotten is that in most cases that\u2019s crisis management. There\u2019s a difference between management and leadership and in a crisis we want leaders who are good and doing the right things but we forget that leadership by the purest definition is what you do when there is no crisis – it\u2019s what you do between the crises, it\u2019s what you do in terms of planning for the next one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an argument to be made, on this level, is a failure of leadership because we weren\u2019t prepared. It\u2019s very hard for great leaders to get the credit they deserve because, by definition, if they do their job well, nothing happens. We get lulled into this feeling that not enough is going on, we\u2019re not taking enough risks, not enough is happening. They\u2019re often blander people, they\u2019re worriers, they\u2019re people who are behind the scenes thinking about contingencies as opposed to social media or being a charismatic leader.<\/p>\n

I think there\u2019s a lot of basic assumptions we\u2019ve made and things we\u2019ve forgotten about what competent leadership really looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Looking for more performance insight?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This article first appeared in our Performance<\/em> journal, which\u00a0is available for download now and leads with a selection of insights lifted from our At Home With Leaders podcast series, which has featured the likes of England Rugby\u2019s Eddie Jones<\/strong>, the Toronto Blue Jays\u2019 Mark Shapiro<\/strong>, and Chelsea\u2019s Emma Hayes<\/strong> speaking directly from their home offices.<\/p>\n