{"id":7987,"date":"2022-04-12T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=7987"},"modified":"2025-12-15T11:31:59","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T11:31:59","slug":"why-wellbeing-and-performance-are-indivisible","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/why-wellbeing-and-performance-are-indivisible\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Wellbeing and Performance Are Indivisible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 12 Apr 2022 <\/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

Why Wellbeing and Performance Are Indivisible<\/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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By John Portch<\/h6>\n
Throughout 2021, there were conversations in high performance debating the balance between wellbeing and performance and, increasingly, the two are seen as indivisible.<\/h6>\n

\u201cRather than thinking it\u2019s some support thing on the periphery, wellbeing is energy. It should be the centrepiece of our performance,\u201d performance coach Owen Eastwood told an audience at the Leaders Sport Performance Summit at London’s Twickenham Stadium last November.<\/p>\n

\u201cWellbeing is an essential ingredient of performance. If you think of it from an individual level, am I really going to perform anywhere near my capacity if I\u2019m not well? If I\u2019m not physically well, if I\u2019m not emotionally well, if I\u2019m not spiritually well?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is happening, where our wellbeing is becoming more central to the question of if we\u2019re able to perform at our best rather than just being a support peripheral piece over here where people think \u2018if people are having physical or mental problems then someone is looking after them\u2019. I think we\u2019re moving to a place where everyone understands that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eastwood\u2019s words echo Kate Hays\u2019 at last June\u2019s Leaders Meet: Evolution of Leadership. \u201cI think coaches are embracing it and I think the high performance system is embracing it, and I think athletes are embracing it,\u201d said the former Head of Psychology at the English Institute of Sport. \u201cThe world has not been as we\u2019ve known it, and we\u2019ve seen real empathy and compassion towards people.\u201d<\/p>\n

That empathy and compassion was on show at Harlequins prior to last season\u2019s Gallagher Premiership final where the men\u2019s team would claim their first national championship in 11 years. A player approached Billy Millard, Quins\u2019 Director of Rugby, with news that his mum had taken ill. \u201cWe said \u2018just go. Just be back for the game\u2019,\u201d said Millard, also speaking at last year’s Leaders Sport Performance Summit at Twickenham. \u201cHe was like \u2018what?\u2019 \u2018Just go\u2019. So he came back and had an absolute stormer and it was very emotional and he was very thankful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very easy to say that relationships are the most important, then you get a big call like that, ahead of the biggest game the club has had in a long time, and the coaches and the staff just went \u2018that comes first. Just go, brother\u2019. The players hear about that and there was a lot of things like that we did, it builds trust both ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Millard\u2019s point is underlined by Quins scrum-half Danny Care, who is sat beside him. He said: \u201cTo have the coaches go \u2018that comes first, your family comes first\u2019 even though we\u2019ve got the biggest game the club\u2019s ever had at the weekend. Then, as a player, you go \u2018amazing\u2019; we\u2019re not robots, we\u2019re people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eastwood, who sits on the board at Harlequins, elaborated on this point backstage at Twickenham. He said: \u201cWe\u2019ve had discussions with the players where we\u2019ve said \u2018success for us looks like us being competitive now, this team, and striving to win, but success for the club also means after you leave this club and retire from professional rugby that you have a happy life, that you\u2019ve learnt traits about yourself and how to cope with adversity that happens in life. That you\u2019ve got a strong group and network of people and players who become friends forever. That\u2019s what we want.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur parameters of success include wellbeing and that\u2019s very authentic \u2013 we\u2019re not just saying that, we genuinely feel that. We don\u2019t want them to be having a crisis in their 40s and 50s, being lost, not knowing who they are, not having good life skills, not having a good network. Again, it\u2019s good in the short term, I suppose, to have a culture like that, but we genuinely want it to be something that extends well beyond their time playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The staff around the athlete are a vital part of the wellbeing question, as Angus Mugford, the Vice President of High Performance at Major League Baseball\u2019s Toronto Blue Jays told the Leaders Performance Institute<\/a>. \u201cThat aspect of all our lives is really important for staff,\u201d he says. \u201cHigh performance is not often a balanced world, there\u2019s a lot of time on the road and away from family, and the high stress; and I think acknowledging that human beings, in their physical and mental health are really important aspects that we need to focus on, provide resources for, and work on too.\u201d<\/p>\n

A similar point was made by Lauren Whitt, Google\u2019s Head of Global Resilience, at Leaders Meet: Evolution of Leadership<\/a>, in the context of building resilience. She said: \u201cResilience prioritises rest and recovery. You do it for your athletes. Oftentimes we forget as leaders, as managers, as other folks who are working with the high performers, we also need you<\/em> at your<\/em> best; we also need you able to make decisions on the fly and to be sharp and to be crisp.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attitudes are shifting across high performance sport but, as Mugford says, \u201cactions speak louder than words.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This article originally appeared in our Special Report Enhancing Your Environment: Nurturing positive high performance set-ups<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n