{"id":8370,"date":"2022-02-02T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=8370"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:11:41","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:11:41","slug":"inside-the-institute-january-2022","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/inside-the-institute-january-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Institute – January 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 2 Feb 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

Inside the Institute – January 2022<\/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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On behalf of all of the Leaders Performance Institute team, I would like to wish you a healthy and successful 2022.<\/h4>\n
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By Luke Whitworth<\/h6>\n

We\u2019re very much looking forward to connecting with you across the various learning opportunities the Institute plans to provide this year, and we\u2019ve already got off to a fast start, so thank you to everyone who has joined a virtual roundtable so far, attended the first webinar of the year and those who have engaged in our first round of community group conversations. There\u2019s a lot more to come.<\/p>\n

This year, we want to continue to share with you, our valued Performance Institute Members, what is going on across our different products, key learnings and challenges from your peers in the network. We hope this keeps you on the pulse with contemporary thinking across the high performance space and provides you with some inspiration to engage with the variety of opportunities on offer through your membership.<\/p>\n

New year, new learnings. So what really stood out to us in January? Where are some of the priorities for 2022? Here, we outline the key takeaways.<\/p>\n

Community Group Calls<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our Community Group conversations bring together Leaders Performance Institute Members with similar job functions and challenges. This month across all of our Communities of Practice, we embarked on a discovery phase to unearth members\u2019 priorities for 2022. Below are some themes that came through strongly across coaching, coach development and talent pathway conversations:<\/p>\n

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  1. The relationship between coaching and psychology:<\/strong> an interesting thread that arose with a group of leading coach developers was the opportunity for coaches, coach developers and psychologists to better collaborate. Taking it a level deeper, how can coaches and coach developers better utilise the expertise of psychologists?<\/li>\n
  2. Measuring impact:<\/strong> this is something that won\u2019t be unfamiliar to many of us reading this \u2013 we all want to measure, track and highlight impact \u2013 but it is an ongoing area of interest in the fields of coach and player development. Questions we need to ask ourselves are: what do we need to measure and how do we measure it? How can we be judged and ensure there is suitable alignment between our vision and the various stakeholders?<\/li>\n
  3. ED&I in coaching:<\/strong> a very popular priority and workstream across a number of groups, there\u2019s still a lot of work to be done. How can we support and help this evolution?<\/li>\n
  4. Developing people:<\/strong> you could argue we\u2019ve been in a large test and learn phase with the impacts of the pandemic. Looking ahead, what have we learnt from this period and what can we take further? What is the best way to develop our coaches or people? What is the optimal way of delivering development to them?<\/li>\n
  5. Group cohesion:<\/strong> amongst a group of elite coaches, there was some interesting discussions around the gelling of teams, or developing group cohesion. Potentially a reason for this is the disruption many teams have faced over the last two years, but as we know, a cohesive and in-tune unit is vitally important for optimal performance.<\/li>\n
  6. Aligning player and coach development:<\/strong> creating better synchronicity between the two fields of excellence. Often we have seen respective departments have their own philosophies, but for quality talent development, it\u2019s essential. We have a Performance Support Series on this topic starting in May, which will be great to engage in.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Virtual Roundtables<\/strong><\/p>\n

    In the first month of the year, we ran three Virtual Roundtables, which featured two topic-led discussions (Effectively Navigating Organisational Change<\/a> and Application of High Performance Strategy & Planning<\/a>) and our first Leadership Skills Series session which focused on Influencing Behavioural Change<\/a>. Here\u2019s some of what resonated with the participants.<\/p>\n

    ‘Influencing Behavioural Change’<\/strong><\/p>\n

    We kicked off the call with something quite striking: most efforts to change culture don\u2019t work. We often see a gap between what we want the culture to be and aspire towards versus what people have as a lived experience. Organisations who have sustained high levels of performance over a prolonged period of time take this very seriously. Most organisations and teams define the culture they want by putting a lot of effort into this process, but they run out of energy when they need to embed it. Consider the difference between culture being articulated and experienced.<\/p>\n

    Three pitfalls that undermine efforts to embed new behaviour<\/strong><\/p>\n

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    1. Starts and stops with fancy words<\/strong> \u2013 if it doesn\u2019t lead to a change in behaviour, it has no impact.<\/li>\n
    2. Counter-cultural behaviour goes unchallenged<\/strong> \u2013 lack of accountability can hurt your culture.<\/li>\n
    3. Believing that your work on the culture is done<\/strong> \u2013 Ed Catmull, the founding influence of Pixar, talks about the danger of culture is that you can do some great work and then you think it\u2019s done and move on to something else. It\u2019s like tending to a back garden. If you take your eye off it, the weeds grow quickly.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Seven things cultural architects leverage to influence behavioural change<\/strong><\/p>\n

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      1. Codify what works<\/strong> (appreciative inquiry).<\/li>\n
      2. Bring your principles to life with metaphor<\/strong> (we have to make these sticky so they are top of mind. \u2018Leave the jersey in a better place\u2019. \u2018Will it make the boat go faster?\u2019).<\/li>\n
      3. Review frequently<\/strong> \u2013 culture conversations (where are we against these principles?)<\/li>\n
      4. Develop skills and\/or processes to support intent<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
      5. Lead by example<\/strong> \u2013 ask others to hold you to account (leaders are human, so sometimes they don\u2019t lead by example. Good leaders say \u2018hold me to account\u2019 or \u2018these are the principles I\u2019m going to try and model\u2019).<\/li>\n
      6. Feedback<\/strong> \u2013 reinforce positive and call out negative (go out of your way to acknowledge and praise behaviour that aligns to the principles).<\/li>\n
      7. Get the right people on the bus<\/strong> (put huge energy into recruitment and cultural fit).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        \u2018Effectively Navigating Organisational Change\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

        This topic-led Virtual Roundtable<\/a> aligned nicely with the first Leadership Skills Series of the year. The objective for the session was to explore how individuals and teams were working through the change process.<\/p>\n

        Before I share some of the top takeaways from this conversation, this topic brought me back to a fantastic session that friend of Leaders Kim Wylie led for us back in 2020. Kim is the Global Director of People Development & Change at Farfetch. You can find her session here<\/a> if it\u2019s of interest. She\u2019s a change expert, and I always find these eight tips incredibly useful when thinking about a change lifecycle:<\/p>\n

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        1. Lead by example and role model desired behaviours (vulnerability, collaboration, sharing failures, lessons learnt).<\/li>\n
        2. Help people understand their personal strengths and appreciate the strengths of others.<\/li>\n
        3. According to Google research, how people work (with psychological safety) together is more important than who is in a team.<\/li>\n
        4. Invite people impacted by the change to help with problem solving and give them the gift of dopamine.<\/li>\n
        5. Set realistic expectations about what the change will bring and what the journey will involve.<\/li>\n
        6. Help people create certainty and anchor to what is not changing.<\/li>\n
        7. Provide the support that people need at different stages of the change curve.<\/li>\n
        8. If you are not consciously including people in change it is likely you will be unintentionally excluding them.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Anyway, we hope that helps. Onto five nice thoughts from the conversation:<\/p>\n