What Business Leaders can Learn from Legendary Sports Coaches

This week I was lucky enough to be invited along to the #pax8missionbriefing in Brisbane where they had legend AFL player and coach Leigh Matthews talk about his transition from player to coach and the synergies between coaching a football team and the parallels of leading a team in business.

A few weeks earlier I was also fortunate to be invited along to the #CRNPipeline event where another footy coach, Wayne Bennet also spoke about his career as a coach. Both emphasized the importance of cultivating culture and how to nurture a successful team.

There were many lessons to be taken from these modern elders, akin to what Chip Conley encapsulates in his description of a modern elder. I may delve into Chip's work and his concepts in a future post.

To provide some insights into the discussions, I've outlined key takeaways below. Notably, both Leigh and Wayne sought the expertise of a psychologist early in their coaching careers, continuing this partnership for many years, with Wayne still engaging his services. The psychologist renowned for high performance Dr Phil Jauncey . On a personal note, I had the privilege of having Dr. Jauncey as one of my lecturers during my Psychology Degree, and he significantly influenced my thinking and approach to coaching teams in a business context.

When Wayne and Leigh began their work with Dr. Jauncey, it would have been considered quite progressive. Nowadays, we have a deeper understanding of the power of our minds, and the importance of consulting professionals like psychologists and mental skills coaches. Regrettably, it's still common to hear companies either question the value or consider it too costly.

SixPivot , are a small company, team wellbeing and performance are my top priorities and I'm deeply passionate about it. I work closely with an organisational psychologist and a mental skills coach. They conduct group sessions for our team and offer one-on-one coaching. Tony Priddle is a former NRL player and applies a sports philosophy to our work, enhancing performance and mindset through various disciplines and modalities.

Leigh said one of the biggest lessons that Dr Jauncey taught him was that “discipline is not acting on your feelings/ emotions” and to embrace “living in the moment” or in other words continue to be in the present, as Tony continues to reinforce to the Pivots.

Below are some of the tips and highlights from Leigh which were not dissimilar to Wayne's:

• Listen to individuals and their feedback 

• Gone are the days of Fire and Brimstone Coaches- yelling at modern players does not work, despite what many fans still think! For example, he said if your team are not playing well at half time, it’s your job as the coach to give them a plan/ direction to action to perform and lift their game 

• The transition from playing into coaching is learning that as player your strength was in your physicality but as a coach your strength lies in listening and strategising. 

• You need to be able to accept loss and adapt your mindset to move on from the loss quickly. Leigh was a very successful coach, but his team still lost 40% of games or every 3rd game on average so there are a lot of losses you need to pick yourself up from. 

• Success is still built on the fundamentals. 

• Players need to know their role on the team and be clear about that role. It’s the coach's job to sell them on the role. 

• Leigh spoke about the need to set goals and KPIs for the individual, BUT to ensure you are consistently/ weekly reviewing those goals and your performance to those KPIs. There is no point in having them if you aren’t reviewing them. 

• When asked how you cultivate resilience – Plan, Perform, Review and let emotion subside (for both the coach and the player) before you review. He said feedback needs to be win/win. 

• On a footy field you must back your instincts as you don’t have a lot of time to think. Therefore, a coach needs to help a player create/ make responses automatic which needs to be done through practice. 

• Punctuality (definitely something both Wayne and Leigh were adamant about, as is Tony). In Leigh’s words “it is 100% more important than you think. It’s one of the few things we can measure and it shows respect.” He would literally lock the door when a meeting was starting and you weren’t allowed in if you were late. 
• In summary he said we are working with people and people in groups - Empower them | Give them Responsibility | Hold them Accountable

A big thanks to the CRN Australia team, William Maher , Pax8 team, Danni Munro , Beau Harvey , Chris Sharp for providing a platform for these two great coaches to share their wisdom with the channel and for inviting me along. So many more learnings.