The Great Coaches: Leadership & Life

The Great Coaches: Mick Byrne

Caitie Rea — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 21:00:00 +0000

Sleep When The Wind Blows

This week’s Great Coach is Mick Byrne, who was an Australian Rules Football player for several years (winning a premiership with Hawthorn in 1983) before transitioning into Rugby coaching post-retirement.

In 1999 Mick became an Assistant Coach with the Australian national team, going on to join the New Zealand national team — the All Blacks — and working with them during their World Cup victories in both 2011 and 2015.

In 2012 he was appointed as the inaugural Head Coach of the Fijian Drua, leading them to their first three Super Rugby Pacific seasons from 2022 to 2024 and helping them to reach the finals in 2023 and 2024. In 2024, he became the Head Coach of the Fiji national team.

Listening back to our interview, there were some fantastic takeaways including:

How Mick’s own sporting path took him from the Rugby League in Sydney to Australian Rules, then into coaching across the AFL, Rugby League and Rugby Union with jobs working alongside the Wallabies, Brumbies, All Blacks environment and Fiji.
The central pillars of preparation, questioning and self-talk within his coaching philosophy, and his belief that players retain information better when they discover answers by themselves, rather than being told what to do.
Byrne’s own journey of growth in the areas of patience, listening, managing frustration and allowing healthy conflict so that better coaching decisions can emerge.

This was a great one to record, and I hope you’ll enjoy it when you give it a listen this weekend!

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Some key questions raised from today’s episode:

Where in my own leadership do I need better preparation, so that I can “sleep when the wind blows” and respond calmly in the face of pressure?
Am I telling people what to do too often, or am I asking the kinds of questions that guide them towards discovering the answer, building confidence, and taking ownership?
What part of my leadership has grown the most over time?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

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Let Them Think

In this section of our newsletter, we like to bring attention to the topics and areas of leadership and coaching that can pose the biggest challenges and problems, and to share a small lesson or interview clip that can help you to assess your own approach to them.

In this week’s interview, guest Mick Byrne speaks on asking players questions that will guide them to make their own decisions, reach their own conclusions, and build much-needed confidence. Often it can be tempting to tell the people around us what to do (especially when we want them to avoid mistakes that we ourselves have made in the past), but this limits opportunities for growth. After all, the lessons we learn for ourselves are usually the ones that stick.

In this clip from a past interview with field hockey’s Sjoerd Marijne, he speaks on the importance of perfecting your questions in order to promote decision ownership and critical thinking skills within your teams.

You can find the video here on our Youtube channel, alongside many other lessons, interviews, and insights designed to be shared and used by leaders and teams.

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This newsletter goes out to over 20,000 coaches and sport, business, and community leaders worldwide.

We offer best-practice groups where you can meet and share ideas, facilitated and structured and occurring at the same time each month.

If you would like to know more, contact paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com

We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

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The Psychology Behind The Tour

With the Tour de France coming to an end, I wanted to share this interesting article from the BBC that looks at the psychology behind the three-week-long race.

There’s a lot that goes into winning the Tour, with riders needing to consider both their physical states and the physics that goes into gaining an advantage on competitors. This article suggests that there’s also a third, psychological consideration to take on board: game theory.

It’s a good, short read that exposes just how much goes on behind-the-scenes (or beneath-the-helmets, perhaps), and gives a glimpse of just how competitive and strenuous the event really is for those taking part.

Chess on wheels: The psychology of the Tour de France

The Tour de France, which finishes this weekend, is regarded as one of the world's toughest cycle races. Winning it is a psychological as well as a physical test.

Kit Yates

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The Great Coaches: Adam Voges

Caitie Rea — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 21:00:00 +0000

Bring Them Along

This week’s episode features an interview with cricket coach Adam Voges.

As an athlete, Adam represented Australia at Test, One-Day and T20 level.

In 2017, he began coaching the Western Australia team and the Perth Scorchers, ultimately going on to lead them to a three-peat of Sheffield Shield titles in 2022, 2023, and 2024. He also guided WA to the One-Day trophy four times (in 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024) and two BBL wins.

Listening back to the interview, some of the key highlights for me were:

Adam’s thoughts on the importance of clear communication — including his acknowledgement of Justin Langer’s ability to instantly align a group through clear vision and direction.
The need for leadership to be built on care and connection — something that he feels is demonstrated in how the best coaches genuinely invest in players as people, not just as performers.
Why players must be brought on the journey — and the key lesson Adam took from Greg Shipard, that players ultimately determine a coach’s success and therefore need ownership and involvement.

This was a great interview to record, and a brilliant one to take us into the weekend.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Some key questions raised from today’s episode:

Where am I trying to do too much by myself, rather than trusting and empowering the people around me?
Do the people I lead feel genuinely as though they are being brought along for the journey, or am I asking them to follow decisions they had no part in shaping?
When pressure rises, do I become more helpful and clear, or do my emotions make the situation harder for others?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

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What It Means To Belong

In this week’s interview with Adam Voges, you’ll hear us discussing the need for team members and athletes to take ownership and involvement in the ‘journey’ you lead them along. This is something that has come up before in our interviews with Great Coaches, and presents a really important lesson for all of us: leaders, coaches, and parents.

As a leader, it’s very easy to get into a headspace that sees you making decisions for the good of the group, team, or family. You’ve thought things through, weighed up the pros and cons, and made an informed decision — and now you expect others to agree with you and follow your guidance. However, for those you lead or coach, this can feel as though their opinions and feelings are being ignored, leading to resentment and resistance.

By listening to the people around you and giving them an opportunity for involvement and ownership of the journey you’re leading them on, you help them to feel as though they actually belong and that they’re valued as people, not just performers.

In the clip below, we revisit a past interview with All Blacks coach Gilbert Enoka who stresses that the greatest motivation is a sense of belonging. How could you implement this in your own leadership in the coming week?

You can find the video here on our Youtube channel, alongside many other lessons, interviews, and insights designed to be shared and used by leaders and teams.

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The Great Coaches newsletter is designed to be shared and discussed with colleagues, friends and family members.

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This newsletter goes out to over 20,000 coaches and sport, business, and community leaders worldwide.

We offer best-practice groups where you can meet and share ideas, facilitated and structured and occurring at the same time each month.

If you would like to know more, contact paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com

We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

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The Magic Of Sports

After last week’s podcast episode with the fantastic George Selleck, there was some interest in his new book, ‘The Magic of Sports’.

As listeners will have heard us discuss in the interview, the book is really a guide for personal growth that will be relevant to athletes, coaches, and leaders alike. It’s a culmination of George’s own experiences and insights, and makes for brilliant reading.

The book is available on Amazon, and if you want to catch up with the interview, you’ll find it wherever you get your podcasts!

The Magic of Sports

George Selleck (Author)

amzn.asia/d/0fxSRwYg

Challenge Yourself with the Macquarie MBA

The program bridges the gap between theory and real-world application, bringing together world-leading professors, executives and industry partners to teach you how business can be used for good.

I have started working with the team at Macquarie on some projects and can attest to the quality of the people and material. To find out more, search for Macquarie University Business School’s MBA.

Find out more: https://www.mq.edu.au/macquarie-business-school/

Elevated Leadership

If you’re looking to improve your own leadership skills, get in touch with us at elevatedleadership.com.au

The Great Coaches: The Magic of Sports

Caitie Rea — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 23:14:09 +0000

A Classroom For Life

This week we’ve released an episode on ‘The Magic of Sports’, inspired by the title of a terrific new book written by our guest, the 92 year old Dr George Selleck.

George was drafted by the NBA’s Philadelphia Warriors in 1956, only to reject the offer and go on to have a long and distinguished career as both a psychologist and coach instead.

He is a member of multiple Halls of Fame — including Stanford Athletic — and has founded 3 not-for-profits focused on sports and education. His latest book is the 5th that he has written and published.

Listeners will also hear another voice during this discussion, that of George’s friend Alan Gregerman. Alan is the best-selling author of a book called “The Wisdom of Ignorance”, and specialises on the subject of innovation.

Both men bring a lifetime of wisdom and insight to our conversation, with both Jonathan and I leaving the interview with smiles on our faces and a bounce in our step. Listening back, some of the key highlights for me were:

George’s view that sport is more than competition — it’s a powerful space for human development, personal growth, learning, belonging, and joy.
How great coaching and leadership involve creating environments where athletes can grow as human beings, not just performers.
George’s legacy of calling for sport to be recognised as a “classroom for life” — strengthening individuals, communities, and society.

This was a brilliant and incredibly positive interview to record, and as always we’d love to hear what you think.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Some key questions raised from today’s episode:

Where in my life am I treating sport, work, or leadership as only a competition, rather than an opportunity for growth, belonging, learning, and joy?
What kind of environment do I create for the people around me, and does it help them to grow as human beings, rather than just performing better?
When I face setbacks or big decisions, how deliberately do I pause, reflect, and listen to my head, body, and gut before choosing my next step?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

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Staying Ahead Of The Competition

This week, we’re taking a look at some of the insights that more than 200 elite Great Coaches guests have shared about staying ahead of the competition and adopting winning methodologies.

No two leaders are the same, and what works for one may not work for another. With that said, frequent listeners will know that there are often patterns in the responses and insights that our podcast guests share with us, and than some ideas and methodologies return again and again across different episodes and perspectives.

In the video below, Great Coaches host Paul Barnett looks at some examples of such methodologies, focusing on how leaders continue to learn and develop throughout their careers in order to stay ahead of the competition.

You can find the video here on our Youtube channel, alongside many other lessons, interviews, and insights designed to be shared and used by leaders and teams.

Spread It Around

The Great Coaches newsletter is designed to be shared and discussed with colleagues, friends and family members.

If someone has shared this copy with you, then make sure to sign up to our mailing list so that you don’t miss the next issue!

Join Our Best-Practice Groups

This newsletter goes out to over 20,000 coaches and sport, business, and community leaders worldwide.

We offer best-practice groups where you can meet and share ideas, facilitated and structured and occurring at the same time each month.

If you would like to know more, contact paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com

We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

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Does Tough Love Work?

Many of you will have been watching England play against Argentina in the semi-finals of the World Cup yesterday, and while the game has come and gone, this article that was released a few days before it presents an interesting insight into the mindset of England’s coach Thomas Tuchel.

Despite them getting into the final four, Tuchel hadn’t been impressed with the Three Lions’ performance. This article, published by FIFA, explores his work behind the scenes attempting to prepare his players and team for success and the ‘tough love’ approach he has taken to not only his World Cup squad, but also during his time with Chelsea FC.

It’s an interesting article that presents the question — does tough love really work?

Tuchel hopes tough love can drive England into final

www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026/articles/thomas-tuchel-tough-love-england-argentina

Challenge Yourself with the Macquarie MBA

The program bridges the gap between theory and real-world application, bringing together world-leading professors, executives and industry partners to teach you how business can be used for good.

I have started working with the team at Macquarie on some projects and can attest to the quality of the people and material. To find out more, search for Macquarie University Business School’s MBA.

Find out more: https://www.mq.edu.au/macquarie-business-school/

Elevated Leadership

If you’re looking to improve your own leadership skills, get in touch with us at elevatedleadership.com.au

The Great Coaches: Dom Starsia

Caitie Rea — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 21:00:00 +0000

Dom Starsia: Consistency Is True Toughness

Our Great Coach this week is Dom Starsia, an American Lacrosse coach.

Dom represented the USA at the 1978 World Lacrosse Championship as a player, whilst also coaching in a variety of roles at his alma mater, Brown University.

In 1982, he became the Head Coach of the Brown University men’s lacrosse team and led them to 2 Ivy League Championships. He then moved to the University of Virginia in 1993, leading the Cavaliers to 4 NCAA championships over 23 seasons.

Dom retired in 2016 as the winningest division 1 men’s lacrosse coach. He was inducted into the Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2008.

This was a fantastic interview that covered some of the topics that listeners repeatedly find relevant to their own work and sports environments, such as:

Authentic leadership, and how this comes from being comfortable in your own style while learning from others.
Successful teams, and the role of selflessness, sacrifice, and a shared commitment to the group.
Consistency, and how showing up every day and doing what needs to be done is the true mark of toughness.

Make sure to keep reading to explore the questions that the episode raised for host Paul, and as always we hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed recording it!

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Some key questions raised from today’s episode:

Where in my life am I trying to copy someone else’s style rather than trusting my own authentic way of leading or contributing?
What does “toughness as consistency” look like for me, and where do I need to show up more reliably each day?
When could I choose more positive or patient language, rather than criticism or sarcasm?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

Explore Our Archive

Coaching With Values

This week we’re looking at values-driven leadership, which is a topic that often comes up in our interviews. It can be difficult to establish an authentic leadership identity such as the one that Dom discusses in this week’s episode. This is where values come in; by establishing and understanding your own core values, you can form a leadership style that is both authentic and achieves your goals without compromising on what you believe.

In the video below, Great Coaches host Paul Barnett shares several insights and clips from past interviews on the topic of coaching with values, and discusses how these insights can be applied to your leadership styles both on and off the pitch.

You can find the video here on our Youtube channel, alongside many other lessons, interviews, and insights designed to be shared and used by leaders and teams.

Spread It Around

The Great Coaches newsletter is designed to be shared and discussed with colleagues, friends and family members.

If someone has shared this copy with you, then make sure to sign up to our mailing list so that you don’t miss the next issue!

We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

Learn More

The Story of Sinner

This interesting and interactive article from BBC Sport looks at the life and career of Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner, who currently ranks as the world’s number 1 player.

From his sporting beginnings to his Grand Slam win, this article looks at what it takes to create such a successful sporting career through the eyes and words of those who know him and have supported him along the way.

A fantastic and inspiring read that will resonate with many of us as we watch the Wimbledon games this weekend.

The making of Jannik Sinner

Jannik Sinner is the world's best tennis player. This is the journey that forged a champion.

BBC Sport

Challenge Yourself with the Macquarie MBA

The program bridges the gap between theory and real-world application, bringing together world-leading professors, executives and industry partners to teach you how business can be used for good.

I have started working with the team at Macquarie on some projects and can attest to the quality of the people and material. To find out more, search for Macquarie University Business School’s MBA.

Find out more: https://www.mq.edu.au/macquarie-business-school/

Elevated Leadership

If you’re looking to improve your own leadership skills, get in touch with us at elevatedleadership.com.au

The Great Coaches: Mike Dunlap

Caitie Rea — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 20:52:00 +0000

Mike Dunlap: Vulnerability Wins The Room

Our Great Coach in this week’s episode is Mike Dunlap, a basketball coach who has led teams in US colleges, the NBA, and Australia. He was also an Assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks when they defeated the Phoenix Suns to win their first NBA Championship in 2021.

Mike has been on our podcast a few times since our first interview in 2022, including episodes on building team cultures and leadership. In that time, Mike has shared some of his poetry with me, and recently we spent some time together discussing the coaching and leadership themes that run through his work.

This week’s interview is a very personal one, with Mike sharing some of the deeper stories from his life. As you listen, you’ll hear him speak on:

Coaching as a relationship-centred act of service, helping young people build belief, self-esteem and purpose beyond wins and losses.
The need to balance competition with joy, recognising “good” as a meaningful gateway to greatness rather than dismissing anything short of perfection.
The practical teaching habits that build team connection, including journalling, simple plans, high-fives, physical encouragement, vulnerability and celebrating small moments of progress.

I hope you’ll find this episode and interview as fascinating and insightful as I did.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Some key questions raised from today’s episode:

Where am I currently measuring success too narrowly by outcomes, and what “victory beyond the scoreboard” might I be overlooking?
How well do I balance high standards with joy, and do I pause long enough to recognise the “good” that may be the gateway to great?
What does my inner voice sound like under pressure, and what practices help me to quiet the chatter, allowing me to respond with awareness, rather than reacting automatically?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

Explore Our Archive

Exploring Learning Methods

This week we’re looking at how coaches and leaders can learn and develop in order to stay ahead of their competition. In this video, Great Coaches host Paul Barnett explores the insights shared by more than 200 elite, world-class coaches who have secured Olympic gold medals and international championships. He then delves into what can be learned and taken from these insights, and how they can apply both in business and sports.

You can find the video here on our Youtube channel, alongside many other lessons, interviews, and insights designed to be shared and used by leaders and teams.

Spread It Around

The Great Coaches newsletter is designed to be shared and discussed with colleagues, friends and family members.

If someone has shared this copy with you, then make sure to sign up to our mailing list so that you don’t miss the next issue!

We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

Learn More

The Legacies We Leave

Something that we often ask our Great Coaches guests is what legacy they would like to leave on their sport, the people they’ve worked with, and the world at large.

This article from the BBC looks at the topic of legacies and the interesting research that shows that considering the legacies we leave behind can actually boost our current mental health and life fulfilment levels.

An interesting read for the weekend that prompts us all to wonder — what legacy would we like to leave behind?

What will people remember about you after you die? Thinking about your legacy now could be good for you

Research shows that considering how we will be remembered when we die can help us improve our mental health and find more meaning during our lives – including if we are still young.

Molly Gorman

Challenge Yourself with the Macquarie MBA

The program bridges the gap between theory and real-world application, bringing together world-leading professors, executives and industry partners to teach you how business can be used for good.

I have started working with the team at Macquarie on some projects and can attest to the quality of the people and material. To find out more, search for Macquarie University Business School’s MBA.

Find out more: https://www.mq.edu.au/macquarie-business-school/

Elevated Leadership

If you’re looking to improve your own leadership skills, get in touch with us at elevatedleadership.com.au

The Great Coaches: Kath Tetley

Caitie Rea — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 20:50:00 +0000

Kath Tetley: Let People Into Your Mess

Our Great Coach in this week’s episode is netball coach Kath Tetley.

Kath’s career began as the first paid employee of Netball New South Wales in 1998, when the Commonwealth Bank Trophy began. From there, she progressed through a number of roles working for Australian Netball while coaching at the state level.

She then went on to coaching roles with the newly-formed GWS Fury and NSW state teams, working in parallel as the General Manager of the Sydney Swifts.

As of 2024, Kath has been the Head Coach of the Scotland national team, the Thistles, and is helping them to prepare for the 2026 Commonwealth Games and the 2027 World Cup.

As a coach and leader, Kath focuses a lot on personality, connection, and people. During our interview, you’ll hear her speak on a number of fantastic points, including:

The way that Great Coaches recognise their own gaps and fill them by adding smart, skilled people to their teams.
How she uses empathy and honesty to approach difficult conversations which she personally finds emotionally challenging.
Kath’s use of personality tools to better understand her players and to improve communication under pressure.
Her emotional journey as a coach, shifting from self-doubt and imposter syndrome towards openness, connection, and trust in others.
The tougher, more professional netball culture that she plans to build in Scotland and the lasting legacy she hopes to leave for future female athletes.

This was a fantastic interview, and I hope you’ll enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed recording it.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Some key questions raised from today’s episode:

How does Kath Tetley’s willingness to acknowledge her own gaps challenge traditional ideas of what strong leadership looks like?
What does Tetley’s approach to difficult conversations reveal about the role of empathy in high-performance coaching?
How does Tetley’s emotional journey — from doubt and retreat to connection and trust — show the importance of vulnerability in leadership?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

Explore Our Archive

Building Mental Skills

This week we’re looking at mental skills, with this video from Great Coaches host Paul Barnett. Dwelling on over 200 interviews with elite-level coaches, Paul explores how sports psychology and performance psychology can be leveraged to improve performance, cultivate mental toughness, and foster winning mindsets.

You can find the video here on our Youtube channel, alongside many other lessons, interviews, and insights designed to be shared and used by leaders and teams.

Spread It Around

The Great Coaches newsletter is designed to be shared and discussed with colleagues, friends and family members.

If someone has shared this copy with you, then make sure to sign up to our mailing list so that you don’t miss the next issue!

We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

Learn More

The Great Coaches Book Club

Our latest meeting of the Great Coaches Book Club is now available for you to hear on Spotify, Apple, and wherever you get your podcasts.

This time we met to discuss 'Sum It Up’ by the late Pat Summitt, and it was an absolutely brilliant session that we’re excited to share with you all.

If you’d like to be involved in the future, watch this space — more details to come.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Challenge Yourself with the Macquarie MBA

The program bridges the gap between theory and real-world application, bringing together world-leading professors, executives and industry partners to teach you how business can be used for good.

I have started working with the team at Macquarie on some projects and can attest to the quality of the people and material. To find out more, search for Macquarie University Business School’s MBA.

Find out more: https://www.mq.edu.au/macquarie-business-school/

Elevated Leadership

If you’re looking to improve your own leadership skills, get in touch with us at elevatedleadership.com.au

The Great Coaches: John Mitchell

Caitie Rea — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 20:53:00 +0000

Consistency and Authenticity with John Mitchell

Our Great Coach in this week’s episode is Rugby Union coach John Mitchell.

John retired from playing in 1995, moving straight into coaching with a technical adviser/forwards position with the Irish national team. He returned to New Zealand in 2000 as the Head Coach of Super Rugby team, the Chiefs, then went on to lead the All Blacks from 2001 to 2003 — winning two Tri Nations titles and the 2003 Bledisloe Cup.

In 2023, John was appointed as the Head Coach of the England women’s team, leading them to the 2025 World Cup.

Listening back to our interview, the key highlights I took from this interview were:

John’s emphasis on ‘people-first’ leadership — strong leadership begins with putting people before tasks, and helping others to reach their full potential.
His words on self-awareness and growth — why understanding your own personality, values, and limitations is essential to evolving as both a leader and coach.
The power of vision and culture — great teams are built on clarity, knowing what they want to look like, feel like, and act like while leadership shapes the culture.

Another fantastic interview for you all to enjoy, and I hope you take as much from it as I did.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Some key questions raised from today’s episode:

How well am I putting people before performance and outcomes in the way I lead?
What do my current behaviours say about my self-awareness, values, and the culture I’m creating?
Am I communicating in a way that builds trust, understanding, and enough freedom for others to grow?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

Explore Our Archive

It’s Not About Great Words

This week’s interview with Rugby Union coach John Mitchell touched a lot on the topic of communication, and this is a topic that comes up often when we speak with coaches and leaders. Communicating clearly and effectively is a vital part of leadership, and many go through coaching and lessons to help them achieve it. What isn’t always recognised, however, is that communication isn’t just about what you say — it’s also about how you say it.

In this video, Great Coaches host Paul speaks from the Sydney Cricket Ground, exploring some of the fantastic insights on communication that past podcast guests have shared and delving into the skills and techniques that can help leaders to improve the way they speak with their teams.

You can find the video here on our Youtube channel, alongside many other lessons, interviews, and insights designed to be shared and used by leaders and teams.

Spread It Around

The Great Coaches newsletter is designed to be shared and discussed with colleagues, friends and family members.

If someone has shared this copy with you, then make sure to sign up to our mailing list so that you don’t miss the next issue!

We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

Learn More

Exploring Motivation

What does it take to successfully motivate a team?

In this great article from BBC Sport, football manager Tony Pulis looks back at some of the different ways he has tried to motivate his players over the years. Some techniques were more successful than others, and some were just slightly unorthodox (including employing a hypnotist).

An interesting, quick little weekend read that might help you to reflect on how you motivate your own team.

Tony Pulis column: Hypnosis, Al Pacino and lies - how I tried to motivate my players

Tony Pulis explains some of the unorthodox ways he tried to motivate players during his 30 years as a manager, including how some of them did not work.

BBC Sport

Challenge Yourself with the Macquarie MBA

The program bridges the gap between theory and real-world application, bringing together world-leading professors, executives and industry partners to teach you how business can be used for good.

I have started working with the team at Macquarie on some projects and can attest to the quality of the people and material. To find out more, search for Macquarie University Business School’s MBA.

Find out more: https://www.mq.edu.au/macquarie-business-school/

Elevated Leadership

If you’re looking to improve your own leadership skills, get in touch with us at elevatedleadership.com.au

The Great Coaches: Staffan Olsson

Caitie Rea — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 20:52:00 +0000

Being Honest With Staffan Olsson

This week’s podcast episode features an interview with handball coach Staffan Olsson.

During his time as a player, Staffan played 357 times for the Swedish national team, taking the silver medal 3 times at the Olympic Games. He transitioned to coaching in 2005, and over the following 5 years lead Hammarby to 3 Swedish National Championships.

Staffan was appointed as the Coach of the Swedish national men’s team in 2008, and in 2012 he led them to a silver medal finish at the Olympic Games. He then went on to coach at French club Paris Saint-Germain between 2015 and 2018, helping them to win the National Championship and to place twice in the Champions League.

Staffan is currently the Head Coach of the Dutch national men’s team, and was inducted into the EHF Hall of Fame in 2024.

Every Great Coach brings fantastic insights to our interviews, and Staffan was no exception. Several of the points he made were focused on leadership and coaching as a whole, and we really dove into what he believes makes a successful leader. Some highlights included:

Why there’s no single “right” leadership style — Staffan’s experience working with two very different successful coaches taught him that the best approach is not necessarily democratic or authoritarian, but rather an authentic one adapted to context.
The vital roles of leadership and trust in successful coaching — experience has helped Staffan to transition from being highly-controlling to employing a more player-centric style which emphasises relationships, communications, and identifying player needs.
Decision-making skills can (and should) be trained — in a fast sport such as handball, being able to process a situation well is key to success. This is a skill that Staffan improves through purposeful, game-like training.

There’s a lot to hear, consider and use in this week’s interview — I hope you’ll take as much from it as we did.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Some key questions raised from today’s episode:

Am I leading in a way that is genuinely authentic to me, or am I copying a style that doesn’t fit who I am?
How do I respond to mistakes — do I treat them as failures to avoid, or as necessary moments for growth and learning?
Do I spend enough time understanding the people I lead as individuals, rather than focusing solely on performance and outcomes?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

Explore Our Archive

Reframing Thinking With Sport’s Great Coaches

This week we’re looking at mindsets, and how coaches and leaders can help their teams to reframe their thinking. Great Coaches host Paul speaks live from the Melbourne Cricket Ground as he shares and discusses several clips from past interviews that cover the power of cognitive reframing.

We know as leaders that positive and strong mindsets can make all the difference in the pursuit of success and overcoming adversity, so if this is something you’re looking to encourage in your own team or organisation, then the mental performance techniques covered in this video will make all the difference.

You can find the video here on our Youtube channel, alongside many other lessons, interviews, and insights designed to be shared and used by leaders and teams.

Spread It Around

The Great Coaches newsletter is designed to be shared and discussed with colleagues, friends and family members.

If someone has shared this copy with you, then make sure to sign up to our mailing list so that you don’t miss the next issue!

We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

Learn More

Inside The Mind Of Bellamy

If a reporter was to spend four hours following you, what would they learn about your leadership? What impression would they leave with?

In this brilliant article from BBC Sports, we get a glimpse inside the mind of Craig Bellamy, Head Coach of the Welsh football (soccer) team. Bellamy has been referred to as a football “genius”, and his obsession with the sport is clear in the way he talks about it and interacts with it.

Interestingly, Bellamy also shares a bit about how he makes time for family and personal commitments, despite being someone who always needs to be busy and on-the-go.

A very interesting look into the world of a very successful coach.

Craig Bellamy: Inside the complex mind of Wales' head coach

Wales boss Craig Bellamy discusses everything from football to Balkan history - and playing Ken and Barbie - in an exclusive, in-depth interview with BBC Sport.

BBC Sport

Challenge Yourself with the Macquarie MBA

The program bridges the gap between theory and real-world application, bringing together world-leading professors, executives and industry partners to teach you how business can be used for good.

I have started working with the team at Macquarie on some projects and can attest to the quality of the people and material. To find out more, search for Macquarie University Business School’s MBA.

Find out more: https://www.mq.edu.au/macquarie-business-school/

Elevated Leadership

If you’re looking to improve your own leadership skills, get in touch with us at elevatedleadership.com.au

The Great Coaches: Joe Montemurro

Caitie Rea — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 21:04:01 +0000

Exploring Selflessness with Joe Montemurro

Our podcast guest this week is football (soccer) coach Joe Montemurro.

Joe began coaching during his 20s in the early 2000s, progressing steadily through Australian state league teams before achieving his first international position with Papua New Guinea.

In 2014 he was appointed to lead Melbourne Victory, and a year later joined Melbourne City, leading them to back-to-back championships.

In 2017 Joe became the coach of Arsenal Women, leading him to the League Cup and FA Cup in his first season with them and to a League Title in his second. From there he moved onto Juventus, leading them to the treble: winning the Supercoppa, the Italian Cup, and Serie A.

In 2024 he joined Lyon in France to help them win the Premier League, and since 2025 he has been acting as the coach of the Australian national team, the Matildas.

This was a fantastic interview, but there were three main highlights that prompted me to reflect on my own leadership (see them below). Those three were:

Joe’s words on having a clear identity and principles — stressing that success requires a clear playing identity built around simple, non-negotiable principles that players understand, internalise, and even coach themselves through.
The importance of understanding culture — Joe adapts his leadership and communication styles to match the cultures of the workplaces and nations he finds himself in, but without losing his core football philosophy.
His strong belief in values-driven leadership — identifying selflessness as the foundation of both team culture and performance on (and off) the pitch.

This week’s podcast is a great reminder that success relies on more than metrics and physical performance, and I hope you’ll enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed recording it.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Some key questions raised from today’s episode:

What are the core principles that define how I want to lead or work, and are they clear enough for others to act upon without constant direction?
How well do I understand the culture of the environment I’m working in, and where might I need to adapt my approach?
Which values truly guide my behaviour each day, and how visible are they to the people around me?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

Explore Our Archive

Lessons In Culture From 200+ Coaches

In this week’s podcast, guest Joe Montemurro reflects a lot on team culture and the role that certain principles and values can have in creating a winning, successful culture where players and staff are aligned and united.

Building a successful team culture is something that many leaders can struggle with, particularly those taking on new roles with teams that may have pre-established cultures that aren’t quite getting them where they need to go. Likewise, starting from scratch with a group of people who don’t yet know each other or share any camaraderie can make establishing a new organisation a challenge.

In this video, Great Coaches host Paul reflects on eight key lessons that he has learned from interviewing more than 200 podcast guests about building and maintaining successful team cultures. The video is just over 15 minutes long, and provides some fantastic insight and reflection that can be of use to all leaders and coaches, no matter what stage of their leadership career they may be in.

You can find the video here on our Youtube channel, alongside many other lessons, interviews, and insights designed to be shared and used by leaders and teams.

Spread It Around

The Great Coaches newsletter is designed to be shared and discussed with colleagues, friends and family members.

If someone has shared this copy with you, then make sure to sign up to our mailing list so that you don’t miss the next issue!

Join Our Book Club

There’s still time to sign up for our next book club session on June 9th, when we’ll be discussing Pat Summitt’s ‘Sum It Up’.

Click here to register.

We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

Learn More

Is Leadership Going Soft?

Earlier this year, a clip of Maryland women’s basketball coach Brenda Frese interacting with one of her players received mixed reception. The coach was passionate, perhaps slightly aggressive in her approach — but the player (Oluchi Okananwa) took it completely in her stride and later described it as the way she likes to be coached.

In this article from the OutKick, Kathy Taylor looks at modern ‘tough coaching’ approaches and asks if perhaps the shock at Frese’s coaching is a reflection not of the coach herself, but of an overall ‘softening’ of American sports.

A very interesting piece, especially for those who may wonder just how ‘tough’ or ‘gentle’ they ought to be with their own leadership.

Tough Coaching Isn’t The Problem; Soft America Is | Kathy Taylor

Somewhere over the last decade, a loud minority decided that discomfort is danger. That being challenged is being harmed. That a raised voice is a raised fist. Gentle parenting crept off the playground and onto the sideline. Everyone got a participation trophy, and the kids who actually wanted to win were left wondering why their coach wasn’t allowed to coach anymore.

OutKick

Challenge Yourself with the Macquarie MBA

The program bridges the gap between theory and real-world application, bringing together world-leading professors, executives and industry partners to teach you how business can be used for good.

I have started working with the team at Macquarie on some projects and can attest to the quality of the people and material. To find out more, search for Macquarie University Business School’s MBA.

Find out more: https://www.mq.edu.au/macquarie-business-school/

Elevated Leadership

If you’re looking to improve your own leadership skills, get in touch with us at elevatedleadership.com.au

The Great Coaches: Jeroen Delmee

Caitie Rea — Thu, 28 May 2026 20:50:00 +0000

Crying All The Time With Jeroen Delmee

This week’s podcast features an interview with Jeroen Delmee, a field hockey coach who first represented his country in 1994. By 2008 he had retired with 401 international caps and was a 2-time Olympic champion.

After transitioning into coaching, Jeroen worked with the Dutch national women’s team and the Belgian mens team before spending 4 years leading the French national team.

In 2021, Jeroen was appointed as the Head Coach of the Dutch men. Under his leadership, they took gold at the 2023 Men’s EuroHockey Championship as well as at the 2024 Summer Olympics. Jeroen is the only Dutch sportsperson in history to win Olympic gold as both a player and a coach.

Our interview touched on some really great insights that Jeroen has gained over the years, including:

The importance of soft skills, and how Jeroen learned to adapt his communication style to suit different cultures, rather than using one direct approach for all.
His intentional decision to rebuild team culture after Tokyo — having realised the team lacked commitment and cohesion — and the unexpected way he achieved this.
Why mental support should be individual, not delivered in a team-wide mental coaching session but instead tailored to individual player needs.
How individual development drives team growth, and how he uses personal player plans for targeted one-to-one work that he considers to be more effective than generic group training.

Make sure to give it a listen over the weekend — as always, I’d love to hear what you think!

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Some key questions raised from today’s episode:

Is your communication style suitable for the groups and cultures you work within, or could it be better tailored for improved clarity and efficiency?
Is an imbalance of influence and opportunity impacting your team’s culture, and could this be improved with restructuring or a new approach?
How do you ensure that you’re meeting the needs of individual members within your team or group?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

Explore Our Archive

10 Elite Lessons For Every Leader

This week we’re highlighting another one of our new videos, in which Great Coaches host Paul shares 10 fantastic leadership insights that have been shared by elite-level coaches on our podcast. As he introduces the insights, Paul also speaks on how they apply to corporate environments, drawing upon his own experience as an international CEO and leader.

You can find the video here on our Youtube channel, alongside many other lessons, interviews, and insights designed to be shared and used by leaders and teams.

Join Our Best-Practice Coaching Groups

We’re starting our best-practice coaching groups again this year, with the first group being led by Professor Adam Nicholls.

The group will meet in the first week of the month, with each session focusing on a topic that relates to coaching or leadership.

Members pay a one-off cost of $600 AUD which covers 12 monthly sessions (that’s $50 AUD per session).

We currently have just 2 places remaining. If you would like to take part or want to learn more, please get in touch: paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com

Spread It Around

The Great Coaches newsletter is designed to be shared and discussed with colleagues, friends and family members.

If someone has shared this copy with you, then make sure to sign up to our mailing list so that you don’t miss the next issue!

Join Our Book Club

There’s still time to sign up for our next book club session on June 9th, when we’ll be discussing Pat Summitt’s ‘Sum It Up’.

Click here to register.

We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

Learn More

The Strength Behind The Scenes

Something that our podcast guests often stress is that there’s more to a successful team than just a coach and their players — in fact, it takes a number of dedicated people to keep everything running behind the scenes.

This article from BBC Sport introduces someone that you may not have heard about, but who has a very inspiring story. Alex McKechnie is a physiotherapist from Scotland who has worked with some of the NBA’s biggest names and whose work has had a massive impact on the way modern sport approaches injuries and physical strength. Even at the age of 74, his expertise is still in demand from teams across multiple different sports.

Alex has a fantastic story, and it’s a great reminder of the impact that hiring the right people can have on the success of your team and its culture.

NBA: Alex McKechnie on leap of faith that took him to star physio

BBC Sport charts the remarkable career of Alex McKechnie, who left Scotland to become one of the NBA's top physiotherapists with a reputation of saving basketball careers.

BBC Sport

Challenge Yourself with the Macquarie MBA

The program bridges the gap between theory and real-world application, bringing together world-leading professors, executives and industry partners to teach you how business can be used for good.

I have started working with the team at Macquarie on some projects and can attest to the quality of the people and material. To find out more, search for Macquarie University Business School’s MBA.

Find out more: https://www.mq.edu.au/macquarie-business-school/

Elevated Leadership

If you’re looking to improve your own leadership skills, get in touch with us at elevatedleadership.com.au

The Great Coaches: On Game Day

Caitie Rea — Thu, 14 May 2026 20:51:00 +0000

How Can You Effectively Communicate With Your Team?

As a leader, it’s important to know how to communicate with your team. From locker room speeches designed to motivate and encourage great performance to handling difficult conversations in the board room, team talks need to be effective, clear, and capable of inspiring action or reflection.

Today, we’ve released not one but two new podcast episodes, delving into how leaders can improve their ‘half-time talks’ and prepare better for communicating in the heat of the moment (or, as we call it, ‘on Game Day’).

For this conversation we were joined by Eamon Devlin, the founder of Minute9. Eamon’s consultancy works with some of the world’s most elite teams and coaches, and he had so many valuable insights and so much information to share that we couldn’t fit it all into just one episode.

You’ll learn what it means to deliver a good talk in the locker room or board room, what it is that people need to hear from you, and how to present information in a way that actually inspires behavioural change.

There’s a lot to digest from these episodes, but they’ll hopefully be a fantastic resource for you, no matter how much leadership experience you have.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Some key questions raised from today’s episode:

Are you confident in your ability to clearly communicate with your team, or do concerns about tone and reception prevent you from getting your point across?
Are you making the most of ‘half time’, and are you leaving the right lasting impression after your talks?
Are you using and sharing relevant resources effectively with your team?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

Explore Our Archive

Reflections on Building Connection

Recently, Great Coaches host Paul spent some time doing some reflecting of his own, and put together a video sharing what his interviews with more than 200 Great Coaches from across the world of sports has taught him about building real connection within teams.

Combining clips from past interviews with his own reflections on the insights they shared, Paul presents six ideas taken from the interviews that he believes can help leaders and coaches from all walks of life to improve the way their teams connect and relate with each other.

You can find the video here on our Youtube channel, alongside many other lessons, interviews, and insights designed to be shared and used by leaders and teams:

Spread It Around

The Great Coaches newsletter is designed to be shared and discussed with colleagues, friends and family members.

If someone has shared this copy with you, then make sure to sign up to our mailing list so that you don’t miss the next issue!

What 2,000 SaaS Companies Reveal About Growth in 2026

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We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

Learn More

The Great Coaches Book Club: Sum It Up by Pat Summitt

We’ve had some fantastic interest in our newly-formed Great Coaches book club, and we’d love for you to join us for our next session, discussing ‘Sum It Up’ by Pat Summitt.

Pat is a legendary basketball coach, and we’ve spoken about her previously in a special episode of our podcast. Her book, ‘Sum It Up’, reveals her fantastic perspective on a life and career that saw not only more than 1,098 victories, but also a fair share of difficulties, including the early-onset Alzheimer’s disease that would go on to claim her life.

We’ll be meeting on Zoom to discuss the book on June 9th at 8pm (GMT+10), which gives you plenty of time grab a copy and read it for yourself.

You can sign up to join in here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/h0MWM6ocSU6sJj2NqbeHoQ#/registration

Elevated Leadership

If you’re looking to improve your own leadership skills, get in touch with us at elevatedleadership.com.au

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The Great Coaches: Mike Cron

Caitie Rea — Thu, 07 May 2026 20:50:00 +0000

Mike Cron: The Power of Observation and Silence

This week’s podcast guest, Mike Cron, coached 2017 games for the New Zealand All Blacks during a stretch that saw them win 2 Rugby World Cups. He was also part of the team that led the New Zealand women’s team to the World Cup in 2022.

Having also worked with the national teams of both Wales and Japan, Mike is currently coaching the Australian Wallabies alongside head coach Joe Schmidt.

In our latest interview, you’ll hear us delve into Mike’s career and the insights he has taken from it, including:

His belief that great coaching (and management) is grounded in observation — watching behaviour, listening closely, and responding to what’s right in front of you (rather than following a script).
How borrowing ideas from across disciplines (such as balance and body awareness, learned from gymnastics or martial arts) and translating them into practical habits can help you to help others improve.
The potential (and often subconscious) vulnerability of “social loafing” and how he believes leaders and individuals should acknowledge and avoid it.

This was a great interview that left me with a lot to reflect on, as you’ll see below. Make sure to give it a listen — as always, we’d love to hear what you thought.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

The key questions raised from today’s episode:

Where am I being “firm” when I actually need to adapt — and what feedback would I need to hear (and accept) to make that change?
When leading and coaching, do I rely more on a script or on observation — and what would improve if d more comfortable with silence and listening?
In my team/work group, where might social loafing be showing up subtly, and what specific commitment can I make so that “it will not be me”?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

Explore Our Archive

The Great Coaches Book Club

As frequent listeners and newsletter readers will know, book recommendations often crop up during our interviews and many of our guests have written books themselves. Often we share the books here in the newsletter or mention them briefly during the podcast, but it seemed only right that we start to delve into them in a bit more depth.

Introducing: the Great Coaches book club.

Last week, we shared the first book club discussion episode. Led by Dr David Turner, a Senior Lecturer in Sports Coaching at Anglia Ruskin University in the United Kingdom, we discussed “World’s Best” by Ric Charlesworth, the iconic Australian field hockey coach.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with his career, Ric led both the Australian and Men's Hockey teams to World Cup victories, and also coached the women’s team to an Olympic Gold. He has also worked in Cricket and Australian Rules Football, is a medical doctor, and spent 10 years working as a federal politician.

It was a brilliant discussion of an incredibly insightful book, and hopefully one that you’ll be convinced to pick up and read for yourself.

Listen to the full book club episode below, and make sure to get in touch if you’d like to get involved: paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Spread It Around

The Great Coaches newsletter is designed to be shared and discussed with colleagues, friends and family members.

If someone has shared this copy with you, then make sure to sign up to our mailing list so that you don’t miss the next issue!

What happens when the S&P moves 3% during your commute?

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We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

Learn More

The Future of Football

How will AI shape the world of sports, and what can we expect to see changing in the next ten years?

This short video from BBC Sport takes a look at how AI and the application of data analysis may change the future of soccer (football) in the near distant future — an interesting thing to consider when many of us are no doubt considering how AI might change our own work and lives.

Football in 10 years: Are we heading for a data revolution?

Could data, powered by AI, help bring about a revolution in football? BBC Sport investigates the technological advances that could change the game.

BBC Sport

Elevated Leadership

If you’re looking to improve your own leadership skills, get in touch with us at elevatedleadership.com.au

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The Great Coaches: Bob Shillinglaw

Caitie Rea — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 20:50:00 +0000

Bob Shillinglaw: The Importance of Mental Skills

For our latest podcast episode, we were joined by Bob Shillinglaw, an American lacrosse coach with over 4 decades of college coaching experience.

Of Bob’s 42 years coaching at the college level, 39 of them have been spent leading the University of Delaware’s mens lacrosse team. He has coached an astounding 654 games — more than any other lacrosse coach in history — and is one of only 2 coaches to have seen over 300 wins. Bob’s teams have been to the NCAA tournament on 6 occasions, and in 2007 they made it to the final 4.

In the midst of all that, Bob also led Team USA to their win over Canada in the 1999 Lacrosse World Cup.

With such a considerable and successful coaching career under his belt, Bob naturally had some fantastic leadership insights to share during our interview. Some highlights for me included:

His view on the importance of mental skills training — particularly the key components of visualisation, emotional triggering and goal setting — and how he introduced a course in mental strategies for athletic performance at the University of Delaware while working there.
The value of communication, clearly expressing your thoughts, and ensuring that the thoughts of the staff and team can be heard (even when they’re wearing padding and equipment).
The need for managing your emotions to avoid losing focus, but also matching the emotions of a moment if it can help prompt someone to a higher level of performance.

Listening to Bob raised a few questions for reflection for me, which you can find below. I’d love to hear if any of his points particularly resonated with you, too.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

The key questions raised from today’s episode:

Am I training my own mental skills enough?
How can I clearly express my thoughts to improve my communication style?
How can I introduce competitive fun into my team environment?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

Explore Our Archive

What 200+ Coaches Taught Me…

In each episode of our newsletter, we look at a different lesson that you can take and use within your own leadership.

This week I want to share a video that we recently posted to our Youtube channel, sharing the eight key lessons on winning cultures that our host Paul has learned from interviewing more than 200 Great Coaches.

From the importance of organisational culture to why team building should be considered more vital than strategy, in this sixteen-minute video you’ll get a fantastic overview of what it takes to build (and maintain) a winning team culture.

You can find this video, and many others, on our Youtube — make sure to share it with anyone who may benefit from it!

Spread It Around

The Great Coaches newsletter is designed to be shared and discussed with colleagues, friends and family members.

If someone has shared this copy with you, then make sure to sign up to our mailing list so that you don’t miss the next issue!

Every headline satisfies an opinion. Except ours.

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We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

Learn More

Trying Something New

This week I want to share this article from The Athletic, which follows Michigan basketball coach Dusty May as he turns to the world of teaching and consults Doug Lemov, a writer specialising in the practices of high-performing teachers.

It’s a fantastic reminder that sometimes the insight and support we need might come from an unexpected or unfamiliar angle — just like how the knowledge we pick up from Great Coaches in the world of sports can be applied to business, your family, and many other environments that you may find yourself in.

Dusty May watched film with a former principal. It’s a secret to Michigan’s success

"When you know someone loves you … and they criticize or try to fix you," May said, "you know it's coming from a great place."

The Athletic • Rustin Dodd

Elevated Leadership

If you’re looking to improve your own leadership skills, get in touch with us at elevatedleadership.com.au

The Great Coaches: On Burnout

Caitie Rea — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 06:37:22 +0000

Avoiding Burnout with Dr Weeks and Dr Meany

Last week, we released a special lesson episode looking at the topic of ‘Burnout’ — something that many leaders experience during their career. For the discussion, we were joined by two fantastic guests who really know their stuff:

Dr Gavin Weeks — a Doctor of Psychology, an Associate Fellow at Oxford Sayyid Business School, and the Director of Innovation and Development at the Thompson Harrison Consultancy
Dr Brendan Meany — a certified Mental Performance Consultant (focusing on implementing high-performance skills to optimise human potential in both sports and corporate spaces) and Chief Performance Officer at LiveFirstAI.com

During the episode, we took a closer look at burnout — what it is, how it occurs — and then discussed ways that it can be managed and avoided through the use of psychological principles and particular leadership practices. It was a very insightful and interesting discussion, and highlighted a number of skills and ideas that would be valuable to any leader’s toolbox, such as:

Identifying the factors that can lead to burnout, and its signs, in other leaders, team members, and ourselves
The importance of delegating and understanding that you can’t be present at all times
How to self-reflect and assess the sustainability of your current practices

Make sure to catch the full lesson now!

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

The key questions raised from today’s episode:

Are there any people in my organisation who may be needing support or experiencing burnout?
Am I putting too much pressure on myself to be perfect and present?
Are the practices integrated in my leadership and my organisation sustainable?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

Explore Our Archive

A Library of Insights

Usually, in this part of the newsletter, we focus on one particular leadership topic or insight related to the week’s podcast episode and share additional thoughts and resources to help you fully integrate it into your leadership.

This week, however, we’re letting you know that our podcast archive is now available FREE in video form for you on our Youtube channel.

We’ve been working to turn our insightful and popular podcast episodes into easily-sharable Youtube videos, and there are plenty more to come. On our channel, you can now episodes and lessons focusing on a number of the topics that matter to you and your leadership, including people skills, club culture, and more.

Each video is titled so that you can clearly see who the interview is with and what skill or insight they address. It’s easy to search the collection and then share them with colleagues and friends who may not use traditional podcast platforms, or to embed them in emails or social media posts.

Make sure to head over to our channel now to explore our library of videos today!

Spread It Around

The Great Coaches newsletter is designed to be shared and discussed with colleagues, friends and family members.

If someone has shared this copy with you, then make sure to sign up to our mailing list so that you don’t miss the next issue!

We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

Learn More

On Losing the Dressing Room

Have you ever heard the phrase “losing the dressing room”? It’s being used more and more in the world of football/soccer, and refers to managers and coaches who might be ‘on the way out’.

In this article from the BBC, writer Phil McNulty looks at the phrase and its meanings, as well as some of the problems occurring behind-the-scenes that may lead to managers losing their positions in the world of football. He also explores the influence that players have in the world of modern football and asks: “can a manager recover a ‘lost’ dressing room?”.

A very interesting article that has relevance far outside the world of football.

'Losing the dressing room' - what can it mean? How does it happen?

"Losing the dressing room" is now part of football's vocabulary. Chief football writer Phil McNulty asks what it means, how it happens and can it be solved?

BBC Sport

Elevated Leadership

If you’re looking to improve your own leadership skills, get in touch with us at elevatedleadership.com.au

The Great Coaches: Eddie O'Sullivan

Caitie Rea — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 06:09:10 +0000

Eddie O’Sullivan: The Magic Formula

Our Great Coach this week is Irish rugby union coach Eddie O’Sullivan.

Eddie played rugby at provincial level in Ireland and worked as a PE teacher before coming a coach. From there, his rugby coaching career would go on for 35 years and include roles across his native Ireland as well as in the USA and France.

Eddie’s journey has seen him coach at 5 Rugby World Cups as well as leading Ireland to win 3 Triple Crowns. Under his coaching, the Irish team won 50 tests and climbed to #3 in the world ranking.

More recently, Eddie has been working as a Technical Advisor to both Brown University and Notre Dame, and he currently consults with a number of Major League rugby franchises in the US.

During our interview, we spoke about a number of highlights and insights from Eddie’s career, including:

Why the utilising of innovation and difference, and getting others to believe in change, is one of the things he enjoyed most about coaching.
The importance of being an ‘emotional leader’ in order to convey messages effectively, but also why you need to be willing to quickly apologise when emotions overshadow those messages.
What living in America taught him about the need for quick and succinct communication in training environments, and why you shouldn’t worry about many voices speaking at once.

This was a great discussion that brought out a number of valuable insights on the topic of good communication, which is something a lot of leaders can struggle with. I hope you’ll take a lot from it when you give it a listen.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

The key questions raised from today’s episode:

What role does leading innovation play in my leadership?
Am I too emotional as a leader?
Is the idea of one voice at a time the right one for my organisation?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

Explore Our Archive

Communicating Across Cultures

In each episode of our newsletter, we look at a different lesson that you can take and use within your own leadership.

In this week’s interview, Great Coach Eddie O’Sullivan speaks a lot about communication, and also shares what his time working in America taught him about different ways of communicating.

When it comes to communicating effectively, we often fall into the trap of thinking that what works in one environment will work in another — but this is rarely the case. Parents will know that if you speak to your children the same way you speak in the boardroom, you won’t have much success (and vice versa). Likewise, cultural and generational nuances can mean that what one person considers a quick and effective message could be taken as rude and abrupt by someone else.

So, how can a leader ensure that they communicate well in every environment? The answer lies in an often-forgotten part of communication: listening. When approaching new groups or cultures, take the time to listen and observe the interactions happening around you. What tones are being used? How are messages being conveyed? Do voices tend to overlap and battle for dominance when working together, or does every person speak in turn, ensuring that every voice is eventually heard?

As a leader, you can (and should) of course always be looking for ways to improve communication and make systems more effective. However, your approach will often need to be tailored to the environment you enter, and there’s a lot to be learned from stopping to listen, observe, and attempting to match the communication styles that already exist.

In the clip below, another Great Coach, Alf Galustian, shares what time spent in Japan taught him about effective communication.

Spread It Around

The Great Coaches newsletter is designed to be shared and discussed with colleagues, friends and family members.

If someone has shared this copy with you, then make sure to sign up to our mailing list so that you don’t miss the next issue!

We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

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On Player-To-Coach Pipelines

Many of the Great Coaches we’ve interviewed for this podcast were previously successful players in their sports, but is a background in playing the secret ingredient to becoming a successful coach?

In this think piece, Nathan Wood reflects on the tendency for elite athletes to be encouraged into coaching upon retirement and shares why he believes great coaching and great playing are actually completely different crafts that don’t always go hand-in-hand.

A very interesting read that considers why not every player-turned-coach sees the same level of success as our podcast guests.

Coaching Is a Craft — Not a Reward for Playing Well

Why Fast-Tracking Elite Players into Coaching Is Often a False Economy Fast-tracking elite players into senior coaching roles sounds logical. It often isn’t. There has been renewed discussion about…

nathanwood.consulting/2026/02/22/coaching-is-a-craft-not-a-reward-for-playing-well

Elevated Leadership

If you’re looking to improve your own leadership skills, get in touch with us at elevatedleadership.com.au

The Great Coaches: John Aloisi

Caitie Rea — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 21:50:00 +0000

John Aloisi: The Scoring Mindset

This week’s podcast guest is Australian soccer coach John Aloisi.

Prior to his retirement in 2011, John Aloisi played soccer professionally, enjoying a 20-year career spanning Europe and Australia’s top leagues and becoming the first Australian to play and score in La Liga, the Premier League, and Serie A.

Internationally, Aloisi earned 55 caps for the Socceroos, scoring 27 goals, and also represented Australia at the 2006 World Cup, three Confederations Cups, and the 2004 Olympics.

Post-retirement, Aloisi transitioned into coaching, managing Melbourne Heart and Brisbane Roar. Since 2021 he has been leading Western United, guiding them to their very first A-League Mens Championship in 2022.

After retiring in 2011, Aloisi transitioned into coaching. He managed Melbourne Heart, Brisbane Roar, and since 2021 has led Western United, guiding them to their first A-League Men Championship in 2022.

Aloisi shared some fantastic leadership insights during our interview that raised a number of points for me to reflect on (see below). Some highlights were:

His use of positive affirmations, visualisation, meditation and the verbalising of gratitude in order to strengthen his mindset and to help him recover from heart surgery.
His redefining of failure not as missing a scoring opportunity, but rather as putting yourself in an attacking position due to a fear of missing.
The reduced gap between the technical abilities of elite-level players, and how this places a greater emphasis on mental strength and belief.

This was a very inspiring and thoughtful interview, and I think you’ll take a lot from it — I certainly did.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

The key questions raised from today’s episode:

Do you verbalise gratitude enough?
How can you better redefine failure for your team?
What forms of mental strength training could you instigate for your team?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

Explore Our Archive

It’s All In The Mind

In each episode of our newsletter, we look at a different lesson that you can take and use within your own leadership.

In this week’s interview, you’ll hear Great Coach John Aloisi speak quite a bit about mindset, affirmations, and visualisation. He shares how positive mindsets and vocal gratitude helped him to recover during a difficult period of his life, but also the role that mental strength and belief can play when it comes to competitions between elite-level athletes who possess similar technical abilities.

One of the questions that this week’s episode will encourage you to think about is how you can instigate mental strength training within your team, but one simple step you can take is to address negative self-talk with the use of daily positive affirmations.

In the clip below, past guest Vern Gambetta speaks on the simple children’s book he shares with new athletes and the frame of reference it provides for combatting negative self-talk.

Spread It Around

The Great Coaches newsletter is designed to be shared and discussed with colleagues, friends and family members.

If someone has shared this copy with you, then make sure to sign up to our mailing list so that you don’t miss the next issue!

We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

Learn More

Building The Complete Athlete

We shared a clip from one of our past interviews with Great Coach Vern Gambetta earlier in this newsletter, but if you’d like to delve further into his leadership and coaching insights and experience, then his new book ‘Building The Complete Athlete’ is a great place to start.

This book combines science, art and theory to present a comprehensive framework for training and developing high-performing athletes, no matter what age or stage you may be working with.

It’s full of practical advice that you can easily put into practice, and is written in such a way that you can fully comprehend the experience and theory that goes behind every idea and concept.

Building the Complete Athlete – Gambetta, V.

www.hmmrmedia.com/store/books/building-the-complete-athlete

Elevated Leadership

If you’re looking to improve your own leadership skills, get in touch with us at elevatedleadership.com.au

The Great Coaches: Sam Bird

Caitie Rea — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 21:55:00 +0000

Sam Bird: Somebody Will Have Your Back

This week’s podcast guest is Netball coach Sam Bird.

In her playing days, Sam represented England until retiring at age 24 with a knee injury. From there, she carved out a long career as a lawyer, working with the London Metropolitan Police.

When the United Kingdom Netball Super League formed in 2005, Sam began acting as an Assistant with the London Mavericks. By 2014 she had become the team’s Head Coach, and in 2016 she was appointed as the Head Coach of a new franchise: Severn Stars.

In 2019 Sam joined the London Pulse as their Head Coach, leading them to the treble of the Super League title, the Super Cup, and the NPL tournament in 2025.

This was a fantastic interview, and Sam shared some wonderful leadership insights. A few that really resonated with me were:

How the support and kindness that athletes receive as they build careers through youth teams results in loyalty and a sense of connection, as well as the message that somebody will always have your back on a bad day.
The power of mentors (in Sam’s case that was Great Coach Lisa Alexander) who can use the right questions to help you form your own decisions.
The value of promoting ambition and being brave, regardless of what others might say.

Make sure to give the interview a listen — as always, I’d love to hear what parts particularly stood out to you.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

The key questions raised from today’s episode:

Do the people in your organisation feel that somebody will have their back on a bad day?
Are you engaging with mentors enough to frame challenging questions about yourself?
Are you frequently recognising and highlighting examples of ambition and bravery?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

Explore Our Archive

When Things Get Rough

In each episode of our newsletter, we look at a different lesson that you can take and use within your own leadership.

During this week’s interview, Great Coach Sam Bird spoke about how the kindness and support shown to athletes in London Pulse youth teams translates into an assurance that somebody will have their back on their hardest days.

Similarly, in the clip below, past guest Dr Troy Urdahl spoke about how his children’s teammates supported them and ‘showed up’ for them when they were facing the loss of a grandparent.

This sense of community and belonging is as important in adulthood as it is during youth, and it’s something that leaders should seek to encourage and develop within their teams. From team-building exercises to moments of openness and honesty when individuals can be encouraged to be vulnerable with others, there are a number of ways that this sense of connection can be fostered.

Looking for ideas on how to create a team that can support and rely on one another? Take a listen to our lessons on Connection, Great Teamwork and Thriving Teams — they’re available wherever you normally listen to the podcast!

Spread It Around

The Great Coaches newsletter is designed to be shared and discussed with colleagues, friends and family members.

If someone has shared this copy with you, then make sure to sign up to our mailing list so that you don’t miss the next issue!

We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

Learn More

Sporting Success, Revolutionary Tech

It’s impossible to go through your day without hearing about (or using) AI nowadays, and while the technology continues to change the way we work, it’s also having an impact on the world of sport.

For this article from BBC Sport, two journalists explore how AI is being used by the England men’s football team to help strengthen performance and proactively approach upcoming challenges — including penalty taking, improving player welfare, and uncovering opponent weaknesses.

It’s an interesting take on the technology, and also raises some very important questions about how AI could widen gaps between teams with different financial situations and how it could impact sports-industry jobs in the future.

England World Cup draw: Could AI help Thomas Tuchel win 2026 tournament?

BBC Sport hears from inside the England setup about how artificial intelligence is powering plans for next summer's World Cup.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cj0e7y754zpo

Stop Wasting Time

Sport is obsessed with time…yet we waste so much in meetings. ⏳

As part of my Professional Doctorate and my work as a High Performance communications Consultant, I’ve analysed, designed, and improved 100s of meetings in sport.

Now, I’m launching a pilot starting from March 9th to align your meetings to matchday.

The Details:

What: A series of analysis and co-design sessions to enhance your meetings
Who: Driven and curious coaches at any level (Grassroots to Pro)
When: Intake begins March 9th

Limited spots remaining.

For more information, get in touch: dsharkey@polaristeams.com

Elevated Leadership

If you’re looking to improve your own leadership skills, get in touch with us at elevatedleadership.com.au

The Great Coaches Newsletter

Caitie Rea — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 22:00:21 +0000

Mickey Arthur: Corrosive Comfort Zones

Our podcast guest this week is South African-Australian cricket coach, Mickey Arthur.

Mickey has coached 4 of the 12 Test cricket-playing nations in the world: South Africa, Australia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. His career has seen him lead the South African team to be number one in all cricket formats (and to scoring a record 438 in a One-Day International against Australia), as well as coaching Pakistan to number one in the T20 and Test format, as well as a Champions trophy.

He was also the first non-Australian to coach the Australian Test team, as well as being the head coach for Jamaica in the Caribbean Premier League, the Karachi Kings in Pakistan, and the Rangpur Riders in Bangladesh.

Currently, Mickey is the head coach of the Derbyshire County Cricket Club and the Rangpur Riders.

Listening back to the recording before we published this week’s episode, there were a number of key highlights that stood out to me:

The role that standards play in defining the culture of the team, and how Mickey introduces these standards (or ‘non-negotiables’, as he calls them) when he starts working with a team.
The three key pillars of Mickey’s philosophy (non-negotiables, brand, and role) and how he defines the interconnections between them in the team environment.
His view that the best coaches are silent; using concise feedback to help challenge and propel athletes forward rather than over-talking.
The corrosive nature of the comfort zone, and how he uses challenge to help athletes escape this space.

Mickey’s words made me reflect on a number of elements of my own leadership: should I be using non-negotiables as a leader? Am I guilty of over-talking? Should I be challenging more within my own team?

Listeners will, I think, be left wondering about their own techniques and approaches to leadership — I’d love to hear if anything he says particularly resonates with you, and how you act upon it in your own team environment.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

The key questions raised from this week’s interview:

How can you incorporate non-negotiables in my own leadership style?
Do you use concise feedback that helps to challenge and guide your team, or do you over-talk?
How can you help your team members to leave their comfort zones?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

Explore Our Archive

Try Listening

In each episode of our newsletter, we look at a different lesson that you can take and use within your own leadership.

This week, our guest Mickey Arthur speaks about the danger of ‘over-talking’, and why he believes the best coaches are the ones who prioritise listening over speaking.

This is something that several of our past guests have spoken about, including Sean Quirk, who joined us for his own interview a few years ago. As he shares in this great clip, most leaders focus on the talking side of communication, but actively listening plays a vital and often understated role.

How do you communicate with your team? Are you actively listening, or are you just listening out for opportunities to give your own opinions and responses? Do you fully digest and comprehend what the people around you are saying, and do they feel listened to?

This week, pay attention to the way you listen. Try to listen not with the aim of participating and responding, but instead focus on really grasping and absorbing the perspectives and ideas of the people you talk to.

Spread It Around

The Great Coaches newsletter is designed to be shared and discussed with colleagues, friends and family members.

If someone has shared this copy with you, then make sure to sign up to our mailing list so that you don’t miss the next issue!

We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

Learn More

Supporting Young Athletes

For those of you in a position of leadership over children (whether that be coaching a children’s sports team, working with teenagers, or even as a parent), it can be difficult to know how best to encourage and support them to face the pressures of life and sport.

We always aim to create well-rounded, adaptable young people who can take on challenges and make the most of their talents, but knowing how to help them reach their potential can be a particular sticking point.

This great book addresses a number of the challenges children and young athletes face as they grow up, sharing actionable ideas and insights into how best to support them at each stage. A great blend of the authors’ child development and leadership experience, it offers a lot of value to any parent, coach or leader seeking to help develop stronger, more durable young people.

The Complete Athletic Strengths System for Young Athletes

Ignite All 24 Character Superpowers to Achieve Peak Performance and Lifelong Mental Toughness

amzn.asia/d/0cnUE6T6

Elevated Leadership

If you’re looking to improve your own leadership skills, get in touch with us at elevatedleadership.com.au

The Great Coaches: On Connection

Caitie Rea — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 21:59:14 +0000

Connection: The Biggest Predictor of Success

Today’s podcast is a special one, focusing on the topic of ‘Connection’.

In order to really dive deep into the topic and explore the impact that it can have on team performance, I used audio clips taken from 10 of the 214 interviews that we have held with Great Coaches for this podcast.

These audio clips, and the voices of the coaches, compliment and amplify each other in such a way that by the end of the episode I hope you’ll have a few good new ideas on how to improve the connection within your own sporting, work, or community groups.

It’s always great to create episodes like this, revisiting and re-examining some of the fantastic insights and advice that our guests provide during interviews. I hope you’ll enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed making it — as always, make sure to let me know your thoughts!

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

The key questions raised from today’s episode:

What are you doing when you are apart, to prepare for the times when you will come together?
What can you do to be more authentic with each other?
How can you share more information about yourselves with each other in order to deepen understanding of what drives each person?
How can you use daily, small moments to stay connected?
What more could you do to understand the linkages between the people who support you?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

Explore Our Archive

How Emotions Impact Relationships

In each episode of our newsletter, we look at a different lesson that you can take and use within your own leadership.

This week’s podcast is looking at the topic of ‘Connection’, and how leaders can strengthen relationships within their groups and teams.

It can take a while to establish meaningful connections and strong relationships with others; unfortunately, those connections can be damaged far more quickly. In the clip below, past podcast guest Markus Weise speaks about how his emotional response — to ignore his team for two days because they had performed poorly at a highly-significant time — had a negative impact on his relationship with his players.

When we allow our emotions to dictate our responses, or when we shut down avenues of communication, we can make lasting, negative impacts on relationships, connections, and environments. The people around us can feel unappreciated, uncertain, and hurt, and the result can be negative self-talk, unwelcoming environments, and poor performance.

Now is a great time to consider your own leadership and actions. Is there anything that you do that could be negatively impacting the connections that you actually wish to build or strengthen?

Spread It Around

The Great Coaches newsletter is designed to be shared and discussed with colleagues, friends and family members.

If someone has shared this copy with you, then make sure to sign up to our mailing list so that you don’t miss the next issue!

We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

Learn More

Leader, Manager, Coach

Many of you will be familiar with Sir Gareth Southgate, who was Manager of the England national football (soccer) team until 2024. Gareth regularly appears on podcasts, in articles, and on social media sharing his insights into both leadership and the world of football, and recently he shared an interesting post on LinkedIn that caught my eye.

In this short piece, Gareth examines the differences between a ‘leader’, a ‘manager’, and a ‘coach’. In his sport, these words can often be used interchangeably (particularly the terms ‘Manager’ and ‘Head Coach’), but Gareth assigns different values to them, writing in the context of several big-name teams parting ways with their own managers in recent weeks.

A very interesting but quick read that should get you thinking.

Manager v Head Coach

In the last fortnight, three of Europe’s biggest football clubs Real Madrid, Manchester United and Chelsea have parted company with their Head Coaches. Of the three Enzo Maresca served the longest period at 18 months.

www.linkedin.com/pulse/manager-v-head-coach-gareth-southgate-pncne

Build Connection With MberX

One of the easiest ways to build connection in your team is through a footy tipping competition.

MberX lets workplaces run private tipping comps that get everyone involved, not just footy fanatics. It’s free, easy to set up, and gives teams something to talk about on a Monday morning.

MberX is built by fans and made for today.

If you are looking for a simple way to bring your team together, sign-up at mberx.com — download the app, and set up a workplace tipping comp today.

Elevated Leadership

If you’re looking to improve your own leadership skills, get in touch with us at elevatedleadership.com.au

The Great Coaches Newsletter

Caitie Rea — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 22:00:17 +0000

Anders Torstensson: Stressful Leaders, Stressful Organisations

Our first podcast guest of 2026 is Anders Torstensson, but this isn’t an episode just about him and his career — no, it’s also an episode about his team, Mjallby, and their triumph in winning the Swedish top tier football competition last year.

For those of you who are unaware, Mjallby is a town of 14,000 people. Their team’s budget is only 12% of that of the richest club in their league, Malmo, and their stadium holds only 6000 people. Many of the team’s players live in apartments together, and carpool to training with each other.

In 2017, Mjallby was in the fourth flight of Swedish football. Now, thanks to their victory, they’ve qualified to take part in the Champions League qualifiers.

At their helm, you’ll find Anders. A former school principal and military officer, he has been involved with the team on-and-off since being a player there in the 1980s. In 2023 he became the team’s coach on a full-time, professional basis, and has since led them to a championship in what many believe is one of the greatest underdog stories in European football.

There were so many brilliant highlights during this episode for me. Some of the key ones include:

Anders’ focus on being calm, because the right decisions won’t be made under stress (something he learned in the military). This calmness extends to not screaming on the pitch, and sometimes taking a day to think and consider before delivering feedback.
How his diagnosis of Leukaemia did not prevent him from doing his job, and how it instead taught him to focus on the process of looking for solutions to the problems before him. As he says, “it’s just you that can stress yourself. They can put pressure on me, but no one can stress me.”
How a background in the military and as a school principal has helped him to develop his leadership skills, especially regarding working with people’s inner and outer motivations.

This was a very inspiring and interesting interview to record, and I can’t wait to hear your feedback on it.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

The key questions raised from Anders’ interview:

What can I do better to work with people’s inner and outer motivations?
How can I use my voice better in order to convey a sense of calm?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

Explore Our Archive

A Look At Stress

In each episode of our newsletter, we look at a different lesson that you can take and use within your own leadership.

In this week’s podcast episode, Anders Torstensson spoke on the topic of stress and why he places a significant focus on staying calm and level-headed, especially when making decisions.

We speak a lot with our guests about how leaders can manage their own stress, but how about managing the stress of your team members or athletes?

In this clip from our past interview with Great Coach Ben Darwin, he shares the impact that uncertainty can have on confidence and stress levels. In an environment where expectations and plans are constantly changing, stress levels can skyrocket.

How can you help to remove stress from the people you lead? One easy way is to be clear and upfront about established, unchanging expectations. Another is to ensure that your team are aware of plans (and of the potential changes that may be made to them). It’s also a good idea to speak to the people in your team, and to ask them what areas of their work or environment are causing them stress or uncertainty.

Spread It Around

The Great Coaches newsletter is designed to be shared and discussed with colleagues, friends and family members.

If someone has shared this copy with you, then make sure to sign up to our mailing list so that you don’t miss the next issue!

We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

Learn More

On Chris King and Changing Shift

If you’re a fan of Ted Lasso and looking for something new to watch, then this 10-part documentary series from The Coaches Site may be exactly what you’re looking for.

The series follows the story of Chris King (considered something of a real-life Lasso), one of Canada’s most successful women’s basketball coaches now leading the Lloydminster Lancers in the Alberta Elite Hockey League.

So, how did a successful basketball coach end up in the world of Hockey? His story is a brilliant one — and one that may hold special appeal to those of you who have been considering (or talking yourself out of) a ‘shift change’ of your own.

Introducing: Shift Change

Imagine a top-tier coach switching sports entirely - not just levels or leagues, but a complete pivot from one game to another. Seems impossible, right? Meet Chris King.

members.thecoachessite.com/article/introducing-shift-change

Elevated Leadership

If you’re looking to improve your own leadership skills, get in touch with us at elevatedleadership.com.au