The Great Coaches: Leadership & Life

Our Great Coach on this episode is Gareth Taylor.Gareth played as a professional football player for 18 seasons, playing for Bristol Rovers, Crystal Palace, Manchester City, Burnley and Nottingham Forest among others teams.He retired in 2011 and started coaching youth teams at Manchester City. After 8 years in the City Academy, he was appointed Head Coach of the Women’s team and led them to a FA Cup title in 2020 and the League Cup title in 2022.Some of the key highlights of the interview for me were:How he defines his purpose on this planet as helping people; and how understanding this has helped him focus his energies and life.The importance of their review process, which they complete using a multi-disciplinary team, in order to drive improved performance on the pitch.And the importance of risk taking in the culture at Man City and how he goes about empowering people to do this.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s episode is on the topic of Habits, and we are joined for the discussion by Allistair McCaw, who has just written a terrific new book called Habits that Make a Champion.Allistair is that rare person who excels across disciplines and industries. In addition to being an author who has sold over 300,000 books, his podcast ranks in the top 1% in the world, and for the last 25 years he has also consulted and worked with Olympic Gold Marriage, Grand Slam Champions, Fortune 500 companies, NCAA Colleges, and Professional sports teams. And you will hear him mention some of the these in this terrific interview.Allistair also has a fantastic social media presence.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our Great Coach on this episode is Doug Maclean.Doug is a former Ice Hockey Head Coach, GM, and sportscaster.His coaching career started in his hometown of Summerside in 1977 with High School teams. By 1990 he had his first professional job leading the Baltimore Skipjacks.A successful stint there, saw him move to the Detroit Red Wings as an assistant coach, and ultimately to the Head Coach role at the Florida Panthers in 1995. In his first season he led them to the Stanley Cup playoffs.In ‘98 he moved to the Columbus Bluejackets as the GM and commenced the second phase of his career. Then in 2008 he rounded out his career in professional hockey by moving into broadcasting.Doug is a great story teller and some of the highlights of our discussion were;•How one of the most rewarding experiences of his life was starting a franchise from scratch.•His view on being direct and that you can never be too honest, even though he once made a NHL player cry.•And , how in a healthy team culture, players want to get to practice and they care about doing their bit for the group.This was a wonderful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this podcast we discuss the Mens and Womens Ashes with Michelle Goszko and John Buchanan and in particular the way Leadership has influenced both teams. If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This podcast is on the topic of Competitive excellence, and we are joined for the discussion with one our past guests the Great Coach Hugh McCutcheon who has just written a book called Championship Behaviours. Hugh played Volleyball for New Zealand national Junior and Senior teams before transitioning into coaching. In 2005 he was appointed as Head Coach of the USA mens team who went to win the Gold medal at the 2008 Olympics. Then in 2008 he was appointed coach of the USA women’s team, and led them to a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics. Some of the key highlights of our discussion are: How a focus on competitive excellence helps you build a life of achievement, and not solely a focus on the winning achievements. His core philosophy of preparing your self to be at your best when the best is needed. And How you honour your commitment to your own life by trying to the best you can be, and this requires you to look being just performing better than your competitors. Instead it requires you to use use your competitors to improve your own performance. If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our Great Coach on this episode is rowing’s, Paul Thompson.Paul started coaching in his early 20’s when a hand injury impacted his ability to compete as a rower. He’s coached at the last 8 Olympic Games leading teams from Australia, Britain and China, and at each of these games his teams have won medals. He coached the team of Kate Slatter and Megan Still to Australia's first women's Olympic rowing gold at Atlanta 1996. In 2004, he became Great Britain's head coach for the Women and Lightweights squad, and has led the team to win 45 medals at the World Championships including 17 gold medals. While over the Beijing, London and Rio Olympics, the squad won 11 medals including 5 gold. Then at 2021 Tokyo Olympics he led the Chinese women’s quad to Gold.He has also authored 2 books on Rowing and in 2013 was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).Paul is the type of person who you feel instantly at ease with. The long arc of his career has given him deep experience with the high and lows of life in elite sport and human endeavor, and this shines through in the way he talks about life and leadership.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This podcast is on the topic of Energy amd we are joined for the discussion by Dr Gavin Weeks.Gavin is a Doctor of Psychology, an Associate Fellow at Oxford Said Business School and a Partner at the consultancy Thompson Harrison.Gavin can be reached through his company's website: ⁠https://www.thompsonharrison.com/⁠If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our Great Coach on this episode is Ben Davison.Ben is British boxing coach.At just 29 years of age, he is an outlier in the world of Boxing coaches, who have often toil away for decades before experiencing the type of success Ben has enjoyed.In 2017 he joined up with Tyson Fury and helped him return to the ring and set out on the journey that would ultimately see him claim the WBC Heavyweight championship.Ben has gone on to work with other world champions including Billy Joe Saunders the undisputed world champions Josh Taylor, Devin Haney, and Leigh Wood.Some of the highlights from the interview include:How his ability to view each flight as if it is a blank canvas, more than makes up for his lack of experience as an actual boxer.How he tries to look beyond the movement of the fighters to understand their decision making.How he drives himself to match the commitment that that drives the physical, emotional and mental preparation of his fighters.And the importance of managing your ego so that you don’t take unnecessary risk in the ring.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this podcast we discuss the 3rd Ashes Test and in particual the way that Belief and Doubt shape performance. If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mike is a renowned basketball coach who is has led teams in US College, the NBA and in Australia.He started as a College Assistant in 1980 before becoming the Head Coach of Cal Lutheran in 1989. In 1994 he moved to Australia and led the Adelaide 36ers in the |National League before returning to the USA in 1997 to lead Metro State. That team went on to win National Championships in 2000 and 2002. In 2006 he went to the NBA for the first time as an Assistant at Denver, before returning to University of Arizona as Head Coach. In 2011 he was chosen by Michal Jordan to lead the Charlotte Bobcats in the NBA. Then in 2020, Mike returned to the NBA as an Assistant Coach with Milwaukee Bucks and was with them then they defeated the Phoenix Suns to win their first NBA Championship in 2021.In this terrific interview some of the key highlights were:•The importance of a leader balancing inclusivity with also moving to a position of clarity where they can see broadly and make decisions for the benefit of the group.•His belief that the word perfection is dangerous because it is so volatile, and that the quest for perfect practice just makes people miserable.•How vulnerability is endearing to the people you lead.•And the wonderful quote he shares, that a master teacher knows the outcome before she or he starts, the good teacher kind of knows the outcome.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.