The Great Coaches: Leadership & Life

Our Great Coach on this episode is Nancy Lieberman.Nancy is that rare individual who has had both a successful playing and coaching career. And her career highlights are so many that this introduction is a long one!She grew up in Queens in New York, learning to play basketball on the courts of Harlem and then as a High School senior she represented the USA at the Olympics and won a silver medal.From 1976 to 1980, she attended Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and played on the team that won 2 National Championships.In 1980 she was selected with the first pick in the Women's Pro Basketball League (WBL) draft by the Dallas Diamonds. Then in 1981, she played for the Los Angeles Lakers Mens Summer Pro League team under the future hall of famer Pat Riley. In 1986 she signed with the Springfield Fame of the men's professional United States Basketball League. Later, she toured with the Washington Generals, who served as the regular opponent of the Harlem Globetrotters.In the newly formed WNBA's inaugural year in 1997, she played for the Phoenix Mercury and At the age of 39, she was the WNBA's oldest playerShe transitioned in to coaching in 1998 as the Head Coach of the WNBA team the Detroit Shock.In 2009, she then became the coach of the Texas Legends in the NBA Development League, an affiliate of the Dallas Mavericks, thus becoming the first woman to coach a professional men's basketball team..In 2015, she was hired by the Sacramento Kings as an assistant coach, becoming the second female assistant coach in NBA history.And then in 2018 she was hired as the Head Coach of the Power in the Big3 league and led the team to the championship in her first year.We were very lucky to get this interview with Nancy, 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.

Our Great Coach on this episode is Eddie Reese.Eddie is an American swimming coach. As a swimmer he was the first Florida University swimmer to win five SEC individual titles in a single season.He transitioned into coaching in 1965 and became a Head Coach for the first time in 1972. In 1978 he became Head Coach at the University of Texas and has gone on to win 15 NCAA championships, and 41 consecutive conference titles.He was also the Head Coach of the USA swimming team at the 1992, 2004 and 2008 Olympics. And has coached a total of 29 Olympians who have collected 39 gold medals, 16 silver medals and eight bronze medalsHe is considered the greatest swimming coach in the history of the sport and at 81 years of age is still actively coaching.This was a great conversation, with a true giant in the swimming world 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.

Our Great Coach on this episode is Bob Bowman.Bob is an American swimming coach, who is a four-time member of the U.S. Olympic Team staff, including being the Head Coach of the Men’s team at the 2016 Rio Olympics.  He has so far guided swimmers to 38 Olympic medals, as well as 43 World Records. Bob is presently the coach of the swim and dive team at Arizona State University. However he is best known as being the coach of the 23-time Olympic gold medalist American swimmer, Michael Phelps.Bob has great energy, he is fun and engaging and brings a wide array of ideas from the world of music and books to his coaching.This was a great conversation, with a coach who has worked side by side with the greatest ever Olympian, 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.

Our Great Coach on this episode is the legendary Celtic Football Club coach Jock Stein.Jock was a Scottish football player and manager. As a player he also represented Celtic, and was part of their side that won the Scottish league and Scottish Cup double in 1954.He retired in 1957 and began his career as a Coach, or as said in Football a Manager, in 1960. In 1965 he returned to Celtic as manager and over 13 years led them to ten Scottish league championships including 9 in succession, eight Scottish Cups and six Scottish League Cups.However, he is most famous as the first manager of any side from Great Britain to win the European Cup, with Celtic in 1967. He then went on to manage the Scottish national team from 1978 until his death in 1985.Unfortunately, Jock Stein died on the pitch on September 10th 1985. Scotland were playing Wales in a World Cup qualifier and with the score 1-1, Jock collapsed on the sidelines and was pronounced dead soon afterwards in the stadiums medical room.There is not a lot of recorded footage of Jock, and in what there is he does not talk a lot about himself. But in this podcast, we have tried to recreate an interview with Jock about his coaching and leadership style using his own words as read by an actor.We used multiple books and sources to find the words you will hear:Celtic: Pride and Passion by Jim Craig and Pat WoodsJock Stein: The Celtic Years by Tom Campbell , David Potter, et al.Celtic: The Official History by Brian WilsonJock Stein: The Definitive Biography by Archie MacphersonIf 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 'best of' episode is Billy Walsh.Billy is the current head coach of the USA Boxing team. He started boxing at age seven in a Christian Brothers gym in Wexford Ireland. He went on to win seven Irish Senior titles, participated in European and World Championships and represented his country as a welterweight in the 1988 Olympics.He then transitioned into coaching and was appointed Irish Head Coach in 2003. He was the head coach for 12 years and from 2008 to 2014 the team won 7 Olympic medals, at that point it was 25% of all Olympic medals Ireland has ever won.In 2015 and again in 2016 he won the Amateur International Boxing Associations World Coach of the Year.In 2015 he was appointed head coach of USA Boxing, and was charged with returning the program to its prior glory. So far this century only 1 male and 1 female boxer has won gold at the Olympics this century, despite the fact that American boxing is the most decorated program in Olympic history and produced champions like Cassius Clay, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Leonard, Spinks, and Oscar De La Hoya.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.comYou can find more of our Great Coaches content or follow us on your favourite social media platforms by CLICKING HERE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s episode is something a little different, Grant and Paul are joined by Dr. Gavin Weeks to discuss Purpose. Gavin is a Doctor of Psychology, an Associate Fellow at Oxford Said Business School and a Partner at the consultancy Thompson Harrison. And why is it a little different? Because today in our conversation, we discuss the overlap between coaching, the corporate world and psychology when it comes to the topic of Purpose; a topic that is gaining significant attention and discussion in all of these spheres are present. 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.comGavin can be reached through his company's website: https://www.thompsonharrison.com/You can find more of our Great Coaches content or follow us on your favourite social media platforms by CLICKING HERE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our Great Coach on this 'best of' episode is Sue Enquist.Sue played softball at UCLA from 1975 to 1978. She was a part of the team that won the 1978 Women's College World Series and became UCLA's first All-American softball player.In 1980 she transitioned into coaching and retired with a career winning percentage of 83. As a coach her teams won 10 national championships, and produced 65 All-Americans and 15 Olympians.She was also a coach for 1996 Olympic Gold medal winning team.In 2008 she was inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of FameSue is a coach who believes in the type of transformational leadership where, in her words, you are more collaborative, truthful and positive in developing skills. She believes that when people feel safe they will go for it when it comes to courage, and that your role as a coach is to be the eyes of the athletes development, and feed them with what she is seeing in their progress.She is also highly articulate, passionate and a firm believer in the importance of curiosity as a leader to ensure that your program is always changing and developing. She also explains that High performing teams have high standards, expectations, accountability and efficient failure recovery routines.This was a thought provoking conversation, and we hope you enjoy it 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.

Our Great Coach on this 'best of' episode is Gary Kirsten.Gary played 101 Test matches and 185 One Day Internationals for South Africa between 1993 and 2004. He retired as the first ever South African to play in 100 tests, and the first Test batsman to make hundreds against each of the other 9 Test nations.He became the coach of the Indian cricket team in 2008 and led them to win the World Cup 2011, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy vs Australia in 2009, the first ever test series win in New Zealand and to become the become the top-ranked team in Test matches.In 2011 he was appointed as head coach of South Africa, and led them to also become the #1 ranked test team.He has also coached the Hobart Hurricanes in the Australian Big Bash League and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League.Gary is a coach who is deeply authentic, and comfortable expressing both his own vulnerabilities, and heightened expectations.He believes that the quality of his coaching is determined by the effectiveness of his facilitation skills, and so is reflective and philosophical about the techniques needed to reach the athletes he leads.He is that rare breed of person who has been able to reach the pinnacle of his sport as both an athlete and coach, and this lends his story an added layer of credibility, whether it is talking about the deficit of mental skills he experienced as a batsman, or the importance of understanding what the environment requires of you as a leader.This was a great interview, a real highlight for us, and I hope you enjoy it as much 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.

Our Great Coach on this episode is Thomas FrankThomas is the Head Coach of Brentford FC in the English Football League Championship.He started his career coaching youth teams in Denmark. His success with the National Under 17 team led to his first senior appointment with Brondby in the Danish Superliga in 2013. He turned their performance around delivering top four performances in successive years.In 2016 he joined Brentford as an Assistant Coach before becoming their manager in 2018.At the end of 2019 season he was awarded Manager of the Year and in May 2021, Brentford beat Swansea for promotion into to the English Premier League for the first time in 74 years.Thomas is an emotionally intelligent coach with an innate understanding of the dynamics that shape the culture of teams.His beliefs about the importance of humility, and the value of hard work and standards are timeless. He understands that to experience the joy of success, you must endure long periods of struggle, and yet through care and what he calls, appreciative enquiry, you can sustain the energy needed to continue on.This was a wonderful conversation with a coach on the rise, 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.

Today’s episode is on the topic of Underdogs and we are joined for the discussion by Sean Murray who has just written a terrific book about the 1984 USA Volleyball team that won the Olympic Gold medal. His book is called, If Gold Is Our Destiny: How a Team of Mavericks Came Together for Olympic Glory.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.comSean can be reached through his website: https://www.realtimeperformance.com/ or email: seanm@realtimeperformance.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.