The Great Coaches: Leadership & Life

Our Great Coach on this episode is Rikard Grip.Rikard was the national coach of the Swedish cross-country skiing team between 2010 and 2019.At the age of only 32 he led the national team to their best performance ever at the 2014 Winter Olympics, where they finished equal top on the medal table with Norway winning 11 medals.As a result he was named the Swedish coach of the Year in 2015.In 2019, he resigned as coach having led the team to 35 Olympic and World Championship medals and took up a position as the Swedish Olympic Games Preparation Director, and now as Secretary General of the Swedish Biathlon Federation.Rikard is a driven and committed leader, who at only a young age was able to find an effective balance between challenging and caring for his athletes. He talks with deep sincerity about meeting athletes where they are, of partnering with them and brining energy into the relationship so that they succeed.Building self-belief is at the centre of his coaching philosophy which he summarizes by saying that its important to help the athletes feel like they can walk on water. He is also inclusive, and believes that the athletes and the supporting staff come together to create the environment that delivers high-performance.Other key highlights from this interview are:The importance of being yourself as a coach and not trying to imitate other great mentors or leaders that you have experienced.How body language is much more important that actual language when it comes to communicating with athletes.The story he shares about offering calm instruction about techniques in the final stages of the race and not emotional cries referring to the competition.And The importance of looking people in the eye when you are giving positive feedback so that they feel it is genuine and not offered purely to cheerlead the athlete into believing in themselves.I enjoyed this conversation with a coach who I am sure we will hear much more from in the coming years, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I 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 Mark Lebedew.Mark is an Australian volleyball coach and former player.He started coaching in the early 90’s eventually joining the Australian Institute of sport as a coach in 1997, where he also served as an assistant coach of the Australian men’s team at the Sydney 2000 OlympicsIn 2010 he became a head coach of Berlin Recycling Volleys and in 2012, 2013 and 2014 he won the German Champion title. In 2015 the team also won the Bronze medal in the European Champions League.While In 2017 he led Jastrzebski Wegiel to the bronze medal in the Polish league, andFrom 2017 to 2019 he was also the coach of the Australian National Team and led them to a silver medal at the 2019 Asian Championships.He has also coached teams in Italy, Belgium and Poland and is currently the head coach of German club VfB Friedrichshafen.Mark is a coach with a truly global perspective, his teams are made up of many different nationalities, his present one has 8, and he has coached 5 different countries as well as in the Olympics, World Championships, World League, Volleyball Nations League, and this gives him a unique insight into the dynamic that shapes and propels high-performance.He is both a student and practioner of the craft of coaching, in fact he helped translate one of the greatest texts on volleyball coaching from Russian to English, and believes that the great coaches are playing a game inside their heads 24 hours a day.He believes that team work from the 6 players, all usually well over 6 feet tall on the 9*9 court, is more important than jumping 2 centimeters higher or hitting with 5kmh more of attack speed. And to achieve this, he is focused on helping players understand their role and execute it to best of their best of ability.Some of the other key highlights from this discussion were:His views on how human history has evolved through the act of getting better, and how he applied this to his own views on innovation and developing new techniques.The importance of controlling your emotions so the team members can have faith in you to lead them through any situation they may be facing.How he doesn’t mind people having egos as it is an intrinsic motivator, as long as they don’t lose the ability to work with others within the team.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 Andy Friend.Andy is an Australian rugby union coach and former player who is currently the head coach of Irish province Connacht.He was previously head coach of the Australia Sevens team, the Brumbies in Super Rugby in Australia, English club Harlequins, and Canon Eagles and Suntory Sungoliath in the Japanese Top League.He also coached the Australian Under-21 team to the final of the 2005 World Championships. And was an assistant to Eddie Jones within the Wallabies setup for the 2002 Tri Nations Series and 2003 Rugby World Cup.Andy is an articulate and calm coach who speaks with authenticity and simplicity on the fundamentals of elite level leadership.He has spent both his childhood and adult life traveling the world, and this gives him a deep appreciation of the needs that unite people; and how you can communicate emotion and intent despite language barriers.He is the type of person you feel immediately at ease with, and his ability to find a balance between the leadership and care for his players and staff, and family life, which also makes him a good role model for all of us who try to juggle the competing priorities in our life.Some of the key highlights of this interview for me were:How Great coaches have a strong sense of purpose that both motivates and guides them. This is matched with a natural inquisitiveness that fuels their ongoing development.How being sacked as a coach helped him realise the need of not imposing your own values on the team, but rather co-creating the right team values for that organisation.And His learning around not trying to do everything, but rather to invest time in building, in his words, the bank account of trust, with his athletes. And how this translates to him spending 70% of his time working with individuals within the 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 Jackie Carson.Jackie Carson is the Head Coach of the Furman University Womens Basketball team.She also played there as a student athlete, and still hold the conference record for most free throws made. In 1999 she was honored as Furman’s Female Athlete of the Year and in 2009 she became on the third player in the programs history to have their jersey retired.She started her coaching career in 2003, progressing through Assistant Coaching Positions at Bucknell and Madison which included postseason appearances at the 2007 and 2010 NCAA tournaments.In 2010, she returned to Furman as the 9th Head Coach in the college’s history.In her 11 seasons leading the team they have earned four postseason berths and 2 Women’s National Invitational Tournament appearances.In 2014 she was awarded Conference Coach of the Year.Jackie is a coach with an Infectious energy that inspires you to have the confidence to, in her words, walk into the room or the gym knowing you are going to win. Building this confidence in her players is a key part of what she strives to achieve as a coach.After the interview, the keys parts I shared with my own family around the dinner table were, How she believes that as a woman, you have to be better than the male that's going for the same job, and importantly show why you're better. And explaining this is not something you should shy away from, in fact she says you should demand what you want in the future.How some of the things you say in your head to yourself, you would never say out loud to anyone else. And that the best way to deal with negative self-talk is to talk to someone else about how you are thinking, and through that, talk yourself into the tasks that are causing you to doubt.And wanting to leave a legacy, where people learn that you can do things the right way, you can be a mom that works, a black female that is successful and beats the odds, you can do whatever it is that people say that you can't do.As a father of 2 daughters, I found this interview educational and inspiring and I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I 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 Paul Roos.Paul is a former professional Australian Rules Footballer and coach.Paul began his professional playing career in 1982, eventually retiring with 356 games, 5 Best and Fairest awards, 7 All Australian selections and the 1986 Leigh Matthews Medal under his belt.He began coaching in 2002 with the Sydney Swans. It was here that he implemented his high performance dialogue philosophy, and in 2005 he coached the Swans to their first premiership in 72 years.Paul is a wonderful Coach and Leader, who has managed to find a balance in life that also makes him a great role model.This conversation spans his experience Coaching elite level Football teams, doing his best as a father to be present for his family and his latest work with organisations helping them build the right behaviours so that they don’t leave culture to chance.The highlights for me were:· His thoughts on what he calls “Real Talk” and how this is the cornerstone of accountability and taking teams from Good to great.· How you act your way into a culture, and so behaviors across the group are critical to make sure new people enter and build on the culture in the right way.· And the idea of starting meetings with a gratitude session to shout out to someone who has made a difference however big or small.I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I 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 Carrie Graf.Carrie is a former professional basketball player and coach.She started her professional playing career as a 16 year old in the Australian National League; playing in a team that won multiple championships.She transitioned to professional coaching in 1993; winning the National championship in her first year. 7 Further championships followed in the years leading to 2010.In 2004, she became the first female Australian coach in the WNBA leading thePhoenix Mercury.She also coached the Australian National team to a Bronze medal at 2012 Olympics.In 2015 Carrie was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for her significant service to basketball, particularly as a coach, mentor and athlete, and to the community.She is presently the Director of Sport at University of CanberraCarrie is a coach with a purpose. She believes that girls are capable of anything; and through her coaching she empowers women to, in her words, “ be the Prime Minister, the President, a brain surgeon, a nuclear physicist, an Olympic athlete, an Olympic coach or a football champion”This is a wide ranging interview, and the highlights for were:How she addressed the teams self-doubt by asking them to go back to childhood and list out all the championships they had collectively won as individuals.How team values must be referenced in every training session and during the match if you want them to become part of how you function as a team. And she shares a good a story of how they score themselves on these values during time-outs in a game.The importance of using your voice assertively, so that you can help your team mates see what the next possible decision could be? And she gives examples on why this is important for female athletes to develop.And towards the end she gives great examples of how female and male sports are equal, and how you can affirm this with young girls while watching sport with them.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 Ryan. Ben is the most successful men’s rugby sevens coach in history, he is the only coach to have won Continental, World and Olympic titles. He started his international career in 2007 with England 7’s, coaching them in over 300 matches. In 2013 he took over as the coach of Fiji 7’s, and led the team to the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. The gold medal was the first ever medal of any colour, won by Fiji at any Olympics. As a result of that victory he was awarded the Companion of the Order of Fiji and is depicted on the reverse of a circulating 50 cent coin, and on the front of a circulating commemorative $7 banknote. Ben has written a wonderful book about his experience with the Fiji 7’s called Sevens Heaven which I highly recommend. He is also the host of his own terrific podcast called aptly enough, The Ben Ryan Podcast. 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 Lisa Alexander. Lisa Alexander was the coach of the Australian Netball team, known as the Diamonds, from 2011 to 2020. Her coaching journey started in country Victoria, before she progressed to coach the Melbourne Phoenix in the nationalcompetition, taking the team to two title wins in 2002 and 2003. She was appointed head coach of the Australian U21 netball team in 2006. And then in 2011, she was named as the head coach of the Australia national netball team taking over from the legendary Norma Plummer. She then went on to coach the National team for 102 matches; winning 83 of those games. She oversaw gold medal successes at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 Netball World Cup, as well as silver medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and 2019 Netball World Cup. Lisa is an articulate and passionate coach; who speaks candidly about the issues propelling elite performance. She has high expectations and standards and you will hear here talk about this in the context of team culture; and the “sisters in arms” trademark that she introduced. Other highlights of the discussion for me included: · Expecting her players to not only become leaders on the court but also aspiring to be a Prime Minister off the court · How google look for employees with coaching experience · And how coaches csocializing with athletes can create problems within the team. It is a great conversation with Lisa, and at the end of it I felt confident that we would be seeing her transition into coaching other sports in the near future. I hope you enjoy it.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 Jones. Eddie is a rugby union coach and former player. He coached Australia from 2001 to 2005, winning the the Bledisloe Cup in 2001 and 2002. The team also reached the 2003 Rugby World Cup Final, losing in extra time to England. He was an assistant coach for South Africa when they won the 2007 Rugby World Cup and from 2012 to 2015 he coached Japan, leading them to their upset win over South Africa in 2015. In 2015, Eddie was appointed as head coach for England. They went on to win the Six Nations in 2016 and 2017 and then in the 2019 Rugby World Cup they defeated defending champions New Zealand in the semi-final before losing the final to South Africa. In 2017 he was awarded world rugby coach of the year. Eddie is an elite coach of the highest level; articulate and philosophical; he talks simply and with depth about the challenges of building cohesion within the team. He talks about choosing a captain who compliments you as a coach; the importance of constantly working on your observational skills so you can see where conflict is within the team and how training at 100% intensity and then stopping when the team falls below that for a full minute, can lead to better performance. I hope you enjoy it. 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 Tamsin Greenway. Tamsin is a retired Netball player and now coach. She represented England on 67 occasions and along the way, was part of the team that won bronze medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and at the 2011 and 2015 Netball World Cups. In the English Superleague, she has won 7 championships; 4 as a player, and three others as player-coach, a coach and a Team Director. Tamsin now works as a commentator on Sky Sports and in 2020 she was appointed head coach of the Scottish national netball team. Tamsin is a passionate coach, with a deep appreciation for the influence honesty can have on team dynamics and performance. She is self-reflective, and committed to learning and developing, which is evidenced by her amazing career journey so far. She is also determined, optimistic and a firm believer that, in her words, as a female coach your life doesn’t stop because you have children. The keys parts of this discussion for me were, That good team cultures are always evolving and changing so they are difficult to describe, but they are the places you want to be, even if you have had your worst day. How, her experience as a playing coach taught her about the need to separate herself a little from the players to gain perspective, and then use this to help better manage the players and her own emotions. And that winning is not always the end of the goal for people in the team, and you need to take the time to understand why the athletes are there, and what they want to achieve along the way. 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.