Jamilon Mülders: Servant to the Group

Welcome to the Great Coaches: Leadership & Life newsletter.

Every month, we share new podcast episodes featuring interviews with Great Coaches from across the world of sports. Our interviews delve deep into the careers and leadership of our guests, seeking new insights to help us all lead our teams, communities and families better.

We also frequently share additional content and insight from our interviews across our social media platforms, including LinkedIn, Youtube, and TikTok. You can learn more about The Great Coaches, follow our channels and explore our website from our new Linktree page.

Communicating Honestly with Jamilon Mülders

This week’s guest, Jamilon Mülders, is a successful player-turned-coach who has experienced several World Cup and Olympic triumphs during his career. For our latest interview, he joined us to discuss the insights and lessons that he has learned along the way, including the value of honest communication, and how it can only flourish if common ground has first been established.

On the topic of communication, he also stressed how tough messages can be negatively perceived, and encouraged listeners to replace emotion with fact when sharing feedback or other points which recipients may not want to hear.

We also discussed the idea of leadership as ‘servitude’. Jamilon considers many of the Great Coaches he has met and seen to have been “servants to the group”; these leaders don’t just tell people what to do, but instead start from the position of establishing and providing what their athletes need.

Finally, we also talked about the importance of remaining human-centric with our attentions, and not being blinded by the allure of medals or winning at any cost. Jamilon believes this focus on people can lead to aha moments for athletes, which can persist long after they have retired.

This was a great conversation with a man who has both experienced and delivered successful coaching, and it was fantastic to hear his insights on some topics that will no doubt be very relevant to many of you. I hope you enjoy listening to it!

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Questions For Reflection

• What routines do you have in place to deliver tough messages?

• To what extent do you agree with the idea of being a servant to the group as the leader?

• Has there been times when you have been ‘blind-spotted’ by a goal?

This Week’s Guest

Jamilon Mülders is a German Field Hockey coach and former player.

During his playing career, Jamilon was part of the team that won the 2002 World Cup. Upon retirement he transitioned into coaching and progressed through youth teams, ultimately going on to lead national youth teams.

Jamilon was working as an assistant under Markus Weise when the German women’s team won the gold medal, and he then went on to coach the Chinese women’s national team for some time before returning to lead the German women’s national team to a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympics.

Currently, he is the coach of the Dutch women’s national team.

On Facilitating Communication

In each issue of the Great Coaches newsletter we share a different short lesson on leadership, inspired by the insights and ideas shared by our podcast guests.

In this week’s podcast, Great Coach Jamilon Mülders speaks on honest communication and how the delivery of messages can lead to misunderstandings or negative perceptions.

He also stresses the need for common ground to be established before honest communication can occur.

So, as a leader, how can you ensure that your team or work environment is suitable for honest conversations that will help your athletes or team members to accept and act on feedback or comments?

• Ensure that your environment is one where everyone feels comfortable and psychologically safe. Avoid raised voices, attracting an audience, or using a tone that could be seen as belittling.

• As a leader, be open and honest about your own limitations, mistakes, and challenges. Help those around you to understand that there’s nothing shameful about having things to work on.

• Facilitate ongoing communication with your athletes or team members, so that they get used to receiving feedback and comments — not just at times when tensions run high.

• Avoid ominous situations. If you need to speak to someone honestly about a mistake or issue, give them a heads up beforehand, allowing them time to prepare for the conversation.

In this great clip from our recent interview with Gilbert Enoka, he shares his thoughts on using honest language during communication, and the benefits it can bring.

Looking for more inspiration? Our workshops and events deliver the insights of the Great Coaches straight to your team. They’re also tailored to the topics and issues that most impact you and your organisation, helping to boost engagement and encourage your team members to develop and build on the skills necessary for success.

For more information, get in touch today: [email protected]

Madden’s Game

I want to share this great episode of the 30 for 30 Podcasts with you, centring on an interesting story about John Madden.

You may already know that John Madden was an American football coach and sports commentator, but what you might not know is that he was also involved in video games.

This great podcast episode shares the story of Madden’s connection with Electronic Arts and the resulting Madden NFL game series — a bestseller now in its 26th edition.

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