John Connolly: Toughness and Single-Mindedness

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.

Enforcing Vision with John Connolly

Last week we shared a fantastic episode featuring an interview with Rugby Union coach John Connolly.

As listeners will discover, John had a very successful coaching career when, in 2021, an accident meant that he became a quadriplegic. However, rather than let this define him or destroy his life, he took the alternate road and devoted himself and his energy to raising money for others with spinal injuries. Speaking honestly and humbly, John reflects on the longevity of life in a chair and how closely it is tied to the family and people around him — in that way, he says, he has been very fortunate.

Of course, we also reflect on some of the important leadership lessons that John has learned over the years, particularly when it comes to establishing and maintaining successful teams.

When it comes to building connection within a group, John believes in the power of pride — particularly pride in the shared jersey team members wear.

He also speaks on toughness, and how it connects to single-mindedness. John believes that building this across the team requires a vision that not only aligns people, but is also actively enforced.

This was a really great discussion with plenty of reflection and valuable insight — make sure to give it a listen if you haven’t already.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Questions For Reflection

• What role does pride play in your team’s identity?

• How do you find the balance between single-mindedness and being open to new ideas?

This Week’s Guest

John Connolly is a Rugby Union coach, whose coaching career began in the 1980s. Having risen up the ranks, he ended up leading the Queensland Reds to the Super 6 title in 1992, and then to back-to-back Super 10 titles just a few years later.

John spent time coaching in Ireland, France, Wales and England before returning to coach the Australian national team, the Wallabies, for two years.

In 2021, John became a quadriplegic. Determined that this would not slow him down or define him, he has gone on to use his energy to raise money for others with spinal injuries.

His book, Bare Knuckles, captures his adventures in what is a fantastic read. All proceeds from the book go to the Perry Cross Foundation.

On Leadership

This week we also released another episode ‘On Leadership’. For this discussion, we were joined by two Great Coaches — Mike Dunlap and Franco Smith — who you may remember from previous episodes.

Basketball coach Mike Dunlap has led teams in US Colleges, the NBA, and Australia. In 2021, he led the Milwaukee Bucks to their first NBA Championship.

Franco Smith is a Rugby Union coach who represented South Africa as a player before transitioning to coaching. He has led teams to National Championships in Italy and South Africa, and is currently the Head Coach of the Glasgow Warriors.

Together, the two coaches shared some fantastic ideas and insights on the topic of leadership, including Mike’s view that the loneliness of leadership comes from decision-making, and why leaders must accept that the decisions they make may not always be the right ones.

Another great insight came from Franco, who shared his key three focuses when it comes to effective leadership: the emotional reaction of his team, realistic expectations, and the concept of excellence over perfection.

Finally, let me draw your attention to Mike’s belief that the most powerful thing that a leader can do is to lead by example. How critical do you believe this is on the journey to excellence?

Listen to the full episode now, available wherever you get your podcasts!

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Questions For Reflection

• How do you mitigate the loneliness you might feel as a leader?

• What philosophy guides you as a leader?

• What did you do today to lead by example?

Leadership in the Data-Age

Here’s an interesting article from the BBC, sharing the insights and thoughts of Welsh former professional football manager Tony Pulis.

Reflecting on his time working in the dugout in the early 1990s, Tony shares how the make-up of clubs has changed over the years to include various academies, specialists and departments.

He also dwells on how data-driven the world of sport has become, joking that his own database in the pre-internet days had always been inside his own head.

It’s a great article that really reflects on the great advances that have been made over the years, but also examines the positive aspects that we can retain from the past and utilise in our own modern day leadership.

Challenge Yourself with the Macquarie MBA

This newsletter is brought to you by Macquarie University Business School’s MBA program. Designed to empower, challenge and transform, the Macquarie MBA gives you the business skills and knowledge you need to succeed in an evolving global economy.

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/