On Thriving: the Joint Experience of Development and Success

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.

What does it mean to Thrive?

As many of you will remember, we spent quite a bit of time focusing on the idea of Thriving Teams during the 2024 season of the Great Coaches podcast.

As I explained at the time, I had been looking for a model for high-performing teams that best represented and captured what I was hearing from our Great Coaches guests, and I ended up settling on the Thriving Teams model developed by the consultancy Thompson Harrison, in conjunction with Oxford professor Robin Dunbar.

The Thriving Teams model is built upon the idea that organisations thrive when people do, identifying six dimensions that enable this to happen: Belonging, Purpose, Connection, Culture, Values, and Learning.

For this week’s episode, I was joined by two fantastic guests — Dr Gavin Weeks and Valorie Kondos Field — to dive deeper into the topic of 'thriving’. It’s something that I hear so many of our guests talk about, and I wanted to really unpack the idea to see what it means and how we can help people in our own teams to move closer to thriving.

This was a really interesting topic to delve into with two very knowledgeable guests, and I hope that you’ll take a lot from it.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Question For Reflection

How does your organisation experience thriving, and what can you do to facilitate this?

This Week’s Guests

Dr Gavin Weeks is a Doctor of Psychology and Associate Fellow at Oxford Saïd Business School, working as faculty on the Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme - one of the top leadership development programs in the world.

With a background in clinical psychology, Gavin’s work mostly focuses on working with individuals and leadership teams to help them sustain energy, engagement, and growth.

Dr Gavin has appeared on the podcast before, joining us for previous episodes on the topics of Energy and Purpose.

Valorie Kondos Field — often known as Miss Val — was the head coach of the UCLA gymnastics team from 1991 until 2019, leading the team to seven national and eighteen Pac-12 championships.

Valorie was voted NCAA Coach of the Year by her peers on four separate occasions, and in 2016 she was voted the Coach of the Century by the Pac-12 Conference.

On Thriving Teams

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.

Inspired by this week’s podcast, let’s revisit the idea of Thriving Teams.

When I was looking for a model for high-performance teams that reflected the teachings of our Great Coaches guests, I looked at a lot of different ones designed by a number of consultants, academics, and coaches. They all had their merits, but it was the Thriving Teams model that caught my attention.

The Thriving Teams model is based on the idea that teams thrive when people do, and looks at different ways of facilitating that. It’s a brilliant model, and really encapsulates the lessons and insights that the Great Coaches have shared in our interviews.

After listening to this week’s podcast, why not head over to our free Thriving Teams diagnostic to see how your team is performing against the six dimensions that the model focuses on? After answering the questions, you’ll receive a report that helps you to understand how close your team is to reaching success — a great resource to help you in your own leadership.

You can find the diagnostic here, on our website.

If you’d like to learn more about the model, take a listen to our original podcast:

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]

Behind the Debut

An interesting article for you this week from ESPN, looking at Ben Johnson: coach of the Chicago Bears American Football team.

There’s been a lot of attention on Johnson recently, as the Bears open their 2025 season. This article goes into his life and early days, as well as some of the ways he has managed to stand out on his way to his current role, including during his time as an offensive assistant with the Miami Dolphins under Mike Sherman.

A great look behind the scenes at the career of what could be a Great Coach in the making.

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