We explore leadership through the lens of high-performance sport by interviewing Great Coaches from around the world to try and find ideas to help all of us lead our families, our colleagues, and our teams better.

Our newsletter contains the best ideas from those interviews.

Latest Interview

Like many of the Great Coaches we speak to, Sean Quirk was a successful player in his own right before he made the move to lacrosse coaching. As a Goalie at Springfield, he was twice named "All-American"; in the years that followed, he would go on to coach 21 other "All-American" players.

From 1998 to 2015, Sean coached at Endicott College. During this time, he led them to 8 CCC Championships and lifted the Division 3 school as high as #5 in the national rankings.

Throughout his career Sean has also coached the Boston Cannons (leading them to the Premier Lacrosse League Championship in 2020) and directed lacrosse training programs for school- and college-aged players.

Sean truly is a terrific leader and role model, and I learned a lot from our conversation (including a bit about the unique history of lacrosse itself).

Some highlights for me were:

• His explanation of the role that positivity plays in correcting and sustaining culture.

• The pillars of respect, trust, and accountability that he places at the centre of his teams, and how he talks about bringing these values into everyday actions.

• His experience of starting as a head coach at the age of 26, which involved writing to each player individually and then maintaining those built connections for years after.

Catch the full interview now: Apple | Spotify  | Google

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Leadership Insights

In this clip, NBA Coach Mike Dunlop speaks about the value of embracing your vulnerabilities and learning from mistakes.

If you like this, you can find more than 1200 other insight videos on our website, covering a variety of leadership topics such as setting up new team cultures, establishing team values, or helping others with their inner voice.

All of the insights are indexed, searchable, and can be downloaded to share. Some may require a one-time purchase or subscription - check the individual insight’s description for more information.

_{Leadership Skills}

Last week, our Leadership Skills section was focused on the topic of self belief; today we’re looking at the connected issue of self doubt and the impact that it can have on the confidence, success and performance of athletes, coaches, and team members alike.

For this lesson we’ve collected a series of sound bites and video clips from our interviews with a number of Great Coaches, each discussing the topic of self doubt and how they have worked to help their teams (and themselves) overcome it.

Some of the advice you’ll hear them share includes:

• The positive side of self doubt, and how it can inspire you to be curious and look for new methods and techniques.

• Why dismissing someone’s self doubt is the worst way of reacting, and the value of acknowledging and exploring that doubt with the individual.

• How reframing language and reviewing an athlete’s journey can help them to overcome and reconsider their feelings of self doubt.

• Ways to pre-empt self doubt through routines, rituals, and targeted action.

Want to find more content like this? You can find lessons on a wide range of leadership-related themes and topics on our website:

_Ideas

Helping your players, athletes or team members to develop resilience can be a challenge, and as a result it regularly comes up within our interviews with Great Coaches. Each coach and leader has their own method of tackling the resilience issue, but one that is often mentioned by Great Coaches is the technique of encouraging gratitude.

From an early age we are taught the value of saying “thank you” to and by our parents, teachers, and communities, but there are many other ways to express our thanks and gratitude. One method that you will probably be familiar with is the art of writing a ‘thank you’ letter; many of us will remember writing these letters after each birthday or Christmas to say thank you for the presents we received as children, while receiving a note of thanks from the bride and groom after giving them a wedding present is an expectation in several cultures across the world.

This fascinating study from the Journal of Happiness Studies covers the impact that writing a letter of gratitude has on our well-being, and suggests that the practice can not only boost our satisfaction with our lives, but also decrease depression levels.

_{Elevated Leadership}

Your personality, background and values make you unique, and your leadership style should too.

We’ll identify and coach you towards the leader you aspire to be through the actions of self-reflection and goal setting.

If you would like to know more, get in touch with us today via email:
[email protected]

Partners

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

_{Contact Us}

If you have any feedback or if you would like to speak to us directly feel free to contact us at [email protected].