Shane Jurgensen: The Battle of Boring

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.

Reflecting On Next Steps With Shane Jurgensen

This week’s interview with cricket’s Shane Jurgensen was recorded at a time when he was reflecting on the path his life should take going forward, and this context was very much at play when we spoke about the “battle of boring”: the constant grind to develop skills foundations and get better. It’s a battle that many of us will be familiar with; the relentless execution of the routines - which make up the processes - which come together in the delivery of our performance in the workplace.

As we spoke, Shane’s leadership ‘super-powers’ really started to make themselves evident: from the way he injects small moments of connection and grounding for the people he works with, to the way he tries to help others get better by encouraging question-asking and ice breakers, it’s Shane’s selflessness — built above his technical cricket coaching knowledge — that truly defines him and his leadership. Perhaps these are the skills that could be used to help him (and many of us) to chart a new direction in life?

Listeners will also hear Shane share a story about team captain Kane Williamson, who helped him to become a better coach, and discussing how tenure length within a group creates a level of dispersed leadership, resulting in improved performance. It’s a fantastic opportunity to hear from a successful coach who — like so many of you — is going through a true period of reflection and seeking to determine his next steps. It’s also an opportunity to consider just how applicable your own leadership skills may be in other areas.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Questions For Reflection

• What routines do you use to open your team meetings, and how can they be used to deepen selflessness within the group?

• What is the level of dispersed leadership across your team?

• Review your own development plans: how many of them focus on improving base capabilities, as opposed to growing and developing new ones?

This Week’s Guest

Shane Jurgensen is a former cricketer who played for Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania and Sussex in the UK.

In his early 20s - while still playing - Shane began coaching, eventually becoming a bowling coach for New Zealand in 2008. From there he has gone on to have successful high-performance coaching roles with New Zealand cricket and the national teams of Bangladesh, Fiji, and Scotland.

During his second stint with New Zealand, Shane acted as the bowling coach and head coach, and was part of the team that won the inaugural World Test Championship in 2019.

In 2023, Shane led the Wellington Firebirds to the Plunket Shield in New Zealand.

On Old Skills and New Applications

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.

This week’s episode was recorded at a time when guest Shane Jurgensen was really reflecting upon his career and the path his life should take. And while some of you are perhaps at the start of your career and eager to begin taking the very first steps down your path, I’m sure many of you can relate to that feeling of wondering ‘am I in the right place right now? Is this the road I’m meant to be on?’.

For those of you who may be standing at the crossroads right now, it’s a great time to reflect on just how transferrable your existing skills and experience can be. In this clip from our past interview with Great Coach Luke Beveridge, he speaks about how past government jobs helped him to approach some of the tasks and responsibilities that he found himself tackling as a coach: a brilliant example of skill transference in action.

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]

Moments That Change Everything

You may not be a fan of American Football, but chances are that you’ll have heard of the Kansas City Chiefs (even if it’s just because you have a fan of a certain famous pop star in your family). The team have appeared in the NFL Super Bowl final five times since 2020, and several of their players have found fame as MVPs and pop-culture icons.

But the team wasn’t always so successful, as this article from Fan Recap explores.

This is the brilliant story of how Head Coach Andy Reid has transformed the team from bottom of the league to a Super Bowl powerhouse. A fantastic journey that has been going on behind the scenes since 2012, starting with the moment that Reid found himself being fired from his previous team.

A good read that reminds us that sometimes set backs are just steps on the path to something great.

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/