The Great Coaches: Bob Shillinglaw

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Bob Shillinglaw: The Importance of Mental Skills

For our latest podcast episode, we were joined by Bob Shillinglaw, an American lacrosse coach with over 4 decades of college coaching experience.

Of Bob’s 42 years coaching at the college level, 39 of them have been spent leading the University of Delaware’s mens lacrosse team. He has coached an astounding 654 games — more than any other lacrosse coach in history — and is one of only 2 coaches to have seen over 300 wins. Bob’s teams have been to the NCAA tournament on 6 occasions, and in 2007 they made it to the final 4.

In the midst of all that, Bob also led Team USA to their win over Canada in the 1999 Lacrosse World Cup.

With such a considerable and successful coaching career under his belt, Bob naturally had some fantastic leadership insights to share during our interview. Some highlights for me included:

• His view on the importance of mental skills training — particularly the key components of visualisation, emotional triggering and goal setting — and how he introduced a course in mental strategies for athletic performance at the University of Delaware while working there.

• The value of communication, clearly expressing your thoughts, and ensuring that the thoughts of the staff and team can be heard (even when they’re wearing padding and equipment).

• The need for managing your emotions to avoid losing focus, but also matching the emotions of a moment if it can help prompt someone to a higher level of performance.

Listening to Bob raised a few questions for reflection for me, which you can find below. I’d love to hear if any of his points particularly resonated with you, too.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

The key questions raised from today’s episode:

• Am I training my own mental skills enough?

• How can I clearly express my thoughts to improve my communication style?

• How can I introduce competitive fun into my team environment?

Find all of our past interviews with some of sport’s most successful coaches and leaders on our website.

What 200+ Coaches Taught Me…

In each episode of our newsletter, we look at a different lesson that you can take and use within your own leadership.

This week I want to share a video that we recently posted to our Youtube channel, sharing the eight key lessons on winning cultures that our host Paul has learned from interviewing more than 200 Great Coaches.

From the importance of organisational culture to why team building should be considered more vital than strategy, in this sixteen-minute video you’ll get a fantastic overview of what it takes to build (and maintain) a winning team culture.

You can find this video, and many others, on our Youtube — make sure to share it with anyone who may benefit from it!

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We combine videos of the Great Coaches that we have interviewed with our experience as corporate and sporting leaders in order to bring insight, energy, and ideas to your teams.

Trying Something New

This week I want to share this article from The Athletic, which follows Michigan basketball coach Dusty May as he turns to the world of teaching and consults Doug Lemov, a writer specialising in the practices of high-performing teachers.

It’s a fantastic reminder that sometimes the insight and support we need might come from an unexpected or unfamiliar angle — just like how the knowledge we pick up from Great Coaches in the world of sports can be applied to business, your family, and many other environments that you may find yourself in.

Elevated Leadership

If you’re looking to improve your own leadership skills, get in touch with us at elevatedleadership.com.au 

Our team of executive coaches — including The Great Coaches host, Paul Barnett — bring a wealth of experience as international CEOs who have faced the challenge of stepping forward in uncertain moments.