The Great Coaches: Jeroen Delmee

Crying All The Time With Jeroen Delmee

This week’s podcast features an interview with Jeroen Delmee, a field hockey coach who first represented his country in 1994. By 2008 he had retired with 401 international caps and was a 2-time Olympic champion.

After transitioning into coaching, Jeroen worked with the Dutch national women’s team and the Belgian mens team before spending 4 years leading the French national team.

In 2021, Jeroen was appointed as the Head Coach of the Dutch men. Under his leadership, they took gold at the 2023 Men’s EuroHockey Championship as well as at the 2024 Summer Olympics. Jeroen is the only Dutch sportsperson in history to win Olympic gold as both a player and a coach.

Our interview touched on some really great insights that Jeroen has gained over the years, including:

• The importance of soft skills, and how Jeroen learned to adapt his communication style to suit different cultures, rather than using one direct approach for all.

• His intentional decision to rebuild team culture after Tokyo — having realised the team lacked commitment and cohesion — and the unexpected way he achieved this.

• Why mental support should be individual, not delivered in a team-wide mental coaching session but instead tailored to individual player needs.

• How individual development drives team growth, and how he uses personal player plans for targeted one-to-one work that he considers to be more effective than generic group training.

Make sure to give it a listen over the weekend — as always, I’d love to hear what you think!

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Some key questions raised from today’s episode:

• Is your communication style suitable for the groups and cultures you work within, or could it be better tailored for improved clarity and efficiency?

• Is an imbalance of influence and opportunity impacting your team’s culture, and could this be improved with restructuring or a new approach?

• How do you ensure that you’re meeting the needs of individual members within your team or group?

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

10 Elite Lessons For Every Leader

In this section of our newsletter, we like to bring attention to the topics and areas of leadership and coaching that can pose the biggest challenges and problems, and to share a small lesson or interview clip that can help you to assess your own approach to them.

This week we’re highlighting another one of our new videos, in which Great Coaches host Paul shares 10 fantastic leadership insights that have been shared by elite-level coaches on our podcast. As he introduces the insights, Paul also speaks on how they apply to corporate environments, drawing upon his own experience as an international CEO and leader.

You can find the video here on our Youtube channel, alongside many other lessons, interviews, and insights designed to be shared and used by leaders and teams.

Join Our Best-Practice Coaching Groups

We’re starting our best-practice coaching groups again this year, with the first group being led by Professor Adam Nicholls.

The group will meet in the first week of the month, with each session focusing on a topic that relates to coaching or leadership.

Members pay a one-off cost of $600 AUD which covers 12 monthly sessions (that’s $50 AUD per session).

We currently have just 2 places remaining. If you would like to take part or want to learn more, please get in touch: [email protected]

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.

The Strength Behind The Scenes

Something that our podcast guests often stress is that there’s more to a successful team than just a coach and their players — in fact, it takes a number of dedicated people to keep everything running behind the scenes.

This article from BBC Sport introduces someone that you may not have heard about, but who has a very inspiring story. Alex McKechnie is a physiotherapist from Scotland who has worked with some of the NBA’s biggest names and whose work has had a massive impact on the way modern sport approaches injuries and physical strength. Even at the age of 74, his expertise is still in demand from teams across multiple different sports.

Alex has a fantastic story, and it’s a great reminder of the impact that hiring the right people can have on the success of your team and its culture.

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/

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.