The Great Coaches: Mick Byrne

Sleep When The Wind Blows

This week’s Great Coach is Mick Byrne, who was an Australian Rules Football player for several years (winning a premiership with Hawthorn in 1983) before transitioning into Rugby coaching post-retirement.

In 1999 Mick became an Assistant Coach with the Australian national team, going on to join the New Zealand national team — the All Blacks — and working with them during their World Cup victories in both 2011 and 2015.

In 2012 he was appointed as the inaugural Head Coach of the Fijian Drua, leading them to their first three Super Rugby Pacific seasons from 2022 to 2024 and helping them to reach the finals in 2023 and 2024. In 2024, he became the Head Coach of the Fiji national team.

Listening back to our interview, there were some fantastic takeaways including:

• How Mick’s own sporting path took him from the Rugby League in Sydney to Australian Rules, then into coaching across the AFL, Rugby League and Rugby Union with jobs working alongside the Wallabies, Brumbies, All Blacks environment and Fiji.

• The central pillars of preparation, questioning and self-talk within his coaching philosophy, and his belief that players retain information better when they discover answers by themselves, rather than being told what to do.

• Byrne’s own journey of growth in the areas of patience, listening, managing frustration and allowing healthy conflict so that better coaching decisions can emerge.

This was a great one to record, and I hope you’ll enjoy it when you give it a listen this weekend!

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Some key questions raised from today’s episode:

• Where in my own leadership do I need better preparation, so that I can “sleep when the wind blows” and respond calmly in the face of pressure?

• Am I telling people what to do too often, or am I asking the kinds of questions that guide them towards discovering the answer, building confidence, and taking ownership?

• What part of my leadership has grown the most over time?

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

Let Them Think

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.

In this week’s interview, guest Mick Byrne speaks on asking players questions that will guide them to make their own decisions, reach their own conclusions, and build much-needed confidence. Often it can be tempting to tell the people around us what to do (especially when we want them to avoid mistakes that we ourselves have made in the past), but this limits opportunities for growth. After all, the lessons we learn for ourselves are usually the ones that stick.

In this clip from a past interview with field hockey’s Sjoerd Marijne, he speaks on the importance of perfecting your questions in order to promote decision ownership and critical thinking skills within your teams.

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.

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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.

The Psychology Behind The Tour

With the Tour de France coming to an end, I wanted to share this interesting article from the BBC that looks at the psychology behind the three-week-long race.

There’s a lot that goes into winning the Tour, with riders needing to consider both their physical states and the physics that goes into gaining an advantage on competitors. This article suggests that there’s also a third, psychological consideration to take on board: game theory.

It’s a good, short read that exposes just how much goes on behind-the-scenes (or beneath-the-helmets, perhaps), and gives a glimpse of just how competitive and strenuous the event really is for those taking part.

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.