The Great Coaches: On Game Day

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Caitie Rea & Paul Barnett
May 14, 2026

How Can You Effectively Communicate With Your Team?

As a leader, it’s important to know how to communicate with your team. From locker room speeches designed to motivate and encourage great performance to handling difficult conversations in the board room, team talks need to be effective, clear, and capable of inspiring action or reflection.

Today, we’ve released not one but two new podcast episodes, delving into how leaders can improve their ‘half-time talks’ and prepare better for communicating in the heat of the moment (or, as we call it, ‘on Game Day’).

For this conversation we were joined by Eamon Devlin, the founder of Minute9. Eamon’s consultancy works with some of the world’s most elite teams and coaches, and he had so many valuable insights and so much information to share that we couldn’t fit it all into just one episode.

You’ll learn what it means to deliver a good talk in the locker room or board room, what it is that people need to hear from you, and how to present information in a way that actually inspires behavioural change.

There’s a lot to digest from these episodes, but they’ll hopefully be a fantastic resource for you, no matter how much leadership experience you have.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Some key questions raised from today’s episode:

  • Are you confident in your ability to clearly communicate with your team, or do concerns about tone and reception prevent you from getting your point across?

  • Are you making the most of ‘half time’, and are you leaving the right lasting impression after your talks?

  • Are you using and sharing relevant resources effectively with your team?

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

Reflections on Building Connection

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.

Recently, Great Coaches host Paul spent some time doing some reflecting of his own, and put together a video sharing what his interviews with more than 200 Great Coaches from across the world of sports has taught him about building real connection within teams.

Combining clips from past interviews with his own reflections on the insights they shared, Paul presents six ideas taken from the interviews that he believes can help leaders and coaches from all walks of life to improve the way their teams connect and relate with each other.

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:

Spread It Around

The Great Coaches newsletter is designed to be shared and discussed with colleagues, friends and family members. 

If someone has shared this copy with you, then make sure to sign up to our mailing list so that you don’t miss the next issue! 

What 2,000 SaaS Companies Reveal About Growth in 2026

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Key takeaways from the report: 

  • Average growth across 2,000 companies

  • Growth by revenue band 

  • AI-led vs AI-enhanced. Who performed better?

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“Successful people have fear, successful people have doubts, and successful people have worries. They just don’t let these feelings stop them.”

T. Harv Eker

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 Great Coaches Book Club: Sum It Up by Pat Summitt

We’ve had some fantastic interest in our newly-formed Great Coaches book club, and we’d love for you to join us for our next session, discussing ‘Sum It Up’ by Pat Summitt.

Pat is a legendary basketball coach, and we’ve spoken about her previously in a special episode of our podcast. Her book, ‘Sum It Up’, reveals her fantastic perspective on a life and career that saw not only more than 1,098 victories, but also a fair share of difficulties, including the early-onset Alzheimer’s disease that would go on to claim her life.

We’ll be meeting on Zoom to discuss the book on June 9th at 8pm (GMT+10), which gives you plenty of time grab a copy and read it for yourself.

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.

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