Tony O'Connor: Teaching People to Teach Themselves

The evolution of coaching, keeping perspective, and more.

Author

Paul Barnett
October 03, 2024

Welcome to the Great Coaches: Leadership & Life newsletter!

Here at the Great Coaches, we believe that there’s no algorithm for leadership. That’s why we interview some of the sporting world’s greatest coaches, seeking to uncover a few of the leadership techniques, philosophies and methods that have helped them to reach success.

To accompany our podcast, we also release this weekly newsletter, filled with leadership insights, ideas, and inspiration sourced from around the world. From book recommendations and inspiring articles to behind-the-scenes content from our interviews, there’s plenty here to keep you busy on your commute to work (or to discuss in the meeting room, or over dinner table).

Keeping Perspective With Tony O’Connor

Tony O’Connor is a professional rowing coach, who previously represented Ireland as a player at 2 Olympics and won 5 medals at world championships in the men’s lightweight pair.

After retiring from playing, Tony transitioned into coaching and now lives in New Zealand, where he is also a school teacher.

In 2021 he was appointed as coach of the New Zealand men’s eight, leading them to gold at the Tokyo Olympics. As part of the experience, Tony was filmed and featured in a documentary called “The Rowing Teacher”.

Listening to Tony relate his experiences really highlighted the similarities between teaching and coaching: in both instances, you are teaching someone to teach themselves.

As you listen to this interview, you may pick up on some other elements of Tony’s leadership that may - in some part - be inspired by his teaching, including the story he shares about changing his team’s seating arrangements right up until the Olympics in order to illustrate the power of mindset, and of thinking with a blank canvas in mind.

There are a number of other fantastic insights to be heard in this week’s interview, including Tony’s way of testing resilience through specific tasks and incorrectly set up equipment, and the emphasis he places on keeping perspective and not being consumed by the purpose you set for yourself.

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

Tony O’Connor | The Great Coaches Podcast | Click To Listen

Beyond The Day To Day

When the success of a leader is discussed, it’s usually in terms of their achievements, wins, and awards. Yet, when it comes being a successful leader, there’s a lot more that goes on behind the scenes.

Building and training a winning team doesn’t happen over night, and success is often the result of many smaller steps taken over a long period of time.

In this clip from our interview with hockey coach Shane McLeod, he speaks about the day-to-day: “the hundred little things that make that big thing”.

If you enjoyed this clip, then you should take a trip over to our website where you’ll find a wealth of insights taken from interviews with over 200 of the sporting world’s greatest coaches.

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“Thats my philosophy: you teach the person to teach themselves.”

Tony O’Connor

In Case You Missed It…

Is Coaching Ever Evolving?

Bayern Munich Football Club coach Vincent Kompany was recently asked how he thinks both coaching and football have changed since his playing days.

His answer was short and sweet, but very similar to comments that some guests here on the Great Coaches have made during our interviews.

“Everybody’s trying to push that line…that’s exciting”.

Spread It Around

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“I’ve never lost a game. I just ran out of time.”

Michael Jordan

Watch: The Rowing Teacher (Full Documentary)

Listeners of our latest podcast with rowing’s Tony O’Connor will have heard us mention the documentary he was featured in: “The Rowing Teacher”.

This is a fantastic documentary covering the positive influence that Tony has made to the lives of school children in New Zealand, as well as his success coaching the country’s men’s eight at the Tokyo Olympics. It also shines a light on Tony’s coaching philosophy, and the emphasis he places on caring for his athletes.

The full documentary is under an hour long and can be viewed on Youtube via the link below.

A fantastic watch - I really recommend you take the time to view it.

The Great Coaches Take On Your Challenges

Bring the insights and advice from the World’s Great Sports coaches into the room at your next event.

We have interviewed >200 of the world great coaches, and we use video and audio to have them speak to the challenges that your team is facing.

Our presentations bring the energy of sport into the work place and bring a new context to the challenges you are facing.

The presentations can be delivered virtually or live - this short video introduces what we have to offer.

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.