fls supports the improvement of leadership through sport
Leadership is a fundamental driver of performance for individuals, teams, coaches, administrators and whole organisations. We work with these groups to develop leadership qualities that will aid success whether within or outside the sporting environment.
Our aim is to encourage and facilitate athletes and sporting organisations to invest in leadership development. This includes National Governing Bodies of Sport, universities and clubs.
Directors and Associates have extensive top-level experience in leading and coaching within sport, business, public service and the military. The know-how and knowledge of world-class practices is drawn from all these sectors.
FLS seeks to assist in improving the effectiveness of sports organisations, enhancing sporting performance and enabling athletes to transfer their leadership skills to careers and fields beyond sport.
May 2024
What’s Happening?
I have some very sad news to report to members and others interested in FLS. My wife Liz passed away in April after a brave three year fight against cancer. Liz was a wonderful person as well as a marvellous partner in life. She was also, almost from the outset, my main support in FLS, doing the admin so well for the charity for many years.
In February Kevin Roberts, who has provided several wonderful sessions for us, offered to do something on May 30. I was unsure as it was only a week after Liz’s funeral. However, ‘the show must go on’ philosophy was adopted and we had a scaled down event focusing on ‘Leaders of the Future’ for invited guests at Encirc (formerly Accolade Wines) near Bristol.
I was so glad we went ahead as Kevin was at his best, and we also had the chance to discuss the future of leadership at an afternoon session led by our fellow Director, Frank Dick.
Some of Kevin’s ideas are summarised here:
FLS Workshop at Encirc, The Park, Avonmouth
Previously Kevin has talked about the world in which we operate as being VUCA - Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. He now adds ‘Accelerating’. Everything is changing more quickly. Leaders must be switched on to change.
Any ambition to be High Performing Organisations (necessary to survive) should change to Peak Performing Organisations (necessary to win).
In line with previous FLS contributor David Marquet, Kevin talked of the need for leaders to be ‘active listeners’ .
Kevin discussed PURPOSE. It is important to find your own purpose in life and he put forward questions relating to this:
Do you want to be the best version of yourself?
Every day?
What do you want to succeed?
What is your own Super Power?
Little things can make a big difference.
Personal purpose is the foundation of enhanced happiness and well being. It helps make the best choices, lift performance and have more fun. Self-discipline, Self-determination and Self-Esteem are enhanced. The idea of a ‘Personal Purpose Plan’ was put forward. This starts with identification of an inspirational dream and delves into personal beliefs, character, focus and closes with one word to best define how one aspires to be. Kevin told the attendees what he is doing with individuals in helping them establish their own personal plan. He is working with rugby great Dan Carter and recent Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp. If they are establishing a clear personal purpose plan then it might be something everyone should be doing.
By the way, Dan Carter’s focus was on ‘Making happy choices’ and his one word explanation is ‘Winner’.
Frank Dick ended the splendid workshop by leading discussion on leaders of the future, their need for responsibility and the importance of finding ways to change organisational culture where necessary.
As always, the Park at Avonmouth was a marvellous venue for our event. Those who had not been before were given a guided tour of the facility and they could see for themselves the way Richard Lloyd, Managing Director, and his colleagues have created a peak performing organisation.
Sir Steve West, the Vice-chancellor of the University of West of England, attended this workshop following which he made a presentation to his senior colleagues. With his permission, I have inserted here three of the slides he used.
FLS director Eboni Usoro-Brown produced excellent summary notes from the workshop on May 30, outlining the presentations by Kevin Roberts and Frank Dick. They may add something to the comments posted above and are included below.
Kevin Roberts
Headline - How leadership is changing - future leaders
He spoke at length about the VUCAA principle which is defining the landcape in which modern business and leadership is operating. The acronym stands for:
Volatile
Uncertain
Complex
Ambiguous
Accelerating
All leaders need to embrace the need to get tasks completed efficiently. The need for speed and to be prepared to navigate and embrace turbulent environments.
What the new world will look like should be the focus and understanding the role we as leaders need to play in that.
We need to invest in training, developing, and nurturing the talent that we have around us.
Change has to be data driven. You don’t need insights you need revelations.
Great leadership has to be made simple and move to action quicker.
Effective and good leaders need bravery and courage to follow how they feel when it’s ambiguous.
Future generations want to be inspired.
In a VUCAA world, there are no agreements - you need alignment. It's essential to have the right team around you.
There are 4 types of leadership: Inform / Instruct / Influence / Inspire.
What we need for peak performance:
Inspirational leadership
Leaders
Alignment
Influence inspire
PPO
DADA - diversity at the highest talent levels / diversity of thought and diversity of feeling
Active listening - 4 types - people listener, task oriented listener, content listener, fast listener.
Body language is important
Key question- how can we inspire teams? By driving the philosophy that each team needs to be better than good enough.
4H's History, Heroes, Heartaches, Hopes
WOOP - How to make effective strategic plans: Wish, Outcome, Obstacles, Plan
Blue ocean
Eliminate
Reduce
Raise
Create
Frank Dick - Young Leadership
You are defined as a leader by the quality of your decision making.
Young leaders needing a platform to learn to lead.
Covid had a big impact on how young people assert themselves and see themselves a s leaders in a volatile environment.
Coaching to enter the environment and learn the lessons after. Building up leaders.
Address mental health challenges and how do we help young people deal with pressure.
It’s a process to create a world that helps kids.
We need to create an environment for young people to make choices.
Take risks
Build a level of resilience
Face adversity front in
Make decisions
Accept responsibility
Lean in to accountability
Lessen the feeling of entitlement
Understand consequence
Lessen the dependency
The key question to ask is how do we create a learning environment for ourselves and others?
Be prepared to let go so they can take ownership.
December 2023
‘Sir Dave Brailsford and the role of a Performance Director’
The news that Dave Brailsford was to take up a position at Manchester United has been met with quite a lot of critical comment, but it makes total sense to me. Understanding high-level performance and the pressures that abound in elite sport is crucial for any person involved in the delivery of sustained success in any sport. If you can deliver the goods in one, it is very likely to mean that you can do it in others.
Sport performance is complex, and we are right when we try to keep it simple, up to a point. Simple that is, for the players. Coaches and fitness specialists may need to study performance in detail, but their task is to make sure that players understand their functions in the simplest possible terms so as not to be overwhelmed by too much ‘thinking’. Many people do the thinking for the players, and we should leave the players to make decisions on the field of play. Those behind the scenes can ensure that the environment is as it should be for training, recovery, travel, accommodation etc.
Consideration of many of these elements does not require technical knowledge of any one given sport.
The person who can make sure that all factors are considered in a balanced way is the performance director. I can remember in the early '80s when Frank Dick, then one of the top running coaches in the world, was invited to take a session for RFU Senior rugby coaches at Bisham Abbey. The purpose was to show how to improve running skills, particularly speed. Several of the coaches present were heard mumbling, “What has this got to do with rugby”? How things have changed since then, with the role of Performance Director increasingly regarded as of great importance. In recent years Sarah Symington, an Olympic cyclist herself, has had key performance roles with British Archery, Athletics and England netball, achieving significant success with all of them. She is now back with British Cycling. Chris Spice, a former Australian hockey International and coach, was the performance director at British Basketball and then England Rugby before moving to British Swimming, where he has been working successfully since 2013.
Dave Brailsford was the Performance Director at British Cycling, then Team Sky and finally Ineos. He has also helped Nice this season who are now sitting 2nd in the top French soccer division, somewhere they are not used to being.
Despite this, there have apparently been many United fans asking what a cycling man can bring to their club. It should be obvious - he can bring a knowledge of sustained high-level performance. There is more to it than the ‘marginal gains’ philosophy that brought Brailsford’s approach to Cycling into the public domain, though this alone might suffice if it is understood properly.
Six months before the 2012 London Olympics I spent a day at the Manchester Velodrome, the home of British Cycling, and had a couple of hours with Dave Brailsford. At the time I was on the council of the Rugby Football Union and was quite involved in the performance of the England team. I asked him straight:
“If you were the Performance Director of England Rugby, would you win us the World Cup?”
With no element of boastfulness, he said “Yes, but there are two provisos. First, don’t expect me to be the coach. I am not the coach of Chris Hoy and Bradley Wiggins, but I am responsible for their programme. I am also responsible for who coaches them.
Secondly, I would want something I don’t think you could give me - control of the players.”
The latter point was a telling one, as England and France are the only two leading rugby nations where the top players are not primarily under the control / management of the National Governing Body. I believe that he could have steered England to the World Cup, it is unfortunate that he never had the chance!
On my visit to the Velodrome I saw something remarkable that provided a terrific example of what world-class performance, including marginal gains, is all about. I was looking down on the track, above the bend. The team pursuit team were being put through their paces. Suddenly, when it was his turn to take the lead, Geraint Thomas made a rare mistake and clipped the back wheel of the team-mate in front of him. He went flying and slid perhaps 20 metres round the track, burning his lycra suit, coming to a stop sprawled across the track and holding his shoulder. The head of communications, who was showing me round, said immediately that this could be the end of Thomas’s Olympic aspirations, as such falls usually result in a broken collarbone or at the very least, a dislocated shoulder (which is what happened in this case).
I even have a very blurred photograph which I took on my phone just as Thomas was about to make his move!
What happened next, and within seconds of the fall, was astonishing. A doctor appeared, seemingly from nowhere, and knelt by the side of the cyclist, immediately followed by a paramedic with a stretcher. Thomas was taken to hospital, where he was seen within less than 30 minutes of his accident. Having immediate attention meant that his recovery was swift, and less than 6 months later, the pursuit team of Burke, Clancy, Kennaugh and Thomas won the Olympic Gold in a new world record time.
I asked if this was a regular occurrence as they seemed so ready for it. The response - “No. It is the first accident like that I have seen here for a couple of years. We just have to be ready for the next one, whenever it is”. Marginal gains is attention to detail, and there are many details involved in elite performance. I am pretty sure that if Dave Brailsford goes to Manchester United, he will make changes, and they will lead to improved performance. I hope he has the chance this time!