Elite leadership group underway- Comments from one of England’s Netball Stars...

I have now been a member of the FLS programme for 3 months. In that time, I have met with my mentor Vic Luck on 2 occasions alongside having continuous email correspondence. In our first meeting, Vic and I outlined clear objectives that I wanted to get out of the programme. These were that I wanted to gain a better understanding of what it was to be a great leader. I wanted to be a leader who inspired others to lead and I wanted to learn how I could be the driving force behind that. I also wanted to gain a better understanding of how and why I currently lead in the way that I do and what improvements could be made to my on court contribution but also to my life away from the court within my role at my law firm.

Vic was able to provide me with a detailed philosophy behind the programme and introduce me to the 360 review tool. He encouraged me to ask my peers within my team as to how they view my leadership and what improvements did they think I could make personally in my role as Captain to guide the team. Following the meeting I distributed questionnaires to my team mates asking them to be as honest, open and as frank as possible in their evaluation. I found the feedback invaluable. It allowed me to see whether the way in which I viewed my leadership was actually in fact being received positively by my team mates in practice. Vic also came down to a game to watch my leadership in action. This was then followed up by a feedback session alongside my Head Coach. I found this particularly helpful as it gave a full circle approach. We were able to talk about his observations from the game but my Coach was able to provide input as to my behaviours and contributions on a daily basis. This provided a 'full circle' approach. From Vic, my Head coach and my team mates feedback, I have developed some action steps over the next few months to continue my journey of 'leading' with purpose and my goal of always striving to be better as we continue our quest for the Netball Superleague Championship title. 

FLS Elite Leaders Group - Developing Leadership Capabilities

‘One of the most exciting things FLS has done is up and running in the new year. We have put together a small group of outstanding young sportsmen and women, of whom 6 have already captained England, and over the next year, they will be given opportunities to develop their leadership capabilities. They each have a mentor, someone prominent in sport, business or the military, and they will have the chance to meet many other leaders during the year, as well as attending all FLS events. The impetus for this project has been the fact that in the United Kingdom we are still not producing enough people ready to take on leadership roles as players, high level coaches and administrators. FLS seeks to assist in the development of leaders in, of and through sport, and this first cohort of young leaders will be given every assistance to fulfil their potential on and off the field of play. The group includes-
Eboni Beckford-Chambers- Netball
Charlotte Edwards- Cricket
Katy McLean- Rugby Union
Tom Mitchell- Rugby Union
Emily Scarrett- Rugby union
Georgie Twigg- Hockey
Mark Tomlinson- Polo
Luke Wallace- Rugby Union
The mentors for this group members are Vic Luck (Director FLS), Bob Reeves (Director FLS), Maj General Stuart Skeates (formerly Commandant, Sandhurst), Richard Hytner (Vice Chairman Saatchi and Saatchi), Tim Griffin (CEO Dell UK), Josh Lewsey (Director FLS), Kevin Bowring (RFU Elite Coach Development Manager), Andy Cosslett (CEO Fitness First Ltd).
The FLS website will feature the programme and will report on how it develops.'

Leaders Programme at Saracens

See Vic Luck's article on a five month programme at Saracens Academy to accelerate the development of leadership capabilities- click here.

Developing Leaders

FLS Director Vic Luck is involved in some inn innovative leadership development with the Rugby Players Association. Check in the resources section for the related article.

Leaders & Followers

Much has been written about ‘leadership’ in sport in recent weeks. Maybe it is time to consider what we really mean. What is the purpose of leadership? If it is, and this seems reasonable, to work with others in an agreed purposeful way in order to achieve stated goals, then we should be able to arrive at a decent understanding.

‘Working with others’, be they fellow coaches, those who are coached, or those who employ the coaches, implies a certain amount of agreement and empathy, yet this is where many coaches go wrong.

Most coaches will say that they want ‘their’ players to be responsible, to be good decision-makers, and to take some sort of ‘ownership’ of their situation. Yet, these same coaches are highly likely to take control of just about everything in their particular environment.

I started learning about this many years ago when I was the coach of the English Universities Rugby XV. For several seasons, I had been frustrated that when we asked our selected players to be at our meeting place in London, say, by 8pm on the Wednesday evening, ahead of a match v French Universities on Friday evening, there were always some who said they could not make it until later that night, or even before early the following morning. Despite my protestations, I never resolved this problem. So one year, at a final squad practice ahead of selecting the team, I sent the players off in groups to discuss a range of things connected with a possible code of conduct. On the matter of being at the meeting at 8pm on the Wednesday, they were all united- ‘If they cannot be there by then, don’t pick them’. Thus it was that we never had the problem again. The reason was that the players had ownership. Because of this, they stuck to it.

We often hear talk of leaders, and of the need for good followers. The best environment is where the followers are also seen to be leaders- as the All Blacks say- ‘One captain, fifteen leaders’. Any coaching environment, from school to elite level professional sport, should work in this way. We should hear coaches saying-‘What do you think?’ ‘How do you feel? ‘What should we do?’. Players should feel confident that their responses are important. Players should take charge of some sessions. How else can we expect them in due course to make all the right decisions on the field? Players should not look to the touchline for instructions. Should coaches go on the field of play as ‘water-carriers’. Who should do most of the talking at half-time?

Players views are important. It was said that the ECB disposed of Kevin Pietersen because he was disruptive in the dressing room and the other players did not want him. The player himself apparently is now saying that the right decision was made. So how did England’s rugby players feel about whether Stefan Armitage should be eligible to play or not? Were they asked, and if so, by whom? If the players wanted him, should that have been enough? Quite possibly. If they did not, that is the end of the story.

In the primary school, youngsters devise their own games in the playground, select their own teams (always trying to have an even contest), decide the rules, and they act as their own TMO. We spend the next 20+ years taking all of this away from them. A different approach is needed to coaching, at all levels. A stated purpose of the coaching environment should be to develop leaders.

Such leaders can become leaders in and of sport, and in the real world beyond.

Bob Reeves

Director, Foundation for Leadership through Sport

President, Rugby Football Union 2013/14

FLS at work with Saracens Academy

Our FLS philosophy on developing leader capabilities is demonstrated in the current programme we have designed and are running for the Academy at Saracens RFC, which features in a recent edition of Training Journal (www.trainingjournal.com; 'news' 17 August).

Put together and directed by Vic Luck, the programme features:

1. A series of practical projects in the workplace, putting into action a personalised leader development plan based on better self awareness of personal impact on others. This reflects our belief that the best way to accelerate the development of leader skills is focused practice in everyday situations

2. Spread over 5 months, these projects are initiated in 4 half-day workshops that facilitate learning about the leadership process and various core skills like communications, decision-making under pressure etc. The role of FLS is to direct these interventions but not to provide them all; we have included other leadership experts to contribute to the programme

3. 17 Academy players are joined on the programme by 9 executives from club partner wealth management business Sanlam, and one workshop also involves working with Sandhurst cadets. As with our workshops held for senior performance executives in NGBs and elite clubs, we are keen to exploit the learning across sport, business and the military

4. Key to the success of this type of programme is the support of club management, and accordingly the Academy manager, Don Barrell is participating in the programme along with four coaches, who encourage players to practice their leader skills alongside their rugby skills

5. And in keeping with our mission to develop leadership THROUGH sport, the aim of the programme is both to yield immediate performance improvements by the individuals and for their teams AND to lay the foundations for successful careers after rugby

Coaching from the sidelines

Increasingly, it seems to me that sportsmen and women are being told what to do by coaches from the sidelines while a game is being played, or perhaps by the water carrier who goes on the pitch to tell players what to do next. This suggests that players are not trusted to manage their own performance. Surely, players in any sport should be encouraged to make decisions, assume responsibility and to be accountable for what they do. With this in mind, Brian Ashton and I are developing ideas on ‘Coaching sport to develop leaders’. We believe that a change in teaching and coaching style from schooldays onward is necessary so that game understanding is seen to be as important as skill development and that those being coached should be given more say in practice. As Brian says, leadership in sport begins in the primary school playground, when youngsters select their own teams, design the playing area and also make decisions without a referee. We then spend the next 20 years taking this away from them!
Our activity in coaching to develop leaders will involve the likes of Kevin Bowring, Andy Flower and David Whitaker.

What do you think? Let us know.
Bob Reeves

Harry gets excited about the Rugby World Cup 2015

Follow the link:  http://bit.ly/1e2CjCR

Player selection - some difficult decisions

Would you have picked Kevin Pieterson for England? Would you have selected Stefan Armitage or any other overseas domiciled players for the Rugby World Cup? These were big decisions to be made by leaders of these sports. It would be great to find out what FLS members think. Let us know?
For my part, though it there is no clear ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, I have a feeling I might have said ‘yes’ to the former, and ‘no’ to the latter.
Pieterson is a sporting genius, and such people, being very different, tend to behave differently in many ways. They need careful management. Even then, relationships are often difficult, with team-mates and coaches alike. Maybe Pieterson was a ‘pain in the ——‘, but this surely could have been managed. Geoff Boycott was a very selfish player, but he was never dropped for being a pain. He was however once left out of a test team even though he scored a double century in the previous test match. This was justified, as he had taken so long over his innings (2 days if memory served me right), that it made a draw inevitable, when a win might have been on the cards. Now that is a strange one.
As for Armitage, he knew the ‘rules’ when he went to play in France. He was reminded of these when he had the chance to return to play in England. He chose not to, and has paid the price.
In both these cases, the selectors, and particularly the coaches, have taken heed of the damage in the dressing room that may have followed selection of the players concerned. If they thought that team spirit and the healthy culture built up over time were to be eroded, they cannot be blamed for leaving them out.
What do you think?
Bob Reeves

Managing players with big egos

Mike Forde, once with Chelsea FC and now an adviser with the San Antonio Spurs in the USA, has written an interesting piece on managing players with big egos. In the light of recent English cricket experience, the reader might find something interesting in this. It is a thought-provoking article, now to be found in the references in the FLS Members section of the website.

Sporting bodies and media

'A couple of our workshops in the past couple of years have focused on sustaining success- straying at the top after working hard to get there. We came to the conclusion that it is most unlikely that a sporting team would last long as one of the world's best unless the organisation in which it sits has an appropriate culture as well as being a world-leading sporting business. In 2011, when England rugby was in trouble on and off the field, England cricket seemed to be in a very good place. How the tables have turned. The ECB seems to have made the same mistakes that the RFU did a few years earlier.
Peter Moores attended our workshops and he must ruefully look back and bemoan what has happened to him. Leaking stories to the press is not the way good leaders work, but that is what senior people in the ECB have been doing. Peter's treatment and subsequent sacking was played out in the media and glory be, they are still at it. Whether the newly appointed Andrew Strauss should or should not give Kevin Pieterson another chance is one thing, but for the media to announce confidently that he will not, even before the two have had a meeting, is unacceptable.
The incoming ECB Chairman, Colin Groves, has already put his foot in it by publicly denouncing the West Indies as mediocre, thus motivating them to a fine victory on the 3rd test. Groves' quote was pinned to the West Indian changing room wall.

Sporting bodies have to work well with the media. How well they do it reflects on the quality of the organisation. One start for the ECB would be to stop contracted players tweeting and twittering and for any others in the organisation to say as little as possible. The RFU seem to have this right at the moment, but it only takes one indiscretion to send the pack of cards tumbling. At least the rugby folk have been made aware of this. Will English cricket learn. The signs are not good so far!'

Bob Reeves

Sign Up

' The new look website has encouraged much more interest, and among the latest to sign up as members are two people whose books on leadership we strongly recommend in the references section of the site. Richard Hytner ('Consiglieri') and James Kerr ('Legacy') have written original and insightful books about leadership. They are a must-read! '