In the last few weeks I have been hearing or reading about a change in top class sports coaching. A change that reflects a much greater degree of emotional intelligence in the world of male macho sports.
I previously shared the example of Pat Gilroy from the parochial world of Gaelic football (see my previous blog).
Example number 2 is from another tough physical sport and this person has the most pressurised job in that particular sport.
Here are some of his quotes from a recent interview with the Irish Times;
“You couldn’t coach the way you did in the 1990s now. They (the players) would not put up with it."
"Really I am the vision man, the strategic person."
"When I coached…..10-15 years ago I was much more authoritarian, but that is how they (the players) grew up, that’s how they were taught at school."
"Today it’s much more consensus management, with people helping each other. So if you are too dictatorial, you just wouldn’t last.”
The speaker is Graham Henry, the coach of the New Zealand (All Black’s) Rugby team.
If you think you have pressure and tough targets, Henry carries not the hopes of a nation but the expectation that New Zealand will win the next Rugby World Cup.
How many of your leaders would you describe as “the vision man”? How many drive consensus and engagement as opposed to dictating everything?
Sport, which can be such a macho, results driven environment involving all ranges of intelligence, is showing the way on leadership – as a business leader are you paying attention?
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