Todays episode is on the topic of Communication, and it features audio quotes from 16 Great Coaches.

If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at [email protected] or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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Our Great Coach on this show is Brenda Kirkpatrick Brown.

Brenda is a former College Basketball player and Head Coach at the University of North Carolina.

Brenda was an assistant for 10 years at Georgia Tech, Charlotte and Florida before becoming head coach at UNC Asheville in 2012.

In her 8 years at UNC the team won back-to-back Big South Conference Tournament crowns in 2016 and 2017, an elite 8thand sweet 16th in the NCAA Tournament, four consecutive postseason berths and one Big South Conference regular-season title.

In 2016 she was named Big South Conference Coach of the Year.

Brenda is presently taking a sabbatical and so we caught here when she had the time and space to reflect on her coaching journey. This meant that she was philosophical but also reflective on the things she could have done better, and like all the great coaches she is lifelong learner and thinking about what she will do differently next time.

She believes that you coach the individual and not just the athlete, and that you can never be the type of coach that the athlete has to overcome in order to perform at their best. This means that you have to guard against your passion interfering with your emotions and the way you communicate.

She has great positivity and talks about using belief and positive language to help people overcome their own doubt. And she shares the great quote from Billie Jean King on pressure being a privilege and how this influences her approach to leadership.

Other highlights for me included:

Her view that when choosing a captain, you should look for someone who consistent in their work ethic, and is not afraid to take accountability and sacrifice themselves for others.

And Her advice to other female leaders on communicating your passion but also explaining how you are coping in the role and achieving the life balance that will be important to other women who may be considering a leadership position.

It was a lot of fun interviewing Brenda, she has great energy and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at [email protected] or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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Todays episode is on the topic of Psychological Safety , and it features audio quotes from 7 Great Coaches.

If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at [email protected] or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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If you would like to send us any feedback or join in our live webinars, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at [email protected] or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

Our Great Coach on this episode is soccer coach Beverly Priestman.

Bev grew up in England where she completed a bachelor's degree in science and football from Liverpool University.

In her early 20’s she moved to New Zealand as head of development for the national football federation.

She then moved to Canada as an Assistant to the National Womens team coach, as well coaching the Canadian Womens team at the FIFA U-17 World Cups. From there she returned to the UK to work as an Assistant for Phil Neville who was coaching the National Womens team and helped guide them to fourth place at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France.

Then in 2020 she was appointed Head Coach of the Canadian Womens team and famously led them to a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

Bev is a coach, who at only 35 years old, already has almost 20 years experience across 3 countries. This perspective, coupled with her energy gives her a depth of wisdom that is motivating and inspiring.

She is strongly values led, and she talks a lot about the role that bravery has played in her life and how it helped shape the focus of her team, so that they could fulfill their mission of changing the colour of the medal, at the Tokyo Olympics.

She is also confident, and yet still humble enough to talk about her to talk about her emotional and intellectual development as a coach.

Some of the other highlights of the interview for me were:

How in high-pressure situations she sees her job as lightening the mood so that people can perform at their optimal level, and the story she shares around how she did this in the Olympic village the day before the gold medal match.

How getting herself out of her comfort zone, and diversifying her experiences allowed her to grow in confidence and belief.

How she used the pandemic lock down to self-develop by focusing on who she was a person, her values and the team culture she wanted to develop.

If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at [email protected] or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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Leadership and Coaching: Building Self-Belief in Others

In this episode of The Great Coaches podcast, Paul explores leadership through the lens of high-performance sport, focusing on one of the most powerful responsibilities of any coach or leader: building self-belief in others. Drawing on insights from coaches across rugby, basketball, cricket, netball, swimming, gymnastics, Australian Rules football, and more, the episode examines how great coaches help people become the best version of themselves by creating belief, clarifying roles, normalising failure, managing pressure, and encouraging reflection.

This episode asks a central leadership question: what does success look like when your role is to coach, guide, or lead others? The answer that emerges is less about titles, trophies, or external recognition, and more about whether the people you lead leave with stronger self-belief, clearer purpose, and greater confidence in their ability to contribute.

·        Why self-belief is one of the most important legacies a coach or leader can leave.

·        How doubt often grows by itself, while belief usually needs deliberate support.

·        Why people need to know they are good enough before they can fully perform their role.

·        How clear roles, ownership, and consistent behaviours help people build confidence.

·        Why allowing people to fail safely is essential for learning and long-term belief.

·        How leaders can help people manage pressure, fear, external noise, and moments of doubt.

·        Why reflection, internal motivation, and trusted mentors help sustain belief over time.

·        Damian McGrath explains why building self-belief helps people reach their potential.

·        Jenny Boucek reframes success as becoming the best version of yourself and living from internal conviction.

·        Peter Moores describes the coach’s role in creating situations where belief can grow through accomplishment.

·        Tanya Oxtoby highlights the importance of reminding people that they are in the team because they are good enough.

·        Briony Akle shares the grounding power of the phrase “you are enough.”

·        Ben Ryan connects confidence with clarity of role, ownership, and consistent behaviours.

·        Felisha Legette Jack explains the importance of meeting people where they are and allowing them to evolve.

·        Tracey Menzies discusses how great coaches notice and unpack the pressure people are carrying.

·        Paul Roos reflects on staying calm, reaching out, and not reacting when leadership feels lonely.

·        Valorie Kondos Field offers a practical failure recovery question: “What’s my best next step?”

·        Belief needs help: Leaders cannot simply tell people to believe; they need to build environments where people can experience progress and accomplishment.

·        Identity comes before performance: People perform more freely when they know their value is not defined by one result, mistake, or setback.

·        Clarity creates confidence: When people understand their role, their contribution, and the behaviours expected of them, confidence becomes more sustainable.

·        Failure must be made useful: Coaches build belief by helping people recover, learn, and take the next step rather than become trapped by mistakes.

·        The room matters more than the noise: Great teams learn to focus on the standards, relationships, and conversations inside the group rather than external judgement.

If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at [email protected] or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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Our Great Coach on this episode is Danny Kerry.

Danny is an English international field hockey coach

Danny became the head coach of the Great Britain women's national field hockey team in 2003, eventually leading them to a Bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics, a 2015 EuroHockey Championship and a Gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

In 2018, he was appointed as the head coach of the Mens side, and led them their first ever FIH Hockey Pro League Grand Final in 2019.

Danny is a coach whose success has been built on his ability to self-reflect, learn and evolve. His story contains several pronounced inflection points and in this interview he discusses both in detail.

His style is intense, and couples both the science of physical and mental development with a player-first philosophy that places the individual and their unique needs ahead of team development.

His also innovative and not afraid to try and fail to find a way to step change performance.

Some of the many highlights in this interview include:

• How he focuses on density of decision making in training to help the team regulate their emotional response in games.
• The process his athletes go through to raise their self-awareness and discover their own sense of purpose. And how this in turn leads to greater mutual understanding between the players and staff,
• And how helping athletes deal with self doubt or their inner critic is an under reported aspect of the role of the Head Coach.

This was a deep and insightful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as I did.

If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at [email protected] or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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Episode theme: Leadership and coaching through the lens of coaching philosophy.

In this episode of The Great Coaches podcast, Paul explores how high-performance sports coaches define, develop, and live their coaching philosophy. Through insights from coaches across basketball, boxing, golf, cycling, swimming, cricket, rugby, water polo, table tennis, soccer, and ice hockey, the episode examines how purpose, authenticity, accountability, decision-making, and continuous improvement shape great leadership.

·        Purpose comes first: A strong coaching philosophy starts with understanding why you coach and what impact you want to have on others.

·        Philosophy guides decisions: Clear principles help leaders stay consistent under pressure and avoid becoming reactive or “wishy-washy”.

·        Authenticity matters: Coaches can learn from mentors and role models, but lasting leadership must be grounded in their own values, personality, and lived experience.

·        Empowerment builds performance: Great coaches create environments where people can take responsibility, make decisions, and learn from outcomes.

·        Improvement is daily work: Many coaches frame leadership as helping people become a little better every day, while continuing to evolve their own philosophy over time.

The episode features reflections from Brenda Kirkpatrick Brown, Eddie Bolger, Steve Bann, Charlie Walsh, Neil Craig, Rohan Taylor, Gary Kirsten, Heyneke Meyer, Rob Beveridge, Jens Lang, Lisa Fallon, Jenny Boucek, István Görgényi, Mark Coles, John Buchanan, and Slavomír Lener.

·        Ask yourself why you lead, coach, or manage people before defining how you will do it.

·        Translate your philosophy into simple principles that can guide everyday decisions.

·        Create environments where people feel trusted, challenged, and responsible for their own growth.

·        Look for continuous improvement, but allow your philosophy to evolve as people and circumstances change.

·        What is the purpose behind the way you lead or coach?

·        Which behaviours best reflect your leadership philosophy?

·        How do you balance being athlete-centred, team-centred, or people-centred with still providing clear direction?

·        Where could you give people more ownership and decision-making responsibility?

·        If you had to summarise your leadership philosophy in one sentence, what would it be?

If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at [email protected] or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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In this episode of The Great Coaches Podcast, we explore the leadership philosophy of Vince Lombardi, one of the most influential coaches in American football history. Through his own words, the episode examines how Lombardi built teams through discipline, teaching, values, clarity of purpose, and an uncompromising belief in what people could become.

·        Leadership is built through effort: Lombardi believed leaders are made, not born, and that leadership comes from hard work, discipline, and personal character.

·        Coaching is teaching: His approach centred on repetition, clarity, correction, and helping people understand not just what to do, but why it mattered.

·        Teams need a shared purpose: Lombardi’s teams were organised around unity, sacrifice, and a clear picture of what success should look like.

·        Values shape performance: Dedication, self-denial, fearlessness, humility, love, and loyalty were not abstract ideals; they were behavioural expectations.

·        Feedback must be personal: Lombardi understood that different people respond to different forms of pressure, criticism, and encouragement.

1.      Create clarity before demanding commitment. Great coaches help people understand the destination, the standard, and the role they play in achieving it.

2.      Teach the fundamentals relentlessly. Excellence is rarely built on complicated ideas; it is created through repeated execution of simple things done well.

3.      Build belief before performance. Lombardi’s lasting influence came from making people believe they were capable of more than they had previously imagined.

4.      Hold standards without losing humanity. His leadership combined demanding expectations with a deep belief in dignity, respect, and the value of every individual.

5.      Use feedback as a tool for growth. Correction should help the person move forward, not trap them in the mistake.

·        Do the people I lead know what success is supposed to look like?

·        Am I teaching the fundamentals clearly enough, or assuming people already understand them?

·        How do I tailor feedback to each person rather than using one style for everyone?

·        What values do I consistently reinforce through my own behaviour?

·        Where might my pursuit of performance be creating imbalance for myself or others?

·        Leadership is not a single quality, but a blend of qualities that can be developed.

·        Coaching is teaching: explain, repeat, correct, and build conviction.

·        Character is forged through attitude, discipline, sacrifice, and the habits people practise every day.

·        The leader must win consent while still exerting control.

·        Teams are strengthened by unity, shared effort, and pride in performance.

·        Learn more about Vince Lombardi and his record with the Green Bay Packers.

·        Explore a broader biographical overview of Vince Lombardi and his influence on American football.

·        Visit The Great Coaches Podcast website for more interviews focused on leadership through high-performance sport.

If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at [email protected] or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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Tim Jankovich on the Art of Coaching: Confidence, Defense, and Caring Leadership

There is no algorithm for leadership. So we ask the world's great coaches how they do it.. In this Great Coaches podcast episode, SMU head coach Tim Jankovich (based in Dallas for nearly 10 years) reflects on lessons from working with iconic coaches and argues that great coaching is an art—rooted in authentic personality, communication, and team-building—more than a science. He explains he never planned to coach, briefly worked as an institutional stockbroker in Beverly Hills, then returned to basketball and has spent 38–39 years coaching, including 14 as a Division I head coach. Jankovich emphasizes longevity requires elite work ethic, resilience, and clear value (recruiting, strategy, teaching), and says confidence can be built through extensive practice, including handling pressure in postseason games by relaxing rather than over-trying. He discusses calm, selective in-game intervention, momentum-based timeout use, and his belief that great teams must be defense- and rebounding-driven to win even when offense fails. He also highlights non-negotiable ethics, recruiting priorities (athleticism, shooting, character), navigating SMU scholarship reductions during probation, and how becoming a father shifted his purpose toward caring for players and telling them the truth to help them succeed beyond basketball.

If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at [email protected] or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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In this episode of The Great Coaches podcast, we explore leadership through the lens of high-performance coaching, focusing on the role of vision in building alignment, energy and sustained commitment. Drawing on insights from elite coaches across sport, the episode looks at how great leaders define a clear destination, bring people with them, and turn ambition into practical action.

·        Vision as a leadership responsibility: Great leaders are clear about where they are going and are able to persuade others to join them on the journey.

·        Team alignment: A shared vision helps move the focus away from individual agendas and towards collective purpose.

·        Execution matters: Vision only becomes powerful when it is connected to a roadmap, behaviours, skills and daily action.

·        Energy and motivation: A compelling vision can sustain people after the initial burst of motivation has faded.

·        Adaptability: Strong leaders use vision as a destination while continuing to adjust the plan as conditions change.

·        Simplicity and repetition: A vision becomes part of culture when it is written down, understood and easy for the team to repeat.

The episode features reflections from coaches including Ric Charlesworth, Tamsin Greenway, Eddie Jones, Neil Craig, Tim Walsh, Briony Akle, Gareth Baber, John Hamlett, Heyneke Meyer, John Buchanan, Simon Jones, Eddie Bolger and Hugh McCutcheon. Together, their insights show that leadership is not just about having an inspiring idea; it is about creating clarity, building belief, aligning stakeholders, and helping people understand what they need to do next.

·        A vision should describe a future worth pursuing and give people a reason to keep moving forward.

·        Leaders need to translate vision into the behaviours, standards and actions expected from the team.

·        A written vision creates accountability because it makes the gap between intention and action visible.

·        The best coaching visions are ambitious enough to inspire, but simple enough to be remembered and repeated.

·        Planning should remain active and flexible; the destination may stay constant, but the route can change.

·        Can every person on your team explain the vision in simple language?

·        Does your vision connect clearly to the daily behaviours you expect?

·        Where might your current plan need to adapt without losing sight of the destination?

·        What would create more energy and belief for the people you lead?

·        How do you keep the vision visible when pressure, fatigue or short-term results get in the way?

If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at [email protected] or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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