The New Face of Leadership

This week I watched the Collingwood Football Club’s documentary that was released on ABC. The documentary focuses on head coach Nathan Buckley and a few players throughout the 2018 football season. I’m a passionate fan of the club, so I was mostly watching it to get an inside look into the club that I love so much. Whilst it certainly did this for me, my other takeaway was the evolution of Nathan Buckley as a leader. The journey he taken over the past few years is one that I find myself supporting clients to take during my leadership coaching sessions.

On observation, Nathan’s traditional leadership style appeared to be more authoritative and directive approach. From an outside perspective, this seems to be a common leadership style amongst AFL coaches. Yet what Nathan found, and what many leaders find is that this approach does not always give you the outcome you are looking for. As inexperienced leaders, we often make the mistake of thinking that the title of manager automatically delivers you a team that will follow your direction and do as you say. We soon discover that this simply does not always work. It might deliver some results, but the risk is the breakdown in relationships, the lack of engagement and the possible burnout of your team. This can be a very frustrating time for everyone involved. I often hear leaders struggling with the ‘extra work’ they need to do as leaders, and the changes they feel they need to make. A common complaint is that all the burden is on the manager, and the employee appears to get away without putting in the work.

I suspect that Nathan would have felt these same frustrations when he transitioned into his current role. As a previous captain of the club and celebrated player, he may have been surprised that not all players and staff were following his lead. To my delight, over the past few years, Nathan appears to have adapted his leadership style. The results particularly during 2018 were incredible for the club. The team appeared to be playing for each other, and for him. The media and social media commentary was full of praise for the shift that he was able to make as head coach. It was a huge turnaround for Nathan and the club. Yet, the team was fairly unchanged, most of the administration was the same, so what exactly had changed?

I can see two factors that likely contributed to the change:

Mindset - Nathan’s mindset had changed. He started to think about the type of working culture he wanted, the type of club he wanted to be a part of. Having identified this goal, he started to consider the behaviours that would deliver this, both from himself and others. He recognised that as a leader, he needed to be flexible so he could achieve his own goals.

Shared Workload - Nathan started to allow others to take part in the solution. He allowed his supporting coaches and the team to participate more openly to help shape the culture. He realised that he was taking on far too much responsibility and not allowing others to take ownership and share the load.

Self-Awareness - Nathan is likely to have had some self-reflection to understand the part he was playing to contribute to the issues he was facing. Once he identified these, he needed to start making some changes.

As a leader, it is critical to develop your self awareness to understand what contributions you are making to your team (both positive and negative). Once you understand your own personality and drivers, you can start to work on the areas that may not be getting you closer to your own goals.

If you are looking for external coaching or support to develop as a leader, reach out to me on email: mehtap@lockhr.com. For anyone interested in the documentary, Collingwood: From the Inside Out is available on ABC iview.