UNCOVERING THE SECRETS TO LEADING HIGH PERFORMING TEAMS

Last week I had the great honour of delivering a keynote on “Leading High-Performing Teams” to over 200 Leaders from Tennis Australia at their inaugural Leadership Development summit.

Dylan Alcott AOM, who was recently awarded Australian of the Year, spoke before me. I was transfixed, as was the room, at his story of honesty and reflection. Dylan is a competitive beast, but life wasn’t always like that for him. And it was in his competitive mindset that he also almost lost himself.

Dylan talked about his journey which led him to a simple mantra, one that has helped him not only compete at the highest level, and win, but has allowed him to accept the responsibility of his public profile and the change that it can bring for people with a disability.

I will take his message with me forever.

“Be kind to yourself.”

Chatting to Dylan in between our presentations I gifted him a copy of my book, “Purpose, Passion & Performance”. In so many ways it summed up what Dylan had just spent the last 45 minutes communicating to the room.

As a High-Performance coach I have worked with such a great array of leaders and organisations. I always welcome the opportunity to be in dialogue about Leadership, Culture and Strategy.

So I started to reflect on the role “kindness” plays in Leadership, and how “kindness” can be a strength, and not a “softness” of character. I reflect on how high-performance is a delicate balance between capacity and challenge – and when you sit in that space –  I describe this as the performance edge.

I had the stage for 90 minutes – and I still felt like I could have kept going! I spoke about my high-performance system model, where leadership fuels purpose, culture fuels passion, and strategy fuels performance. The room responded with a collective understanding and recognition of how it can help their organisation.

I have so much respect for what Tennis Australia have achieved. They have created one of the world’s great annual sporting events, and they allow the profits from that tournament to trickle down to the grass roots. To ensure the game and the infrastructure needs can be met to help grow the sport.

If you are looking to inspire your Leaders, or stimulate thinking across your organisation, reach out and find out more about how my keynotes can create the conversations of change.