Coaching The Elephant

Conflict does not have to damage a team; when handled constructively, it can lead to better decisions, stronger relationships and new ideas. Addressing tensions early, listening to different perspectives and exchanging feedback respectfully helps teams turn disagreements into opportunities for learning and growth.

Short, structured stand-up meetings help teams stay aligned without getting caught up in lengthy discussions. By sharing recent progress, upcoming priorities and obstacles, team members can improve communication, identify problems early and maintain momentum, whether they work remotely or in person

An effective team coach helps a group understand its dynamics, recognise patterns and unlock its collective potential rather than simply directing individual members. Through attentive observation, timely interventions and greater awareness of how people interact, a coach can help leadership teams navigate challenges and work more effectively together.

René argues that what sets winning teams apart, in boardrooms and on the field, isn’t individual brilliance but a leader’s ability to turn talent into collective strength through positive influence. He outlines five habits that make this work: leading consistently day to day, respecting differences in how people operate, building capability rather than just chasing results, giving clear direction,...

Despite growing awareness of the importance of mental preparation, some athletes still see working with a mental performance coach as a sign of weakness. The article challenges this stigma, highlighting how seeking support is a proactive way to build confidence, improve focus and develop the resilience required for elite performance.

Physical talent and hours of practice are not always enough to achieve sporting excellence; mental preparation also plays a crucial role. Developing the right mindset and mental skills helps athletes translate their training into performance, manage challenges and make the most of their abilities.

Pressure is an inevitable part of competitive sport, but how athletes interpret and respond to it can significantly affect their performance. By recognising their expectations, focusing on the task at hand and reframing pressure as a challenge rather than a threat, athletes can learn to perform more effectively in crucial moments.

Psychological safety allows athletes to express concerns, acknowledge mistakes and show vulnerability without fear of judgement. By building trust, openness and mutual support, sporting teams can strengthen cohesion, improve mental well-being and create the conditions for better performance.

Mental skills are just as important to high performance as physical preparation, technical ability and experience. Through deliberate practice, athletes can develop the focus, resilience and emotional control needed to handle pressure, overcome setbacks and perform consistently when it matters most.

Mental performance coaching helps athletes and professionals strengthen skills such as concentration, motivation, confidence and resilience. The article explores the evidence behind coaching techniques like visualisation, goal-setting and positive self-talk, and how these can support better performance.

Mental performance coaching helps soccer players develop focus, confidence, mental strength and better decision-making on the field. By addressing psychological barriers alongside physical and technical training, teams can improve consistency and perform closer to their full potential

Attitude is not a fixed trait but a learnable, changeable state - how a person is prepared for whatever the environment presents. Built on the think-feel-act principle, this article maps four stages of attitudinal development, from the challenging state through blocked, avoidant and quitting states, and explains how athletes move back up the ladder.

Teams with high psychological safety keep their people, earn more and are rated effective twice as often. This article uses two nuclear disasters, Fukushima and Chernobyl, to show what happens when authority cannot be questioned and concerns have nowhere to go, and argues that hiring talented people means little without an environment where they will speak.

Beyond credentials and resumes, every leader has distinctive strengths that shape their impact. Drawing on coaching more than 200 Executive MBA students at Booth School of Business, this article describes how to identify those superpowers through self-assessment, peer feedback and coaching, and how to put them to work under real business pressure.

Only 12% of leaders show effective interpersonal skills, and barely a third of employees trust their leadership. This article examines the two personality dimensions behind those numbers, sociability and interpersonal sensitivity, and argues that trust and a genuine sense of belonging are what convert individual competence into collective performance.

Only 12% of leaders show effective interpersonal skills, and barely a third of employees trust their leadership. This article examines the two personality dimensions behind those numbers, sociability and interpersonal sensitivity, and argues that trust and a genuine sense of belonging are what convert individual competence into collective performance.

The Semmelweis reflex is our tendency to reject evidence that contradicts what we already believe. From the physician who cut childbed fever mortality tenfold and was institutionalised for it, to Kodak dismissing digital photography, this article traces the pattern through politics and business, and offers de-biasing techniques for leaders who want to avoid it.

Psychological safety is not the engine of performance; it is the anchor that has to be raised before the ship can move. Using the 1977 Tenerife runway collision, where a flight engineer hesitated to challenge his captain, this article shows how hierarchy silences people, and why managing our own image at work can quietly cost far more than it protects.

Has traditional leadership become obsolete? This article argues the opposite: leadership still matters, but it has to absorb new expectations. It distinguishes leadership traits from leadership styles, and examines social stewardship and servant leadership as two responses to a world that now measures organizations by stakeholder value, not only by profit.

Remote work is not a temporary arrangement, and forcing people back to the office is not a leadership strategy. This article argues that communication is the most critical and most underestimated part of managing distributed teams, and offers three practical approaches: deliberate face-to-face time, understanding differing communication styles, and building a virtual water cooler.

Fear has been used as a motivator since the assembly line, and many managers still believe in it. Drawing on Google's Project Aristotle and Amy Edmondson's work, this article explains why fear is counterproductive wherever success depends on learning, creativity or collaboration. It also lists the red flags that reveal a culture of fear inside an organization.

The old riding proverb warns against swapping horses on unstable ground mid-crossing. This article applies it to leadership decisions, through three situations: the MBA graduate under pressure to change jobs, the impatient CEO who learns to pause and analyse, and the change leader balancing conviction with the resistance of the team around them.

Telling people to speak up is not enough; organizations have to build the conditions that make it normal. Using the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster as a warning, this article sets out six practical steps for creating psychological safety at work, from leadership modelling vulnerability to normalizing failure, and looks at how Toyota, Pixar and others put them into practice.

An accomplished sports coach knows that winning takes more than individual talent. Drawing on years of working alongside elite team coaches, this article examines three skills corporate leaders can borrow: interpersonal skills such as communication, impartiality and cultivating enjoyment, intrapersonal skills like positive self-talk, and the right operational distance from the team.

Empathy is an overlooked engine of business growth. Through the story of Albert Cramer, who sent Warsteiner employees out to see the market through the eyes of outlet owners and drinkers rather than commissioning research, this article shows how understanding the people you serve turns raw data into insight, and insight into a decade of double-digit growth.