Hi Reader

Welcome to the October edition of the Coach Lead Collective, your go-to resource for coaching leaders like you, dedicated to supporting and developing our coaching community.

This month is about 'eating frogs,' the challenges of growing a coach developer network, plus a 2025 calendar template that may highlight a couple of scheduling challenges for next year. And remember to share with colleagues if you've got any benefit out of this.

Eating Frogs

I was formerly a school teacher, so my days were highly structured and dictated by bells. I still remember my first day at Bay of Plenty Rugby, waiting for the bell to go! I initially struggled to structure my time efficiently, and by Wednesday, I often found myself playing catch-up. That’s when a colleague introduced me to the ‘eat the frog’ analogy, which helped me become more efficient and effective.

As Mark Twain famously said:
​"If the first thing you do each morning is eat a frog, then nothing worse can happen for the rest of the day."
​In this case, the ‘frog’ represents the hardest task you need to tackle. By getting it out of the way early, you get the important stuff done first and free up mental energy for the rest of your day. I've learnt to love frogs!

Check out the 1 minute video below or check out this short article HERE​

Building a Coach Developer Network?

In March 2018, I transitioned from Player Academy Manager to Coach Development Manager at BOP Rugby, right in the middle of workshop season. Over a hectic four-week period, I facilitated 12 Small Blacks workshops across the region. While I enjoyed the work, I quickly realised this wasn’t sustainable in the long run. To address this, we developed a plan to grow the Coach Developer base, aiming to have a broader impact—not only with course delivery but also ongoing support. It sounded great in theory, so off I went with two main strategies:

1. Influencing Job Descriptions of Current Staff: I convinced my line manager and colleagues that our Secondary School, Junior, and Regional Managers should have coach development included in their job descriptions and KPIs. They all completed the World Rugby Educator course, which helped us distribute the workload.
2. Club Coach Educators: We handpicked people from local clubs to act as Coach Developers for their own clubs. These individuals, being closer to the action and familiar with their coaches, seemed ideal for ongoing support. We trained them through three evening sessions, adapting a simplified version of the World Rugby Coach Educator program.

However, theory didn’t fully align with reality at first attempt. Strategy 1 worked better than Strategy 2. Staff took on some of the workshop delivery, meaning I wasn’t rushing around like a fly in a bottle. It was fun to collaborate and upskill together. But with Strategy 2, we struggled to get on-going traction. Those we shoulder tapped from clubs were often working in high-profile leadership roles and also coaching teams at the club themselves, leaving them little time for anything else outside co-delivering the Small Blacks course. I’m sure there is a feasible solution to get strategy 2 humming out there?

2025 Calendar

I’ve attached a calendar template (at the bottom of this email) that I find helpful for organising tasks and staying on track. For New Zealand readers, just note that that Term 2 in 2025 is only 9 weeks long, with King’s Birthday and Matariki public holidays mixed in. It’s likely to impact on the winter sport seasons, so there could be a good opportunity to think ‘outside the box’ and try some creative strategies to make the most of the time available.

​Year Planner 2025 Template.docx​