What would your team look like if you let them shape and drive the culture, and if you loved them first as people before you ever tried to be coach? Would they be more like the bad news bears instead of Barcelona? If you said the bad news bears, you are dead wrong. In this entertaining and thought provoking interview with Tom Bates, we discover that the world’s greatest teams believe in love, connectedness and the human component as the most important factors in building great cultures and winning teams. Tune in to hear Tom’s fascinating stories from some of the world’s most well-known managers and teams and his own beliefs about what makes a great coach, how to build a great culture, and where the future of sport is headed. Bio Tom Bates is Performance Psychology coach and consultant at West Bromwich Albion FC. Over the last ten years he has worked with youth and senior domestic international athletes, coaches, managers and teams helping them to perform under pressure and be at their best when it matters the most. Starting his career at Cambridge United, he moved to AFC Bournemouth and quickly progressed to Birmingham City FC during their years in the English Premier League and Championship before taking up his current role with the Baggies. Tom’s work has extended into other professional sports working with GB Basketball, Swimming, Boxing, Rugby, Golf and Fencing. During the summer Olympic games of 2012 he worked select GB athletes to maximise performance under pressure to engage and apply Peak Performance principles based on the Science of Psychology. Tom has appeared in numerous television and radio features nationwide extending his work in psychology to executive business coaching seminars and workshops around the world. During these highly interactive seminars he acts to stimulate and inspire thought provoking leadership skills through focusing exclusively on the ‘management of self’. Subscribe to the Way of Champions Podcast on iTunes Show Notes 5:00 How he got into performance psychology 8:45 Only the weak need a psychologist” but even the best should be working with one 12:30 You cannot coach in a freezing cold pool 20:30 Tom shares a great practice from La Masia in Barcelona that helps develop their great culture 26:30 Moving from I/You to “We” is a powerful way to deepen the learning and the resiliency of athletes 33:00 Tom’s belief in the future of High-Performance Coaching 37:15 The importance of culture in sport 48:30 The very first thing you should do to start a great culture and (maybe the most important) Get in Touch Twitter: @TomBatesCoachng (there is no “I” in coaching) Instagram: @TomBatesCoachng Website: www.tombatescoaching.com His TED Talk: Tom Bates: Imagination: The Power of Creativity If you are enjoying our podcast, please help us out and leave a review on iTunes. How to leave an iTunes rating or review for a podcast from your iPhone or iPad Launch Apple’s Podcast app. Tap the Search tab. Enter the name Way of Champions. Tap the blue Search key at the bottom right. Tap the album art for the Way of Champions podcast. Tap the Reviews tab. Tap Write a Review at the bottom. Thanks so much, every review helps us to spread this message!