THE HERALD REPORTS
Leadership course is just the business for young Warriors
KEVIN FERRIE, Chief Rugby Writer July 14 2009
Some of Glasgow Warriors' most promising players are to be turned into business apprentices in a bid to bring out their leadership skills.

Seven players - Max Evans, Callum Forrester, Colin Gregor, Ruaridh Jackson, Moray Low, Mark McMillan and Fergus Thomson - are participating in a programme agreed between Sean Lineen, the club's head coach and Allan Mackintosh, a full-time performance coach who recently became chairman of Premier One side Glasgow Hawks.

Scheduled to get under way tomorrow and running over the next six months, there will be a competitive edge throughout with a prize for the player who responds best. Mackintosh, who specialises in management and team development, believes all will be winners though as good players learn to become more influential.

"This will introduce the players to the concept of leadership both on and off the park and start to build and develop the necessary skills and attitudes necessary to exhibit effective leadership," he said.

"The main aim is to improve their levels of self-confidence and self-belief and to measure what beneficial effect this has on their performance both on and off the rugby field.

"Presenting to groups is one of the toughest and most nerve-racking tasks anyone can do. It takes planning, preparation skill, effort and focus to be a competent and confident presenter. I have seen many people in business over the years grow as individuals after conquering their fear of presenting with the result they become more confident, have greater self-esteem and are able to influence more effectively.

"My theory is that by enabling rugby players to overcome their fears and work at becoming confident presenters this will result in increased self awareness and confidence thus enabling them to improve their performance on the rugby park and increase their contributions off the park at training, team sessions and within the community work that Warriors players are committed to."

The scheme ties in with the approach taken by Andy Robinson, Scotland's head coach, when he put those players not involved in the match 22 during Scotland A's successful IRB Nations Cup run, in charge of analysing games and presenting the findings to their colleagues.

As well as keeping them involved, it was designed to build their understanding of the game while encouraging them to take greater responsibility, and seemed to be successful on both counts.

There will be a element of traditional training and coaching in the development of leadership capabilities, with the main thrust being to support and enable the development of the players' public speaking skills and their confidence to present effectively and with impact.

Each will choose a topic related to the Warriors as a business and rugby as a sport and they will present their topic initially to their peers as they go through their training but finally to a group if Glasgow business people at a meeting in December.

"I will be taking them through a presenting skills process that I have developed entitled E5 (Engage, Enlighten, Educate, Entertain, Encourage) which is designed to ensure that presenters fully deliver what their audience expects," said Mackintosh.

At tomorrow's introductory meeting, he will outline the methods to be used, the expectations of the players and the outcomes and benefits they should enjoy as a result of the programme.

"We will meet for one afternoon a month where we will initially look at leadership and agree the presentation topics then begin building the presentations and the players' skills before they present to the Warriors coaching staff, executives and their peers in November," said Mackintosh.

"After that they will fine tune their skills before their final presentation to the Business Group in December.

There will be a prize for the best presentation on the night which will be presented by Jonny Petrie, a former Warriors captain, who is now with one of Scottish Rugby's main sponsors, Scottish Hydro Electric."

This article was originally posted on 14-Jul-2009, 06:53 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 14-Jul-2009, 06:59.