Peta Searle Edit
Sat, 7/24 8:14AM • 19:39
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
coach, people, coaching, players, expectation, person, talk, grow, winning, individual, parenting, team, self belief, strong, group, afl, find, years, disruptive, performance
SPEAKERS
Paul Barnett, Peta Searle
Paul Barnett 00:00
So Peter, sell. It's a pleasure to meet you. How are you today?
Peta Searle 00:03
I'm great. Thank you. And yeah, it's great to be on.
Paul Barnett 00:07
It's a real privilege to talk to you. So many things I want to cover. But I wanted to start off by just asking you about great coaches, you've had firsthand experience with some of the Great's of AFL football is Richardson, elves, Neil Craig, David Park, and just to name a few. And I'm interested to hear what you think the great coaches do differently.
Peta Searle 00:30
For me, the probably the most obvious in this was Gary is, first of all, his care factor around the people that he works with is amazing. Like, he genuinely truly just cares for you as a human being first and foremost. And then because of that, he's really wants to grow and develop you. He does this better than anyone that I've ever known. There's a lot of people that say that, yeah, I'll develop your come along, and we all grow our people, and so forth. But I find very few people actually know what that looks like or how to do that. Gary's certainly one of those that knows what it looks like for different individuals and how to go about it, he's got a really good balance between letting you go. But then knowing when you need support, but whilst also challenging you at the same token, even when you don't want to be challenged, he can be quite challenging at times, but it's all based around his philosophy to grow you as a person or coach or applier, etc. So, to me, that's what great coaches do, they care, and they actually understand the individual and how to grow that individual and what that looks like for that individual.[PB1]
Paul Barnett 01:44
I've heard you talk about the fact that your coaching philosophies about coaching the person, could you talk a little bit about how you apply this philosophy to the teams that you take on that are often so diverse in age and personalities and things like that,
Peta Searle 01:59
I think when you can understand the person, you can then work towards a common goal, and you can bring them along the journey. And you can, I guess, make it a voltage journey. It's a goal, it's a team, it's not mine, I'm just the person driving the bus so strange. And you can confuse that by having people die if you have a really good relationship with your pliers or be really good to spend time with them, getting to know them and heaps of coffee, etc, or whatever. I don't drink coffee. So that's never the case. But it doesn't have to be deep like that. It can be but it doesn't have to be it can be just having a good idea of what they bring into the club, what the players bring with them in terms of what they've had to live within their life challenges. What are the barriers around them that's stopping them from succeeding is about understanding and knowing your players and then what do you need to do as a coach to help remove those barriers that enables them then to reach the potential that they need to go? [PB2]
I have an example of someone that have coached in the past big strong person big strong female that's probably all her life been told to be gentle. One of my coaches getting frustrated is I don't understand why didn't just use your body and just doesn't do this without me think about it. Probably for 20 years of alive she's probably been told Be gentle, be gentle now aware on saying be rough be physical wait after all the scenes, like it's 20 years of socialization, we've got a undo here. And the light bulb goes in the coach's head goes Oh, yeah. Okay. So that's what I mean. It's about having an understanding not just them, but a background or society's perceptions of them. And basically things that can be subconsciously or can be quite obvious. That's, I guess, impeding their ability to perform, to where they could perform to,[PB3]
Paul Barnett 03:44
you've had this unique coaching experience where you've coached a range of ages because you're also a PE teacher. You've also coached men and women. How do you think this sort of exposure to a really diverse group of people has helped you as a coach?
Peta Searle 03:58
I think it's helped me Look, it's just like parenting, isn't it as well, the more you start to understand the complexities of people, whether they're male or female, whether they're 22, whether they're 19, whether they're 32, [PB4] I probably if I had my time again, I'll probably want to study a psychology degree, and then go into coaching. But I'm not going to go backwards. We're not backwards, we don't have the time or money to do it. I think what this enables you to do is just have greater understanding of the complexities greater tolerance of really learning that everyone's got spots, but there's also a lot of good that everyone's got so it's about working with the spots but and are and the spots, but it's really about extracting the good and really developing what it is in those people that special, whether it's talent, whether it's skill, whether it's personality, looking more for the good in people[PB5] , Peter, I
Paul Barnett 04:49
remember first hearing you talk way back on the could have been champions must have been over 20 years ago. And since then, I've seen you rock Through the coaching ranks, and there was this wonderful video, unfinished business that the ABC put out. And I was showing that to my family in preparation for today. And we were all talking about resistance, persistence, and dealing with resilience, and how it's such an important trait to develop. I'm really interested to understand how you help people in your team develop those traits or get better in that area.
Peta Searle 05:23
I think it's a lot of it just lead by example, to start with, isn't it? I guess I'm a pretty good role model in that aspect. Sports hard. I though w in particular is hard. It's a short season, there's no reserves teams to prove your performance. So if you don't get picked it, so I have fell on steroids only everything's magnified. Because it's so short, that the impact is quite big. So every week is quite dramatic for the nine players that don't get chosen is quite tough. So it's just a matter of always workshopping. I mean, it does look different with different individuals in it. But it's always a matter of what the opportunity is. It's not what's gone, or you're not getting, but what is the opportunity going forward. And is it next week, maybe maybe not the opportunities to work on something to improve on something or maybe the opportunities just to grow some resilience. So there's always something that can be achieved out of a sad time or low level, so to speak. So it's about changing the narrative to not what you've lost, but what you can gain. [PB6] Wow, fantastic.
Paul Barnett 06:23
I wanted to take you back, actually, to your first year of coaching, where you had transitioned from being a player in Durban. And then you took the team from the bottom, all the way to the grand final. And I'd like to know what changed in that year, what changed for you and for the team,
Peta Searle 06:40
look, culture changed, it was a club that needed a lot of strong guidance and direction around what that look like in terms of expectations of the ideas both on and off the field, it was about actually educating them around the game had great coaching and hadn't been educated, so to speak. So if you give them the education, you give them the clear guidelines about what's required in terms of performance and selection, etc, I found I really thrived on it and really wanted it, they probably didn't know they wanted it, because they never had it. And I think that because I thrived on this. It's like boundaries. And again, parenting, you set boundaries and where you have loose boundaries, and but everyone needs some structure, to feel safe, so that they can go and perform. And that's basically what it was about[PB7] . It's putting some really strong structures that encourage strong performance and strike, strong effort, strong culture, strong behavior, strong attitudes, and things like that. And I just think because of that, I enjoyed themselves enjoy their footy and really felt it safe to be vulnerable, that they're on fire that they we wanted them to play.
Paul Barnett 07:45
So if you were giving advice to another coach on culture, and they needed to improve the culture within their team, what would you tell them to do? First, what would be the first things they should try to fix or improve?
Peta Searle 07:57
Look at what's good to start with, I think when you changing culture in an organization, if you go in there saying this needs to be done, this needs to be done, it can be quite, I think, first of all, you got to find what's good. And use that as your base and keep working with that. And then add the things that whatever it is that's not working, you know, it's going to be different in different organizations that that's required. But to get people on board, you need them to feel good. So you need to be feeling good that they're doing some things right, and you're just gonna simply I guess, find the holes and improve those.[PB8]
Paul Barnett 08:29
And as you're going through that process of, you know, looking for what's good, but also looking for the holes and the stuff you want to improve. How do you go about managing, you know, disruptive peer pressure within the team?
Peta Searle 08:40
My experience is, is most people want to do the right thing. Most people want to belong to a place or a team or that is viewed upon positively. So you get the majority on board and yet disruptive. And he said two really strong parameters, I think disruptive ones almost self select out. And that's the value of having good leaders or getting a group of people on board, making sure that they're empowered by this and that they're helping driving it and yet the disruptive people become less disruptive and as said, often they self select[PB9] . You've
Paul Barnett 09:17
described yourself as an emotional coach, but I'm sure there's times you need to manage your emotions. Are there any like tools or routines you use to sort of calm yourself down when the excitements really building?
Peta Searle 09:30
Not really probably something we'll get better at? It will go I think my emotions drive or I don't think my emotions are out of control. I just think that you should be able to show your emotions and I think that that's okay to think that you need to be cool, calm and click live all the time. It's just not human. And the best way to relate to people is to be human, and humans are emotional. So that's all I say when I say I'm an emotional coach. I'm not like a train wreck or anything like that, but I get really So I did when they do really well, I feel the pain when they lose. But I probably don't demonstrate that I'll hold that into perspective and drive the group and put them in a space where they need to be to go forward. But there's no doubt that you go home and you don't sleep because you feel it's like night you want them to do well. And when they're doing well, yeah, happy for them. And when they're not doing well, it's extremely sad and painful as again, let's do it again. It's like parenting comes home and says someone's picked on him. And it's like, you feel like your heart goes out or you feel angry, or you feel sad. I just don't think Yeah, but you don't show your children that but you're wired to have feelings. His own saying,
Paul Barnett 10:36
is interesting to talk about coaching, being similar to parenting. But sometimes in coaching, you've got to step back, you've got to find that line and move away from the players and give yourself some distance from them. How do you cope with finding that line?
Peta Searle 10:49
I think it's just finding the balance between guiding, educating, growing, and self discovery. And stepping back is about self discovery. As a coach, the more that the players can do that themselves, the better it is for you, and the better it is for the group. So it's actually a really, I think, positive tool to be able to step away. But again, it's it's about knowing individuals, knowing your groups, knowing your coaching staff, there's a model that I talked about, called the will skill model, which basically has a four quadrant thing, which demonstrates someone's at high level skill or high level motivation, how much input Do you give, versus somebody who's low skill, but highly motivated? Like it's Yeah, it's just this little world skill quadrant model that helps, you know, okay with that person, or perhaps need to step in a bit more. But with this person, I don't need to step in quite as much. But I think there's good coaches do have a balance to between empowering the team and having a team drive themselves, but not drive the bus, so to speak. I can't control all the parameters. And I think good coaches have that balance between the end of the day, decisions are made where the bosses, but there's a lot of stuff that can happen within the main model that empowers players and[PB10]
Paul Barnett 12:04
so forth. When you're driving that bus, are there any values or behaviors that are really non negotiable for you, from the people that are sitting in the back?
Peta Searle 12:15
Yes, there is some non negotiables are probably one of the biggest things that I always go on about is continual improvement on the highly ambitious in terms of having big goals. But I do believe you need to do what you do really well, but always to get better. And that's something that I really strongly put on to my advisors and my staff is really take care of what we're going to take care of, but either always want to grow, I was talking about a program will give you something, for example, he called a footy club, we'll have a program, the Richmond footy club will have a program, but for what programs and they're all designed around parameters at the AFL give out. So we think we do a good job, and they think they do a good job. And they're all probably similar to be honest, with only a few little differences in between. So if you want to be better than everyone else, what else are you doing to be better, you can't just do what you're given, you got to be doing more than what you're given. So what that looks like for each individual, I always talk about that, like, you've got to do more than what what's required. For me, it's massively, very strong work ethic, don't get anywhere without working hard is my belief. So some of those things are non negotiables. And it's also about the bigger picture, which is what we're trying to achieve as a group. So as athletes, I think sports people are inherently selfish. There's no doubt my whole family life structures around what I do. And that's selfish. But I think that's what drives us a little bit. But it's about being selfless within a team. And so what is that it's not negotiable, how to be selfless, but still bring your best self.[PB11]
Paul Barnett 13:51
What to talk about selfless if I can a little bit because you've coached teams that have won multiple titles in a row. So five in a row Durbin, how do you get people to reset after success and move forward without a sense of entitlement or expectation?
Peta Searle 14:10
Yeah, well, that's probably another thing is I'm very big on being humble that there is no entitlement. But there is an expectation to perform. And there should be expectation to perform. So I mean, even for example, as our first year in the AFL is secured, our our expectation was we weren't an expansion club, going into a competition. Our expectation was a way to win game 240. We're going to be measured by games, a fully written business of winning, we're not going to judge ourselves in our win loss ratio, because we are starting out, but by God, we're expected to win. So there is expectation around performance. There is expectation around training, and what does that look like for performance, but I guess that goes back to when you're winning five in a row. And I think there was a time when we never lost a game for three years and it goes back to there's always something to watch Welcome. So there's always something to get better at. Or there's also always something a new trend that you could potentially look to do, or there's bad habits that you tend to fall into. Because I like to say you might be winning a bit. So you're might get to fold up the ball. And that becomes a bad habit. So there's always something to work on. And I think if you just look at whatever it is you're working on that week, that's all you do, you work on what you need to work on. And that destroys your performance.[PB12]
Paul Barnett 15:30
You've said, I have a high level of self belief. But you've also said, the biggest critic is myself, I need to do this job properly for all women in general, which is a tremendous amount of expectation and pressure to put on yourself. But what are your top tips in dealing with self doubt?
Peta Searle 15:46
I think like she shouldn't be called self, there are Yes, you should have self belief. But you've also got to always be open to learning so that your self belief doesn't become a blocker. Oh, I know that that's not the way it works. Like, like, there are some things that you do know, but there's a lot of things you don't know. And that's with anything. And I think you got to have self belief to be strong in your convictions. But you've also got to be open minded with a broken heart and have a growth mindset to what's going to make you better. Because no matter what level you're at, you're always gonna be better. Whether you've been coaching for 10 years, or 20 years, or whether your first year player or 10 years by there's always something that you can better at doing. And it's just a matter of doing that thing better at it.[PB13]
Paul Barnett 16:28
Are there any places where any times you've come in as a coach, either in a support role, or in the head coach role, and you've seen this lack of a growth mindset in the playing group, and that you've done something to try and open that up?
Peta Searle 16:40
Yeah, a lot of it goes back to confidence goes back to finding the strengths in people and people got to feel good about themselves and interact too good about themselves, it's really hard for them to I guess why not out of their skin or beyond themselves, but even by to their potential, or grow to their potential. So it's just the classic example of, it's okay to make mistakes type thing, everyone's gonna make mistakes, it's okay to feel vulnerable. Every time you go out on a free field, it's okay to have a lot of things, okay. And I think if you can put some things into perspective and own well, then those things will be less inhibited for them. So I think if you can really just hone in on to their strengths, build their self belief through not memorizing, but through owning and acknowledging that mistakes will happen, that being nervous will happen, that being vulnerable will happen, that all these things can happen. I think you go a long way to growing self belief into a person in a positive way.[PB14]
Paul Barnett 17:42
Peter, you come across, and a lot of your clients talk about you as being a very human coach, a person that's very connected to them as individuals. And you have talked about in this discussion how you tailor your message to the individual, but I'm interested in a game like Australian rules football, where you've got multiple coaches, how do you keep that message consistent across all of the staff?
Peta Searle 18:01
Yeah, she just really simplify may not say the same thing every quarter time speech is going to be okay. Like you don't talk too much from your messaging, or you just keep repeating, you'll have your key points and you keep repeating it. And I've been probably mistaken for it in the past too, but overcomplicate things or over verbalize things. So I've really learned that the less you say, the better it is. And it's just about being direct. And when you got a lot more staff on board involved, you actually need to make it even more simple. And if you want to have the elaborate discussions you do on an individual level with some players that can handle it, some players can't, some can, some people, some players need the stimulation. So it's also getting that balance is times when coaches go out and really simplify things. But then your highly intelligent person is completely bored. So you need to find a way to stimulate that person, they might be that one on a one on one plate. [PB15]
And just lastly, if I can ask you one final question, and it's what legacy Do you believe you're leaving as a coach?
I never really thought about myself. Maybe that's one to ask people I've coached I guess, I guess my legacies probably goes back to the comment that you said at the start around persistence, just look to grow, continually improve all those things. I think you've put that into perspective, not just as a player, but as a person. I think we've gone a long way to influencing quite a few people in a positive way[PB16] .
Paul Barnett 19:27
So it's been a pleasure talking to you today. I appreciate it given you've got all those kids at home. So thank you very much for your time. No worries. Thank you. Appreciate it.