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Culture Insights Blog

Sydney Swans Psychologist, Grant Brecht, Interview

Published on 20 Feb 2019

The Swans are known for having a great culture. In 2017 it was put to the test when they lost their opening 6 games - the worst start in club history. They were able to turn their season around, winning 15 of their next 17 matches, to make the finals. We talk to Grant Brecht, who has worked with the Swans for over 20 years, about culture and leadership in sport and what lessons the business world can take from it.

Grant is the Director of Insight Elite Performance Psychology and works with many corporate clients, as well as professional athletes, to develop high performing teams, leaders, and organisational cultures.

Listen to our conversation with Grant Brecht:

Key Takeaways Organisations can Learn from the Sydney Swans:

Continuous Learning loop

"Great athletes are continually in a learning zone. After they perform they do a lot of debriefing, they get feedback as individuals and as a team, they are forever in this performance looping. It's part of the way they do things around here - the mindset that we learn grow practice, learn grow practice again."

Focus on Sustainability

"In 2003, with a change of leadership, the Swans decided they wanted to do something different. One of the benchmarks they set around that time was that they'd only be satisfied with the systems, the processes, and they way the club goes about itself, if they are playing finals every year. Since 2003, the Swan have played in the finals every year except one. They did it by clearly establishing the cultural expectations about how people behave on and off the field and they review it constantly."

Competitive vs Achievement

"Yes, when you get out on the field you want desire, determination, and you need to be competitive to some degree. But it is far far more important to be Achievement focus from 'I need to play my role well and then I've got to support my mates' which is Humanistic Encouraging and Affiliative".

"The mindset becomes one of 'I'm going to get better, you chase me - you get better, I'll chase you - but I'll support you if you're in the team and do everything I can to support you in that... but watch me because I'm going to train hard and do what I can to get better as well".

Support Each Other...

The Swans have purposely built a culture where plays are thinking "Let's get each other on the park, let's be the best that we can possibly be, let's back each other up when the going gets tough".

... But Take Personal Responsibility Too

"When rehabbing from an injury there will be physios telling you what you should do but they aren't going to do it for you... There will be people helping players to get their vocation done for life after football but again they can't do it for you. It's the attitude that you take towards that yourself as a player - that you take responsibility for the parts that you need to do so you learn and grow your self efficacy: your belief in yourself that you can do things at the end of the day" (outside of sports!).

It's not about Being a Star Player

"This is the thing that does you head in when the press talk about 'Stars'. It's not about being a damn 'Star player' it's about being a major contributor to the team and a major contributor to the club, and a major contributor to the public and the community... When the culture in the club is right, then you can actually build people whose results are not just about how great they are, but the results are about how great the club is."

Courage to Look at the Long Term

"To be a great sporting coach... it takes a certain amount of courage... it takes courage to back yourself, it takes courage to look at the long term - like it does in organisations: if you're looking at your balance sheet every month, you can make some awfully terrible decisions about your culture."

The Measure of Your Culture is When the Chips are Down

In 2017 the Swans Lost their Opening 6 Games (The Worst Start in Club History):

"The coaches changed the mindset from having to win each game to building this level of self efficacy and mastery. How can we get the young guys feeling and playing as positively as we possibly can? How can we get the older guys not to try and do too much and burn themselves out? How do we go on this process of 'guys, hang in there let's learn the skills, trust the system, trust the process, trust the game plan, and come back to the basics and build and build because away we are going to go again."

The Swans came back to win 15 of their next 17 games and made the finals.

"That's all about culture at the end of the day"