What skills, competencies and experience does a High Performance Director (HPD) need to deliver World Class for individuals, teams and organizations in sport?

What is it to be an ‘authentic’ HPD? These are questions I’ve asked a lot of really great people in the HP sport industry over the past year. I’ve also reflected on my 25 plus years experience of being in HPD roles.

I’m proud to have been the first ‘authentic’ HP Director in UK Olympic sport (Bobsleigh 1989), in UK Rugby (Harlequins 1994), in UK Soccer (Norwich City 1997), in USA Collegiate sport (Cal/UC Berkeley 2009) and also the experience of executing the HPD role for a country (Malaysia 2015).

So based on my discussions with HP colleagues and my own experiences, here are the seven key competencies/skills/experience that I believe define an ‘authentic’ HPD and maximize a HPD’s ability to facilitate World Class performances in athletes, teams and organizations.

1. Understand Performance

All sorts of sport performance models are out there. But for me, there needs to be understanding that HP is made up of at least 5 critical performance factors – culture, mental skills, physical skills, technical skill and tactical skills. So the High Performance Director (HPD) needs to know how to measure, manage, integrate and enhance those performance areas.

2. Apply HP Culture Best Practice

Culture is the foundation for HP. A HPD can have the best athletes, staff, technology and resources in the world, but if the culture sucks the team/organization will go nowhere.  Knowing what a real HP culture looks and feels like and how to create one is crucial. There is no ‘one size fits all’ HP culture, but there is a need to know the HP culture basics to help the head coach, athletes and support staff to build a team/organizational why, what & how, a motivational climate, great comms, collaboration, accountability etc. This also includes the ability of the HPD to lead and manage people.

3. Embrace Change Management Theory and Practice

Whether working with individuals, team/s or the organization ultimately a HPD needs to be able to change behavior. This skill is critical to executing the role every day. Knowing the basics for creating and sustaining individual and organizational change means more than just punishment and reward approach? Can the HPD apply the right change approach to the needs of situation? What might be the resistance to the change they’re implementing? How they ensure they manage key stakeholders, be they athletes, coaches or support staff throughout the change process?

4. Utilize Sport Science, Sport Medicine and S&C (including analytics) Meaningfully

A HPD doesn’t necessarily need to be a ‘content’ expert in all or even one of these areas. But they need to know what’s best applied practice in these areas. Where are the performance strengths and weaknesses for the performer, team and organization and where could sport science add value? Where should support staff like the performance analyst, sport psychologist and physiologist place their focus and where should they spend their time to maximize individual, team and organizational performance? How do they ensure athletes and coaches benefit from valuable science, medicine and performance information, rather than the coach or athlete them being faced with enormous amounts of meaningless data they don’t understand or can’t use to maximize their performance?

5.  An Understanding of Talent ID and Talent Development

Depending on whether its an Olympic, Pro Sport or Collegiate environment will dictate how important TID and talent development expertise and knowledge the HPD requires. However, being able to ID talent and how to develop that talent in their sport is a minimum requirement. And maybe not just TID and development is not just about athletes! I also believe the HPD needs to be the learning and development specialist lead for the team or organization.

6. Excellence in Coaching Knowledge and Application

A HPD needs to have the skill set to ‘coach the coaches’ and coach the support team. The HPD doesn’t need necessarily need to be a sports or performance coaching expert, but they need a firm understanding of the art and science of sports coaching, coaching science and performance coaching to get the best out of athletes, coaches and support staff. Coaching is a simple concept. But maximizing the performance of coaches and coaching is becoming increasingly complex and demanding.

7.  Appreciation of Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary Frameworks

These are greatly misunderstood terms and philosophies and are often used interchangeably. They are two entirely different performance concepts, but a HPD needs to know the difference and apply accordingly. A multidisciplinary approach is about the HPD’s coaching and support team working in parallel to enhance an athletes or teams performance. An interdisciplinary approach is about the support team working together on a specific task or project to enhance performance,  e.g. assisting an athlete to gain or lose weight. Interestingly, even the best sports nations and teams in the world are still having challenges understanding and applying these concepts.

In Summary

The HPD role can vary enormously depending on the size and scale of the sport/team/organization, its context – e.g. Olympic, Pro Sport, Collegiate and by nation and culture. That said, we still need global industry norms, standards and expectations of the HPD role. Its still much misunderstood. For example, Olympic sports aside, USA pro and college sport often advertise for HPD or PD roles, but if you read the job description, it’s not an authentic HP role at all. It’s an advert for an S&C coach!

Saying an S&C coach is a performance coach or PD is disingenuous. They are entirely different roles and require very different competencies, skill sets and levels of experience.  This is an example where a lack of HPD role definition and clarity is undermining the understanding of the HPD position and what an authentic HPD should be able to deliver.

So let’ s work together to better define, brand and positively promote the why, what and how of HPD’s. Lets grow the HPD community and find ways that HPD’s can share knowledge and learn from each other more effectively.