How do you unite a team of elite athletes who all have full-time day jobs, zero financial incentive, and have just endured a pandemic-delayed tournament cycle? And more importantly, how do you do it in a way that actually wins a World Cup?

In this inspiring archive episode of Connected Leadership Bytes, Andy Lopata sits down with inspirational speaker and performance coach Steve Head. Steve was the “1%” mindset coach behind the England Wheelchair Rugby League team’s stunning 2022 World Cup victory.

Steve reveals the counter-intuitive truth about motivating elite performers (hint: they don’t need motivation) and shares the exact, grassroots process he used to help the team define their core values. This is a masterclass in ditching the “eye-roll” of corporate buzzwords. Discover why the most powerful values are written in messy Sharpie on a flip chart, launched by the team rather than the boss, and sustained by a culture of absolute selflessness and sacrifice.

What You Will Learn In This Episode

1. The Motivation Myth: Why you cannot “motivate” elite performers who have already overcome immense adversity (like losing limbs in combat), and what they actually need from a coach instead.

2. The 20% Rule: Why losing focus for just 60 seconds in a fast-paced game (or business environment) can completely derail your entire operation.

3. The “Eye Roll” of Corporate Values: Why top-down, management-dictated values always fail, and how to facilitate a process where the team builds their own.

4. The Power of the “Quiet Voice”: Why identifying and empowering the highly respected, quiet leaders in your team is the key to launching a successful culture shift.

5. The “Messy Sharpie” Commitment: Why authenticity—like signing a raw, messy flip chart—is far more effective at securing team buy-in than a polished, multi-million-pound corporate rollout.

   Actionable Insights

1. Ditch the Top-Down Rollout: If you want your team to adopt new values or standards of behavior, do not present them as a finished product. Facilitate a session where a small, highly respected group of team members brainstorm and refine the values themselves.

2. Let the Team Launch the Culture: When introducing new values or strategies to the wider organisation, step back. Have the respected team members who helped create the values present them. Peer-to-peer communication carries far more credibility and eliminates the “boss’s new initiative” cynicism.

3. Create a Physical Symbol of Commitment: Make buy-in tangible. Just as the England team signed an A1 flip chart with a Sharpie, find a simple, unpolished way for your team to physically signal “I’m in.” Carry that symbol with you as a constant, authentic reminder of the behaviors that drive everything you do.

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Andy Lopata: Website | Instagram | LinkedIn | X/Twitter | YouTube

Connect with Steve Head: Website |LinkedIn |

The Financial Times Guide to Mentoring

Episode 176 Featuring Steve Head

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Andy Lopata Author, Podcast Host and Speaker on Professional Relationships Strategy

Andy Lopata is a specialist speaker on professional relationships, mentoring, networking, and social media strategy. He is a firm believer that professional relationships underpin our success in business, our roles, and our careers. The right relationships with the right people can lead to new business opportunities, investment, collaborative working, innovation, and career progress. We just need to be comfortable approaching those relationships strategically, without making people feel ‘networked’ by us.

Andy has worked in the field of networking and professional relationships for 25 years, working with global giants such as Paypal, GSK, AstraZeneca, Wella, HSBC, Wembley Stadium, the BBC, and the Prime Minister’s Office of the UAE, among many others during that time. He has also worked with leading universities including NYU, Duke University, and Oxford University’s Said Business School.

A regular blogger for Psychology Today, Andy has been quoted in The Sunday Times, The Financial Times, and The Guardian, as well as many other national and regional newspapers and magazines worldwide. He has written or co-authored six books on networking and professional relationships, with his sixth book, "The Financial Times Guide to Mentoring," being published in Spring 2024. He is also the host of The Connected Leadership Podcast and has interviewed globally recognized names in business, academia, sports, and entertainment for the show.

Andy has been inducted into the PSAE Hall of Fame – the Professional Speaking Association Award of Excellence, which was held by only 21 other speakers at the time it was presented. He is a Fellow and a former President of the Fellows’ Community of the Professional Speaking Association (PSA), a Fellow of the Learning and Performance Institute (LPI), and a Member of the Association of Business Mentors and the Meetings Industry Association.