I have recently read your book “If better is possible” and found it to be excellent in putting into words the process of leadership and coaching.

I am a teacher at Westport Public School in Port Macquarie. I have coached cricket and soccer at varying levels of achievement but my biggest professional achievement has been coaching and managing the school’s Chess Program to a State Championship last year coming from 8 years of dominance at a North Coast level. I sometimes get asked how and why the team has been so successful and can’t really answer accurately. Your book while being inspirational from a coaching and management perspective has helped me to put the microscope on how to get the team to the next level and how they have become so successful over so long. I particularly like the quote you used ‘ If it is not broken- then break it’ because the only way to improve is to look at ways to improve.

Anyway, I wanted to thank you for the great piece of work in your book “If better is Possible”. I greatly enjoyed it, I learnt from it and will apply its ideas in my classroom and in my coaching across all sports.

Your facilitation of our Strategy Day earlier this year was engaging and inspiring.  The key concepts and ideas you presented on high performing teams have made a difference in the way our Principals interact with each other and their teams. We look forward to engaging further with you and continuing to develop our business. Thank you, John

John’s vast experience developing and managing various teams over his career added great value to our mining operations leadership program. The similarities between underground mining and team sport might not be immediately obvious, but at their core both require high performing teams with effective leaders and mentors to get the best results.

Johns value add was his ability to provide considered advice to all levels of our mining business, from General Managers setting the strategy and master plans, to middle management and frontline leaders skill building and application. Another of John’s skills was his ability to get us to take an honest stock of our individual and team strengths and weaknesses, to recognise how these relate to our “peak performance” and how to then create a successful operating model from these insights.

Overall John didn’t take part as purely a ‘facilitator’ of our strategy and team development; he was embraced as a respected part of the team whom any of us could have a direct and honest discussion on just about any topic.

I think the best evidence that you have run a successful coaching program in your business is when years later your employees are still talking about how much value they got out of the program and the tools developed during that time haven’t been replaced by another program, but instead have been continually improved. That’s certainly been our experience from Johns work with us.

I encourage anyone considering a high performance coaching program or business review to discuss their goals with John, I am confident he will add value to your business.