Discover the Power of Genuine Connections and a Strong Therapeutic Alliance with Lee Povey of Povey Performance

Ever wondered about the alchemical relationship that exists between an athlete and their coach? Join us for a conversation with our guest, Lee Povey, a performance strategist and former US Olympic Development Coach, where we discuss the potency of these relationships and their parallels with therapy. Lee imparts his unique perspective on fostering genuine connections with athletes, emphasizing the importance of comprehension on a profound level to unlock their full potential.

Transcript

The Importance of Authentic Coaching Relationships

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome to Hatching Creativity . This isn't just another behavioral health podcast . This is the place where thought leaders converge to talk about real-life challenges , breakthroughs and pivotal aha moments . Thanks for tuning in to Hatching Creativity . In today's episode , I'm speaking with Lee Povey from Povey Performance . Now I know Lee from the cycling world , where he was the US Olympic Development Coach and a very well-decorated cyclist himself . Now he's a coach of a whole different kind . His goal is to help executives and leaders build strategies about being the most effective people they can be . Today , we talk about the similarities in relationships between a client and their therapist and an athlete and their coach . We also talk about the importance of a strong mind-body connection . Remember , if you like what you hear , please like , share , subscribe and tell all your friends about Hatching Creativity . I am really excited for today's guest , lee Povey . Lee and I go back quite a bit and have done quite a bit of bike racing together . Lee , would you like to do a brief introduction of yourself ?

Speaker 2 1:11

Hey , mike . Yeah , I'm a performance strategist , so I now work with founders and their companies , and the simplest way to describe it is I help them understand themselves on a level so that they can be the most effective versions of themselves .

Speaker 1 1:29

So you were just talking about interviewing with British cycling .

Speaker 2 1:33

Yeah . So I interviewed for a position with British cycling it was to be the Paris Fritz coach and during the interview process I realized that although I'd been doing some work with them as a guest tactical and tactics coach , I didn't realize the way the organization run and how it didn't fit my style of coaching . So they viewed athletes at that time and I think it's changed quite a lot since then . We're going back nearly 20 years now but they viewed athletes at that time as literally cogs in a machine and for me they didn't really think about the relationship between the athlete and the coach and I think the reason was is because they didn't want any kind of improprieties to happen , so they didn't want athletes and coaches to be close with each other . I knew that for athletes to really be their best , that relationship has to be really close and it's up to picking good coaches and healthy coaches as humans that aren't going to do inappropriate things with their athletes , instead of having this blanket thing that athletes and coaches can't be close to each other . Because for me you've got to understand somebody's psyche , are really deep level to help them perform at their best , and that's why , for me , I've always been a little bit different not from all sports coaches , because there's plenty of sports coaches like this , but I found myself being different from many sports coaches because I was so interested in the emotional side of that . I was so interested in the way that people thought how that affected their ability to perform .

Speaker 2 3:14

And we tend to separate that and have to think , called sports psychology . And a lot of sports psychology is coping mechanisms . Somebody is presenting with an issue here's a coping mechanism to so that they can perform on race day and I , for me , I would actually look at them and go what's going on for them as a human being which is then presenting in this coping mechanism . Let's go back to the source of that first . Let's fix that and then this coping mechanism is going to go away . We won't need a coping mechanism for the coping mechanism .

Speaker 2 3:49

So that's why I thought about sports coaching . That's how I've ended up doing what I'm doing now , because I just kept looking for more and more of that and there's much more of it in the leadership world and the business world than there is in the sports world and coaches wanted to stay away from it in the sports world . I don't want to touch that , I don't want to get into the mental stuff . I don't want to give them the yips or mess them up or and you just understand that human beings are human beings and they're going to do human being stuff and to me it was very important that I was able to have those kind of relationships .

Speaker 2 4:21

So , to go back to this interview , kind of talked myself out of the position in the interview because I'm like actually this isn't the job I want to do , this isn't how I want to do it , and that's why I had my own private cycling coaching company for many years before developing the Olympic Development Program for USA Cycling and when I developed that program with Ben Sharp , the number one thing on our sheet and the first thing we wrote down is the athletes leave the program better people than they came to the program . That was our number one goal . I love that they became better human beings from their experience of being in the program , because you might have , you know , 50 athletes go for a program like that in 10 years , for example , and the amount of them that are going to make it to the Olympics , if you're lucky , might be three or four or five or six , right , you know it's 10% would be a good ratio .

Speaker 2 5:13

It couldn't just be about winning the Olympics . It had to be about these people having experience of being better human beings because of how we looked after them , because of how we challenged them , because how we invited them to look after themselves and to step into challenging situations or learn and grow from those and develop more self-reliance . So that was , that was how I saw it .

Speaker 1 5:37

Well , you know we talk . We talk in behavioral healthcare and substance use disorder treatment about a therapeutic alliance and if you want the longest engagement and the best engagement between a client and their therapist , you have to have that . That real engagement and that real alliance of trust comes from authenticity . It comes from not playing a role as a coach . You know , I've had coaches before where they'll send you a workout once a week or or send you a list of workouts and then they expect you to do it and they may or may not look at your files and what you've done and all of this and you're going .

Speaker 1 6:19

I don't feel like this person gives a shit about me . And trying to get to a high level in any kind of sport or just trying to be the best human that we can be requires a lot of work and you have to have a teammate in your coach . It's really important . You know my coach that I work with now . His name is John Fraley . I gotta imagine you know John . I talk to John when I'm having ADHD problems . I talk to John when I'm having health problems and I consider him a friend and somebody that I can really count on and I think that is really important .

Speaker 1 7:07

And , again , it's different than a therapist , right , your therapist doesn't need to be your friend , but you need to have that relationship , that authentic relationship of I'm a human , you're a human . We're not judging each other , we're here for the same goal and that is really important . The other thing that you hit on that is just so important is the relationship of the body and mind , and it's not just a coach , is not just about workouts and give somebody their workouts . It's really understanding where the athlete is and or where the client or patient is , and meeting them there . Sometimes , mentally , you just cannot do another workout , and it doesn't mean you're soft , it means that your cookie jar is empty somewhere and sometimes just meeting that person to be helpful can be really valuable . So I love that you said that .

Speaker 2 8:11

I definitely say as a partnership . I see the coaching relationships I have now with the organizations and the founders as partnerships . I'm not there to tell them what to do . I'm there to expose opportunities for them and then support them in working with those opportunities .

Speaker 2 8:26

And as a cycling coach , I remember an athlete that went on to have success at the Olympics tell me that I was his best coach that he'd ever had , and I couldn't understand why . He said I'm like you had all these other great coaches . And he said yeah , you're the only person that ever actually said I don't know something . And you would say I don't know . Let's go and explore that together , let's find out about that , let's research it , let's find somebody else that's an expert in that area . And that's where I think partnership and authenticity is . So important is , I don't have to have all the answers . As your leadership coach , as your cycling coach , we're in it together and we can go discover those answers . We can find out hey , the day is not there yet . Let's see if we can set up our own study on this .

Speaker 2 9:15

And I believe when I went back to British cycling , the reason I was told you couldn't have those kind of relationships with athletes was also because they felt it made you unable to be objective about making , say , selection decisions . And I don't know what it is about my personality , but I've never had a problem with that , like we could be friends and I could say , mike , you're not the team , you're not going well enough at the moment , and I'll bring the data why you won't never be an emotional decision , because I'm just a performance . I won't win until I'm out of performance . I'd be this other person does this part of the team's sprint better than you ? And that's what we're going with them and it would be completely transparent . And I realized that the managers of the programs were having this way of looking at coaching because they weren't comfortable making those decisions .

Speaker 2 10:06

So they were kind of projecting out on the program where I'm like , I'm comfortable making that decision and being very clear as to why you've been selected and why you've not been selected , and friendship won't affect that . And that's how I see leadership in business . You might become friends with the people you work with . It doesn't change how you relate to them as a leader and you might have to say , right , we're not friends right now . I'm your boss right now and I'm explaining something to you from that position and be clear about the difference and it doesn't affect our friendship .

Speaker 1 10:36

Data doesn't lie . The data tells the truth and it also tells the story , if you look at it and that's , and in track you know the sport we both love .

Speaker 2 10:45

Track cycling Data is so easy to measure . It's not like a lot of team sports where it's very subjective and you're like trying to make these gut decisions . Track cycling , you're either fast at the other person or you're not right , and your lap profile is even better . You accelerate at the right point and drop the other teammate off at the right top speed , or you've done and those are so easily measurable like half a second or less at a time .

Speaker 2 11:13

So , yeah , I think , for me , the relationships I want to have the people I work with just as you said about you know , johnny Fraley , your coach the relationships I want to have with people , they're very deep and meaningful relationships because I want to do very deep and meaningful work . When people work with me , they leave working with me changed . Their life is not going to be the same again , and that's the work I want to do . I don't want to just give you a couple of quick fix strategies . I want to change your world .

Speaker 1 11:44

I literally want to change your world , lee , can you give some information on how people can get in touch with you and learn a little bit more about your work ?

Speaker 2 11:53

Yeah , so , depending on when this podcast comes out , I'm actually just doing a rebrand at the moment , so my work is changing from maximize your potential coaching to POVY performance . So the easiest way to find me was just to Google the POVY . There's not many POVYs in the world , luckily , so if you Google me , you'll get access to all of my stuff and , yeah , anybody out there that wants to work with me I'd love to have a conversation with you . My purpose in the world , my why , is to make the world a better place by impacting the most powerful people I can , so those that lead and lead others greatens and expands my impact on the world , and I want everybody to have their experience . There's lots of learning tools and coaching that can make all of our experiences better , and if I can teach leaders how to be better leaders , then it means everybody that works should have a better experience .

Lee's Inspiring Message and Gratitude

Speaker 1 12:48

Lee , I really love your message and I really appreciate you coming on . This is outstanding and for everybody listening we will definitely have Lee back on . I think that this has been really helpful and hopefully informative for you . Thanks for tuning in to Hatch and Creativity . We appreciate your support . Please don't forget to like and subscribe until all your friends about the show and remember it's never just about one thing .