Episode 16: High Challenge, High Support - Nic Gill

Nic Gill (Gilly) is a professional performance coach and consultant with huge expertise in sporting performance and health. He is best known for his work in rugby with 23 years working in the sport and, for the last 16 years, Gilly has been the strength and conditioning coach for the New Zealand All Blacks. This has been a period of unprecedented success for the All Blacks, which has included more than 170 rugby test wins and the World Cup title in 2011 and 2015. Gilly has been integral in these achievements, as one of only a few constants in the All Blacks over that time.

In this candid interview, Gilly provides us with some fantastic insights into how the All Blacks work as an organisation. He discusses culture, work ethic, attitude, and how important it is to have a leadership approach of ‘high challenge and high support’ when it comes to helping people perform at their best.

As an Associate Professor in Human Performance at the University of Waikato, Gilly is always refining and evolving his philosophy for being fit and healthy and having the 'winning edge' in life and in competition. This demonstrates how, as a leader, he is constantly learning and growing, in order to grow more leaders. 

In our discussion, Gilly shares with us his journey from growing up wanting to be a police officer and being convinced otherwise by a career advisor at school, through to how his attitude, work ethic, and sheer hard work provided him with the opportunity of a lifetime, working for the All Blacks. He also shares how he gave up that job, despite everybody advising against it. At that time the culture of the All Blacks didn’t sit well with him and he wanted to do the best thing for his family. Putting family first was clearly the right thing for Gilly, and just a few years later, when the time was right, he returned to the All Blacks and embarked upon a long and illustrious career with them.

For anyone interested in health, fitness, high performance sport, leadership, work and organisational culture, or just wanting to understand why the All Blacks are so good, this is a must see interview.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.