A lot has been written since Chris Fagan announced last Thursday that he was retiring from his role as Senior Coach of the Brisbane Lions, just days after the Lions won their third consecutive premiership.
And rightly so, it’s been a truly extraordinary decade.
When Chris took on the role, it was widely viewed as one of the toughest jobs in the AFL. The Lions were languishing near the bottom of the ladder, and the scale of the rebuild required was significant.
Ten years later, he leaves the club at the absolute pinnacle of the game.
I don’t want to repeat everything that’s already been written about Chris and what he has achieved. Instead, as I’ve reflected on the past decade, I’ve been thinking about what we can learn from how he achieved it.
Because from my perspective, there are some powerful leadership lessons in Chris’s approach that apply just as much in business as they do in elite sport.
A commitment to learning
Before his career in AFL, Chris was a teacher, and I think that background has always been evident in the way he leads.
He has an incredible commitment to learning - not only to his own growth and development, but to creating an environment where the people around him are constantly learning too.
At times he faced criticism after losses for talking about the learning opportunities those losses provided. But he never deviated from his belief that the important thing wasn’t simply the loss. It was understanding why it happened, what could be learned from it, and how that learning could make the team better next time.
There’s a lesson in that for every leader.
Failure becomes far more valuable when the conversation shifts from “Who is responsible?” to “What can we learn?”
Authenticity
Chris has always had a very strong sense of who he is.
Success didn’t change him. Failure didn’t change him. External criticism didn’t change him.
That consistency creates trust, because the people around you know who is going to turn up each day, regardless of what happened the day before.
It’s tempting to think leadership requires us to develop some kind of leadership persona. In my experience, the opposite is true. The more senior you become, the more important authenticity becomes.
Values
Chris has a deeply rooted set of values and beliefs that guide his decision-making.
He has never been afraid to make the decision he believes is right, even when there is significant external noise telling him to go in another direction.
That’s easy to say and much harder to do.
Values matter most when following them comes at a cost. They give you a framework for making decisions when the answer isn’t obvious, and the confidence to hold your position when others are questioning it.
Loyalty
Chris’s loyalty knows no bounds.
The relationships he builds are lasting and deep, and that loyalty has created an extraordinary level of trust with the people around him.
And trust matters enormously when things get difficult.
When Chris needs something extra from his players or the people around him, they have no hesitation in digging deep and delivering. Not simply because he’s the coach, but because of the relationship he has built with them over time.
You can’t demand that kind of discretionary effort. You earn it.
And perhaps that’s the biggest lesson I’ll take from watching Chris lead over the past decade.
Nice guys don’t finish last.
One of the things I’ve loved and appreciated most about having the opportunity to work with Chris, and to get to know him well, has been watching him completely dismantle the idea that you need a bit of mongrel in you to succeed at the highest level.
You can be kind and incredibly competitive.
You can care deeply about people and still hold extraordinarily high standards.
You can be loyal, values-driven and authentic - and still make the difficult decisions leadership inevitably requires.
Chris is one of the nicest people I’ve ever had the privilege to meet.
And he finishes his coaching career at the absolute top of his game.
For me, that might be one of the most important leadership lessons of all.
You don’t have to become someone else to succeed.
You don’t have to leave your values behind as the stakes get higher.
And you certainly don’t have to believe that treating people well somehow makes you a less formidable leader.
Sometimes, it’s exactly what makes you a great one.
I’ll always be grateful for the lessons I’ve learned from Chris and his approach to leadership and life - and I know he’ll continue to be a trusted friend and adviser to Stuart and me in the years ahead.
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