Pressure Made Me Forget Who I Was | Joey Mongalo

Pressure doesn’t usually change a coach with one big blow. It changes you slowly, one compromise at a time, until the season ends and you realize you’ve been walking around in fog. Joey Mongalo joins us for a contrarian round of questions on coaching culture and leadership, starting with a deceptively simple one: are holidays just as important as seasons? From tornado-speed weekly cycles to the need for pockets of quiet, we talk rest and recovery as a performance skill, not a reward you earn after you’re already depleted.

From there we get into player development and the uncomfortable truth about control. Coaches can create dependency by owning every decision, every clip, every answer. The alternative is autonomy: shared review and preview, players building their own “program away from the program,” and an “individual first” mindset that actually serves the team. If you only do the generic team session, you might get away with it in a team sport, but you’ll get exposed when the moment is yours.

We also unpack why winning teams stop winning, looking at evolution at the organizational level, leadership transitions and the baton pass, and what happens when selection becomes a given. Then we take on modern leadership myths: can nice leaders win, should leaders show weakness, and what vulnerability looks like when AI can provide endless information but can’t provide trust, psychological safety, or real human connection.

If you care about high performance coaching, authentic leadership, accountability, and building a resilient team culture, this conversation will give you language and practical angles you can use right away. Subscribe, share this with a coach or leader who needs a reset, and leave a review with the biggest idea you’re taking into your week.

Send us Fan Mail

Is your school the best in your country? Let me know Ben@coachingculture.com.au

Silverfern Sports
If you need great rugby gear, Silverfern are the best. Innovative high quality rugby kit.

Buy your set of "How to be a great Coach" By Ben Herring books here (amazon worldwide)

https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=ben+herring&crid=1R6QYBT8QVPS1&sprefix=ben+herring%2Caps%2C221&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Contact Ben direct: Ben@coachingculture.com.au

Support the show

Subscribe and Share, it makes a massive difference! Appreciation in advance.