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<title>Amanda Owens' Blog | iStadia.com</title>
<link>http://www.istadia.com/blog/AmandaO1</link>
<description>Keep up to date with Amanda Owens' blog at iStadia.com!</description>
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<lastBuildDate>Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:19:32 GMT</lastBuildDate>
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<title>Social Intelligence and The Biology of Leadership: What Makes a Successful Leader?</title>
<description><![CDATA[ An article in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) highlights the importance of&nbsp; Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership . So what makes a good and successful leader? 

'New studies of the brain show that leaders can improve group performance by understanding the biology of empathy'. http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2008/09/social-intelligence-and-the-biology-of-leadership/ar/1

This article portrays the importance of self-awareness of how your own mood affects others as well as yourself and your own effectiveness; How you can inspire others to be more effective at work and indeed in their life by acquiring better social intelligence and understanding empathy. 

Amanda Owens (FRSM) MSc BASES Accredited Sport Psychologist (Scientific Support) &amp; BOA Advisory Committee Member 
Managing Director Believe.com Consulting Ltd., Sport &amp; Business Consultancy
No .8 West Street
Covent Garden
London
WC2H 9NG
www.believeconsulting.co.uk
077 368 53375
0207 836 2785
e amanda@believeconsulting.co.uk
" To inspire and enable our clients to realise, develop and sustain their potential&nbsp; 
through positive behavioural change."




 ]]></description>
<link>http://www.istadia.com/blog/AmandaO1/670</link>
<dc:creator>Amanda Owens</dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:19:32 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.istadia.com/blog/AmandaO1/670</guid>
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<title>Roy Keane \'Ireland to get over it\'- A Soccer manager being congruent, honest and response-able!</title>
<description><![CDATA[ I watched Roy Keane being interviewed by BBC Sport 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8370497.stm

and reflected how refreshing that Roy Keane speaks his mind. Keane behaves and speaks congruently and honestly without the usual Football spin and managerial spin so often used in professional sport interviews. In addition Keane, refers to the Ireland team not being 'Mentally Tough enough' and looking for excuses regarding and amid the claims of handball. 

An example of Leading and being response-able and well as conveying the importance of accountability and responsibility to football players and encouraging removing the current rife 'blame culture' which exists in football concerning referee's and linesmen etc.,&nbsp; and literally 'geting over it.'

Amanda Owens FRSM MSC BASES Sport Psychologist (Scientific Support)
Managing Director Believe Consulting Ltd., Sport &amp; Business Consultancy
www.believeconsulting.co.uk
077 368 53375
0207 836 2785





 ]]></description>
<link>http://www.istadia.com/blog/AmandaO1/665</link>
<dc:creator>Amanda Owens</dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:31:14 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.istadia.com/blog/AmandaO1/665</guid>
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<title>Sport Psychology and Successful Leadership in Action: Andy Flower An Integrative leader</title>
<description><![CDATA[ 
"Integrative thinkers don't mind a messy problem. In fact, they welcome complexity, 
because that's where the best answers come from." 


&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(Roger Martin, 2007; Cited Harvard Business Review Winter 2008).

We are in interesting, challenging and exciting times and no more so than in sport. It is refreshing to notice and convey the leadership skills of both Andy Flower (England Cricket Team Director) and Alan Shearer (Manager of Newcastle United Manager) both taking over in messy and uncertain circumstances and prevailing as well as creating a change in belief, culture and attitude amongst players and the team.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Andy Flower&nbsp;is an example of a successful leader, previously a successful captain. Flower thinks and approaches situations&nbsp;differently than the unsuccessful leader and portrays integrative thinking. He is an example of an integrative thinker!&nbsp;Flower conveys the qualities of a successful leader, this is shown by his decision making and ability to&nbsp;gain and maintain the upmost respect from his team (players&nbsp;and support staff). The strengths in Andy Flower's leadership skills are conveyed in his ability to make tough decisions and at times sometimes unpopular decisions, however, taking the individual&nbsp;and unique situation and players into account; reflecting upon&nbsp;the&nbsp;correct solution whilst maintaining calm, and confidence within the team and England squad. &nbsp;Flower has and is creating a mentally tough environment as well as a&nbsp;culture of understanding and communication; the strength of communication and the understanding of &nbsp;relationships and awareness of individuals can be seen in the Flower and Strauss partnership.&nbsp; A strong bond exists between the Captain and Team Director. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

What this means is that Andy Flower can hold two opposing ideas in his mind at&nbsp;once and at the same time (Martin, 2007). &nbsp;Therefore, rather than deciding or choosing A or&nbsp;B, Flower forge's and creates an innovative 'third way' of thinking that contains elements of each and&nbsp;further develops and improves on each. Both&nbsp;Flower and Shearer convey&nbsp;and exhibit the ability of the new 'habit of thought', creating new solutions "the power of simultaneous vision from different standpoints' (Martin, 2007) in difficult&nbsp;and challenging environments and&nbsp;unstable cultures.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Andy Flower&nbsp;is creating new habits and&nbsp;behaviours in the players and within the team by enabling and instilling belief and allowing the players to be&nbsp;themselves,&nbsp;as well as creating a sense of&nbsp;unity and collective belief within the team. Recognising individual strengths&nbsp;and listening to individual player needs as Flower did, when requested by Bopara to have specific practice and to address his own individual needs, &nbsp;this resulted and affected the overall team performance in a positive way.&nbsp;Shearer&nbsp;by choosing and enabling his subs to come on&nbsp;and play a vital role in securing victory against Middlesbrough last night&nbsp;and&nbsp;encouraging a winning mentality and collective belief. Not&nbsp;to mention making perceived risky decisions which can be&nbsp;viewed again as an integrative&nbsp;thinker and successful leader; under pressure Shearer viewed the problem as a whole, examined the parts how they fit together and how decisions affect one another and then creatively and resolved the tension and&nbsp;deadlock by generating innovative&nbsp;and some may suggest risky substitutions. However, the creative&nbsp;way of thinking&nbsp;by Shearer and the new 'third way of thinking' enabled and instilled belief in the team which enabled Newcastle to win a key relegation battle last night.

Finally, the same of the integrative and 'third way of thinking' can be said of Flower who has made some innovative and some may say brave decisions in playing Onions and Bopara&nbsp;which&nbsp;was and is indeed a masterstroke as is the selection of Napier and Foster for the 20/20. The leadership of Flower is refreshing whereby he is creating a culture within the team and system who believe in&nbsp;themselves, each other and&nbsp;developing&nbsp;accountability, responsibility, honesty and a winning mentality; by recognising magnificent performances&nbsp;and utilizing his integrative thinking will indeed be a time&nbsp;whereby English cricket will and are experiencing a truly remarkable and humbling leader. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



&nbsp; 
 ]]></description>
<link>http://www.istadia.com/blog/AmandaO1/511</link>
<dc:creator>Amanda Owens</dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 12 May 2009 12:16:02 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.istadia.com/blog/AmandaO1/511</guid>
</item><item>
<title>Sport Psychology Improving your soft skills and counselling skills as well as being humble in applied practice</title>
<description><![CDATA[ The importance&nbsp; of counselling skills (Humanistic) and or Gestalt depending upon your bag is a pre requisite now and a necessity for all BASES Sport Psychology (Scientific Support) Accreditation and so the importance of these skills, counselling, empathy and listening skills have been highlighted by BASES. However, how many of us perhaps look beyond the counselling certificates and diploma's that are available and challenge our 'comfortableness' as sport psychologists&nbsp;with working in the voluntary sector, albeit wit the homeless or within charity work to improve our soft skills and indeed be humbled by what us outside the big arena of the greed within certain professional sports. 

Having spent an evening with the homeless on the streets of London recently and speaking and listening to their&nbsp;experiences, it really hit home for me,&nbsp;how cushioned and indeed the question what are we doing as sport psychologists and sport scientists to assist with the&nbsp;those who are less privileged an indeed are out in&nbsp;on the streets, perhaps dreaming to be the next David Beckham and or Mark Ramprakash, however due to circumstance and finding themselves on the street and homeless, unable&nbsp;for the moment to be able to fulfil and&nbsp;live and be their potential. What can we do? 

I&nbsp;think a lot..We as professionals and i think istadia could give to a charity perhaps to Centrepoint whereby i am a commited giver each month. I think we ALL can give and think more for those who could have more and have the opportunity in this country, indeed in London, who do not readily have these opportunities.&nbsp;&nbsp;One of my Sport Psychology Supervisee students Rebecca Symes is giving her time to being a Princes Trust Mentor and also works (voluntarily for the Rainbow Trust) for young business people first starting up businesses.The skills and experience learnt from the charity and voluntary sector can be fulfilling and indeed a fantastic platform to improve your self -awareness and&nbsp; development and assist more importantly for others and to enable them to be more aware and fulfil their potential. Being a humanist is and was for me spending an evening with the homeless in London a truly humbling experience.&nbsp;

&nbsp; 
 ]]></description>
<link>http://www.istadia.com/blog/AmandaO1/217</link>
<dc:creator>Amanda Owens</dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 13 May 2008 15:22:19 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.istadia.com/blog/AmandaO1/217</guid>
</item><item>
<title>England Football and Attribution .. when are the national team and manager going to be responsible?</title>
<description><![CDATA[ 










	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
		The difference between the England Rugby team and football at the moment is immense, not just by the obscene money and salaries but by the willingness to admit defeat, the rugby team took responsibility and held a long team meeting, deconstructing the teams woeful display against South Africa on September 14th 2007. The Rugby teams underperfomance and beating called for a decision to do something immediately about&nbsp; their performance- a soul searching day of reflection and a team meeting called by the players themselves ensued. Steve Maclaren seems happy to blame anything but his team, his tactics and admit he was wrong. The England football team woefully underperformed and fell to pieces under pressure. It is hard to imagine when one total's the amount of money the England team totalled in finance- questions need to be asked as to the 'what' and 'how' is going on that the team can not perform and raise both their individual level and team level (collectively) of performance. Instead the team demonstrated a dreadful woeful performance of which for one goal- the penalty- our manager&nbsp;states that is a&nbsp;awful decision.... well Steve.. that is professional sport. 
		
		Using the England Rugby side as a working example, the England football team and&nbsp;staff support team as well as manager have a lot to reflect upon and to take responsibility for today's loss. More importantly, the players themselves, it saddens me that players can not raise their game and play&nbsp;when required with passion, guts, absolute determinism and pride that the nation witnessed and observed in last Saturday's Rugby game vs France. (Grown men were on their knees with pure exhaustion both mentally and physically) Instead we have a manager who is happy blaming and attributing the England's team's&nbsp;loss to a poor decision penalty. Come on Steve!! Even if it is to protect the&nbsp;players themselves, it is creating and excerbating a culture of attribution and blame.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;That's like the England Rugby given&nbsp; two penalties against them and conveying no resolve to fight back.....The England football team need to look deep inside themselves and find out what it means for them to play and represent England and to win, to find that meaning again.It is&nbsp;shameful the amount of talent AND millions of pounds on the pitch and lack of responsibility by both players and the Team&nbsp;manager for the loss this&nbsp;evening.&nbsp;Beaten by&nbsp;a Russian &nbsp;team (who were losing 1-0) who wanted to win&nbsp;more&nbsp;and qualify .The Russian team conveyed pure passion, focus, and ability to come back under pressure- which&nbsp;the England football team failed to do.&nbsp;Period!&nbsp;Let's move away from&nbsp; attribution and blame of the referee and instead for the players and managers themselves to take responsibility.... as well as the FA. A team meeting and reflection, player and manager responsibility&nbsp;&nbsp;is&nbsp;at &nbsp;least required after this loss... not blame.
		
		
		
	

 ]]></description>
<link>http://www.istadia.com/blog/AmandaO1/118</link>
<dc:creator>Amanda Owens</dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:14:38 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.istadia.com/blog/AmandaO1/118</guid>
</item><item>
<title>England vs South Africa the rematch... the lions are roaring!!</title>
<description><![CDATA[ 


	
	
	England are a completely&nbsp;a different team than the one&nbsp;who played South Africa on 14th September. The team now have a greater momentum, far greater self-belief, they are a different team. It is new game, on a new level. This team when they hold their emotions and channel their emotions correctly, convey the passion, pride, drive and stick to their game plan on the day. if England do this then England can and will be successful. England were warriors and men at war last saturday against France, blood and guts and their soul were given on the pitch. England are playing as a cohesive unit, their communication and understanding of each other and awareness of themselves and of others on the pitch was outstanding- this is key and keeping the players minds focussed on the game, minute by minute, at hand and not on the trophy and the bigger picture of winning the World Cup final.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
	
	England's self belief and momentum is greater at this point then the South Africans. This is on the back of the two wins against Australia and France. We know from experience that England perform, as they themselves now&nbsp;know and are aware of and have shown that they can perform under pressure. The team that wins on Saturday evening will be the one that can control their emotions in a helpful and conducive way so that this won't change or affect their flow of play. The players need to understand and stick to their roles,&nbsp;&nbsp;understand each other and continue their effective communication as well as maintaining their form and passion.... the lions are roaring and understanding each other... 
	Amanda Owens 
	
	
	
	

 ]]></description>
<link>http://www.istadia.com/blog/AmandaO1/117</link>
<dc:creator>Amanda Owens</dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 17 Oct 2007 03:27:59 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.istadia.com/blog/AmandaO1/117</guid>
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