“Just be yourself”: Paul Roos on how to win in the boardroom, the shop floor and the footy field

AFL coaching legend and culture savant, Paul Roos, says modern buzz words like “authenticity” and “vulnerability” can inadvertently put a handbrake on progress.

“Sometimes words can be a little misleading. We talk about it all the time- what is vulnerability, or authenticity? Just be yourself. That’s vulnerable,” Roos told the Ministry of Sport podcast.

“We’re not saying you have to cry every time you have a meeting.

“There’s this perception of vulnerability that, ‘I’m going to have to spill my guts everytime’.

“If you want to say sorry- say sorry. If you want to be angry- and you are present with that anger- be angry.

“But be really authentic, and don’t do it coz someone else thinks you should do it. Or because you’ve had a bad night the night before.

“Do it because, ‘This is who I am’. That is authentic.”

Roos is the transformative figure of modern Australian sports coaching.

He re-wrote the rule book, taking coaching beyond x’s and o’s, and ranting and raving.

After a 356-game, 7-time All Australian playing career, Roos coached the Sydney Swans to their first premiership in 72 years.

He then re-built the Melbourne Football Club from a habitual on-field loser, into a premiership winning organisation. His company Performance by Design works across the globe with corporates and sports teams to build culture.

“Culture is really the behaviours that are rewarded and challenged,” he says.

“You have to have a values and behavioural-based system, and when things go wrong, go back to your values.

“Go back to your behaviours, go back to your system. If you do that, I guarantee you in the long term, everything is going to be fine.”

For the full episode and behind-the-scenes access,  listen to The Ministry of Sport Podcast.