The Psychology Of Building Team Culture | Eddie Jones
Eddie Jones, one of rugby's most accomplished coaches, discusses building team culture, managing pressure, and developing human potential. He emphasizes the balance between creating high standards and maintaining relationships, arguing that identity and behavior must flow from how you want to play the game rather than abstract values.
Summary
Eddie Jones shares insights from three decades of coaching across multiple countries and cultures. He describes his outsider experience as a half-Japanese, half-Australian growing up, which taught him to focus on being himself rather than fitting in. This early lesson shaped his coaching philosophy around individual understanding and authenticity.
Jones emphasizes that culture and identity in sports organizations stem from how the team plays the game tactically and strategically. He explains that you start with a vision of how you want to play, understand your current group's capabilities, and work to close the gap between the two. He references Louis van Gaal's approach of having a clear picture of desired play style while adapting to player abilities.
A central theme is the relationship between coach and player. Jones advocates for one-on-one conversations to understand what motivates each individual, what their best and worst games felt like, and what they're currently working toward. He describes asking players implicit questions like "which version of yourself are you today?" to guide them toward solutions rather than directives.
On standards and behavior correction, Jones has evolved from harsh public criticism to private, immediate feedback followed by guided discovery. He emphasizes that feedback should ask "Do you think that's going to help us win?" rather than simply telling players they're wrong. He also acknowledges a significant regret: drilling his personal assistant on spelling errors so intensely that it diminished her love of the job, despite her tremendous value to the organization.
Jones discusses the critical 70/30 principle in training: approximately 70% successful execution and 30% failure provides optimal learning conditions. Training should be harder than actual games so competition becomes manageable. He also emphasizes the 80/20 ratio when reviewing game film: 80% focus on what went well and what's possible, 20% on improvements needed.
On emotions and vulnerability, Jones admits he scores himself 7/10 on managing anger, fear, and sadness, but only 6-7/10 on joy—acknowledging this as an area needing development. He recognizes that showing vulnerability, while difficult for his generation trained to suppress emotion, is increasingly important for modern leadership. His reflection on a coach who made him feel important 30 years ago still brings emotion, demonstrating the lasting impact of good coaching.
Jones reflects on coaching across cultures—Australia, England, and Japan—observing that each nation has distinct rugby identities based on their broader culture. South Africans respond well to being told and prefer detail; Australians want agency; Japanese teams need to find innovation as underdogs. He discusses Rassie Erasmus's success with South Africa by returning to their core identity rather than forcing a different style.
On pressure, Jones argues it must be acknowledged rather than dismissed as "just another game." He prepares players through dress rehearsal—creating high-pressure training scenarios that mirror game conditions. He also emphasizes the importance of leader emotional regulation: leaders set the emotional temperature of the environment, so walking into a room with energy and engagement creates openness, while appearing shuffled and withdrawn creates constriction.
Jones advocates for athlete-led engagement, particularly in rugby where coaches cannot be on the field during play. Players must make decisions and adapt in real-time, so practice should develop their decision-making capacity rather than just executing predetermined plays. He encourages positional groups to lead post-game film review and debrief conversations.
On unlearning, Jones identifies his biggest lesson: never assume. You must confirm through relationship-building what's true about a person, a staff member, or a player rather than relying on reputation or second-hand information. He also reflects on how younger generations have lower tolerance for harsh treatment, so coaching must evolve to build standards through training rigor rather than emotional intimidation.
Final themes include the importance of thinking time (Jones uses early morning 4am routine for an hour of writing and reflection before training), the balance between control and vulnerability in leadership, and the primacy of relationships in all performance contexts. He frames the leader's role as helping people understand they're capable of things they thought they couldn't do.
About this episode
<p><strong>How do great leaders build teams to become who they're capable of becoming, and prepare them to handle their emotions when the pressure is highest?</strong></p><p><strong>Eddie Jones</strong> is one of the most accomplished coaches in world rugby. He has led Australia, England, and Japan on the international stage, and guided Japan to one of the greatest upsets in rugby history at the 2015 World Cup. He has built a career on turning teams around, creating pressure, and challenging more from the people he leads. There is a fine line in that work. Too little challenge and we never understand who we can become. Too much and we create the wrong conditions to explore. That line has not always been easy to walk. Eddie’s demanding methods have drawn criticism over the years, and his exits from England in 2022 and Australia in 2023 came under intense public scrutiny... a chapter he alludes to here when he describes the mistake of letting the noise come down on top of him.</p><p>In this conversation with Dr. Michael Gervais, Eddie walks through how he builds team identity, starting with a picture in his head of how a team could play and then closing the gap between that vision and the group in front of him. He explains why he keeps training about 70% successful, so the 30% of failure becomes the learning, and why training should always be harder than the game. He makes the case that immediate, private feedback beats public humiliation every time, and that the best coaches ask far more questions than they answer.</p><p>Eddie also talks about understanding the individual, why coaching has shifted from team-based to one-on-one, and how a single moment of feeling important from a coach 30 years ago still moves him today. He opens up struggles he has faced with his own emotions, the mistakes he has made, the generation that taught him to never show vulnerability, and why he is still learning to make room for joy. </p><p><strong>In this conversation, we explore:</strong></p><ul><li>How great coaches build a team identity and close the gap between vision and reality</li><li>Why training should be about 70% successful, so the failures become the learning</li><li>The value in training harder than the game</li><li>Why the best coaches ask more questions than they answer</li><li>How understanding the individual has become central to modern leadership</li><li>Why you should never assume, and always confirm by knowing the person</li><li>The thinking time every leader needs</li></ul><p><br /></p><p>By the end of the conversation the two land on a question every leader should ask: would you want to be coached by yourself?</p><p><br /></p><p><strong>Links & Resources</strong></p><p><strong>Subscribe</strong> to our Youtube Channel for more conversations at the intersection of high performance, leadership, and wellbeing: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingMastery" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingMastery</a></p><p><strong>Get exclusive</strong> discounts and support our amazing sponsors!</p><p><strong>Go to: </strong><a href="https://findingmastery.com/sponsors/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://findingmastery.com/sponsors/</a></p><p><strong>Subscribe</strong> to the Finding Mastery newsletter for weekly high performance insights: <a href="https://www.findingmastery.com/newsletter" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.findingmastery.com/newsletter</a></p><p><strong>Download</strong> Dr. Mike's Morning Mindset Routine: <a href="https://www.findingmastery.com/morningmindset" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">findingmastery.com/morningmindset</a></p><p><strong>Follow</strong> on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/findingmastery" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">YouTube</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/findingmastery/?hl=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmichaelgervais/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>, and <a href="https://x.com/michaelgervais" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">X</a></p><p><strong>Eddie Jones' Books: </strong><em>My Life and Rugby: The Autobiography</em> and <em>Leadership: Lessons from My Life in Rugby</em></p><p>See Privacy Policy at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy</a> and California Privacy Notice at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info</a>.</p>
Key Insights
- Jones argues that team identity and culture should flow from how you want to play the game tactically, not from abstract values statements, because behaviors become meaningful when connected to sport-specific demands.
- He claims that closing the gap between a coach's vision of ideal play and current team capabilities requires identifying two to three strategic areas that will solve most problems, rather than trying to fix everything at once.
- Jones states that approximately one difficult personality can be tolerated on a team if they possess strong winning behaviors, but this tolerance breaks down without the structural support of other strong characters and leadership like Phil Jackson provided Dennis Rodman.
- He asserts that private, immediate feedback followed by guided questions is more effective than public criticism, and that asking 'Do you think that's going to help us win?' prompts self-reflection better than direct correction.
- Jones claims the optimal training condition is 70% successful execution and 30% failure, because training without mistakes indicates the work isn't happening at the level necessary to prepare for games.
- He argues that in reviewing game film, an 80/20 ratio (80% positive and possible, 20% improvement areas) better motivates performance than emphasizing mistakes, particularly with younger generations.
- Jones contends that leaders set the emotional temperature of their environment through their demeanor, so walking into a room with energy and engagement creates openness, while appearing withdrawn sends a message of constriction.
- He claims that younger generations respond better to implicit coaching (guided discovery through questions) than explicit direction, requiring coaches to shift from lecturing toward collaborative problem-solving.
- Jones states that the ability to show vulnerability at the right time is very important in modern leadership, though he admits struggling with this himself due to his generation's conditioning to suppress emotion.
- He asserts that coaches must understand the cultural context and ethos of their nation or region, because South Africa responds to detailed directives while Australia demands agency in decision-making.
- Jones claims his biggest unlearning was never to assume anything about a person based on reputation; you must confirm through relationship-building what's actually true.
- He argues that drilling employees or players on minor standards (like spelling errors) can diminish their overall engagement and love of the job if the standard doesn't directly impact winning, requiring constant calibration of what standards matter.
Topics
Transcript
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