Andy Friend on his Coaching Journey

Andy Friend is the Head Coach of Connacht Rugby based in Ireland. We will talk about his experience and his journey, as well as what it’s like to set the culture at that club and how he thinks about leadership. This conversation is also about Andy’s journey, which has spanned over 26 years and 21 homes, and what he’s learned along the way. He has travelled all over the world to places like England, Japan, Australia, and now Ireland. Andy is someone who thinks deeply about leadership and how he cannot just have the best leadership for himself, but also how he can develop leaders within his club and within his organization. Andy is very intentional about how he can use transformational leadership to help his club be the best that they can be.

In this episode, we discuss what life was like for Andy as a kid (6:46), what the relationship was like with his brothers growing up (9:33), what he learned from moving between 3 different cultures and countries (11:34), if moving around so much helped him gain skills in emotional intelligence that still help him today (14:58), what character traits he possesses in a large group setting (16:42), how he balances teaching people the basics while also letting them go out and discover for their own (19:04), how he thinks about parenting and consequences (22:34), why he fell in love with rugby (28:28), his wife (31:42), what has led to he and his wife having a strong partnership (35:55), if it’s harder to make new memories and excitement during Covid (41:14), his coaching journey (43:58), sport science in Australia (46:49), what it was (and is) like to be an Australian coaching in Japan and Ireland (50:43), if he had to adjust his coaching style to each of the cultures he was in (56:26), what he does to develop relationships with and develop the athletes he works with (57:48), staying connected on a one-on-one level to his athletes (1:00:50), how he maintains a transformational leadership style in a transactional world (1:03:41), how he develops leaders on his team (1:06:03), leadership (1:07:37), how he empowers his staff to do the work that he’s not able to do or that they are better than him at doing (1:13:52), and how he thinks about culture with his team (1:16:15).

You can follow Andy on Twitter @andyfriend2011.

Thanks so much to Andy for coming on the podcast!

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.