John Eales - Follow the leader

Eternal Lessons

Eales’ philosophies for business leaders and sporting stars include maintaining balance between work and family life, and he believes there is a lot for sporting leaders to learn from business leaders and vice versa. Everyone is coachable and can improve, he says, and the sporting environment produces a mentality where you are receptive to coaching, even if you are at the top of your field.

"You should always have the mindset that you’re learning," he explains. "In business there is a reticence for people to coach people above them, as happens in sport. You could be packing next to someone in the second row and you could be in your first season and they could be in their tenth and you can suggest ‘why don’t you try this or that?’ and that’s accepted in sport."

He feels his sporting experiences and other lessons he has learnt from life make him an appropriate mentor in both the sports and business fields. "I feel that I have a lot to teach people, but equally I’ve got a lot more to learn. I’d be disappointed if I couldn’t teach people or help them out in some way," he says. "There’s no one person for everyone, but everyone’s got to be open to getting help from others.

"Mentoring is a two-way street: you need to have enough humility to accept advice from other people, to feel that you don’t know everything yourself, and to seek advice from others."

Does he miss the game? "No! I love watching it, but I don’t miss playing. I was ready to move on and do other things." And although his rugby-playing career is over, his passion for inspiring leadership and teamwork continues and Eales is content to focus on the success of the businesses he is involved in. He is particularly excited about his involvement with the newly-launched Mettle Group, involving corporate culture training on leadership and teamwork. "It is something I have a great passion for—the leadership and team development side of things—because it is something I have been involved in a lot."

As well as his involvement in the sport side of his business interests, Eales says this area of training and development is one he feels he can still contribute to, given his passion and strong understanding of the industry and how things work. He is also keen to continue his role with BT’s financial planning department, which he says "is a lot of fun".

And while Eales describes his Olympic mentoring as a wonderful experience, he is reluctant to say for now whether he’ll sign on again in another four years. "I’m not sure what space I’m going to be in then. If it’s an appropriate time to be away from home, I would certainly love to consider doing it again."