"To get the best out of people, you must first seek to understand the culture and context they come from. Success doesn't come from transplanting systems—it comes from building them together, with respect and collaboration."
Q. From swimming professionally during apartheid-era South Africa to leading high-performance sports programs across three countries—how has your personal journey shaped your leadership philosophy in sports?
Coming from South Africa during, I lived through the apartheid era and also saw the fall of apartheid. My parents' influence and teachings were key factors into how I developed. They taught me respect and also to be open to different experiences and cultures.
Different is just that, different, not better or worse. While they would guide me they would also encourage me to make decisions for myself BUT along with those decisions would come accountability for the decisions that I have made.
One of the key learnings based on my lived experience is that people should not be judged and discriminated against because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, religion or any other factor. Everybody deserves respect and an equal opportunity.
Having seen young people being denied opportunities because of circumstances over which they have no control, I am extremely passionate about providing young people with the platform to express their potential to the best of their abilities.
Removing obstacles that inhibit their growth and giving them the platform off which they can build a better life which allows them to express their talents and in the future hopefully pay it forward to someone else. I am just blessed to be able to do this through a medium of sport which I am also highly passionate about.
Q. You've worked in South Africa, New Zealand, and now India—each with vastly different sporting systems and cultures. What are the key lessons you've learned about adapting high-performance programs across these diverse environments?
Seek to understand first. Yes, I have had the privilege of working in these countries and they are vastly different. The most important factor for me is to understand as much as you can about the environment in which you are working. Experiences in other countries may guide you on strategies and plans but if you don’t make an effort to understand the culture and context of your environment, I believe you would be facing challenges that could derail you.
I have seen many practitioners coming into a new environment and the first thing they say is this is how we have done it in whichever country and therefore we need to change XYZ. Transplanting one system from one country into another is just not something I agree with. Each country has their own culture and context, people are different, mindsets are different.
In order to get the best out of the people you are working with, it is important to understand these factors. Developing a system recognizing and respecting the context of the environment in which you work and integrating proven international norms, trends, systems and processes in what you do is a better path to sustainable success.
Q. As a high performance leader, what are the most critical components you believe make up a world-class daily training environment for elite athletes?
People always come first. Bringing on board people that will play an active role in developing a culture of excellence is one of the defining factors in developing a world class daily training environment.
The people that you bring on need to be respectful of the culture and context within which you are operating. I have an affinity for people who are creative and who are not afraid to do things differently, people who are willing to take calculated risks. The people that you bring together must have a growth mindset and are willing to work as part of a team, willing to learn from each other and collaborate with each other to achieve the performance goals that have been agreed to.
Everybody in the team adds value and contributes to the culture; the coach, the kitchen staff, the sports science team, the athletes, the CEO….. everybody plays a role.Facilities also play a major role in any world class daily training environment.
You need to make athletes, coaches and support staff believe that they are training in a physical environment that is on par with any other place in the world. The physical environment and facilities promote and support the idea and philosophy of performance excellence.
Q. In your experience, how important are collaboration and creativity in building successful athlete development systems, and how do you foster these values within your teams?
I believe it’s all about communication, authentic and open communication. This can be done through formal meetings which should happen and is an opportunity for all team members to make sure they are still all on the same page and all pulling in the right direction. However, I have found that informal meetings are as important as where live conversations happen.
People are more at ease and relaxed and tend to open up even more. I do believe that documenting plans and progress is important and there are tools that we have used to ensure that information is captured and shared across the team. This is most effectively done through an Athlete Management System (AMS). There are quite a few products on the market.
In my opinion the factor to consider is what you need from an AMS and how you can effectively integrate this system into your daily working. It should not be onerous and time consuming. The importance of collecting this data is to support the organisation in future proofing itself in that a record of information of training and testing is captured and recorded.
It will give the practitioners the opportunity to assess what has worked and what has not worked previously and make informed decisions going forward. An effective AMS will also allow practitioners to provide coaches and support staff with easy to digest visualisation of information vs complicated columns and rows of data for the purpose of quick decision making. Needless to say that any effective AMS needs to take into account privacy issues especially when it comes to medical and psychological information.
Q. With the rapid evolution of sports science and athlete expectations, how do you see the role of a high-performance director evolving over the next decade?
I think the role of a high performance director requires constant awareness and a desire to learn and grow, understand what is happening globally and also being aware of changing social trends. You need to be aware of how young people are responding to situations and how they are consuming information. Adapting to this ever changing world is key to communicating effectively, getting the message across and getting people to buy into what we are doing.
A couple of years ago, many athletes would just accept what they are told and not really challenge the status quo. Now, rightfully so, you are seeing athletes questioning why they are being told to do something. They are no longer just content with being directed. They are actors in their own plays and are prepared to play more of an active role in their careers.
The sports science element is extremely interesting. The value of sports science is immense when there is applied and practical implementation. I would always caution on the wholesale implementation of generic sports science and here is where coaches and high performance directors play a critical role.
Like understanding culture and context is important when implementing a programme, it is important when implementing sports science interventions that it is done aligned to the coaching methodology and overall plan which is being directed by the coach.
It is important that sports science interventions and testing have clear outcomes and that the outcomes have practical application that will improve performances. The difference between applied sports science and theoretical sports science is vast with the latter often being discarded by coaches and athletes who are more aware than many choose to believe in what will help and what is just theory.
One of the key roles of the High Performance Director is to make sure that there is a strong alignment between coaching and sports science. A high performance director can be likened to a conductor in an orchestra. He needs to make sure everybody in the team knows their role and when to play their role. If everybody plays together and when they feel they should, all you have is just noise. If everybody plays according to the sheet music led by the conductor, your outcome is a symphony.
Q. You’ve emphasized the importance of fun, challenge, and creativity in high-performance environments—how do you strike a balance between the intense demands of elite sport and creating a culture where athletes still enjoy the process?
I do believe that having fun and performance are inextricably interlinked. You have to love what you do in order to bring the best version of yourself. Not many people have the privilege of being a professional athlete and when you have that opportunity, you need to grab the opportunity with both hands. It won’t last forever so you need to make the most of it while it lasts and have fun along the way.
One of the most satisfying things for me is when athletes come and speak to you and ask you questions, seeking support and guidance. It is critical that young people feel that your desire to be supportive and help them achieve their potential is authentic.
To this end, teaching them, by your living example, values such as respect and integrity, become important in showing young people that you are genuinely interested in their holistic development. Lending and modifying a saying from the All Blacks, Better People, Better Athletes.
Aspiring to this concept of developing good people allows our young people to be more free and not tied down to the singular definition of success based on athletic performance. Lifting this extreme weight of expectation will allow them to love and enjoy what they do rather than constantly fear the impact of not performing.
Creativity is so critical in what we do and this applies to not just athletes but practitioners (coaches, sports science staff and administrators) in all that we do. Doing the same thing year in year out is just going to deliver the same results. Using the same training programs without modifications becomes boring for the athletes and the coaches.
If you are seeking greatness and fun, dare to be different. As administrators, why not challenge the status quo and develop competitions and programs that are different, create a different stimulus, something that keeps people interested and wanting to stay involved in sport? The way in which sport is being not just consumed, but also practised and played is no longer the same and in order for this industry to remain relevant, we need to adapt to changing times and circumstances.
Bio
Rushdee Warley is an internationally experienced high-performance sports leader with over two decades of impact across South Africa, New Zealand, and India. A former professional swimmer from apartheid-era South Africa, Rushdee’s journey from Social Science graduate to elite swimming coach reflects his deep commitment to sport as a tool for transformation.
His leadership blends strategic vision with hands-on experience in athlete development, performance optimization, and cross-cultural sports management.
Rushdee is also a global consultant in high-performance sport, valued for his insights into building resilient, inclusive, and high-achieving sports ecosystems.
Rushdee Warley - LinkedIn
Interviewed by Ishika Ahuja
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