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In episode 323 of the Glass and Out Podcast we're joined by Head Coach of the York University Women's Hockey program, Dan Church.

Back in November, Dan joined us for Hockey Calgary’s leadership day and presented on shared leadership, specifically how you can build stronger teams through coach-athlete collaboration. Stay tuned for that video coming later this season on The Coaches Site.

Church has led the program at York since 2004. His career spans both university and international hockey. He has represented Hockey Canada in multiple leadership roles, including Head Coach of the Canadian National Women’s Team, where he led the program to a gold medal at the 2012 IIHF Women’s World Championship.

Church places an emphasis on culture, long-term athlete development, and values-driven leadership, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential coaches in Canadian women’s hockey.

Listen as he shares why coaches need to build better leaders, how to manage a players stress and exhaustion, and why the coach-player relationship needs to be collaborative.

Video Timestamps:

• 0:00 Mondays prep
• 3:45 Days off/Tracking fatigue
• 10:25 Trusting your intuition and data
• 12:50 Managing stress and exhaustion
• 16:05 Selecting captains/leaders
• 19:40 Evaluating characteristics of leaders
• 19:35 Coaching intuition and confidence
• 21:35 Leadership in turmoil/The gut feel
• 26:55 Hockey Calgary presentation
• 30:10 Developing leaders
• 35:35 How environment shapes leadership
• 38:00 Non-dominant leadership qualities
• 42:20 Decentralized leadership
• 46:00 Inviting feedback from players
• 51:35 The power of language
• 53:15 Social network analysis
• 58:00 The bond of winning teams
• 1:01:10 Every player is a leader
• 1:05:00 Supporting leadership development
• 1:12:00 New Zealand All Blacks
• 1:14:45 Book recommendations