Sir Ian McGeechan on What It Really Takes to Succeed in Rugby and Beyond

Sir Ian McGeechan stands among rugby‘s most revered figures—celebrated for his exceptional impact as both a player and a coach.

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From earning 32 caps for Scotland and appearing in legendary British & Irish Lions tours to leading Scotland to a Grand Slam and guiding the Lions on four historic series as head coach, his career defines excellence in performance.

Beyond the pitch, McGeechan is a compelling sports speaker, renowned for transforming his rich tactical and leadership insights into lessons that resonate across business, education, and team-building environments.

Audiences are captivated by his calm yet powerful storytelling, rooted in decades of high-pressure victories and strategic mastery.

In this exclusive interview with The Motivational Speakers Agency, Sir Ian shares his vision of high-performance leadership, the strength of collective intelligence, and the art of building trust under pressure—insights shaped by a lifetime at the heart of rugby’s greatest moments.

From your perspective, what defines true high performance in rugby?

Sir Ian McGeechan: “I think it’s the ability to win under pressure and see the winning decisions that have to be made to actually complete a performance, and being able to do that consistently and recognise that.

“I think that leads then to players seeing the most in themselves and bringing the most out of themselves, but most importantly bringing the most out of each other, which as a coach was the greatest satisfaction I ever felt.

“When you watch players who are actually doing that, it’s the chemistry between them that is actually changing the environment.”

How important is it for a coach to create an environment where players can help each other reach their peak?

Sir Ian McGeechan: “Yes. I’ve always… I think I got help. I was obviously trained as a schoolteacher and actually learnt a bit there about sharing ideas.

“And, you know, I don’t have all the answers, never have had. But when I was coming through, I suppose as a player and then as a coach, I got so much help and support from other people who had knowledge that I didn’t have, that actually helped me shape my
thinking.

“And I always said it to the players that no one person has all the answers, but the answers are often in the room.

A collective intelligence of a group of people who are prepared to share everything, and their own knowledge — they will have things that nobody else actually necessarily knows in that context.

“Once you get that on the table, then you have a conversation and a development in thinking that actually takes you forward. That’s the bit I really enjoyed.

“And then having got that, you really look at the key elements that simplify how you want to work that collectively, to get it on the field in a consistent way.”

Trust is often described as the foundation of great rugby teams. How did you go about building that trust with your players?

Sir Ian McGeechan: “Well, I think you’ve got to have individual conversations with players and get to know them a little bit, understand them.

“One thing with my education background is people learn in different ways, and people talk about information in different ways.

“It was being able to just understand the best ways sometimes of communicating with a player.

“Part of that might be trying to put a picture in his head of what they could be capable of or what they were capable of, and ways of getting there.

“And I think in rugby, if you look at what you’re doing and what you’re capable of doing, and you see the impact that can have on somebody else or another group, then you’re actually setting a train of thinking going.

“What you’re looking at is the impact by changing what you’re doing or adjusting what you’re doing, and the impact that is having on the performance of everyone collectively.

“If a player will give you feedback about how he’s feeling, or if he’s got some concerns even, or something’s not clear… you know, some of the best information I can get is when a player says, “Look, I don’t quite understand that, why?” You’re going through that understanding, and sometimes you vary the skills or the involvement, but actually putting it then into context of doing something to make it clear to the player so he has that understanding.”

Simplicity is key

“But most importantly, if there isn’t that understanding, then I get that information from him very early, so we’re not trying to develop something where we’ve got all these loose ends of misunderstanding which tend to confuse things.

You try and just get that simplicity of saying, “Look, this is where we are, this is where you are. If we do this, this suddenly allows the next thing to happen, which impacts on the team performance.”

“Often it is under pressure. You know, I’ve called it world-class basics: each position or each role has certain skills that are very specific to that role, and that’s often the selection of why that person is there — why that player is there.

“He has skills, he has an attitude in his approach that makes a difference to that position.

“By doing that, by taking that on, you then have an understanding of what happens within the players next to you and the group that’s two passes away from you.

“Building that collective understanding of the impact of what you can do under pressure… often it’s the basics, it’s actually delivering something that you know you can do, or needs to be done, to actually make a difference when it matters.

“It’s not show, it’s actually impact on performance, and that to me is elite performance, because it’s actually changing what everybody can do and how everybody can operate.”

This exclusive interview with Sir Ian McGeechan was conducted by Chris Tompkins of The Motivational Speakers Agency.

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