Dave Diggle works inside privately held businesses to get the right people in the right seats, have the conversations that have been put off, and make the leadership team hold together under the weight of what the business has become. He has spent 40 years doing the same job in elite sport, and 25 years doing it one-to-one with the leaders inside companies like Deutsche Bank, Autodesk, Twitch and the Trade Desk.
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The business has worked. The structure has worked. And somewhere along the way, the people stopped keeping pace with both.
It rarely shows up as one big issue. It shows up as:
A leadership meeting that runs long and decides little.
The person who saved the business five years ago, now sitting in a seat the business has outgrown.
Decisions that keep landing back on your desk because nobody else is sure they are allowed to make them.
A team that is busy all day and still not performing.
None of that means your people are not working hard, and none of it means you have done something wrong. Every business that grows gets here. The ones that come through it are the ones that look at the people honestly: who actually holds influence, who is in a seat that no longer suits them, where the friction has built up, and whether the culture is pointed in the same direction as the ambition.
That is a hard look to take from inside the building. It is a much easier one to take with someone beside you who has done it hundreds of times before.
Elite sport has been solving this problem for decades, because it has no choice. A national team cannot carry a player in the wrong position for three seasons while everyone hopes it sorts itself out. The gap between who should be doing what and who actually is shows up quickly, on the scoreboard, in team culture, and in how people function under pressure. So sport built ways of seeing it early and fixing it without the team falling apart.
Dave Diggle is a high-performance mind coach with 40 years in elite sport, coaching Commonwealth, World and Olympic medallists and the coaches and leadership teams behind them. He built the sports psychology module inside the University of Sydney's postgraduate coaching degree and is its academic lecturer, a program that only admits coaches of national teams, or athletes who have represented their country. He was Mental Performance Coach to the Wallabies.
For 25 years through Smart Mind he has brought the same frameworks to the people behind the people in business. Not to the institution, to the person: the COO who had stopped trusting his own decisions, the account director making calls on emotion, the marketer who had the skills but not the presence. He has done that one-to-one with leaders inside Deutsche Bank, Macquarie Bank, Autodesk, Twitch, Dropbox, the Trade Desk and Deloitte, and inside family-owned and founder-led firms where the people are the business. The pressure is the same in both. In a privately held business it is simply felt more personally, and one person in the wrong seat is felt by everyone.
He doesn't arrive with a generic program. He arrives with the right questions, a sharp eye for what's actually going on, and a track record across both codes.
The growing pains are similar. The path through them is too.
I don't quote off the back of a keynote or a phone call. I like to see the business first. So the first step is a conversation.
I sit with the owner and every member of the leadership team and I watch the leadership meeting run. Then I tell you what I see: who is in the right seat, who can be grown into it, and who has outgrown it or is holding a seat that should no longer exist. It's delivered in both writing, and conversation as a Right People, Right Roles diagnostic.
A working day with me in the room: in the meetings, in the one-on-ones, and in the conversation with the owner that may have been put off for a while. A leadership team day is designed and run for your whole leadership group, with the preparation and a follow-up call included. The three I run most often are Resetting the Team, Building the Team the Job Actually Needs, and The Conversations Nobody Wants to Have.
This is the turnaround work. I take on one business at a time for this, so when there is a queue, there is a queue.
Fees are discussed in the first conversation, and I will tell you straight if I think you don't need me.
Privately held, whether that is founder-led, family-owned or backed by private investors, with an owner who is still in the building and a leadership team around them. Big enough that the owner can no longer see everything, small enough that one person in the wrong seat is felt everywhere.
It suits an owner who already suspects what the problem is and wants someone to say it out loud, properly, and then help fix it. It suits a board that has been circling the same conversation for a year. And it suits the adviser, the accountant or lawyer, who can see a client is stuck but knows the fix sits outside their lane.
It is not a leadership course, a culture survey or a set of workshops that end when the slides have been run through. Dave works inside the business, with the people who are actually there, until the change holds.
“We worked through a multitude of processes and Dave helped me realize why I was so cautious with certain decision making. I truly felt like I blossomed into a new leader, understanding what was needed from me in my position to help support the CEO, but also grow the company in numerous ways. I'd highly recommend anyone to work with Dave Diggle and Smart Mind.”
“Working with Dave has been transformational, not just for my career but for my sense of self. I went from working in a ‘cost center’ to immediately leading 8-figure deals and GTM positioning.”
“I like to think that he has a PhD in understanding people. He makes you feel comfortable and look at the data and make decisions off of those components rather than looking at emotions. I've been able to completely change how I work, my methods at work, and that's gone beyond just the work itself. It's allowed me to really build a life that I want.”
“I knew I had the skills, but I needed to make sure I came across as a strategic thinker and leader every time I showed up, especially in front of executive audiences. His sports background provided me with very helpful approaches to the business world. After working with him, I had a stronger presence in meetings, thought more strategically, and showed up in a way that positioned me for the next level. Dave has a gift for challenging your thinking in exactly the right ways to help you grow.”
40+ years in elite sport coaching Commonwealth, World and Olympic medallists, and their coaches and leadership teams.
25 years, sporting and business environments.
Sports psychology module, University of Sydney postgraduate coaching degree.
The Wallabies.
European, Commonwealth, World and Olympic level.
23 published books on problem solving, performance and learning.
If you want to hear how Dave thinks before you book, these interviews are the quickest way. Start with his conversations on leadership with Michael Hooper, former Wallabies captain, and Pete Steinberg, and on coaching the human behind the business with René Sonneveld, and Dr James Barkell on working with high-performance teams. It is the same voice you will get in your boardroom.
Former Wallabies captain, on leading when the stakes are visible.
Listen →Coaching the family and the founder, not just the company.
Watch →On leadership shock, and what holds a team together under pressure.
Listen →Interviews Dave on working with high-performance teams.
Listen →It is closer to what a high-performance program does with a national squad. I look at the people and how they work together, I tell you what I see, and then I stay in the building while it changes. You get a view from someone who has no stake in the history and no seat to protect.
Good teams are usually where this is needed most. The people are capable, the business has grown around them, and nobody wants to be the one to say that a seat has changed shape. I am the one who says it, and I say it in a way that keeps the relationship intact.
Then you will hear that from me in the first fortnight, privately, with a plan attached. Most owners already suspect it. The relief of having it said properly is usually bigger than the sting.
Sometimes a person has outgrown the business or the business has outgrown them, and the honest thing is to help them go well. More often, the right move is a different seat, a clearer brief or a conversation that should have happened a year ago. The aim is that something changes rather than someone leaves.
The diagnostic takes two days, and you will know by the end of it what you are dealing with. The quarter takes three months because the last month is about making it hold once I have gone. I don't do shorter versions of the turnaround, because they don't hold.
I am based in Sydney and work across Australia, Asia, USA, UK and Europe. The diagnostic is done in person, in your building.
Tell me about the business, where it has got to and what has started to creak. I will tell you what I think is going on and whether I am the right person for it. If I am not, you will have lost nothing and gained an honest opinion.
Book a conversation with DaveNo obligation, and you'll get a straight answer.
“The coaching I got with you really transformed my life and my wellbeing and made me a better leader and operator. I recommend your work to people constantly!”
Lily Dempster · AI Product Innovator & ConsultantTell me a little about the business and I will send you a link to pick a time that suits you.
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