Biography
David Parkin OAM is one of the best business/motivational speakers in Australia – “Powerful, intelligent and compelling”. As a well-known achiever in both the Sporting and Academic fields, Parkin relates his experiences to the world of business through working with numerous and varied organisations and corporations. David is currently a Media Commentator on Fox Footy and ABC Radio.
Parkin's accomplishments as a football player and coach are outstanding: he captained Hawthorn Football Club to their second premiership in 1971, and then coached them to a flag in 1978. He later coached Carlton Football Club to successive Premierships in 1981 - 1982, and is regarded as one of the super-coaches of the 70's, and 80's.
Through the 1990’s Parkin continued coaching one of Australia's top AFL teams, Carlton. Applying innovative coaching techniques under Parkin, Carlton set a new record for an unbroken series of AFL winning games, culminating in Carlton as 1995 Premiers.
In 2000, despite lucrative offers to continuing coaching and join the corporate world full-time, David returned to his first passion the Hawthorn Football Club as Director of Football, where he remained until 2002. David was inducted to the AFL Football Hall of Fame in May of that year.
Parkin is one of just six coaches to have coached over 500 AFL/VFL games (the others are Tom Hafey, Jock McHale, Allan Jeans, Kevin Sheedy and Ron Barassi).
Parkin's academic achievements include developing and lecturing in the Sports and Exercise Science at Deakin University, Melbourne Campus. David Holds a Bachelor of Education from the University of Western Australia as well as writing and publishing more than a dozen books and numerous articles.
A prolific writer, David has published numerous articles and books including: Preparing the Australian Footballer (1979); Children’s Sport – Equalising the Opportunity to Play (Sport Coach 1980); Premier Ship Football (1984, revised 1987); and co-authored with Paul Bourke, Perform or Else (1999); Pumped up People (2001), “What Makes Teams Work (2004) and “Captain – Coach Leadership” (2009).
In “What Makes Teams Work” David and co-author Paul Bourke interviewed dozens of CEO’s and taken a detail look at successful Australian companies like Flight Centres, Ford Australia (Ford’s only profitable worldwide subsidiary) and Dun & Brad Street, as well as top Australian coaches such as Leigh Matthews, Brian Goorjian and Ric Charlesworth. The book has been described as “The In-Search of Excellence” for Australia - it explores the reasons for and lesson from the highly successful businesses and sporting teams. (Paul Bourke is former CEO of Campbell’s Soup, Arnotts Biscuits and Cadbury Confectionary.)
David’s book, again with co-author Paul Bourke, is Captain – Coach Leadership. In this book David and Paul showcase the key elements of successful organisations and how they make their employees “heroes”, or are working hard to achieve “employer of choice” status. They explore in detail what they believe to be the key elements in successful sporting and business teams: Leadership, Recruitment, People Development, Coaching Culture, Values and Team Rules.
With his success in sport and advising businesses, David as a speaker is held in the highest esteem by organisations such as: MLC, Spalding Australia, Brake & Clutch, RACV, Campbells Soups, Telstra Australia, Australia Post, Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, Combined Rural Traders, Civil Contractors Association, KPMG, CIC Insurance, MBAV, AMP, TAFE, QANTAS, Australian Earthmovers & Road Contractors, Toyota, Eka Nobel, Sheraton Hotels and many, many more.
Captain – Coach Leadership details some of the strategies sport uses to ensure that athletes are given every possible chance to maximise their potential. A Sports Model of Performance in relation to people has five distinct elements.
- Leadership at all levels – having leaders at all levels, but particularly close to the ‘engine room’ where the work gets done. The concept of players electing a leadership group of their peers has become common practise. These leaders are extremely influential both on and off the field and very few decisions that impact the playing group would be taken by the coaches without the support of the leadership group.
- People Development – this is spearheaded by a disproportionate level of resources to develop the playing group. An around the clock regime provides support aimed at resolving issues that may effect on field performance. It is a holistic welfare approach that extends to equipping players with skills that will transition them to new careers when their playing days end.
- Recruitment – the introduction of a draft process in some sports validates the talent and the order of selection is based on positions on the premiership table at the end of the season. Consequently, the main focus for recruiters is whether the athletes possess the character and attitude compatible with the organisation’s culture.
- Coaching – coaches use an array of feedback mechanisms to demonstrate to the athletes how the can improve their skills and their behaviour. They rarely focus on the negatives, but reinforce the athlete’s talent, their mutual goals and how they can attain the next level of performance improvement.
- Values and Team Rules – involves agreeing on a framework and set of rules that encourages the athletes to subjugate their egos and work for each other. The commitment to these values and rules that are enforced by the leadership group often underpins the level of success and more importantly, it’s sustainability.
Not all elements of the sports Model will work for your organisation, Captain – Coach Leadership will give you food for thought on strategies to develop your employees. The winning organization in today’s fast paced world see their people as prized assets, threat them with dignity and respect and give them countless opportunities to maximise their potential.
Testimonials
Right on point, with passion and energy, that’s what we wanted.
Adtrans Corporate
David is sensational, we were well aware of what to expect with him and he was every bit as captivating as we had hoped. Feedback has been outstanding, all involved in both sessions gained a lot out of it; he is inspirational, personable, genuine, astute and an absolute wealth of knowledge. He is also a gentleman and extremely easy to deal with – a great operator in all areas.
South Australian Cricket Association
David was a delight to listen to about his past AFL stories and what is happening in the game at the moment. It was a pleasure to get to know him and we are very thankful that he wanted to come and speak at the ASF Gala Dinner 2017 event. He was very entertaining and we would happily recommend David for any corporate event in hearing about his AFL career, the current challenges the AFL faces, and general life experiences and lessons learnt.
Australian Seed Foundation
Excellent, engaged and connected with the audience immediately.
Ricegrowers Association of Australia
Very well received and nice to just listen to someone without having to follow on a slide show. The fact that he can keep the crowd entertained with nothing else, says a lot about him.
Australasian Promotional Products Association
Absolute inspiration. Take it from a non football person. David's philosophies can be applied in all situations. Work and Personal
VicRoads
Excellent (I would have chosen ‘Superb’ if there was another rating higher!) David’s presentation was quite simply outstanding.
His knowledge and personal experience around authentic and effective leadership, and the drivers of authentic and meaningful leadership were on full display. Our leadership series has now covered eight high profile community leaders from a range of diverse backgrounds and David (along with Dr Brendan Nelson) has clearly been the standout. On reflection, David’s remarkable performance is (in my opinion) is because he’s able to harness his past experiences and years of studies on effective leadership (including the wonderful book which I have already read cover to cover) and bring the subject to life with articulate meaningful stories that everyone (whether you are a footballer or not) can relate to on some level.
David really understood the intent of our series, and his preparation and careful planning around the subject of leadership was apparent to everyone who attended. There has been unprecedented levels of feedback to Graham and myself on the quality of the session. This is reflected in the number of people who are already accessing the online video of David’s session. Word of mouth is that this was a session not to be missed…and that there is much to learn from David’s insights. On a personal note, it’s rare that I am surprised these days…many of the presenters we get in are very good but either miss the brief or cannot connect / relate to the audience’s situation. David’s ability to connect with the audience and fully capture people’s imagination was inspiring. There were times when you could have heard a pin drop…everyone was hanging off the next sentence.
Finally, I was amazed that someone of David’s profile, with his level of success, was so approachable, humble, genuinely warm and giving of himself. I had the pleasure of spending 40 minutes before the session with David talking football and his ability to make others comfortable is a rare skill indeed. Graham had the same impression as did others seeking to meet with him and get a photo after the speech. Nothing was too much trouble…he was happy to talk and engage with individuals who wanted 5 minutes of his time.
I will leave you with the feedback from our CIO. He emailed me to say: “David was awesome!”
Department of Immigration and Border Control
