The England head coach believes he is still maturing in the role at the age of 61, as he explains in Leadership, his new book
Eddie Jones laughs when I ask him if he has ever tried therapy. Turns out I’m not the only one who has suggested it. Jones recently hired a forensic psychiatrist to work with his coaching team on their communication skills. “I don’t have therapy with her,” he says, “but I think sometimes she thinks I should.”
I’m surprised he hasn’t tried. Jones’s new book, Leadership, shows how he roams through conversations with football, cricket, basketball and Australian rules football coaches, multinational chief executives, investment bankers, acting coaches and school teachers looking for every last little nugget that might make him a better coach. Jones is restlessly obsessive about it. If the book has a single line that seems to sum him up, it’s this: “The only reliable advantage we’ve got in life, in business or sport, is to learn faster than the opposition.” He spends a lot of time trying to find the edge that will help him do exactly that.
