Helping footballers succeed on and off the pitch
Insights partners with Jamie Vardy and the V9 Academy
The V9 Academy is the brainchild of England International and Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy. Vardy aims to discover non-league talent and promote them to the professional game, while ensuring they understand what it takes to play at the top level.
Vardy and Insights are partnering to ensure everyone who goes through the V9 Academy has access to Insights Discovery. In order to maximise results, players and coaching staff also have an Insights Discovery experience.
Insights provides people development solutions that help companies all over the world get the very best from their people. We use a simple and accessible model of personality type based on the work of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung and a broad range of psychometric models of increasing depth.
Insights creates more effective teams by helping people better understand themselves and others, communicate with impact through the framework of a common language and tackle pressing business challenges, putting people right at the heart of solving issues.
Our work is founded in the notion that personal breakthroughs lead to business breakthroughs, enabling increased innovation, creativity and productivity.
During a five-day residential programme, 42 players were evaluated on and off the pitch in search of the next Jamie Vardy. For everyone involved, this was a week of intense competition and huge pressure, with only a small proportion of players likely to be successful in obtaining a full-time professional contract (as small as 5%).
On the first night of the programme, Insights delivered a workshop for all 42 players and eight coaches. The workshop was based around self-awareness and the importance of recognising differences in a positive way.
Watch our video to see the positive impact Insights delivered for V9.
Insights aimed to achieve the following outcomes as part of the first day session;
Enhanced self-awareness
Accelerated relationships and bonds between teammates and coaches
A growth mindset about how to approach the challenges of the week
Appreciation of importance of teamwork and cohesion in sport
A final - but very important - outcome for us was that all players, irrespective of obtaining a professional contract or not, would benefit from the increased self-awareness and awareness of other personality preferences that Insights Discovery offers. We wanted to help the young players be the best version of themselves, whether they become footballers or not.
It was evident that Insights had surpassed the expectations of both staff and players. It was also clear that it helped bring everyone together to foster high performing teams, improved communication and enhanced relationships.
Following the session, Insights engaged in interviews with players and coaches to gauge the impact of the session and their expectation of what they will apply during the week and beyond.
Insights Discovery connects people together in a more inclusive, thoughtful and empathetic way that allows bridges to be built. It increases understanding of different people in different scenarios and allows us to gel and become a cohesive unit.Lee Tucker, Head of Recruitment
Anything that can give you an extra percent in a competitive sport is very important, and there’s no doubt that (Insights Discovery) can do that, because it gets you to know yourself a little more and get to know your team-mates a lot more.Curtis Fleming, V9 Coach
As a player it’s always a lot easier to listen to someone talk about our strengths rather than weaknesses. Insights helped break down the barriers: the word weakness doesn’t mean you’re not good, it’s just an area where you can become better.Alan Stubbs, V9 Coach
In getting Insights involved, which we’d done with England, it’s interesting to see exactly what type of person you are, who your opposite type might be and it’s surprising how accurate it was. It’s helped me realise exactly what I’m here for now.
Jamie Vardy
Leicester City and England Footballer