Craig Lewis

Sport Psychologist and Performance Coach who believes in balancing life - personal and business.

Craig was previously Performance Coach to the New Zealand Kiwis rugby league team and played a critical role in assisting the team to break a forty-six year old Sydney losing streak in the 2006 Gillette Tri-Series of Rugby League, when the Kiwis defied the odds and predictions by claiming victory over Australia.

Craig Lewis holds a post-graduate qualification from the University of Western Australia. He has been Performance Coach to a large number of New Zealand athletes, including the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympic Games team. He was the inaugural director of the New Zealand Squash Institute and has been Performance Coach to national champions, world champions and world record holders.

Prior to that, Craig has been Performance Coach to the Commonwealth Games silver medal winning New Zealand men’s hockey team and Football Operations Manager to the Football Kingz. Throughout 2003/2004, Craig played a critical role in assisting New Zealand triathlete, Jo Lawn to initially secure her break-through victory at the Carlton Gold New Zealand Ironman Championship, a feat she repeated in 2004 and 2005. He also mentors New Zealand Commonwealth Games squash representative Louise Crome, whom he guided to finals in the World Squash Doubles championship as well as the New Zealand national championship.

As a consequence of his formal training in performance issues and his fifteen years on international sporting circuits, Craig has acquired a highly developed systems thinking approach to coincide with his leadership positions at the UDC Finance Squash Institute, Quality Finance Ltd, Sport Life New Zealand Ltd and the Health and Wellness Institute Ltd. He was also a member of the four-man Board of Management for the Rebel Sport Auckland basketball team who achieved unparalleled success throughout the mid-to-late 1990’s, and was a contributing author to Lynn Kidman’s internationally acclaimed book, Developing Decision Makers: An Empowerment Approach to Coaching.

Craig is gaining significant acclaim for his Systems Thinking and Small Business Management program, a comprehensive mentoring program designed to enhance operational systems and promote ownership in the workplace, with a view to maximising productivity. He has been a regular contributor to Business to Business, and the source of leading editorial pertaining to corporate goal-setting practices and personal development strategies in The New Zealand Herald. He is frequently asked to provide comment in both the print and television media.

Presentations:

Topics:
• The Power of Ownership
• Motivation
• Coaching for Performance
• Mentoring
• Work/Life balance
• Leadership
• “Think Big” – lessons from the coalface of sport.
• Kaizen Kiwis
• The Limits of the Possible