It’s Friday, June 16th – for anyone with an interest in sport, an auspicious day. The start of the Ashes. Will we see a repeat of England’s famous win in 2005? Or will it be another drubbing? Australia looks ominously strong…
This week though, I’m deserting the forward defensive (showing my age there…) and the ramp in favour of the ruck and maul and making the short hop of 11,337 miles from Edgbaston to Eden Park in Auckland.
Why? Because Eden Park is one of the grounds where the All Blacks play their home games – and this week, I’ve been reading Legacy: 15 Lessons in Leadership. Simply put, what the All Blacks ‘can teach us about the business of life.’
And being successful…
Throughout this blog, I’ve often drawn parallels between sports and business. In my experience, no sport is better for that than rugby. In cricket, one inspired spell can change a game: in football, a wonder goal…
One or two outstanding players can dominate school and junior rugby matches: but by the time you reach the international level, they’re all outstanding. It’s a team game – and no team has been more successful than the All Blacks.
So – like the elusive scrum-half I was – I’ve weaved in and out of the book, picking out the highlights and hopefully drawing parallels with the business world.
Let’s start with a fundamental truth. No one is bigger than the team – a collection of talented individuals without personal discipline will ultimately and inevitably fail.’ The same is true in business – substitute ‘leadership and vision’ for ‘personal discipline’, and the sentence makes perfect sense. However talented your team is, if there is no one to bring them together to give direction and goals, the business will ultimately not succeed.
But the job of a real leader is bigger than that. It’s also about character. Yes, a leader’s job is to lead. It’s to set out the vision and say, ‘Follow me.’ But it also shows you’re not too big to do the small things. In the All Blacks’ philosophy ‘to sweep the sheds:’ leave the changing rooms as they found them, even after the biggest wins. The arithmetic is simple: performance = capability + behaviour. In sports, in business, and in life.
Possibly my favourite section of the book might have the definitive word on building a team – and I know at least one TAB franchisee who’ll be vigorously nodding his head. Whanau: it translates simply as ‘no dickheads.’ They don’t want prima-donnas, however talented. It’s a team game with one simple goal. How many times have we seen it in other sports? ‘He’s tough to manage, but he’s indispensable.’ Then suddenly, he’s injured – and the team is better and more successful. That’s the measure of leadership: is the whole greater than the sum of its parts? In every successful business I’ve seen, the answer is a resounding ‘yes.’
Marginal gains. If I had a pound for every time I’ve mentioned marginal gains… I could probably buy a new driver. Sadly an area of my golf game where marginal rough is more appropriate than marginal gains…
But whether it is Dave Brailsford – mentioned so often that I won’t even post a link – the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen, or the All Blacks’ relentless drive to improve (Kiwi Kaizen?), the underlying message is the same. The aggregate result of many small changes can be staggering: it can transform your life and your business – and your bottom line.
Pressure. We’ve all faced pressure, and we’ve all made mistakes under pressure. ‘Embrace it, control it’, say the All Blacks – above all, switch from your result-orientated, aggressive, anxious ‘red head’ to your calm, clear, accurate ‘blue head.’ Alternatively, don’t deal with problems on your own (redhead): bring them to a TAB board meeting, where you’ll benefit from not one but half a dozen blueheads. And not a whanau amongst them…
The book has one simple, overarching message. Do the right thing: it’s been a recurrent theme throughout this blog and in the book. It’s not what the All Blacks do; it’s who they are and what they stand for. I believe that if your core values are right – in business and life – then the results will inevitably follow. It sounds too simple – almost a cliché – but in my experience, it is always true.
No blog post or article about the All Blacks is complete without a mention of Colin Meads, the legendary sheep farmer, lock forward and skipper of the team who – so the story has it – trained by putting a sheep under each arm and running up a mountain. Fifty quid a month for a gym membership? I can be in the Dales by this afternoon…