Legacy: What the All Blacks Can Teach Us About the Business of Life

by James Kerr

First, Honesty ‘In the belly, not the back’ is how Gilbert Enoka describes it – the ability to deliver honest feedback. Owen Eastwood considers it a prerequisite of a peak performing environment: —— The key to strong peer-to-peer interaction is a high level of trust. This is trust in the sense of safe vulnerability. The leaders need to create an environment where individuals get to know each other as people and gather insight into their personal story and working style. This needs to be supported by the leader’s role-modelling behaviour around admission of mistakes and weaknesses and fears . . . This is essential for safe conflict and safe confrontation, where the most important interaction often occurs. ‘I think early on we didn’t deal with losing very well,’ says Anton Oliver. ‘It was very much point the finger, everyone very isolated. That changed a lot as the team became more collective, took the burden of loss equally, shared it.’ ‘I enjoy watching the game together as a team because everything’s out in the open,’ says Andrew Mehrtens. ‘Your missed tackles are out in the open, things you have done well are out in the open . . . Being able to say to another guy and just being matter of fact without it being a personal judgement, “You need to be doing this to help me out with my job.” Or, equally, “What can I do that helps you do your job?”’ If you are able to do that, Mehrtens says, ‘I think you’ve got a good team.’ High-performing teams promote a culture of honesty, a...