Legacy

by James Kerr

The haka reminds us of the inherent fragility of all life. How little time is given to each of us. And how much we still have to do. It reminds us: This is our time. James Kerr

Exceptional success requires exceptional circumstances.

Waiho mā te tangata e mihi. Let someone else praise your virtues.

Successful leaders balance pride with humility: absolute pride in performance; total humility before the magnitude of the task.

The challenge is to always improve, to always get better, even when you are the best. Especially when you are the best.

Two of the senior players – one an international player of the year, twice – each pick up a long-handled broom and begin to sweep the sheds. They brush the mud and the gauze into small piles in the corner. While the country is still watching replays and schoolkids lie in bed dreaming of All Blacks’ glory, the All Blacks themselves are tidying up after themselves. Sweeping the sheds. Doing it properly. So no one else has to. Because no one looks after the All Blacks. The All Blacks look after themselves.

A collection of talented individuals without personal discipline will ultimately and inevitably fail. Character triumphs over talent.

‘What is my job on the planet? What is it that needs doing, that I know something about, that probably won’t happen unless I take responsibility for it?’

Collective character is vital to success. Focus on getting the culture right; the results will follow.

Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is a nightmare.

Our values decide our character. Our character decides our value.

purpose. It is the identity of the team that matters – not so much what the All Blacks do, but who they are, what they stand for, and why they exist.

‘What is my job on the planet? What is it that needs doing, that I know something about, that probably won’t happen unless I take responsibility for it?’ Buckminster Fuller

Waiho kia pātai ana, he kaha ui te kaha. Let the questioning continue; the ability of the person is in asking questions.

A culture of asking and re-asking fundamental questions cuts away unhelpful beliefs in order to achieve clarity of execution. Humility allows us to ask a simple question: how can we do this better?

After all, the better the questions we ask, the better the answers we get.

Humility does not mean weakness, but its opposite. Leaders with mana understand the strength of humility. It allows them to connect with their deepest values and the wider world.

St Augustine said it best: ‘Lay first the foundation of humility . . . The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation.’

Four Stages for Organizational Change: ° A Case for Change; ° A Compelling Picture of the Future; ° A Sustained Capability to Change; ° A Credible Plan to Execute.

Leaders create leaders.

What steps do you need to consider taking so you can prepare for the second curve, without prematurely leaving your current success (on the first curve) behind?

OODA stands for Observe, Orient, Decide and Act. It is quick to apply, and useful for everyday decision-making.

For Boyd, Suvorov and the All Blacks, adaptation is not a reaction, but a systematic series of actions. It isn’t just reacting to what’s happening in the moment, it is being the agent of change. This is achieved through a structured feedback loop – by building the adaptive process into the very way we lead.

He rangi tā Matawhāiti, he rangi tā Matawhānui. The person with a narrow vision sees a narrow horizon, the person with a wide vision sees a wide horizon.

The key insight came from the old warhorse, Brian Lochore. Pondering the strategic objective – to create ‘an environment . . . that would stimulate the players and make them want to take part in it’ – he came up with the six words that would define the efforts of the next eight or so years: —— Better People Make Better All Blacks That is, by developing the individual players and giving them the tools, skills and character that they needed to contribute beyond the rugby field, they would also, in theory, develop the tools, skills and character to contribute more effectively on it.

Leaders connect personal meaning to a higher purpose to create belief and a sense of direction.

‘Being human always points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than oneself,’ he writes. ‘The more one forgets himself – by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love – the more human he is, and the more he actualizes himself.’

‘There’s a rich tradition of players who have had that stewardship,’ says Wayne Smith, ‘to enhance the jersey and pass it on in a better state than what it was when you got it.’ As former All Black Ali Williams puts it, ‘you have to leave the jersey in a better place’. ‘All I was doing,’ says legendary former All Blacks captain Sean Fitzpatrick, ‘was trying to make it a better team to pass on to the next generation. And in saying that,’ he continues, ‘the underlying word would be winning. We have to continue that legacy.’ They have to play a bigger game.

Whāia e koe ki te iti kahurangi; ki te tuohu koe, me he maunga teitei. Seek the treasure you value most dearly; if you bow your head, let it be to a lofty mountain.

Leaders create leaders by passing on responsibility, creating ownership, accountability and trust.

Leaders create leaders. They arm their subordinates with intent. And then step out of the way.

Ki ngā whakaeke haumi. Join those who can join the sections of a canoe. (Look for a leader who can bring people together.)

Excellence is a process of evolution, of cumulative learning, of incremental improvement.

‘Excellent firms don’t believe in excellence,’ wrote Tom Peters in Thriving on Chaos, ‘only in constant improvement and constant change.’ He argues that success is the result of a long-term commitment to improving excellence – the small steps leading to a mighty leap.

Sometime it only takes one encounter – one teacher – to change a life, and many lives after that.

‘What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments,’ to paraphrase the Greek statesman Pericles, ‘but what is woven into the lives of others.’ Your legacy is that which you teach.

Te tīmatanga o te mātauranga ko te wahangū, te wāhanga tuarua ko te whakarongo. The first stage of learning is silence, the second stage is listening.

Fly in formation. Be of one mind. Follow the spearhead.

It’s better to have a thousand enemies outside the tent than one inside the tent.

Kia urupū tātou; kaua e taukumekume. Let us be united, not pulling against one another.

Successful leaders have high internal benchmarks. They set their expectations high and try to exceed them.

In Bruce Chatwin’s book, The Songlines, he explores the Koori (Australian Aboriginal) belief that as young men go walkabout, the words they chant ‘sing their world into existence’. The tribal songs learned on their mother’s laps and the other more sacred songs taught by their fathers in the semi-circles of Corroboree are chanted and hummed as the initiates walk their songlines. With the words they sing come images, new ancient landscapes of their mind’s eye: the dream becoming the reality, the word made world.

Ko te piko o te māhuri, te-rā te tupu o te rākau. The way the sapling is shaped determines how the tree grows.

‘If you’re not growing anywhere, you’re not going anywhere.’

Mantras are the way in which we can tell our story to ourselves; they are tools for effective thinking, a mental roadmap in times of pressure.

Pilots, for instance, have a mantra to help them deal with a deluge of flight data that assails them during a crisis: —— Aviate. Navigate. Communicate. That is, first focus on flying the plane; second, fly the plane in the right direction; third, tell people where you’re flying the plane. It’s a simple, practical process that has saved lives. Its simplicity enables pilots to orient themselves and take the right steps in the right order; providing big-picture perspective and clearly defined steps.

Mā te rongo, ka mōhio; Mā te mōhio, ka mārama; Mā te mārama, ka mātau; Mā te mātau, ka ora. From listening comes knowledge; From knowledge comes understanding; From understanding comes wisdom; From wisdom comes well-being.

‘be resilient and to stand tall and to keep faith and stay strong within yourself’.

‘being genuine, real and true to who you are’. It’s an approach reflected within the All Blacks’ camp.

address, ‘don’t be trapped by dogma . . . And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.’