Legacy

by James Kerr

Exceptional success requires exceptional circumstances.

SWEEP THE SHEDS Never be too big to do the small things that need to be done

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.

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.

the ‘Lombardi Model’, which began with a simple statement: —— Only by knowing yourself can you become an effective leader.

From self-knowledge, Lombardi believed, we develop character and integrity. And from character and integrity comes leadership.

he would sit his team down in their locker room and, for a long time – for a very long time – they would learn how to put on their socks:

Create the highest possible operating standards, develop the character of your players, develop the culture of your team and, as the title of Walsh’s book proclaims, The Score Takes Care of Itself.

‘Because the question is usually not how well each person performs, but how well they work together.’

Performance = Capability + Behaviour

‘Leaders create the right environment for the right behaviours to occur,’

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

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

‘What is the All Blacks’ competitive advantage?’, key is the ability to manage their culture and central narrative by attaching the players’ personal meaning to a higher purpose.

‘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?’

Your role is to leave the jersey in a better place. The humility, expectation and responsibility that this brings lifts their game. It makes them the best in the world.

This management technique – which begins with questions – is of the ‘Socratic Method’, so called because Socrates used a type of interrogation to separate his pupils from their prejudices. The goal? To help them find self-knowledge, even if the truth turns out to be uncomfortable.

No one person has all the answers, but asking questions challenges the status quo, helps connect with core values and beliefs, and is a catalyst for individual improvement.

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.

Humility begins at the level of interpersonal communication, enabling an interrogative, highly facilitated learning environment in which no one has all the answers.

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.

A winning organization is an environment of personal and professional development, in which each individual takes responsibility and shares ownership.

Like most things in nature, cultures are subject to a more cyclical process, of ebb and flow, growth and decline. According to Charles Handy (in The Empty Raincoat), this cycle has three distinct phases: Learning, Growth and Decline.

In the Learning Phase, we often experience dips in actual performance as we feel our way through the unfamiliar.

Then once the learning has become embedded and momentum builds, so growth accelerates. This is the Growth Phase. Rewards follow. Praise and blandishments too.

The Decline Phase hits us much like the early twinges of arthritis in a middle-aged person.

kaizan, the Japanese notion of continuous improvement.

The military have an acronym: VUCA: Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. VUCA describes a world prone to sudden change, unknown consequence and complex, shifting interrelationships; one that is difficult to decipher, impossible to predict.

‘To maintain an accurate or effective grasp of reality,’ he argued, ‘one must undergo a continuous cycle of interaction with the environment to assess its constant changes.’

His answer was the Decision Cycle or OODA Loop. OODA stands for Observe, Orient, Decide and Act. It is quick to apply, and useful for everyday decision-making.

‘It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.’ Charles Darwin

How does this work in practice? Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, talks about 100-day plans: —— Getting started is deceptively simple. First list around 10 things you need to achieve over the next 100 days. Start each plan with an Action Verb and use no more than 3 words each. Make sure each action is measurable and that each one is a stretch. You’ll know when something is a real stretch and when you’re just creating a list with things you can tick off. Review your list every Friday morning. When the 100 Days comes round, the goal is to have each item checked off. All you need to do then is get a sheet of A4 paper and get started.

Go for the Gap Momentum swings faster than we think. One moment we’re on top of the world, the next falling off the other side.

The person with a narrow vision sees a narrow horizon, the person with a wide vision sees a wide horizon.

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.

‘The emotional glue of any culture – religion, nation or team – is its sense of identity and purpose,’

What we identify with are the ‘things we recognize as important to ourselves – to our deepest values . . . this kind of meaning has the emotional power to shape behaviour’.

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

‘Humans, by their nature, seek purpose – a cause greater and more enduring than themselves.’ The most convincing arguments for his theories are the simplest to understand: ‘We leave well paying jobs for purpose-driven ones.’ ‘We volunteer.’ ‘We have children!’

‘Hawthorne Effect’, the idea that emotional reward is more important than material compensation. That intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation rules the world.

‘Hierarchy of Needs’. Maslow thought that, once beyond the satisfaction and security of your basic needs – safety, food, water, shelter, warmth, comfort – you are no longer driven by purely extrinsic motivations

The first, a sense of belonging and love;

‘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.’

the ‘extra dimension’ – a guiding philosophy that consists of core values and a core purpose beyond just making money.

‘Emotion leads to action.’ If you want higher performance, begin with a higher purpose.

‘people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it’.

He argues that inspired leaders and organizations, regardless of their size and industry, all think, act and communicate from the ‘inside out.’

‘He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.’ It’s at the core of the vision and value-based mindset.