Whew, what a great start to the day! Way to get the heart pumping and a spring in your step!
I wrote this article last week, just knowing they were going to win today – I have a lot of faith in our national teams, ha! Have a read about what lessons you can learn from the All Blacks on how to be successful and world class – wahoo!
All Blacks team spirit
A lot has been said as to why the All Blacks are the most successful elite sports team in the world, and so what I enjoy the most – apart from watching the games – is observing why the team is so good.
There are many lessons to be learned in the All Blacks’ success which can be applied in your own business. Here is my take on it:-
The All Blacks set the highest possible goals and break them down into manageable mini-goals.
Winning the Rugby World Cup is the ultimate goal, and they literally are working to a plan to improve every single week over a 4-year period.
I imagine that weekly, the team management group have a discussion saying “are we getting a little bit closer to our ultimate goal?”
There is probably accountability to make those little steps forward over 208 weeks, enabling some major progress, and ensuring the best chance for the ultimate success.
As Diane Foreman mentioned in her book, if you review your goals regularly and check your progress, you are going to have so much higher a chance of getting there.
Do you measure your progress weekly? The best businesses do, and then react or pat on the back. Remember, the All Blacks have set goals for each individual too, and their progress is monitored towards hitting individual goals. How good is your business at setting goals at an individual level, not just at a company level and monitoring real progress and performance levels here?
Yes, the best rugby team in the world is very “blessed” with having a lot of resources to allow it to review what has happened during a game.
But what that process gives them is total knowledge of what they are doing well and what they need to improve on.
They know that if they do not improve and fix weaknesses, they will no longer be the best in the world.
What is the system in your business to proactively identify what is not “perfect”? Too many companies do not look at what is bubbling away under the surface and then it is often too late to get on the front foot and bad things happen.
A classic in business is customer retention – how good are you at knowing how your customers truly feel and who is at risk? It is a great thing to know what is happening, but then you need to make sure that you actually do something about it if you want to be the best.
Innovation is one of the cornerstones of the All Blacks dominance.
Hopefully, something innovative was demonstrated, not just at game-time, but also in the approach to leadership, sharing responsibility, growing the core leadership team and in training.
The most successful companies in the world these days, such as Apple, Samsung and Google are incredibly innovative in their approach to turn customers into raving fans. How would you rate your own company, and even your immediate team, in being innovative to make sure your company is around and the best of the best in 5 years? Evolve or ouch…
Something I really like about the All Blacks and the surrounding culture is how open it appears to be.
A core value I believe in is to “remember that everyone counts and makes a difference”. This means that whether you are the newest kid on the block or the most experienced, everybody has good ideas.
The job of a good leader is to ensure there is an open culture to enable communication of ideas from everybody within the team.
The newest person needs to be able to share their ideas proactively. Then you as the leader need to prioritise such ideas and focus on the ones that will make the most difference to you being successful, no matter who thought of them.
There are many other reasons why the All Blacks have been so successful. Think about them and see if they are applicable to you in your business, team and job. What a great team they are, “team” being the operative word. A happy and accountable team means the best chance of success. All rounded out by fair and wise leadership.
Zac de Silva is an award-winning business coach who owns www.businesschanging.com and www.accme.co where you can sign up for regular business-thinking questions. He is co-founder of www.nurturechange.com the Fiji business retreat November 11–15, 2015.
– Sunday Star Times – published on November 1, 2015. Read it online here.
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