When Richie McCaw announced his retirement from Rugby today it was in the same matter of fact and calm way in which he has led the world of rugby for what seems like forever.
I didn’t think I would but I felt quite sad. He’s become so intertwined with the All Blacks that even when he wasn’t on the field, somehow we knew he was there. It feels like a loss.
His leadership has been remarkable – from the front, never giving up, calm and resolute in the face of incredible aggravation, determined – the best role model you could ever hope for.
I said a couple of years ago to someone “you know, we’re in a golden era of Rugby right now”. And we were, and I hope we still are!
It’s been an amazing ride to be on and I didn’t realise until today quite how important McCaw has been to my own enjoyment of the game. He didn’t just sneak the ball out of the ruck. He sneakily led us all along on a great journey with a climatic end at Twickenham. I was very honoured to see the All Blacks play a few weeks earlier at Olympic Stadium in London. I’m very glad I did, especially now.
Thank you is what to say to Richie McCaw. Every leader can take so much from you, including things we don’t even understand yet, but the results of your leadership are there for us all to revel in. Achievements that will go down in history. And the best Rugby ever!
The Taupo Great Lake Relay is a 155 kilometre running relay. There’s 18 legs (and aching legs at the end) with hills up and down, flats, dangerous cliff runs, heat, exhaustion, pulled muscles and lots of fun. When our work team went over the finish line the DJ said we’d been supporting the event for at least twelve years.
Lake Taupo is big – you need a team to get all the way round.
I don’t think that there was anybody there from that first team – in fact every year the team is different, but for the three years I’ve participated, I’ve felt the same enthusiasm, connection and commitment.
I’ve run plenty of team building and development sessions and one of the issues which always comes up is “what do we do now that Sarah has gone?”, or Lance has joined?
Should we start all over again and do a new charter, vision and values or what? And what of the cynics who say that the team building is artificial anyway and not necessarily relevant to the work?
A event like the relay this weekend teaches us quite a bit about the process of team building.
You need a goal. All members have a role and if you remember the goal, you should find that part to play that suits – no passengers on board. Flexibility is important – a support person took a leg of the relay today on account of an injury – perfect! it doesn’t matter if you haven’t been there before – others have, go with the flow but new ideas are welcome and expected.
I bet if someone from the team twelve years ago had come along and checked us out, it would be much the same experience that they had all those years ago.
They’d be welcome, just like the newbies were today, and we’d find a role no doubt.
So if you’re new to the team, watch, think about the purpose but get in a do something for the team. Before you know it you’ll realise you are the team. That’s team building.
My favourite All Black and one who has usually not failed to provide success for me in the “score a try” bet is Mils Muliaina. It seemed like half the country were concerned about who the number 15 should be and how obvious to everyone that it had to be the new younger Israel Dagg and not the vastly experienced but apparently aging Mils (oh to be 31!). Check him out here on the All Blacks site – his rugby career is truly impressive. You’ll also learn that his real name is Malili.
When All Black coach Graham Henry selected Dagg ahead of Mils he described it as one of the hardest and most emotional decisions of his coaching career. Henry has been involved through much of Mils’ first class career and in that moment we caught a glimpse of tenderness and compassion in leadership, so often put to one side. After all this is Rugby,
The photo here catches the mood perfectly. It shows the wonderful leadership relationship between an older mentor and a younger high performing and deeply respectful mentee. I can feel the pain for them both.
Mils for his part (I hope no-one minds me calling him by his first name even though I’ve never met him) said that all he wanted is for the All Blacks to win. He would happily do that from the field, the bench or the stands. Amazing maturity and team commitment.
Whether he gets to 100 test caps or not, he’s an inspiration for leaders and teams everywhere. And Henry, for showing his tenderness showed why you never ever hear of dissention in the All Blacks these days. Honest, caring and driven. That’s a recipe for success. We saw that all come together with the best rugby skills on the planet on Saturday.
The real work is ensuring we make more money. That’s what the shareholders want and so we need to work hard, grow, and put energy into developing smarter ways to do business to, yes make more money. This is a reality of the context of many in business.
So when we talk authenticity it’s tempting to think that it’s nice, we’ll feel better, but in the end we’ll have the real work to do. I agree that you can push on, focussing only on pushing the business and you will most likely achieve some impressive results. You probably know people that do that. Or maybe you are one of those people. Maybe you admire those people – the high achievers, hard-hitters that take no prisoners. Maybe you secretly wish you were like that.
When I open a Leadership Forum in Wellington next month during Leadership Week
Leading to grow can feel like not working at times
I will talk about authenticity and business results. I will challenge that if you look at the hard-hitting leader – the hard driver – you’ll likely notice one of two things: they move on or people around them move on. The leader who survives by pushing hard will have to keep pushing hard. Inevitably, pushing harder and harder becomes necessary until the next project. Which pretty well sums it up. A project.
The authentic leader pushes hard too. He or she knows when to drive forward in moments of crisis, when there are challenging changes to put in place. The authentic leader is not just running a driving leadership academy though.
The authentic leader leads from a place of understanding self, appreciating strengths and recognising that there will be strengths in his or her team that will form the bigger part of what they need to achieve. Not just what he or she has. So within that team there will be other leaders who will drive what needs to be driven at different times and when needed. A team from which will come leaders of tomorrow. A collective too, of IQ and EQ that has exponential capability beyond the numbers.
Are you the leader who only drives hard to achieve what needs to be achieved? Like a project manager. Or are you leading others authentically who will collectively drive the business results?
What will you choose? Both can work, we know that. Both will probably be remembered too. Will you be remembered for the things you created or for the people who grew to create more than you could?
I say do what is right for you and your circumstance, but don’t pretend. Either that it’s authentic leadership to drive without trust or be authentic while thinking that it’s just nice, but not real. It’s real alright. Real hard and risky.
Yes, authentic leadership is risky. You’ll likely be thought of as soft and not business-like. At first. Strange that – taking a significant business and personal risk but being thought of as soft. No way!
Stephen Drain's Leadership Blog 