Winning Teams Have Lots of Leaders — Just Ask the All Blacks
From the Voices on Project Management Blog
by Cameron McGaughy,
Lynda Bourne, Kevin Korterud, Peter Tarhanidis, Conrado Morlan, Jen Skrabak, Mario Trentim, Christian Bisson, Yasmina Khelifi, Sree Rao, Soma Bhattacharya, Emily Luijbregts, David Wakeman, Ramiro Rodrigues, Wanda Curlee, Lenka Pincot, cyndee miller, Jorge Martin Valdes Garciatorres, Marat Oyvetsky
Voices on Project Management offers insights, tips, advice and personal stories from project managers in different regions and industries. The goal is to get you thinking, and spark a discussion. So, if you read something that you agree with--or even disagree with--leave a comment.
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Date
By Cyndee Miller
I’m not exactly into rugby. Okay, reality check: I’ve never watched a rugby game in my life. Never even been tempted.
But author and congress closing speaker James Kerr made me think I’ve been missing out all these years. Sure, I’d heard of New Zealand’s legendary All Blacks national rugby team. And their pre-match ritual haka is truly a sight to behold. (Note to project managers: Now, that’s how you start a project.)
But what I hadn’t realized is that the All Blacks are a true case study in exceptional team performance. The team has won about 75 percent of all the games it played for more than 100 years. And it’s been ranked number 1 in world rugby rankings longer than all other teams combined.
That’s world-class success. It’s what every organization and project leader dreams of but few achieve.
And yes, part of it comes down to raw talent. You have to be very good to join the All Blacks.
But that’s not enough. Ultimately, victory isn’t about specific skills or an inspiring team leader. It’s about building a mission-driven culture that inspires every player to carry the winning legacy of the team further by constantly pushing themselves.
“It’s the soft stuff that delivers the hard stuff.” said Kerr, author of Legacy: What the All Blacks Can Teach Us About the Business of Life.
To write his book, Kerr was granted unprecedented access to the team. The lessons he walked away with are simple and powerful — and give practitioners a recipe for building killer teams.
It starts with a purpose-driven culture based on humility, pursuit of excellence and respect, Kerr said.
“No one is entitled to their place in the team. They have to earn it every day,” he said. “That’s important to a high-performing team. Earn your badge.”
The team culture also blows up the idea of having only one leader. Dependency can breed complacency, which leads to defeat. So the All Blacks coaches rely on one captain, but 15 leaders.
The idea is to “take people from dependence, the idea that someone else will take care of it, to independence—the idea that I will take care of it,” Kerr said.
All Blacks players don’t just take orders. “People don’t follow leaders, they follow a vision that is in their own minds. People will rise to a challenge as long as it’s their challenge.”
Beyond the immediate goals of winning a game or a championship, the team’s culture of responsibility and accountability cultivates long-term resiliency. “Leaders are creating leaders,” Kerr said.
And all team members are trained to embrace expectations: “Aim for the highest cloud, because even if you come up short, you’ll hit a lofty mountain.”
That’s fine advice for any team. I just never knew it would come from a bunch of rugby players.
That’s it for this year’s coverage of PMI Global Congress — EMEA. I’m headed off to check out another great London project, the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the V&A museum. But worry not, there’ll be more blogging, including from next year’s EMEA event slated for 9-11 May in Barcelona, Spain. Hasta la vista.
Posted
by
cyndee miller
on: May 15, 2015 01:53 PM |
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Sabedin Meha
System Design Engineer| DataProgNet
Ferizaj, Kosove, Albania
The idea is to “take people from dependence, the idea that someone else will take care of it, to independence—the idea that I will take care of it,”
I wish I could work with a team like this
It is stated that "All Blacks players do not take orders. People do not follow leaders, people follow a vision that is in their own minds."
It is also stated that "leaders are creating leaders". Team''s culture of responsibility and accountability cultivates long term resiliency.
It is not clear whether "captain" is considered as leader or coach is considered as leader". As All blacks do not follow leader.
Whom or what do they follow?
How the alignment is achieved with respect to strategy and tactics?
Who sets the strategy and tactics?
Tactics need to be improvised or revised or updated depending the latest development in order to achieve the objective. Who does this job/role?
What is the guarantee more than one All black team member not vying to do the same task/role?
Who decides which team member has the requisite skill, resiliency or emotional intelligence?
There is no doubt that "nobody should take their place for granted and has to earn it.
At the same time, who decides impartially where the team should in short term or in long term?
Who decides which member's skill should be improved in order to achieve the objective of the team?
Team objective need not be aligned with the expectations or aim or goal of a team member leading to unnecessary conflict and waste of resources..
Best situation is each team member should impartially be aware of his or her strengths, weaknesses and how he or she can complement within the team to realize the team objective. Further one should know when one should be in the front and when one should take a back seat.
Also remember two heads is more than one head in resolving issues.
There should be combination of dependence and independence. Whenever a team member performs/contributes, his contribution to achieving the result is undisputed.
This is akin to zoom in and zoom out as well as big picture vs small picture need
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