Don't be a Dickhead

In his book Legacy, the author James Kerr delves into the inner workings of the All Blacks and what has made them one of the most successful sports teams on the planet. He highlights a number of the All Blacks core values, one of them being The No Dickheads Rule. This rule is all about being a good buggar and not doing what dickheads do. For the All Blacks, this rule is team-governing in that it's the players themselves that keep each other accountable and decide who gets ousted based on dickhead behaviours. 

I love The No Dickheads Rule and I believe that it applies as much to the leaders as it does to the players, perhaps even more so. As a leader, your actions and attitudes are amplified throughout the team. If you're a dickhead as a leader, you give everyone in the team permission to be dickheads, too. It’s all in what you say and what you do, as the diagram below highlights.

Figure 1: Be a Good Buggar.

Obviously, you’re a dickhead if you say and do bad things. Likewise, if you talk the talk and say good things, but you don’t back it up with positive action, you’re a dickhead. But even if you do good things, you can still be a dickhead and undo all of your good deeds if you say something stupid. To be a Good Buggar, you have to say and do good things. 

Being a leader is a big job that requires you to play a bigger game. One bad word or deed (or tweet) and you can find yourself in the dickhead zone.  If you are leader, here's a good question to ask yourself, "Am I being the example that I want my team to follow?"

Onwards and upwards!

Mark Windust is an influential Thought Leader in the areas of Sales, Strategy and Leadership. Since launching his consulting practice in 2007, Mark has worked with 1000's of business leaders, salespeople and entrepreneurs’ to help them transform their sales results.