Don't just sack the Coach

It’s not just Santa who’s got the sack, ‘tis also the season for sacking coaches.?Both Wales and England have decided, with the Rugby World Cup only nine months away, that now is the time to ditch their coach.?In the recent series of international matches, neither coach produced the results that were expected; and, more importantly, neither created styles of playing that looked cohesive, settled, and built for future success.?And so they were shown the door.

In the world of business leadership, team-building, and management, the two most frequent areas of comparison tend to be the military and sport.?I know next to nothing of military matters, and little about most sports.?I do, however, follow rugby union obsessively, watching many matches per week, following various analysts, and taking an in-depth interest in all developments.?But rather than go into any detail I thought that I’d offer instead some more strategic observations.

-?????????Focusing on the role of the coach can sometimes be counter-productive.?Of course, they pick the team, establish the style and structure of play, and, most importantly, establish the culture both on and off the field.?But they don’t do it alone.?Or, rather, they shouldn’t.? And this is where the Chairman and Board come in.?It’s they who need to ensure that the whole environment is correctly set, with the right support staff and the right resources.?Coaches, like CEOs, also need managing and directing.?

-?????????It is important to be clear about objectives, targets, and results.?The England coach, Eddie Jones, said consistently that the only objective that mattered to him was winning the World Cup.?All his targets were predicated against that goal.?For him games along the way were merely opportunities to learn and experiment and the results, he felt, were immaterial. It was a classic example of long-term versus short-term goals.

-?????????Communication is vital.?Clearly somewhere along the way the previously agreed single-minded focus on one objective slipped.?Repetition of clear, coherent, and consistent agreed messages can help keep people moving in the same direction.?

-?????????Be realistic.?In the case of the Welsh team, the coach had ideas and ambitions for a style of play for which his players weren’t suited.?In business, it’s important to be clear about the realities of the current state before jumping too quickly to the desired state.?It may be a cliché, but what got you here won’t necessarily get you there.?Investing in people development and capabilities takes time.

-?????????International rugby is the very visible tip of the iceberg.?Elite sports may take the limelight but they’re built on professional teams, pro-am teams, and amateur grassroots.?As with business, it is easy to focus only on the top and ignore the foundations.?But without strong and healthy foundations nothing lasting can be built.

-?????????It’s always about more than one person.?We instinctively know that to be the case, but we always forget it.?We focus on the CEO and forget the role of executive team and the board.?We focus on the Prime Minister and forget the rest of the cabinet.?Of course, the leaders set the standards but without healthy, working relationships there can be no performance on the field of play.

Finally, in sports there’s always the other teams, and in business there’s always the competitors. So it’s important to focus on the whole picture and not just your own performance.?As the late, great England football coach Bobby Robson once said: “We didn’t underestimate them.?They were a lot better than we thought.”