Mr Jones and I

I’ve got a new man in my life…

Well, I feel like I have met Mr Jones – Eddie Jones, that is, the England rugby union head coach.

This may sound slightly random. Yet as I embarked on my very late summer holiday at the end of November, I thought it'd be the perfect time to get stuck into a book. And there was only one on my list...

Eddie's autobiography, My Life In Rugby, is fantastic. His views and values resonated with me. His insights into life and people management are as relevant to the world of the business as getting 15 men to perform at their best on the rugby field. So much so, I thought I’d share a few highlights.  

1.      He allowed his players to define their team ethos. Instead of directing his teams to think a certain way, Eddie Jones allowed them to create their own set of values and delve into their own identity. I can’t help but think this should be a given in business as well as sport. If we don’t listen to what our team thinks about the collective ethos and culture, the core roots of what we’re building, then it will ultimately be built on false foundations. Players and employees all need to live and breathe the culture, which is true when it comes to boosting your brand and awareness. It’s vital, and it’s not that difficult to encourage. It might be time-consuming but the results are worth the wait.

2.      The older you get, the less you know. We might think we all get older and wise but if we have this pre-conception, how will we ever learn anything new? My (unbeknownst to him) new best friend, Mr Jones, says: ‘If you ask questions and listen with humility, you will learn something.’ We need to stay interested in people, listen to their stories and make this a wonderful way to find pieces to life’s puzzle. At Ennis & Co, where a quarter of the team are in the 20s or younger, a lot of ‘reverse-mentoring’ goes on. They are constantly teaching me things I don’t know. My latest lesson has been about the surge in vegetarian and vegan diets. I even know what ‘flexitarian’ means.

3.      Sport is a cruel business. Recruitment can be a cruel business, too. Let’s not wear rose-tinted glasses – business is often about periods of pain. Yet it’s the little ‘glory’ glimmering within the sobering stress of real life that supresses the negative. In sport, it’s about overcoming the often deafening noise of a pessimistic media and going on to win that ‘unwinnable’ game in the face of adversity. In business, it’s about turning around a bad week or month, or even remaining resilient through turbulent times for a whole financial year. It’s the positive comments, acknowledgements and actions from the right people that truly outshine the bad. It’s the recognition of those sticking with you through the bad times, as well as the good, that have the biggest impact. As they say – today’s news is tomorrow’s fish and chips paper. Or vegan wrap paper. Whatever works for you.

4.      Smells like team spirit. Eddie’s eagle eye or ‘sixth sense’ helped him to pick up on morale. At this year’s World Cup in Japan, he took to ‘reviving camaraderie’ within the team through collective activities that had been lost under the players’ previous coach. He also ignited a fire in their game play; creating a more attack-focused strategy and increasing the level of training to facilitate this. Laziness was a thing of the past. Energy became the new plan for the future. This is so relevant to the business world. Building strong team camaraderie is crucial in creating a positive energy. Embedding team activities into the company culture can create a real buzz and, hopefully, they become something employees really look forward to.

5.      Life is a learning curve. Eddie knows he still has a lot to learn, despite his incredibly impressive sporting CV. His very words are: “Stay humble and curious and use every minute of every day to improve your attitude, your skills and your contribution. It’s the only way to stay relevant and have a constant impact.” How true this rings when it comes to business. Personally, I have learned so much this year – especially in area of diversity and inclusion. It’s a subject I’ve always been passionate about but my eyes have been well and truly opened by our ‘Driving Diversity’ project, which looked at what individual organisations in the automotive sector are doing to promote D&I in their workplace cultures. It was fascinating to learn about the amazing initiatives companies are delivering to attract and retain talent – and to know that there is still more to learn in this fast-evolving field.

We’re all on a journey. We’re all trying to think strategically and tactically – but what if we simplified it? If we whittle our targets down, then we’ll sharpen the focus. That’s what Eddie Jones did. He created achievable targets to sharpen the ‘physicality and mentality that the team will need on match day.’ That’s a lesson I’d happily continue to learn in the ever-changing automotive industry.

6.      Complacency is a killer. Some people don’t want to change, but the best things can come from those who have the courage to better themselves. It’s a challenge to keep ahead of the curve and instil energy in a fast-paced environment – but that’s the kind of task that some people relish. I am one of those people!

Eddie Jones says he embraced the challenge of rebooting the England team through complex problem-solving in a high-pressure environment. It was the kind of thing that made him ‘get out of bed in the morning’. He felt that if the mood around the team was too relaxed, it required some kind of disturbance. His philosophy involves subverting the status quo and shaking complacency. He wants to constantly challenge people to improve and to think for themselves.

This resonates with me so much. If people are continually being told they’re doing a good job, if the feedback is all positive, it is not only unrealistic but creates a false environment with no room for improvement. There’s no edge. There’s no striving to be better. I think we need to be honest with each other. If we point something out and say ‘actually, this could be done better’, then there’s room for new levels of thinking about solving that problem. Of course, not everyone is going to like it, but they’ll certainly learn from it.

7.      Mistakes will be made. We all make mistakes. We’re human and it’s a part of life people, even if we sometimes don’t like to own up to our errors. Yet it’s a part of life where real turning points often result. If we travel back in time to our school days, we learned that if we made a mistake, we’d have to correct it. So why are we so scared to make mistakes as adults?

I think in the areas of sport and business, this crosses over monumentally. Athletes want to strive for perfection but if perfection was the case, they’d never be able to ‘up their game’ in other ways. If everything stayed the same, tactically, and the opposing team had a killer formation or type of game play built on their trial and errors, who would be most likely to succeed?

The same concept can be said for business. Clearly, managers don’t want mistakes to be made – but they know there will be a few along the way. What they want to know is what happens next. Will the person making the mistake own up to it? How will they handle it? Did they find a solution and carry it through well enough to resolve the mistake? Those that hold their hands up when the mistake has been made and admit they’re wrong will command the first level of respect. The next levels are based on how they deal with it.

People can often fall into a trap of being scared to answer a question in case they make a mistake. Or to suggest something outlandish because they might be ridiculed. Yet aren’t the most interesting and influential people often a little bit crazy? Don’t they make mistakes? I think Albert Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk might agree.

I’m not often star struck or a great lover of reading ‘self-help’ books to re-shape my life… but sometimes, you read something, or hear something, and react to something that you actually do take forward in your life. And this book really did resonate with me in this level.

NB. I’m not on commission … yet…! I do hope you enjoy Eddie's book, should you receive it this Christmas. I wish you the most fantastic time over the holidays and look forward to finally meeting Eddie in 2020... watch this space!