Seven business lessons from the World Cup-winning Springboks

On the anniversary of the South African Springboks winning the Rugby World Cup, we reflect on this achievement and what we can learn from it.

On 15 October 2023 in front of a capacity crowd at Stade de France in Paris, the Springboks became the first country to win four Rugby Union World Cups. What made the achievement even more special is this same team also hoisted the trophy in 2019, making them back-to-back winners of the coveted prize.

Here are seven lessons we can learn from this remarkable team and how we can apply them to business.

1. Find your purpose

Watching a post-match interview with any member of this Springbok team makes it apparent that they play for a purpose greater than themselves. In the documentary Chasing the Sun, which came out after the Springboks won the World Cup in 2019, coach Rassie Erasmus speaks about how each player was encouraged to search deep inside themselves to understand why they play the game and who they play for. Players were encouraged to have pictures of loved ones printed within the numbers on their backs to remind them. In addition to making their families proud, this team carries a far bigger responsibility on their broad green shoulders.

Those of us old enough to remember Nelson Mandela donning Francois Pienaar’s Number 6 jersey as the Springboks hoisted their first World Cup in 1995 would also likely remember how the great man believed sport could be a unifying force in a separate and fractured society. That legacy is instilled in this team and players will talk about how playing rugby is a privilege, especially compared to the hardships many South Africans experience on a daily basis. Playing for all South Africans is a way of honouring that privilege. In the semi-final against England, as Handre Pollard lined up a penalty kick that would put South Africa ahead by one point with mere minutes to play, you can clearly hear in the ref mic a player saying: “Come on. Do it for South Africa.” The kick sailed over the poles, sending the Springboks into the final.

Simon Sinek’s TED Talk, Start with Why, examines how great leaders use purpose or ‘why’ to inspire action. His simple message clearly resonates with leaders, employees and consumers as it has been viewed over 10 million times.

Question – How clear are you and your team on why you’re doing what you’re doing?

2. Embrace diversity

South Africa is a wonderfully diverse country comprised of many different cultures and any team representing the country should reflect that diversity. During apartheid, rugby was seen as a white sport, both in terms of players and supporters, and non-white players could not be selected to play for the Springboks.

Where transforming the Springboks to a more representative team had previously been viewed as an inconvenient impediment to success, Rassie and his team embraced the challenge and not only transformed the team, they did it without sacrificing performance and, more importantly, in a way that no player of colour would be accused of have been selected to fulfil quotas. Every player was encouraged to tell their story, and share and celebrate their different backgrounds in an environment where that difference is welcomed and cherished. One only has to look at the videos of adoring fans across the country welcoming them home from their triumph to see that this team is a team for the whole of South Africa.

Even though there is much research espousing the value of having diverse teams in the workplace, still too many managers view diversity as an obligation rather than an opportunity for genuine innovation. Diversity, in all its forms, be it age, ethnic background, sexual orientation, gender, neurodivergence and different socio-economic backgrounds, inherently brings different perspectives and ideas to the table.

Questions – Do you view diversity as an obligation or an opportunity? Is your team as diverse as the customer base you service?

3. Be humble

There is no place for arrogance in this Springbok squad. In the documentary Chasing the Sun, Rassie, himself a former Springbok player, warns his players against being as entitled as he was during his playing days. He talks of his own experience when then-Springbok coach Harry Viljoen dropped him, not for his playing ability but because of his attitude and the negative impact it had on the rest of the team. He spoke of how players need to take ownership of their attitude to guard against entitlement and even point it out in their teammates.

In the book The Ideal Team Player, the author, Patrick M Lencioni, describes the ideal team players in a business context as humble, hungry and smart. Hungry refers to their drive to always do more, smart refers to their emotional intelligence within a team context and humble their ability to put their ego aside for the good of the team.

Humility is an often-overlooked characteristic in business and should be screened for in any hiring process.

In a post-match interview, Springbok scrumhalf, Faff De Klerk, made the statement: “We may not be the best players, but we’re the right players for this team.” There’s no place for brilliant jerks in a high-functioning team.

Question – How do you guard against hiring and rewarding arrogance within your team?

4. The team is bigger than any individual

Part of the Springbok’s success in the 2019 and 2023 World Cups was the depth they’d built in their squad. This depth is not an accident of talent alone but was built over time through rotating players and giving them experience of both how the team structures work as well as the pressure of playing on the big stage. The emphasis on humility and the team over the individual means that when a player was substituted in the game or dropped from the match day squad, they understood it was for the team. They also understood their role had changed and was now about how to best support the team, whether that be carrying tackle bags or providing encouragement from the bench. This is a stark contrast to Christiano Ronaldo very publicly sulking when he was substituted or dropped while representing Portugal during the Football World Cup in 2022.

Teams are collections of individuals, but you succeed or fail as a team. The best business leaders are able to keep the emphasis on the team and ensure everyone understands their role and how it contributes to the team’s success. Their employees also trust that they will get their opportunity if they are patient.

Question – Does exceptional teamwork receive the same praise as individual excellence within your team?

5. Select for momentum and impact

In the 2019 World Cup eyebrows were raised when Malcom Marx, arguably the best player in his position in the world at the time, would regularly be among the reserves on match day. Some of the other players sharing the bench with Marx would also be the starting choice for many an armchair pundit. These reserves called themselves the ‘bomb squad’ and their role was to drastically change the momentum of the game when they made an appearance and swing it in their team’s favour. If the Boks were behind, they would try to wrestle a victory at the death and, if they were in the lead, they would put their opposition to the sword. In the knockout stages of the 2023 World Cup, the Springboks won by a single point in the matches they played against France, England and the All Blacks through the power of their bomb squad and the impact they made. It’s no secret that South Africa’s coaches Rassie and Jacque Nienaber keep ‘battle stats’ on every player which measure the time between impactful plays for each player. The players with the shortest time to make an impact are selected.

In business, like rugby, momentum matters. Leaders who are able to generate and sustain momentum for any initiative are effective, but it takes really special leaders who are able to turn negativity around and gain positive outcomes using momentum. Find these leaders and ensure they have what they need to drive your business towards success.

Looking at impact in a business context, as managers we should not only review the impact individuals within our team make, but also the frequency of that impact. Smaller impacts done with high frequency and consistency will compound over time and will result in outsized outcomes. These impacts should also be noticed, measured and encouraged.

Question – How do you recognise impact and momentum within your team?

6. Build and nurture trust

Former Springbok coach Jake White famously said: “Defence wins World Cups” and looking at the Springboks, every one of their four World Cup titles can be attributed to rock-solid defence with only one try scored against them in four World Cup finals.

Brilliant defence in rugby requires trust: trust in the defensive structure your coaches have outlined and trust that the person next to you will do their job. If any defender shows hesitation to cover the player next to them, it creates a weak link that is quickly exploited by the opposition. Where a defensive line is breached, the whole team can be trusted to scramble to defend without blame.

High-functioning teams in any business require an extreme level of trust. Trust that their leaders are setting the right vision, trust that their teammates will do everything they can to do their job to the best of their ability and, when mistakes are made, the whole team will swarm on the issue and try to resolve it rather than blame each other.

As business leaders we should look at ways to build a culture that encourages accountability and ownership.

Question – Do your team members trust each other to get the job done? When someone messes up, do the rest of the team scramble to help?

7. Build a culture of innovation

Coaches Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber have known each other for almost 30 years and have forged their coaching careers on innovation. Even early on, when Rassie was coaching the South African provincial side the Cheetahs, on match day the maverick coach could be found on the roof of the stadium communicating with his players using an elaborate system of disco lights, while the opposing coaches looked on from their more traditional coaches’ box. Rassie has continued to push boundaries to look for anything that can give his teams even the slightest edge over their opposition. In the British and Irish Lions series in 2020, Rassie, the Director of Rugby, put on a bib and acted as the Springbok waterboy, taking messages from the coaching team directly onto the field… along with water for the players, of course. World Rugby eventually made law changes to prevent the practice but, until Rassie did it, nobody had ever even thought about doing it.

Not only was the utilisation of the full bench of reserves (or bomb squad) a strategic innovation, but so too was the make-up of these reserves. Teams would typically select four back-line players (fast skillful players who run with the ball) and four forwards (big blokes up front who work to win the ball for the back-line players), to ensure certain specialist positions were covered. Rassie realised that by selecting players who could cover a number of positions in the back line, he could select four forwards and only two back-line players – the legendary 6-2 split. Springbok Rugby has always been built on big forwards dominating up front and, by adopting this strategy, Rassie had worked out how to capitalise on that advantage. This boundary pushing culminated in the 2023 World Cup Final against the All Blacks when the bench was a 7-1 split, with only one back-line player among the eight reserves! No team had ever done this before and on the biggest stage – Rassie’s Boks were determined to innovate.

Innovative business teams challenge long-held assumptions to gain an edge over their competition. They take a first principles approach when looking at problems and question everything in order to push the art of the possible.

Question – How do you foster an environment where team members can openly challenge the way things have always been done? Do you have a culture where failure is accepted as long as you learn from it?

Conclusion

There’s much to admire about the back-to-back World Cup-winning Springbok team, not only that they won but more importantly how they won. They have set an example of what diverse teams can achieve when they have a purpose and embrace their diversity with humility. As leaders, we need to constantly reflect on how we are ensuring we are creating high-trust team environments where team members feel empowered to speak up, innovate and thrive.