What the All Blacks Can Teach Us About the Business of Life

Last July, on my birthday, I had the privilege of watching the All Blacks live at the stadium again. I'm a huge rugby fan, the sport I played and which I consider a school for life. For those who don't know, All Blacks is how the New Zealand rugby team is known: the most successful professional sports franchise in history. They are undefeated in over 75% of their international matches over the last 100 years.

?It's impressive to see an almost perfect machine working. We think that a certain player will be difficult to replace at the end of his career and soon others arrive as good or better, with the same dedication and purpose. I have to admit that this outstanding performance intrigued me and, in some games, irritated me at a certain point. Why are they so good? Even when they lose, they keep the same attitude, respect for the opponent, and preserve the culture.

?The All Blacks have set the benchmark for other rugby teams to follow but also teams from several sports, individuals, entrepreneurs, or business leaders. In the book "Legacy – What the All Blacks Can Teach Us About the Business of Life", James Kerr details brilliantly what it involves to develop an extraordinary high-performance culture and how to maintain it over time:

?How do you create a high-performance culture? How do you maintain world-class standards? How do you handle pressure? What is the secret of sustained success? What do you leave behind you after you're gone?

?Legacy is one of my favorite books and reading it made me understand the world of the legendary All Blacks even better. The book delivers 15 pragmatic and powerful lessons for today's business leaders. Fifteen, like the number of players in a rugby team: they work together towards a common purpose, each has a role, each has a position, and a responsibility on the field. These principles work in the same way for life and business.

?The 15 Chapters and lessons in Legacy are:

I) Character - Sweep the Sheds – Never be too big to do the small things that need to be done

Each All Black becomes a steward of a cultural legacy with a role to leave the jersey in a better place. A values-based, purpose-driven culture is the foundation of the All Black's approach and sustained success.

Before leaving the stadium at the end of a game, the players in the team literally and figuratively 'sweep the sheds', the smelly and messing dressing rooms. Because "no one looks after the All Blacks — the Abs looks after themselves."

"Humility does not mean weakness, but its opposite. Leaders with mana understand the strength of humility. It allows them to connect with their deepest values and the wider world." Successful leaders balance pride with humility

?II) Adapt – Go for the Gap – When you're on top of your game, change your game

When things aren't going well, you need a strategy for change. This requires a clear case for change, a compelling picture of the future, a sustained capability for change and a credible plan to execute. This also includes eliminating players who were seen as hindering the chance for change and the creation of a learning environment.

"We sought to create an environment that would stimulate players and make them want to be part of it."

Culture is subject to learning, growth, and decline. This continuous improvement was able to lift the All Blacks to an even better win rate.

III) Purpose – Play with Purpose – Ask 'Why?'

"If you have people who believe in what you believe, they will work for you with blood, sweat, and tears."

Higher performance begins with a higher purpose. Better people make better All Blacks. Leaders connect personal meaning to a higher purpose to create beliefs and a sense of direction.

"Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is a nightmare."

IV) Responsibility – Pass the Ball – Leaders create leaders

Be a leader, not a follower. Empower the individual by empowering them with the success of the team. Leaders create leaders by passing responsibility, creating ownership, accountability, and trust

?V) Learn – Create a Learning Environment – Leaders are teachers

"Excellent companies and teams do not believe in excellence, they only believe in constant improvement and constant change. Its success is the result of a long-term commitment to improve excellence, the result of a series of small steps that produce a powerful leap."

"Leaders who can identify, hire, and cultivate employees who are humble, hungry, and smart will have a serious advantage over those who cannot."? Coaches especially want hungry players.

?Sean Fitzpatrick, All Black legend:

"Be the best that you can possibly be"; "Success is a modest improvement, consistently done.";

"The best sports people in the world practice more than they play"

"Business people should practice too. They should go home at night and analyse their day's performance. They don't and they need to. To be good at something takes practice and lots of it."

?VI) Whanau – No Dickheads – Follow the spearhead

"The strength of the wolf is the pack, the strength of the pack is the wolf". Everyone works together towards the same goal and no one is left behind.

In Maori, whanau means 'extended family'. It's symbolized by the spearhead. Though a spearhead has three tips, to be effective all of its force must move in one direction. The All Blacks select on character over talent, which means some of New Zealand's most promising players never pull on the black jersey – because they don't have the right character and their inclusion would be detrimental to the whanau. Like all the great teams the All Blacks seek to replace the 'me' with the 'we'. No one is bigger than the team. The team always comes first."

?VII) Expectations – Embrace Expectations – Aim for the highest cloud

Dream big is the message behind this lesson. Successful leaders set their expectations high, and try to exceed them.? Of course, the higher the goal, the greater the risk of failure.

Fear of failure can be both motivating and debilitating.

The All Blacks are taught to embrace fear of failure, and cleverly use a healthy loss aversion to motivate even greater performance. The key is to understand that there is an abysmal difference between being afraid of criticism or failure and mastering that fear to produce a positive effect.

VIII) Preparation – Train to Win – Practice under pressure

"Practice with intensity to develop the mindset to win. This conditions the brain and body to perform under pressure and make peak performance automatic. Get out of your comfort zone. If you are not growing anywhere, you are not going anywhere."

?IX) Pressure – Keep a Blue Head – Control your attention

The first stage of learning is silence; the second stage is listening. Know how to manage, deal and embrace pressure. Control your attention. Switch from 'red head' – tight-inhibited, result-oriented, anxious, aggressive, overcompensating, desperate; to 'blue head' – loose, expressive, at the moment, calm, clear, accurate, untasked.? Bad decisions are made because of an inability to handle pressure at a pivotal moment.

X) Authenticity – Know Thyself – Keep it real

Be genuine, stay true to yourself, and be honest with your environment. Leaders need to create an environment that encourages safe conflict, honesty and integrity, in which people genuinely know one another.

?XI) Sacrifice – Find something you would die for and give your life to it

Focus is vital for the All Blacks, and there is no paradox – play to win, don't play not to lose. Don't be a good All Black, be a great All Black.

Go above and beyond expectations for something you believe in. Champions go the extra mile. Bleed on the field and know that your teammates will do the same for you.

?XII) Language – Invent a Language – Sing your world into existence

"Leaders are storytellers. All the big organizations were born from an exciting story. This central and organizing thought helps people understand what they stand for and why they do it."

The core of the All Blacks' language are three words: humility, excellence and respect. A language and set of beliefs can bind a group together.

XIII) Ritual – Ritualize to Actualize – Create a culture

"Rituals tell your story, involve your people, create a legacy. Rituals make the intangible real. Rituals work as a psychological process: a transition from one state to another. They take us to a new space of identity. A new identity for the team."

?Inspiring leaders establish rituals to connect their team to its core narrative. They use them to reflect, remind, reinforce, and reignite their collective identity and purpose.

?XIV) Whakapapa – Be a Good Ancestor – Plant trees you'll never see

"The shirt is not yours, you are only the body that wears that shirt at that time. Our job is to continue the legacy and make it grow every time we have the opportunity. The current All Blacks team plays for the boys who have worn the shirt before. That is tremendously important for kids now. The legacy is more intimidating than the rivals."

Great leaders take responsibility for making a better future. They ensure knowledge transfer, following the philosophy that "you are standing on the shoulders of giants – live up to that expectation and know that you will be looked upon as one."

?"Character is forged from how we respond to the challenges posed by life and business, from how we direct our lives and teams. If we value life, life values us. The leadership lies, no doubt, in the example we set. The way we lead our own life is what makes us leaders."

?XV) Legacy – Write Your Legacy – This is your time

"When a player reaches the All Blacks, he receives a book. It is a small black book bound in leather, very pleasant to the touch. On the first page, a shirt is drawn, that of the 1905 Originals, the team that started this long whakapapa. The next page shows another shirt, that of the Invincibles of 1924; On the next page, we see another shirt and another and another. So until today. It is a visual whakapapa full of meaning, a legacy to join. The following pages of this All Blacks manual refer to principles, heroes, values, code of honor, ethos and team character. The rest of the pages are blank. They wait to be filled."

?Write your Legacy. This is your time. Be purposeful. Add to the ethos, and make your mark.

These are valuable principles for life and the ABs show us every day and in every game that can be put into practice. But ok...that's why they are the All Blacks, for ordinary mortals it may not be easy to put all these principles, at the same time, in our lives or our work.

I think a good starting point is one of my favorite All Blacks mantras: Better people make better All Blacks. Because, in the end, is all about that: people. Better people make better All Blacks and better people make better leaders, better parents, husbands, wives, and colleagues.

If we want high performance, begin with better people and a higher purpose. And, of course, get rid of any dickheads.