What makes a high pressure High Performance scenario?

Well the Rugby World Cup is nearly upon us, and for me, this is one of the most exciting and open World Cup’s since the inaugural World Cup in 1987.

Unfortunately, I never made it to a World Cup as a player, although I was close in 2011.

Some people ask me when I’m speaking about Leadership and Culture in High Performance teams

“What do you know about high pressure situations? What’s your experience?”

Apart from being in situations or scenarios where there are lives on the line, I’d say I’ve been in some situations with the highest pressure and expectation one may face.

The night was the 9th July 2011. The Stadium? The great Suncorp Stadium Brisbane, Queensland.

52 000+ fans are packed in, for what was at the time a record crowd for attendance. Packed with passionate and desperate Queensland Rugby fans, with obviously a contingent of hopefully no more than 10% of Kiwi fans, supporting the opponents.

But it wasn’t just Queensland we were representing, no there was far more at stake than that. We were playing for Australia. We were aiming to be the first Aussie rugby team to knock off Kiwi’s for a trophy since 2004, when the Brumbies beat Crusaders also.

After a lean few years in recent time for Queensland Rugby at the professional level and never having won the Super Rugby championship since the game went professional in 1996, there millions of Queenslanders cheering us on, even those who were not necessarily passionate rugby fans. They still want to see their beloved Queensland victorious and successful.

This was an opportunity and occasion that would be changing people’s lives and creating memories. Think I may be overstating that?

To this day I still have people come up to me saying ‘I remember exactly where I was when I watched you guys win the title in 2011’.

Compare this to the number of people that said that after the 2008 Super Rugby final after we lost at the Waratahs in 2008, in which I played from the bench? None. A game that is all but erased from my own memory.

So what exactly makes this ‘High Pressure’ apart from the fact there’s a lot on the line?

It’s being in a situation in which 1 missed tackle, 1 knock on, 1 forward pass or act of ill-discipline, can not only cost you a game, but a championship, a trophy and memories and that of so many members of the general public. That’s high pressure. 80 minutes’ worth.

High Performance Teams don’t go into a game like that with ‘what can I lose, what’s on the line?’ their mentality is ‘What can I gain? What can we win? How my life will be better’. It’s a let’s play to win, all or nothing, Those that don’t, will never be victorious.

It’s been really interesting interviewing people for my podcast which covers Leadership in High Performance Teams and hearing others experiences and their attitude and mindset going into these situations.

To even find yourself in a position like that, playing in the Championship game, and with that mentality, starts with great Leadership.

Good luck to the Wallabies off to the World Cup, a nation and its code’s hopes rest on your performances. That statement might seem like it’s adding a lot of pressure, but it’s the truth, the reality, and if you can’t handle that, then you shouldn’t be there.

Winning the Super Rugby title was unbelievable, winning the World Cup would be that feeling magnified. I could only imagine, and to think there are those out there who have had the honour of winning it twice for our country. What an achievement!

Make Australian Rugby great again. Go the Wallabies!!!

Also good luck to those other coaches I have been fortunate to work with who will also be coaching teams at the World Cup: Toutai Kefu with Tonga, John McKee with Fiji, Matt Taylor with Scotland, Scott Wisemantel with England and Conor O’Shea with Italy. Writing these names down, I feel so privileged and honoured to have been coached by such great coaches and leaders and am grateful for the influence they had on my career. And good luck to the many other coaches who I’ve met, got to known or have established friendships with.

What a World Cup it will be!