Lessons inspired (partly) by a man in a pink tutu
Last week I attended IT Nation Evolve peer group meetings in Edinburgh. Evolve (for short) is a well-regarded peer group community where members from the MSP space in Europe come together quarterly to share business strategies on leadership, culture, finance, sales, client success, technology. We hold each other accountable to goals and share in each other’s successes and share each other’s pains as we break off into small peer groups and act like each other’s boards for two days. The community day on the Wednesday is a day where all the groups come together and we are delivered educational content from jet matter experts across a range of different subjects.
Dan Scott the community manager and his team do a sterling job of lining these up. This quarter had a leadership theme and the keynote was none other than England Rugby and Team GB legend Sir Clive Woodward. Sir Clive is (still) the only man to lead a northern hemisphere team to a Rugby World Cup victory. If anyone can teach leadership….it’s this man.
A Gathering of sponges: IT Nation Evolve in Edinburgh
On the day the IT nation evolve community gathered at the Sheraton Edinburgh’s conference facilities. The members were bubbling with excitement excited to hear from a living legend of sport. I remember way back when Sir Clive was head of England Rugby that he was a forward thinker, like the Arsene Wenger of the rugby world so I was excited to hear his thoughts on leadership. The members of evolve have a growth mindset and we are always looking to learn more about tech, business and life. Later I learned that Sir Clive calls people with a growth mindset sponges.
Sir Clive broke the keynote into two excellent sessions covering
- It’s all about the basics
- Thinking Correctly Under Pressure
- Talent alone is not enough
- No Energy Sappers Allowed
It’s all about the basics
Inspired by Vince Lombardi’s commitment to fundamentals, Sir Clive took us through how to focus on the basics. Led by his principal of team ship, at heart these are rules developed by the team for the team setting expectations across many areas. Teamship was at the heart of the England rugby team’s success leading up to the World cup win. Some examples were timeliness – the team agreed 10 minutes early was on time. They also agreed on privacy for the team. Eg. Show respect for other team members by agreeing to not say something embarrassing about them in public. They even agreed if they go on to write books that nothing private an embarrassing would come out. Sir Clive joked that it made for a lot of bland books.
Thinking Correctly Under Pressure
Or as Sir Clive referred to it, TCUP. This is the practice of going over all possible permutations that may happen and being prepared for them. Sir Clive gave the example of the men’s Chinese synchronised diving pair at the Athens Olympics. They were basically unbeatable leading up to the Olympics and leading up to the final dive they were miles in the lead. However in their final dive they went completely out of sync. Not only that the 2nd and 3rd and 4th placed all had bad dives. The Greek pair who were close to the bottom took their chance and won gold. Sir Clive explained that before the last dive took place a protestor from Canada in a pink tutu broke into the diving board section of the pool and caused a nuisance. The Olympic officials sent the divers back to the changing rooms for 2 hours while they made sure the event was safe. The Chinese (and the other leading divers) had gone over their routine so many times but they had never practiced a “what if” for being sent back to the changing room for 2 hours to think. The time was enough to completely put them off their stride and unfortunately cost them an Olympic medal.
Talent alone is not enough
Although many think that talent is the key to all success, be it in business or sport, talent is just the starting point. The challenge is focusing that talent by creating a winning mindset and in a team a winning culture.
Having the talent is almost like having thee “permission to play”. The difference between average and exceptional is how that talent is leveraged.
Sticking to the basics and holding oneself accountable is critical.
And as a leader building a culture of shared accountability through “teamship”. We need to build a Relentless Learning Culture, self-reflection and a relentless pursuit of self-improvement.
I was reminded of what we know of the greats. They used to say David Beckham would be the last off the training field, practicing his infamous free kicks again and again when most would go home for a rest. Or Cristiano Ronaldo who would always be the first in to training and practising and improving his skills to an unbelievable level.
I also think of the quote attributed to Gary Player the legendary golfer, “The harder I practice, the luckier I get”
No Energy Sappers Allowed
Maintaining a high energy and positive work place environment is crucial to success. Sir Clive advocates eliminating energy sappers – individuals who drain morale, disrupt focus and spread negativity within a team.
- Energy and attitude – Team members must bring enthusiasm, optimism and a constructive attitude. The energy is infectious, just as a negative energy can be cancerous in a team.
- Accountability – Everyone is responsible for mainta8ning a positive atmosphere and through agreed teamship rules the team can hold each other accountable.
- Guarding Culture – As a leader, it is our role to guard and protect the high energy and positive attitude of the team. The focus must be on the team and the attitude they bring. It must be cultivated and negativity must be dealt with.
My Takeaways from Sir Clive Woodward’s Keynote
Funnily enough our IT Nation Evolve peer group structure and accountability is remarkably similar to what Sir Clive was talking about.
The groups that agree the basics and hold each other accountable to them are the more successful groups. The groups that allow apathy to grow and non-compliance to agreed standards to fester tend to wallow where they are. And surely this then permeates back into those team members’ businesses.
As an IT Support Services company based in the competitive London market it is essential we reflect and take on some of these lessons.
Personally I took a huge amount from Sir Clive keynote. I was self-reflecting as he went, tying the behaviours he mentioned to when I felt myself and one of my teams were most successful and where I have allowed under performing team members to fester and for a general apathy start to infect a team.
I also reflected on how I have carried myself in the past and how my own accountability and energy has held me back. We’re all human and sometimes we can lose our way, lose sight of what is important. We have many stresses in life and many distractions but if we lose our focus on accountability we and our teams suffer.
In September 2023, I had an epiphany moment. Recently turned 48 years old I was soon to be 50. I’ve always been an active person and when people ask me what I like doing I say pretty much anything with an “ing” on the end. But at 48 although I exercised regularly and cycled a lot of with long weekend rides I wasn’t disciplined. I had settled into a personal apathy. “Middle aged spread” had well and truly taken hold and as I looked at myself in a mirror I fast forwarded not to 50 years old but to 60 years old when my twin boys will be 20 years old. I decided that day to do something about it and not accept the myth of middle aged spread” as something that just happens. From that day I started adjusting my daily habits. I started at the gym (now 4 times per week), reduced my calorie intake and my alcohol intake. I stopped snacking, started intermittent fasting and quickly felt more in control of my own life.
The knock on effect to my team and my business has been massive. As I have held myself accountable I have found it easier…or maybe I mean more natural to hold other accountable for their actions or lack of. Since that time we have had by percentage terms quite a turn over of staff members and I have purposely hired those with energy and focus and those that are team players.
We have what we call a “Citizenship charter” which reminds me of Sir Clive’s teamship – The difference is this was a “top down” set of rules (So you may be able to guess our next team to do). I feel like the team I am building now is a top performing team and the keynote by Sir Clive reinforced this and the reasons why it is working. And it gave me some though provokers on how to keep improving the team and for the team to carry on with self-accountability.
After the key note when I had a photo with Sir Clive he mentioned that he could see me at the front nodding to some of the things he was saying. I told him that his ideas really resonated with me and that I will be taking many of his learnings to my team so we can build teamship or as Sir Clive now calls it “Winning Behaviours”.
Conclusion: Embracing Sir Clive’s Winning Behaviours
Sir Clive Woodward’s keynote was not just a lesson in leadership but a reminder of the importance of the fundamentals and team buy in. But for me also the importance of self-accountability.
His principles, from “teamship” to “winning behaviours,” are strategies that can transform teams and businesses alike.
To learn more of Sir Clive’s insights, consider exploring the following resources:
- Sir Clive Woodward’s official website – Learn more about his leadership philosophy, case studies, and keynote topics.
- Winning! by Clive Woodward – Sir Clive’s book, with his journey to Rugby World Cup glory and the strategies that made it possible.
- Leadership Insights with Sir Clive Woodward – A collection of videos and interviews on his leadership concepts.
Call to Action
Reflect on your own leadership style. Are you holding yourself accountable? Are you focusing on the basics? Are you fostering accountability, energy, and resilience within your team?
Let’s embrace Sir Clive’s Winning Behaviours and build teams that thrive.
What steps will you take to create a winning culture in your team?
