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When I set out a few years ago to create a show that explored leadership, meaning and purpose, it was episodes like this that I had in mind.
For those who aren't familiar. The All Blacks are the national rugby team of New Zealand, and are considered by many to be the world’s most successful team, maintaining a nearly 80% winning percentage over 120 seasons.
James Kerr is an international leadership speaker, performance coach, and the author of the bestselling book Legacy: What the New Zealand All Blacks Can Teach Us About the Business of Life.
James works with sports teams from The Premier League to F1, businesses from Wall Street firms to leading technology companies, as well as military units.
In this episode, we discuss leadership lessons from The All Blacks and other elite teams.
Episode Highlights (75 Seconds - Full Episode Linked Above)
Top Takeaways
Success is always countercultural. Great teams and individuals standout as a result of doing something different, sometimes it is the simple and obvious things like showing up consistently, orienting towards service, lifting up others or playing the long game. In the episode, James paraphrased Anna Karenina “Dysfunctional teams are dysfunctional for all sorts of reasons, highly functional teams are highly functional for the same reasons”.
The best teams whether in sport, cultural or business, have a shared identities, beliefs and a sense of belonging. The All Blacks for example, represent a nation and have a commitment to the team is bigger than the individual as captured in the players effort to “leave the jersey better than you found it”. When you look at great teams and cultures, they usually have a sense of a shared story, mission, vision, and values. James commented that “first we shape our story, and then our story shapes us”.
Greatness often comes from humility and doing the little things right. The All Blacks have a practice of cleaning their own locker room after each game, known as “sweeping the sheds”. In each of our domains, there are things that seem small, that the true masters of the craft understand the importance.
Meaning comes from the decision that something matters, then choosing to take responsibility for it, whether at your job, in your fitness routine or at home, there is a shift when you make a commitment to a particular thing and then own it. James gives the metaphor around levels of maturity and meaning being the number of keys on your keyring, representing the different things that you are responsible for or looking after.
Emotional regulation is leadership. This has been a consistent theme throughout the 65+ episodes of the podcast. In order to lead others, we must lead ourselves, and in times of crisis, people often turn to the person that is the most calm. If we can’t regulate ourselves, then we risk repeating patterns and may lose the ability to lead ourselves or others forward.
Resources
Full List of Topics Covered
Why the All Blacks are the most sustained high-performing team in history
Culture versus talent in elite performance
Identity, story, and belonging in leadership
Humility and responsibility as cultural pillars
Sweeping the sheds and servant leadership
The haka as ritual, meaning, and psychological preparation
Cohesion as a competitive advantage
Self-regulation and calm under pressure
Leadership as responsibility
Culture built through teams
Contribution, meaning, and legacy
Long-term thinking in sport, business, and life
I hope you enjoy the conversation. Feel free to share and let me know what resonates with you in the comments.
– Adam
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