Sir Clive Woodward opened this year's Human Resources Forum on board the Oriana with his keynote speech, "Talent alone is not enough".
I was also a little doubtful following Sir Clive's attempted application of this sporting success into other arenas, namely at Southampton FC - that's "soccer" to make the distinction clear - and in his current role as elite performance director for the British Olympic Association.
But I was impressed. His hour-long talk followed by a candid Q&A was a simple step by step guide to success in any field, sport, business or anything else.
"Great teams start with great individuals," he began, saying that your have to get the right people on the bus. What's more they need to be in the right seats.
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Ability: is the talent there in the first place? If it's not change the people
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'Teachability': Is the individual a 'sponge' or a 'rock'? Will they learn, be a student? Rocks, he warned, are damaging to organisations
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Pressure: Do they have the ability to think correctly under pressure? Sir Clive warned in particular against trotting out the phrase "no pressure" when pressure was exactly what the situation was about
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Will: Do they have the attitude of a champion?
Sir Clive recommended Jim Collins' book Good to Great, explaining that it influenced his approach to managing a team.
But what I found particularly interesting, and indicative of how Sir Clive and his team won the World Cup in such dramatic style (remember Jonny Wilkinson's drop goal in the dying seconds) was his "War Room" planning sessions where members of the team was put under pressure to provide a plan of action for the team under various scenarios relating to the teams' positioning on the field, the score, and the time remaining.
How to deal certain situations at certain times was best illustrated by this video clip from a basketball games, where the yellows with 0.6 seconds left and the score at 88-88 on the clock have two attempts to score... Sir Clive pointed out that if the yellows had planned this situation carefully they could avoided the outcome.
Comments (1)
I had the pleasure of doing business with Sir Clive back in the late eighty's when he was in oz and playing for Manly and working in finance.
Like a great wine that just seems to get better with age, he has grown enormously in the past 20 years and just seems to keep on growing, while always having his feet firmly on the ground.
He is undoubtedly a true champion and winner to boot. My best regards to him.
Harry Hotz - Australia
Posted by Harry Hotz | May 8, 2009 4:15 PM
Posted on May 8, 2009 16:15