Tiger_heart
Well-known member
Sharing as I found it very relevant...Spoiler alert - longer read but worth the time, imho!
Source: Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win. A book that chronicles the leadership lessons learned by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin while on deployment with the NAVY SEALs in Iraq.
“Leadership is the single greatest factor in any team’s performance… One of the most fundamental and important truths at the heart of Extreme Ownership: there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.” – JW, EO
It’s virtually impossible for a rugby team to win without effective leadership. But we don’t just mean the senior players telling everyone else what to do; we’re talking about the leadership of individuals at all levels of the organization. Leadership, according to Willink and Babin isn’t top down. It’s universal. For a rugby team to succeed, every player must be a leader. It’s not good enough for junior players to leave leadership up to the old boys. Younger guys are equally responsible for driving the team forward towards its objectives.
How To Measure A Top-Level Rugby Captain
“The only meaningful measure of a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails. Effective leaders lead successful teams that accomplish their mission and win. Ineffective leaders do not.” – JW, EO
The best top-level rugby captains are the ones who win the most critical games. Richie McCaw of the All Blacks being the ultimate example having won two consecutive World Cups. But there are others. Some names that spring to mind include Jon Schmidt, John Eels, and Martin Johnson. Consummate professionals who took their teams to the very top of the sport. To achieve that kind of success, those captains implemented many of the strategies outlined in this article. But unlike an amateur rugby team, the primary measure of achievement for those captains was a victory on the field. There are dozens of factors that contribute to success in rugby, but the pro or semi-pro rugby Captain is graded only on their ability to win rugby games.
Take Complete Ownership
“Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame. The leader is truly and ultimately responsible for everything. That is Extreme Ownership, the fundamental core of what constitutes any leadership endeavor.”
There are lots of people involved in rugby clubs. The board, the coaches, the players and the supporters all have their own interests and motivations. But the captain is solely responsible for the success of the team. It is the captain’s role to define success and find the resources necessary to achieve it. That might mean adjusting training times to maximize participation. That might mean firing a coach who is putting players at risk of unnecessary injury. That might mean begging the old boys to kick-in to the travel fund.
As individuals, we often attribute the success of others to luck or circumstances and make excuses for our own failures and the failures of our team. An effective rugby captain must take total responsibility both during success and failure. Taking responsibility when things go wrong requires extraordinary humility. But it’s also part of learning to be a leader. Taking extreme ownership requires a captain to remove ego from the equation. All that matters is the success of the team.
Enforce Performance Standards
“When it comes to performance standards, It’s not what you preach; it’s what you tolerate.”
A poor leader accepts zero responsibility for mistakes, makes excuses, and blames everyone else for their failings (and those of their team). Have you ever played rugby with one of these people? When presented with their own shortcomings, they make excuses and shift the blame to other members of the team. Think if you’ve ever heard one of these statements from a teammate:
“it was a shit pass…”
“the forwards are lazy…”
“he can’t catch…”
“the ref had a shocker…” – this is the most egregious excuse
A good leader makes it clear what the standard is and enforces this uniformly. What standards your rugby club and rugby team decide upon will vary widely. Some teams require a night of sobriety before rugby games; others will demand you arrive early for training. Whatever your team decides upon, the captain is responsible for enforcing these standards. Note that enforcement and discussion are not the same things. Yelling at everyone in the huddle is not enforcing performance standards. Allowing a player to turn up late and still take the field is not enforcing the team’s standards. If you tolerate a player who doesn’t meet the performance standards, you’ll alienate the rest of the team.
Create Belief In The System
“If frontline leaders and troops understand why, they can move forward, fully believing in what they are doing.”
One of the challenges for rugby coaches is to develop a system that players with different backgrounds can execute. Then it becomes the responsibility of the captain to explain that system in such a way that the entire team buys into it.
All players must understand why the system exists as it does for them to believe it in. This “buy-in” can be seriously difficult to achieve, especially when you have guys on the team with much more experience than others. Often it requires explaining to these more experienced players that they need to play within a system BELOW their natural or trained ability for the team to be successful.
If the team’s most experienced and talented players can be made to understand why systems are in place, it helps them become true believers. Even if they don’t agree with the system, if it’s explained to them, they will have an easier time supporting it.
Amen!
Source: Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win. A book that chronicles the leadership lessons learned by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin while on deployment with the NAVY SEALs in Iraq.
“Leadership is the single greatest factor in any team’s performance… One of the most fundamental and important truths at the heart of Extreme Ownership: there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.” – JW, EO
It’s virtually impossible for a rugby team to win without effective leadership. But we don’t just mean the senior players telling everyone else what to do; we’re talking about the leadership of individuals at all levels of the organization. Leadership, according to Willink and Babin isn’t top down. It’s universal. For a rugby team to succeed, every player must be a leader. It’s not good enough for junior players to leave leadership up to the old boys. Younger guys are equally responsible for driving the team forward towards its objectives.
How To Measure A Top-Level Rugby Captain
“The only meaningful measure of a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails. Effective leaders lead successful teams that accomplish their mission and win. Ineffective leaders do not.” – JW, EO
The best top-level rugby captains are the ones who win the most critical games. Richie McCaw of the All Blacks being the ultimate example having won two consecutive World Cups. But there are others. Some names that spring to mind include Jon Schmidt, John Eels, and Martin Johnson. Consummate professionals who took their teams to the very top of the sport. To achieve that kind of success, those captains implemented many of the strategies outlined in this article. But unlike an amateur rugby team, the primary measure of achievement for those captains was a victory on the field. There are dozens of factors that contribute to success in rugby, but the pro or semi-pro rugby Captain is graded only on their ability to win rugby games.
Take Complete Ownership
“Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame. The leader is truly and ultimately responsible for everything. That is Extreme Ownership, the fundamental core of what constitutes any leadership endeavor.”
There are lots of people involved in rugby clubs. The board, the coaches, the players and the supporters all have their own interests and motivations. But the captain is solely responsible for the success of the team. It is the captain’s role to define success and find the resources necessary to achieve it. That might mean adjusting training times to maximize participation. That might mean firing a coach who is putting players at risk of unnecessary injury. That might mean begging the old boys to kick-in to the travel fund.
As individuals, we often attribute the success of others to luck or circumstances and make excuses for our own failures and the failures of our team. An effective rugby captain must take total responsibility both during success and failure. Taking responsibility when things go wrong requires extraordinary humility. But it’s also part of learning to be a leader. Taking extreme ownership requires a captain to remove ego from the equation. All that matters is the success of the team.
Enforce Performance Standards
“When it comes to performance standards, It’s not what you preach; it’s what you tolerate.”
A poor leader accepts zero responsibility for mistakes, makes excuses, and blames everyone else for their failings (and those of their team). Have you ever played rugby with one of these people? When presented with their own shortcomings, they make excuses and shift the blame to other members of the team. Think if you’ve ever heard one of these statements from a teammate:
“it was a shit pass…”
“the forwards are lazy…”
“he can’t catch…”
“the ref had a shocker…” – this is the most egregious excuse
A good leader makes it clear what the standard is and enforces this uniformly. What standards your rugby club and rugby team decide upon will vary widely. Some teams require a night of sobriety before rugby games; others will demand you arrive early for training. Whatever your team decides upon, the captain is responsible for enforcing these standards. Note that enforcement and discussion are not the same things. Yelling at everyone in the huddle is not enforcing performance standards. Allowing a player to turn up late and still take the field is not enforcing the team’s standards. If you tolerate a player who doesn’t meet the performance standards, you’ll alienate the rest of the team.
Create Belief In The System
“If frontline leaders and troops understand why, they can move forward, fully believing in what they are doing.”
One of the challenges for rugby coaches is to develop a system that players with different backgrounds can execute. Then it becomes the responsibility of the captain to explain that system in such a way that the entire team buys into it.
All players must understand why the system exists as it does for them to believe it in. This “buy-in” can be seriously difficult to achieve, especially when you have guys on the team with much more experience than others. Often it requires explaining to these more experienced players that they need to play within a system BELOW their natural or trained ability for the team to be successful.
If the team’s most experienced and talented players can be made to understand why systems are in place, it helps them become true believers. Even if they don’t agree with the system, if it’s explained to them, they will have an easier time supporting it.
Amen!
