- The First 15: Lessons in Leadership
- Sweep the sheds - never be too big to do the small things
- Go for the gap - when you're on top of your game, change your game
- Play with purpose - ask why, take nothing for granted and make no assumptions
- Pass the ball - leaders create leaders
- Create a learning environment - leaders are teachers
- No dickheads - follow the spearhead
- Embrace expectations - aim for the highest cloud
- Train to win - practice under pressure
- Keep a blue head - control your attention
- Know thyself - Only by knowing yourself can you become a great leader
- Sacrifice - find something you would die for and give your life to it
- Invent a language - the most cohesive teams have their own jargon
- Ritualize to actualize - rituals help reinforce and align key beliefs
- Be a good ancestor - plant trees you'll never see, think longer-term than anybody else
- Write your legacy - this is your time
- When an opposing team faces the New Zealand All Blacks doing the haka, they know they are facing more than 15 individuals but a culture and identity and one of the most cohesive group working towards a collective purpose they have ever encountered
- The challenge is to always improve. Always get better. Even when you are the best. Especially when you are the best
- The team cleans up after themselves when they travel as it reinforces self discipline, humility and the fact that they take care of themselves, they don't rely on anybody else.
- Character triumphs over talent. Winning takes talent. To repeat it takes character.
- Focus on getting the culture right and the results will take care of themselves
- A key competitive advantage of the All Blacks is to manage their culture by attaching the players' meaning to a higher purpose
- Humility allows one to ask difficult questions such as "how can we do this better?" And reach results which might be uncomfortable
- Leaders create leaders by passing on ownership and responsibility
- Leaders must be prepared to change even when, and maybe especially when, they are at the pinnacle of their game. The goal of the leader is to know when one needs to reinvent oneself
- Leaders must enable mastery through the culture and environments they create
- The "non essential critical" are the dozens of small things which seem inconsequential but collectively can make all the difference
- True focus is saying no to everything except to what will help you achieve your main goal
- Leaders are teachers. Your legacy is what you teach others
- The first step in learning is silence. The second step is listening
- Constant repetition of affirmation is important to reach any goal. The story you tell yourself about your life eventually becomes your life
- If you expect the best, more often than not you seem to get it
- Train to win. Practice under pressure and practice more than you ever play. The competition should seem easy in some ways compared to how you practice. No matter what you do, it's either reps or mileage. There are no shortcuts and nobody can ever do it for you
- Knowing how to act under pressure is key. It is the result of a long term mental training program. Many want to be successful but few are truly willing to put in the work
- Being aware of how you feel when you're in flow and confident and when you're tight and nervous can help you switch out of pressure and into flow
- Better people make better All Blacks - someone who is a genuinely good person has a better chance at becoming great than someone who isn't
- Know thyself is wisdom as old as written human history. Development of authentic self is the essence of a great leader
- Champions do more than seems necessary to most people
- Language is an incredibly important part of a great culture as it helps to sufficiently and explicitly align people's culture with that of the organization. Shrewd leaders create a unique language as cultural shorthand expressed via mottos, mantras, phrases and metaphors. Proper use of language becomes pure oxygen to a team and aids in communication of the vision and cultural norms
- The ability to draw a metaphor is a mark of genius as it exhibits an ability to draw connections that are often overlooked or ignored
- A society grows great when people plant trees whose shade they will never see. Be a great ancestor
- Leave the jersey (or company, team, organization) in a better place than when you arrived
- Service is the rent you pay while here on earth
- "Be more concerned with your character that your reputation for your character is who you truly are while your reputation is merely what others think you are." - John wooden
- The best example a great leader can set is the way he lives his own life
- Let someone else praise your virtues
- The ability of the person is reflected in the questions they ask
- Look for a leader who can bring people together
What I got out of it
- Some great, universal principles into how to achieve a great culture leading to sustainable and outsized performance