I am a keen follower of the Vodacom Super 14 international rugby tournament. While watching a good number of games over the past few weekends, I was struck by the leadership behavior espoused by the captains of two great franchises. They are Victor Matfield of the Blue Bulls and John Smith of the Sharks.
First, some background information before we compare the captains’ behavior on and off the field followed by a few words to conclude how critical the behavior of leaders are in influencing the achievement of positive results.
Both Victor Matfield and John Smith have proven track records at provincial and international level as players and captains. They were influential in establishing their respective franchises’ dominance in the local and international scenes for half a decade and were part of the South African team that won the IRB World Cup in France in 2007. Actually John Smith was captain and Victor Matfield his deputy at that time and the pair still serves South Africa proudly in these capacities with our hopes pinned on them for the next World Cup in 2011.
Matfield has always played in one specialist position, that of lock, and has been considered one of the world’s top players for some time. John Smith has also played as hooker, until after the World Cup, where after it seems that younger emerging players from both John’s franchise as well as from other teams were making demands for permanent placements at local and international level.
At this point in time, a South African rugby legend, Os du Randt, retired. He played the specialist position of Prop for South Africa and was a key contributor towards our World Cup victories in 1995 and 2007. His departure left a big gap. And stranger than fiction, the coaches of the Sharks and the National squad stepped in and had John retrained into this vacancy. It worked like magic and under John’s captaincy at national level and Victor’s at local and international franchise level South African teams brought home an unprecedented number of trophies during 2008.
This brings us to the events of the past four to five weeks!
While Matfield’s Bulls have raced to the top of the league table with an unbeaten record, Smith’s Sharks contrary to expectations, did not win a single game until this weekend’s rather unconvincing victory over a team that is currently considered fairly second rate.
Matfield’s behavior both on and off the field is that of a successful leader, someone seeming to want to take control of destiny with a fierce fire in his belly to get the job done, convinced of his own and his team members’ abilities and training regime to produce the desired outcomes week in and week out. He is seen engaging with referees about decisions while actively leading the Bull’s forward pack in grinding their opposition mercilessly into submission.
While Smith’s body language speaks volumes of the mental position taken up by the Sharks’ management, coaches and players – seemingly friendly humble but rather not overtly confident, and unsure to a point where his appearance resembles that of someone whose shoulders drag and is reluctant to want to take charge – with no fire in his belly or any excitement about taking on the challenges that lie ahead. This past Saturday John was supposing to rest but was suddenly called up and again swopped into yet another Prop position. Head. It seems that all the chop and changes has made him doubt in himself in spite of his past successes. This seems to be same for his team members chopping and changing players and key positions game in and game out thinking this will change the odds in their favor. John was even heard joking about taking on a fourth position in the team next week.
Referring to a comment in last week’s blog practice makes perfect, therefore indecision to take a position undermines gaining expert experience and developing forward momentum.
In conclusion, a fundamental requirement for success is to really want it and to be utterly convinced that it will be achieved. Since the industrial revolution the concept of specialization has taken a key position in modern society. Gone are the days of jacks-of-all-trades plowing along achieving mediocre results. In are the professionals with their degree concentrations in narrow fields and specialist knowledge honed from focused experienced ready to work as part of and to lead teams within departments within divisions within multinational conglomerates pairing with the best of the best from other fields, churning out above average returns for their stakeholders.
The Association of Business Executives (ABE) offers a range of specialist courses in management for Business, IT, HR, Finance, Marketing, Travel and Tourism and Hospitality that are accredited in the United Kingdom and provide access to final year studies or credits within Master’s degree programmes with many international universities. ABE also has colleges throughout the world offering tuition services and classroom support to students. Don’t hesitate to contact me on hendrikb@abesa.co.za should you require info and advice or have comments about leadership and career specialization.
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