Kieran Read Recap: An All Black’s Mindset

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The All Blacks Rugby team will be regarded as one of the greatest sports teams of all time globally. A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to welcome in Kieran Reid, the former All Blacks rugby captain. He came and joined me at my HPL event, the High Performance Leadership Day, and we got to chat about what the mindset of an All Blacks rugby captain actually looks like. So I want to share with you just some of the key takeaways. If you'd like to hear the full interview just the previous episode, go back and listen to the full interview. He shares so much gold. But for those of you who want the overview, here are some of my personal insights from that interview. So number one, when you show belief in someone, it helps them to develop belief in themselves. So be the leader that shows sincere support and be sure that you regularly praise your team members for work well done. Hey, go a step further and ensure you tell the individual about a specific job well done. Don't be a generalist. Take the time to say, hey, that specific thing you did, you did that brilliantly. Well done. Great work. Be specific in your prayers, not general. It really goes such a long way in helping them to feel truly valued. And hey, as I share some of these takeaways, I'm totally going to urge you to grab a Pen or get your phone out and take a note, unless you're driving or running. And just note some of these down, these insights. You may be able to apply them, I say, to your family life, your personal life, your health and your career. Second, big takeaway, make space for connection. You know, always value relationships and the people around you. Kieran Reid is living proof that you can be bif best in field whilst maintaining great relationships. And he talked at length that whilst he was trying to become an all black and then when he was in there and he was staying at that level, he always made time for people, the people around him, his family, his friends. So never lose sight of that. And I think for leaders, it's quite easy to get caught up in just going after the corporate goal, the financial goal. Don't forget about your people at the end. That's what truly matters. Relationships, people. Third, takeaway. Soak it up. Yeah, you heard it right, Soak it up. Being quiet can actually help you grow as a leader. In Kieran's younger years, he didn't speak much, he just listened a lot. And he was around some other great players and he would just listen and listen and listen. He would analyze what they were doing, he would look at their leadership decisions and then he would start to develop an understanding of, hey, how do I develop influence? So if the leadership opportunity comes my way, what would I do? How would I do that differently? How would I make a bigger impact? Leaders are listeners and often you'll hear, leaders are readers, and that's true. But more importantly, great leaders are great listeners. How great do you listen? Is that a strength of yours or is that something, you know, that you need to develop on an ongoing basis?

Four, Success relies on teamwork. Be courageous. You know, let your team know what needs to happen to get the job done. You're not going to get there alone. If you're the captain, the CEO, the parent of the family, you're not going to get a beautiful, successful outcome by yourself. You've got to have a team around you and that relies on you to say, hey, I need you to step up and do this thing. You need to influence and inspire. Number five, always back your instincts. Never let things slide, even the seemingly small things. Address things right away. Don't let them fester. Making assumptions is such a slippery slope and Kieran talked about that. You know, some of the biggest learning lessons he had as captain were when he made some assumptions and then reflecting back on that, he would go, wow, if I went back and did that again, there would be no assumptions. And I would say the thing that I thought I might need to say, but I assumed that someone else had already said it. So that was really powerful. You'll never make those assumptions and always back your instincts when something's niggling away at the back of your mind, bring it to the forefront and speak up. Here was the big one. This one was really powerful for me. This is one I really want you to write down. They can only trust you if they know you, so write that one down. They can only trust you if they know you. So that's about you getting out and getting to know your team, not sitting in the corner office away from them as the leader. They need to see who you are. Roll your sleeves up, get amongst it. And the last but not least, give yourself no outs. To achieve a world class outcome and lead a life of purpose, it's essential to be truly connected to something you're passionate about. So know precisely where you're headed and give yourself no outs. Go get it. I hope you really enjoyed the recap of the Kieran Reid podcast episode. Head back and listen to the full episode. If you haven't. And as always, please, if this was valuable, please share it or share the podcast with a friend, fellow leader or somebody that might enjoy it. But for now, get out there and lead your life on purpose.

Sam.