Sir Steve Hansen Recap: How to Build a Winning Team

I'd like to ship you a free copy of my book Habits of High Performers. If you come and join the 2026 goal setting workshop, I will ship you one of these today. The link is in the notes. Please come and join me to set up the very best 2026 you could imagine. If you've set up goals in the past or New Year's resolutions and they haven't substantiated, I'm here to help you across all the key pillars of your life nail your goals. I'll see you there.

Would you like to connect personally with some of my podcast guests? They are arguably some of the most influential leaders and high performers on the planet. Each month, members of my hpc, the High Performers Club, get to connect with a leadership titan in an intimate Q and A. They also get access to powerful high performance leadership coaching and monthly Masterminds. There's only 20 seats at the leadership table. You can apply today by going to www.jjlochlin.com HPC.

How much time do you invest in your brain? Well, look, our brain dictates so many things. It's our largest asset. We've got to look after it, right? But often we're putting things on our skin and we're doing all these other things that care for our bodies, but our brain dictates so much. I came across a product a while ago called Flow State and it's made such a difference. And look, they offer functional mushrooms that sharpen cognition, they really boost energy and definitely strengthen immunity. And they actually use one of their key ingredients is lion's mane. Right? So Lion's mane is popular among really peak performing athletes and those wanting an edge. It's known as the brain mushroom and it's currently being studied extensively for its nerve growth factor potential as a means to ease the symptoms of Alzheimer's and for treating inflammation in the body. The thing I love about these products, they don't taste like mushrooms. You can mix them in with your tea, they're a great replacement for coffee. But I actually love the PM mushroom blend, the evening one. It really helps me sleep and to know that my brain is getting extra nutrients is just next level. The one thing that's really important for me is hey, what' in there? So they have tested heavily at Hill Laboratories for heavy metals, pesticide residue, microbials, and also at Massey University for active compounds. So I urge you, if you love your brain and you want to go the extra mile to nurture it, head on over to Flowstate NZ and you can use the coupon code leadonpurpose to get 15% off.

Welcome back. And in our last episode, we had the amazing Sir Steve Hanson, head coach of the All Blacks. That's New Zealand's national rugby team. You know, arguably one of the greatest coaches of all time across any sports. You know, won the rugby World cup and so many other titles, and also received the Queen's birthday honors with a companion of the New Zealand Order of merit in 2012. Look, Steve shared so much, including a great deal of vulnerability, which to me is one of his greatest strengths. And I just wanted to take a moment to share some recap highlights, some takeaways. There's way too many for me to kind of list them all, but I'm going to take a few here that hopefully will add so much value to you as a leader, to you, as a parent, to you, as someone who's running a team, to you, who's helping your community, to you leading your own life. Wherever you are, whatever level you're at, I know there's going to be something in these takeaways that really help. And look, this interview that many of you heard in the last episode, that was at a live setting in front of many of my clients and leaders from all over Australia, New Zealand. If you'd like to come and join us for HPL live in 2023, please head over to jjlochlund.com.

Leadershipnewzealand you get yourself there and be able to add yourself to the wait list. We will sell out very quickly. We did last time. So if you want to hear about it first before we release it to the general public, add yourself to that waitlist. Now, without further ado, let's take a look at some of the key recaps. Leadership is about leading yourself. That's where it starts. I really resonated with that when Steve shared that you can't lead others if you don't know how to lead yourself. And if you try, you'll either be laughed at or you won't be followed or you won't be respected or all of the above. Learning to lead yourself is truly the beginning point. Now, many of us struggle to lead ourselves with the basics, with our health, with our relationships, with our communication, with our organization, with our motivation. But I think it's the greatest place to develop is how am I motivated? What are my behaviors? What are my rituals? Where can I level up? What drives me? What are my values? Man, oh, man, I've had to grow so much. I had so many faux pas so many screw ups in my life, you know, many of them were to do with alcohol, that's for sure. And as you know, I haven't had alcohol in coming up three years. And you know, when I became a dad almost seven years ago, that was a game changer. Like that changed everything. But there's these pivotal moments that we remember. And I think to lead yourself, you've got to have adversity, you've got to make mistakes. We all make them, we all continue to make them. But I guess the goal is to not make the same mistake over and over. Remember an executive coach I was working with one time said, james, if you continue to make that mistake over and over, you're paying dumb tax. You're just being dumb. I giggled, I went, you're right, I needed to hear it. Executive coaching sometimes isn't pretty and fluffy. In fact, most of the time it's direct and edgy and I like it. So as Steve says, leadership is about leading yourself. That's where it starts. I love it. He also said, have a plan on how you want to lead. Do you want to be a dictator or an empowerer? How easily do you adapt? And he said that, you know, leaders always take time to reflect on how they want to lead and are they being congruent with that? It's important to be consistent in your leadership style. So crucially important.

Steve said, your job as a leader is to say, are we giving this person the chance to be better? Isn't that great? And you know, with some of the John Maxwell trainings and that that I've been to, that's one thing that really came through is as a leader, your number one goal is to ensure that you are able to be helpful for that person in front of you that you're leading to help them grow and be better. Now who's your leader? Do you have a leader? Do they help you grow? If not, you've got to be asking some questions. Are you in the right place? Growth is so essential now. The All Blacks rugby team would be regarded as one of the greatest cultures, team cultures on the planet. Many books have been written about it, many stories have been told. So we got chatting in an interview with Steve about culture and he said, look, culture is not that difficult. It's either good or it's bad. When it's good, it's top down. And this is something again, I really resonated with. It's top down. Leadership starts at the top. Everything rises and falls on leadership, good or bad, right? So whatever's happening at the top with values, behaviors, rituals, communication that filters right down. And Steve said when it's bad, it's because the people at the top think that it's the bottom's job and they really don't care.

So just bear that in mind. We don't need to over complicate culture. It's got to be good and it's got to start at the top.

Underline that culture is not that difficult. It's either good or bad. When it's good, it's top down. Now another thing I thought I'd share with you might be valuable. You know, when making decisions. It's not too difficult to make decisions when you're in a nice relaxed environment. But it's very much different when you're in a life ambush and you've got to make a quick decision. So Steve said decision making under pressure is something you need to plan for. He said we would come to terms with the fact that we are always going to be under pressure as a world class team. Then we would come up with a way of dealing with that pressure. When we felt it got too big, we would plan for that. And he said if you don't plan for it, you won't know how to handle it when you're under all of that pressure. So what's your plan? What do you have in place when pressure hits? Or do you just react and go inwards or get upset or get stressed or reach for a few drinks or a cigarette or overeating or whatever your distraction might be? Or do you blame others?

What is your response to making decisions under pressure? There's a challenge I'm laying down for you. I want you to explore on a piece of paper. How might I respond to pressure in the most empowering way? Just write that question down. How will I respond to pressure? I'm making decisions under pressure in the most empowering way and explore what comes out from that.

And look, I want you to go back and listen to that episode if you haven't already. I want you to hear the vulnerability in Steve and how he came across. He was just so inspiring, absolutely inspiring. And the last thing I'll share with you is this. Steve said my non negotiables where always team first, individual second. That's not easy but that's crucial if you want world class culture, world class outcomes, world class result. Non negotiables are team first, individual second. So I hope you enjoyed those takeaways. We have another phenomenal guest coming up later in the week. Be sure to tune in and gonna ask you, please leave me a review, leave me a rating and review. It means the world to me. It really helps me in spreading the podcast to other great leaders like you. And you know, go one extra. If you've got another 12 seconds and you like to help other people, copy the link of the podcast and share it with two or three of your friends, colleagues, family, I would deeply appreciate it. But for now, get out there and lead your life on purpose.

Sam.