Legacy by James Kerr
15 Lessons in Leadership - What the All Blacks Can Teach Us About the Business of Life
Background on Why I Read Book
I worked in college athletics for 6 years and one of the head coaches I worked for wanted me to read the book and get back to him the things I learned in the book. He told me the book was about how setting a culture of valuing the person for a program helped create success in performance. In getting the book there were many people who said it was a great book on culture, so I dove in.
Takeaway One
Culture Matters
This is so overlooked in organizations/ franchises in all fields. Culture is a buzz word that is overly used these days but when the culture is right and actually affects those in the organization it can create great impact. One of the things they said in the book was they wanted to ensure they left the jersey in a better place when they left. This takes a lot of intentionality to have the overriding culture that you will do everything in your power to ensure the person following you will have a better opportunity. This was huge in their culture because they believed it, which I will talk about next.
Takeaway Two
Values Must Matter in Lives of Those in Organization
One of the biggest reasons I have seen cultures fail throughout my career is the values selected for the culture are not life values shared or exemplified by those in leadership. If one of your core tenets is honesty, then the organization cannot get mad with those who express the truth in the way to help the organization grow. If treating people with respect is one of your core tenets, then you must the leadership must be a glowing example of how they respect their families and those who can do nothing for them in the organization. To many organizations spend more time picking what other people do well while not assessing what they value and what would resonate with their people in their culture. The All Blacks ensured the staff, players, and others in the organization aligned with their culture.
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Takeaway Three
Pouring into Others Personal Development
A huge premise in this book was the aspect of person over player. The All Blacks have an unwavering conviction that if they took the time to develop the people in the organization first then the results would come because the players would be well rounded as individuals which would affect their performance. There are multiple examples about what the All Blacks did to create this personal development buy in from newcomers to veteran players. This confirmed to me that taking care of a person is the best way to go about committing to their performances in their role. Take care of who they are as a person, then they will feel empowered, and take ownership of what’s being asked of them.
There it is those are my three takeaways from reading Legacy: What the All Blacks Can Teach Us About the Business of Life.
Check out my book review video which discusses these three takeaways and so much more: