The Inspire Foundation was honoured to have All Blacks Manager and mental skills specialist Gilbert Enoka speak at the Grantee Awards night earlier this month.
Despite having been part of the All Blacks camp for the past 16 years, he still considers it simply a “good start”. Gilbert’s list of achievements is beyond impressive, especially as his start in life was far from privileged. It was in fact full of great adversity, having spent a significant part of his childhood in an orphanage.
The presentation centred around what it took to win the much-talked-about, back-to-back World Cup Rugby victories, and there were many lessons that we can all apply to aspects of our life, no matter the path we’re on.
For our Grantees and the hundreds of others in attendance, the presentation was both inspirational and practical. Gilbert started us off with some guiding principals such as:
- there aren’t any silver bullets and nothing will ever replace hard work
- be sure about your purpose, this will be pivotal in a great performance
- success is a lousy teacher, the best learnings will always come from failure
- most critical – culture is more important than strategy
With the founding principles set, he went on to give his top 8 lessons from his time with our country’s favourite sports team:
1. Never think you’ve arrived.
Despite tenure, never take it for granted and become complacent. Every day is an opportunity to learn and his 16 years (along with others of similar tenure) is merely a “good start”.
2. Know your reality.
Pick your battles. For the All Blacks, Steve Hansen realised that no team had won the Rugby Championship and gone on to win the World Cup. As a result there were only two targets in 2015 – The Bledisloe Cup (because they like smashing the Aussies) and of course the World Cup.
3. Don’t be a slave to science.
Leading into the World Cup a number of teams adopted extreme training methods to improve performance – training at altitude, heat, cold etc. with very limited results. The All Blacks prefer the no. 8 wire method, sticking to the basics and trusting their instincts.
4. Maintain balance and perspective.
In the world of elite sport the focus, commitment and single-mindedness required can be overwhelming. To balance that, lots of fun and laughter is really important. The All Blacks enjoy weekly “club nights” after hard trainings. In the week leading up to the World Cup final they had a club night which featured pork pie eating and pint sculling races (naturally it was only resting players that were sculling any alcohol).
Most rugby fans are now familiar with the All Black mantras “You will never achieve greatness without being good people” and “Better people make better All Blacks” having fun is a big part of developing the team ethos off the field.
5. No grey people.
Do not permit people in your organisation to sit in meetings without making any contribution, but be full of opinions and criticism once the meeting is done. They are undermining and incredibly detrimental to culture.
6. Get the right mindset.
We all heard Steve Hansen and Richie McCaw at numerous press conferences prior to the World Cup, adamant they were not going to London to defend a title: they were going there to win it. Their mentality was that of a hunter rather than that of the hunted.
7. Not positive – not negative.
Once you understand your purpose there’s no need to concern yourself with being overly positive and removing the negative thoughts that can creep in – Instead the focus is to “Be Clear”. Know what you have to do and get on and do it.
8. It’s ok to be scared.
Fear needs to be ‘recalibrated’. Steve Hansen, Gilbert, and the rest of the management team were under enormous pressure from the media and the New Zealand public after some fairly underwhelming performances during the round-robin games and he admits they were pretty worried. But they had faith in the team and ultimately the All Blacks proved themselves on the field when it mattered.
Give yourself permission to feel fear, but just don’t get stuck there.
For a man who’s played such an instrumental part in huge international success, Gilbert Enoka is incredibly humble. He spoke about the great leadership shown by Richie McCaw and his appreciation for his own “seat on the bus”.
Whether you’re ‘making a start’ on the road to greatness through sport, the arts, or business, one or more of these lessons can be applied to your journey – and it could be a game changer.
Thanks to Mark Lewis (D A Lewis) for the fantastic notes from the presentation
