Leadership Lessons from a Cricket Revolution
On Monday, 28th November 2022, something quite remarkable unfolded at the Rawalpindi Cricket Ground in Pakistan, where Pakistan were playing England in a Test Match, in their own country, for the first time in 17 years.
A new era in Test Cricket has arrived that has transformed the game from a rather tired pedestrian game into something irresistibly exciting and compelling. And it shouldn't have been, because the pitch was totally one sided in favour of batting; giving little chance of bowling success.
After 5 days of battle England won in the very last over of the match. Now, I'm not going to go through a summary of the match. There are plenty of sources out there for that. What I want to talk about is the lessons we can learn, as leaders, from the "how the match was won".
The two architects of this revolution are the Manager, Brendon McCullum, and the Captain, Ben Stokes. They have set out a vision of how they want to play Test Cricket rather than specific goals. The 'brand' of cricket that they want to play is about "Entertainment" and "Enjoyment". They have made 'how they want to play the game' more importance than the results. And they know full well, if they get this right the results will follow.
Why this is quite so brilliant is because the 'brand' applies to both the audience and the players. It has purpose and focus running through it. So often in sport, fear dampens performance but these two words "entertainment" and "enjoyment" release the fear and gives freedom to the players to express their talents - they are boys again playing for the fun of it. And boy, are they playing well. And, we the audience, are certainly entertained.
Now from the outside looking in, there is nothing new about about the intention of freeing people up to perform at their best. But what's different about this English cricket team, is the 'follow through'. They don't just say it, they do it. They have set up an environment where there are no consequences for failure. Risk is encouraged and the players are applauded for it. Authentic to the core, McCullum and Stokes have lead from the front in their words and actions and they have instilled irresistible belief in the team and, more over, this has now spilled out into the, once sceptical, press and the cricket loving audience.
Pushing for the win on a dead pitch, Stokes, in complete control of the game, took a huge risk by declaring England's second innings early. Giving Pakistan a good chance to win.
What would have happen if the gamble went wrong and England has lost? Disappointment, yes. Executional learnings, yes (it's arguably easier to learn with a loss than a win, anyway). Overall though, I feel sure that the English team would have felt pride in their bravery. And I think even the press would have marvelled at the sheer guts of it. This is a team that embodies the SAS mantra 'Who dares wins'. It's so inspiring.
So what are the takeaways and questions to ask ourselves as leaders?
What 'brand' do we want in our organisations that will free our employees to play at their best?
How can we create an environment and culture where we encourage employees to take risk, without fear of reprisal, should things go wrong? Where endeavour, and not results, is applauded and rewarded (we know that the results will follow, with this mindset)? And who wouldn't want to work in an environment like this? How to attract the best talent!
How do you guard against the inevitable critics and naysayers?
That's my penny's worth. I'm sure there are more take aways, please let me know what i've missed?