Learning from the legends in business - John Eales

(Time to read this article: 3 mins)

It was a pleasure to receive a recent invitation to lunch and to listen to rugby legend John Eales talk about business. My invitation had come from "an entrepreneurial public servant" within the Business Development unit of a regional Council and we booked a corporate table and invited a group of clients whose businesses had some factors in common.

Australia's former champion Rugby World Cup Captain was as professional on stage as he had been on the field and he shared some of the insights he had gathered both on the field and in the process of interviewing legendary businesspeople for his book "Learning from Legends - Business".

Those insights capture some universal truths which are worth repeating here.

Some Things are Not Negotiable

John talked about what he called the "non-negotiables" of business - the things without which no business can truly succeed:

• An essential passion for at least an aspect of the business. He called it "essential, but not enough on its own".

• An agitation factor - a sense that "things could be done differently, or better, or faster, etc". In John's words, "Content people don't make world champions - in sport or business".

• The discipline to direct your passion, for without discipline there is just undirected and often unharnessed energy.

• A purpose, without which there is no direction or deeper meaning to activity.

• Planning. In business as in sport, so much hidden planning goes into the visible successes.

• The ability to give and to take fearless, frank and fierce feedback. (In the words of another legend, "Feedback is the breakfast of champions".) When John asked legend Peter Brock the secret of success in car racing, Brock said, "Driving fast and give good feedback" which enabled his crew to continually refine his vehicles.

• Principles - if you don't stand for something you fall for everything. Your principles (or "Values") give direction to all in the business.

• Connections. Connection with your people, your customers and other stakeholders.

• Consistency in all of your communications so that you walk your talk; so that your spoken and written messages are backed up by the more symbolic messages of your behaviour, and products, and services.

• Composure. The deep faith in yourself, your team mates, your system and your culture that enables you to be calm and focused in the face of both adversity and victory.

• Tenacity. Sticking to your plan. John highlighted one of Carl Lewis' world-beating 100m sprint runs in which Lewis had been last in the pack at the midpoint of the race but came home over the last 50 metres to win. When asked how he'd done it, he simply replied, "Well, I didn't try to run any faster that's for sure" - meaning he had faith in and stuck to his race plan even when it looked like he had failed.

• And, finally, perspective - don't take yourself too seriously!

Two bonus observations that John made in the course of his talk:

1.
"All endeavours look like failures somewhere in the journey."

2.
When exploring new opportunities always send a two-person team: a smart-aware person and a smart-dumb person. Someone who has business smarts but is "dumb" in the sense of not having deep technical knowledge will often see beyond the accepted models of the world to the new opportunities beyond them.

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