Gatsby Benchmarks
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Sir Clive Woodward’s
7
LESSONS ON
LEADERSHIP
As the only man to lead England to success in a Rugby World Cup,
Sir Clive Woodward knows a thing or two about heading up
successful teams and inspiring leadership.
1
Give it your all
[When appointed
England coach] I
thought “I’ve been lucky
enough to get this job, so I’m
going to give it my all”, as I did
with my business, previously.
There’s no substitute for
working hard, you’ve got to
throw as much energy and
passion at it as possible, and
hope your plan maps out. I
knew I needed to move the
team into professionalism. You
also have to get close to your
boards and keep them in the
loop. Fortunately, they were a
great support.
3
Listen up
2
SIR CLIVE
WOODWARD’S
CV
Manage
expectations
You have to be able to
handle negativity because
you cannot be successful
all the time. In sport, once
you’ve done well,
expectations suddenly
escalate – the moment
you slip you know about
it through feedback and
the media.
I don’t think I’ve got great ideas. I’m good at
listening, and a huge element of
leadership is listening to others and enabling
their ideas to happen; making sure you’re
helping the whole team come up with new ideas. Leadership
doesn’t happen overnight, you build trust and respect within
teams which is a lengthy process. I’ve always thought players
have more ideas that the management, so you have to
harness that.
66 // LEADERSHIP
1979-’90 Joins
Xerox, becoming a
sales director in the
UK and Australia
1980 Makes
international debut
for England and
British Lions
1997 Becomes
England’s first
full-time
professional coach
2003 Wins the
Rugby World Cup
in Australia
2004 Resigns as
England coach
2006 Becomes
Team GB’s director
of sport, leading
through to the
London 2012 Games