Leadership Development is Your Team’s Competitive Advantage!

If your organization does not have a leadership development program, you are already at a disadvantage!

Leadership development must be deliberate and at the center of your organizational culture.

The New Zealand All Blacks rugby team is one of the most successful sports franchises in the world with a nearly 80% winning percentage. Their leadership culture was profiled in James Kerr’s influential leadership book, Legacy. 

The All Blacks' winning culture is sustained with leadership that breeds trust, responsibility, and ownership from the top down, from veteran to rookie players, management to clubhouse attendants.

The All Blacks have been around for over a century and have proven their leadership model is successful and enduring. A very successful run indeed!

How has this club sustained this excellence and maintained a leadership culture?

The All Blacks support deliberate leadership development. The team’s leadership development begins with character development. And character shapes the All Blacks culture and lays the foundation for their excellence. 

Their culture encourages self-leadership, autonomy, and humility. These characteristics foster trust and encourage team members to take ownership. 

What do you need to do to establish a leadership development program or enhance an existing one? 

Well, first the assumption is your organization’s senior management supports a leadership development program. 

Once you have this buy-in, your program must contain three critical elements: 

1. Character Development

The cornerstone of leadership is character, and character development is key to a leadership development program. Define your organizational values.  Answer the question, “What does your organization stand for?” Team members must buy into organizational values as if they were their own. This can be taught through discussion, individual coaching, and group coaching. 

2. Build Resilience

Resiliency tools help problem-solve, adapt, and recover.  Many of these tools are provided by certified resiliency trainers and coaches, and provide a solid foundation for each team member’s leadership journey. I have covered resiliency here before and will provide more resiliency tools here in the near future.

3. Values Work and Strengths Identification

Values exploration and strengths identification are key to personal development.  Team members can work with a professional coach, both one one-on-one, and in a group setting, to explore their values, identify their strengths, and learn from this work how they align with the organization’s own values and culture. 

These three elements form the foundation of a leadership development program that will improve problem-solving skills, communication skills, spur initiative and autonomy, and accelerate innovation.  All of these are non-negotiables for today’s 21st-century leader. 

Whether you are in sports, business, the public sector, or any other industry that handles volatile and unpredictable environments, leadership development should not be left to chance.  Leadership also is not something that is just done by the “leaders” on the organizational chart.  If you want to have a winning organization—that could be an accounting firm, bank, military unit, or baseball team—you must develop an organization of leaders!

I truly believe everyone can and should lead. Deliberate leadership development provides organizations with a competitive advantage. 

What do you think? Can everyone lead?