At Lettings LIVE 2016, our keynote speaker, Sir Clive Woodward, gave an excellent presentation on “Teamship”, what he describes as a “style of Leadership” – and judging by the many notes and texts I’ve received, his message clearly struck a chord. For me there were several key lessons to be learned and implemented.

The first set are all to do with setting up the rules:

1. Teamship is where there is 100% agreement from the Team as to how to behave. It’s not a compromise and if any member of the Team has any issue with any rule then they MUST speak up or run the risk of being kicked off the Team.
2. The Leader has the final say. If the rules the Team proposes are not sufficient or appropriate as assessed by the Leader, they will be sent back for further work.
3. The Team makes sure the rules are followed and applied and mete out any consequences in the event the rules are broken or not followed.

I also liked how he has taken values a step further than most do.

1. Only have 3-4 values.
2. Under each spell out what they mean and give specific examples of behaviours, decisions and actions associated with each.
3. Have each Team member make a simple 30 second video of what the value means to them and how they will apply it and then share these videos with all the Team.

Finally, I was very taken by the importance Sir Clive attached to learning.

1. Every Team member is expected to contribute to the overall learning. (Sir Clive highlighted that whilst the coaching staff for both the Rugby World Cup and also for the Olympics was second to none, the players and athletes each had received extensive coaching from their club and personally and that it was important for all this to be pooled for mutual benefit).
2. Measurement is essential – everything must be measured, analysed and perfected.
3. Learning should never be done alone. It’s most powerful when done as a Group.