Failures are but the pillars of success

I grew up and went to school in Wales and this is where I got my passion for rugby from - rugby is the national sport of Wales (to confuse things though I was born in England to Irish parents - so what does that make me!).

It was nice to come across a Welsh Proverb while surfing the internet today; "Failures are but the pillars of success."  This nicely reflects some of the discussions I had with students on Saturday during the second round of Module 5 workshops.  As students undertake the projects they have been assigned it's important they feel risk free, there are no right or wrong ways to complete any of the assignments.  We want you to use your imaginations, take initiative, work in new and interesting ways and take a few risks....step out of your comfort zones folks!

Module 5 is being implemented to give you experiences much more like the workplace where managers and colleagues will not always be telling you exactly how a task should be completed. Often you will be told what the goal is and left to get on with achieving it, you will need to use your initiative and judgement to reach the objective.  You'll be expected to approach your work in a 'common sense' way and have a clear plan, having a good idea of the steps you'll need to follow.  

Employers want to see creativity but they'll also expect you understand the importance of planning and preparation when taking on any task.  This is really what we want to see in students Module 5 projects - that the group has worked well in a team, work has been divided, roles worked out, timelines set and targets achieved! 

Learning from Attila the Hun!

In my spare time I work as a rugby coach and just this week in one of the coaching journals I subscribe to was an article on Attila the Hun’s “management techniques” and how these helped him conquer large parts of the world.  The journal suggested ways we could learn from Attila the Hun and used extracts from a best selling book, Wes Roberts’ “Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun”.

 

My coaching journal suggested ways we could transfer the lessons to the work of a rugby coach but I think they can be just as relevant for any leader.

 

Lust for leadership

 

Above all else, those who want to lead need to have a desire to gain personal recognition and be prepared to work hard for it. Success comes from hard work, sweat over inspiration. You should not be threatened by “capable contemporaries or subordinates”. A chieftain will select carefully their most capable captains to help achieve more than they could if they were acting as just one person.  What does this mean for you, well it’s important to let other opinions have a chance to be heard but you’ll have the final say.  And if you want to be in charge you need to be the best prepared.

 

Peace in the camp

 

Wise chieftains realise that either very harsh or very lax discipline will undo morale.  Be consistent in the way you deal with people, try to be positive in your feedback even when the message is negative.  Also accept feedback, shouting over criticism doesn’t improve anything.  But don’t let misdemeanours go unnoticed either. 

The Tribute

 

When respect comes from fear, then there is an unwillingness to serve which in turn leads to some resistance to authority and purpose. Real respect leads to great loyalty – the tribe will be full of spirit and willing to “follow their chieftain into the mouth of hell”.  Show respect to your team leaders, so their charges will show respect to them.

 

The Omen of Aquilera: “The essentials of decisiveness”

A wise chieftain never makes a decision if he does not understand the issue. He also gives responsibility for decisions to his subordinates – a weak chieftain will keep all the decisions to himself out of fear he might lose control.

Good Working

We held a series of four workshops on Saturday with students to discuss our new Professional Development Module at ISB.  All were really interesting and really helped me to understand the talent ISB has!

A couple of interesting points came out in team presentations.  One was with regard to teams and the students identified the Tata Singur project as an example of the importance of teams.  How's that you might ask?  Well it turns out that though the car plant was abandoned the teams who were ready to work in it were not and they were all moved to Gujrat to set up and run the new site. So it seems one of the most critical factors in the production were the people and they could not be abandoned in the same way as the site and infrastructure could be - much too important!

With a couple of the groups we ended up having an interesting discussion on the value of open questions and how they can be used to learn more about each other.  Starting with a short ice-breaker to encourage open questions it was clear many of our students will be good at networking!

More workshops next Saturday!

   

PPPPP

Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance, makes sense really!

What else is there to say?