Hundreds of business owners in the South have had a rare opportunity to share in the secrets of how to create high-performing business teams from Rugby World Cup winning coach and businessman, Sir Clive Woodward OBE.
Sir Clive was the keynote speaker at this year’s Business Leaders Lecture, hosted by Rothmans Accountants, at the Hilton, at the Ageas Bowl, Southampton.
As well as working at the highest level in a number of elite sporting roles, including as England’s Rugby first full-time head coach and Director of Sport for Team GB at the London Olympics, Sir Clive has enjoyed an impressive career in business. He also works with numerous international companies to improve individual and collective performance.
In his presentation, he focused on how bringing many of his uniquely successful techniques off the playing field and into the boardroom creates high-performing business teams.
He said that his success in the sporting world taught him that “great teams are made up of great individuals”, and that four things make up the DNA of a champion, whether at work or in sport: talent, learning, thinking and hard work.
“Your competitors also have talent,” Sir Clive said. “Talent is the starting position, not the finishing one.” He went on to say that you also need “teachability” – the thirst for knowledge and a passion for learning more about your business. The ability to handle pressure is also a key indicator of success, he said – “winners perform at their best when the pressure is greatest."
Martin Osborne, Rothmans Senior Partner, said, “Sir Clive is an innovative leader and motivator, whose team-building skills and management methods transcend sport.
“His lecture inspired all of us to take on board what it takes to lead effective teams and develop our own potential by using his approach and techniques.”
Delegates leaving the event were impressed by Sir Clive’s unique perspective on how to build and develop high-performance business teams. “This was one of the best leadership and networking events I’ve been to and I really enjoyed it,” one of the delegates said, while another cited the “presentation’s relevance to how we run our business and recruit and build our teams”.
A further comment summed up the presentation as “A very different and thought-provoking event that clearly attracted a great deal of interest as a result of the huge turn-out.”