Leadership lessons from Siya Kolisi
I hope that January has treated you well. It’s over tomorrow. That feels ridiculous to say, but it is. At some point, I will write to you about time, but that’s not today’s journey.
As you may know, I live in Cape Town (thanks to Zoom I work in many places – Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Ireland, England, Singapore – what a world!) and so I loved seeing illustrator Xee Summer’s prints of iconic Cape Town landmarks. She’s also the creator of this cheekily profane t-shirt – for the non-South Africans, it loosely translates as ‘keep on truckin.’
Today, we turn to Springbok rugby captain Siya Kolisi’s autobiography, Rise. I had been undecided whether I was going to read it, until Anthony Geard unequivocally endorsed it, saying that I’d leave feeling inspired. He was right.
Anthony is one of those wonderful souls who has integrated business leadership with making a difference in the world. When not in the world of investment analysis, he chairs the Thembalitsha Foundation that does incredible education and health work in the Western and Eastern Cape.
Kolisi’s book starts with the line, “I was born on the last day of apartheid” and with that, Kolisi captured my attention and kept me hooked until 36 hours later I put the book down, much enriched by his journey.
For those of you who aren’t South African or don’t follow rugby, Kolisi was Springbok rugby’s first black captain. His journey has taken him from extreme poverty to being one of the world’s most influential sportspeople.
Although not written as a leadership or strategy text, there are some gems in Rise.
(You can find leadership lessons from Rassie Erasmus here, and more lessons from Siya Kolisi here. If you’re enjoying this letter, you can subscribe here. Please share it with friends and colleagues who want to do better at leadership and life.)
Earlier in the week, I was fortunate enough to participate in a Harvard Business Review Love and Work Leader Series with acclaimed author Marcus Buckingham. He made the point that the density of our neural connections approximates the complexity of connections in the universe, saying “you have galaxies within you.” He went on to observe that each of us has an entirely unique configuration of neural connections. We are each entirely unique.
Unfortunately, a lot of how we’re taught and expected to work with people in organisations is often the exact opposite. One size fits all solutions often rule the day.
Kolisi takes the opposite approach. He reflects that “I liked to spend as much time as possible with each individual…It was important to understand what was important to other people. The more I got to know people, the more I knew what to say as a captain.” This is always true for great leadership. The more you understand your colleagues for who they are, what their lives are like, and what they care about, the more effectively you can lead. Spend the time.
Kolisi gives us some insights into Springbok coach, Rassie Erasmus’s leadership style. He says “If someone didn’t play well or made mistakes, that didn’t upset him (Erasmus); he’d want to understand why and then it would be for the coaches to fix.” It’s a wonderful philosophy to bring to management.
After the Springboks lost the All Blacks in the opening match of the 2019 World Cup, Erasmus reflected, “I can’t fault your effort. Obviously, there’s something I messed up somewhere, so we’ll go and see why we didn’t execute.” That’s a leader taking ownership!
Throughout the book, we get insight into the rigour and preparation for each game. Physical training is person and position-specific. Alignment camps were held, not for training or skills work, but to listen, speak and think about the future and how to get there together. In key games, it was analysis and the relentless experimentation with, and practice of, potential plays that allowed the Springboks to score and pull ahead.
That’s a playbook that you can use in any organisation. Play to your team’s strengths. Ensure they’ve got the training and support for the role they occupy. Invest in building culture and alignment. Do analysis to see possibilities and run experiments to practice the outcome.
Siya Kolisi led South Africa to win the 2019 Rugby World Cup. He summarises his lessons into this ‘Springbok’ mnemonic.
He was also on the field for historic losses against Japan and New Zealand. After an incredible start to his international career, he had a terrible 2014. He remembers that “With the form that I was in, there was no way I should have been selected for the Springboks that year, and I wasn’t. It was, by a long way, the darkest period in my career. Twelve months ago, I had been man of the match on my debut and the hottest new thing in Springbok rugby. Now I felt worthless. The drop had been dizzying and disorienting, and I didn’t know how to turn it around.” Of course, he did, but in reminding us of those moments, Kolisi helps us see that life – all lives – invariably holds both triumph and failure.
His early years were hard. He reflects that he was often overwhelmed by hunger. He was surrounded by violence. He says, “Often I’d be woken in the night by screams and shouts outside, and when I went to the window, I’d see brutal beating happening in the street. Sometimes it was my dad and the sounds of him crying and screaming used to go straight through me and chill me to the bone…I heard that sound from my dad time and again in my childhood, and there was never anything I could do to stop it or help him.” In his twenties, he struggled with alcohol abuse.
By 2019, he was on top of his professional career but privately continued to struggle. With prompting from his wife, he got a mentor. He reflects that “Ben gave it to me straight, each and every time. If I was wrong, he’d say ‘This is rubbish’ without blinking. He didn’t care about offending or upsetting me. He cared about helping me.”
Working with Ben Schoeman, Kolisi wrote a mission statement for his life, he reflected on and wrote out his core values, he set goals for the next 5-7 years. And, with that framework in place, he started to shift his behaviour to align with the vision he had for the life he wanted. He says, “I changed my whole attitude. I made sure to open a space for vulnerability and accountability; to change my ways not just as a player but as a person, as a man, as a leader.”
Old pains can cause us to look for ways to escape, even when the escape adds more pain. We have whole galaxies within us. There are black holes, shining stars, and bright suns. Kolisi’s honesty shows us being human contains all of that, and that we can choose paths that are better for us and those around us.
We all know the story of David and Goliath. What I had forgotten was that before David went into battle, Saul had dressed him in his clothing and put a coat of armour on him. Kolisi reminds us that David then says to Saul, “I cannot go in these because I am not used to them and so he took them off and went to confront Goliath. He says that this passage gave him the courage that the route to victory was ‘by being true to ourselves.’
It takes work and time to know ourselves. It takes courage to own our unique journey. It takes commitment to hold the space for others’ uniqueness, but that is how one conquers the scary giants that come at us in life.
To end today take ninety seconds to watch young Mateo Manousakis leading Cape Town FC in song before a game. I guarantee it will make your day.
Thank you, Gavin Andersson for sharing this with us. Gavin is one of those incredible people that our continent creates. Although he grew up in Botswana, he was an active leader in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. His life has been dedicated to building community organisations in a democratic South Africa. He is a living embodiment of Nkrumah and Sobukwe’s Pan-Africanism.
All the very best for your week
Karl
PS: You can learn more about my coaching practice here and subscribe to this letter here. These were 2021’s most popular letters.