Being the best you can be and behaving decently

Friday 3 June 2022

Being the best you can be and behaving decently

I'm passionate about simplicity and in making the complex simple.

So this week I was inspired by Brendon McCullum's first press conference as England cricket coach where he quoted former England selector Ed Smith as follows:

“Athletes and sports teams waste huge space and energy on external motivators – mission statements about trying to be the best team in the world by 2057; blueprints for global dominance; strategic flow charts about key performance indicators.

In fact, if every sportsman simply tried to be the best he could be, and attempted to behave decently along the way, you’ve pretty much summed up every available optimal strategy in one simple sentence.”

In this short video I explore actions we can take to put this simple yet profound philosophy into practice.

Here's the detail.

1. Establish shared-view in the following areas

Purpose of organisation and all roles.

Outputs for each role.

Values behaviours.

How people are inspired to feel valued.

Other non-negotiable’s.

2. Ensure People being the best they can be, and behaving decently, is the primary focus of all learning and development

Reflect in all pre and post event work.

Build into recruitment and on-boarding and all aspects of  ongoing employee engagement and retention.

Incorporate in employee and customer value promises.

3. Reimagine leadership and management

21st century leaders are mostly coaches, mentors, advisers, facilitators, conversationalists, educators, adjudicators, moderators.

Managing people is long dead. Management today is  continuous process innovation to ensure it’s simple for people to bring their best to their work. Processes include policies,  practices, procedures, principles, and systems and structures.