Matt Dawson won the Rugby World Cup in 2003 with England and has a successful media career presenting for the BBC. He is now forging a new career in business, first with food and facilities group Sodexo and now with The Instant Group.
In this, the third in a series of blogs, Matt talks about why business must back up talk with action.
The ability of Eddie Jones’ to communicate clearly was one of the most impressive elements of his role in the England rugby team’s recent grand slam success.
And I do not mean from the point of view of how he conducted himself in press conferences alone.
From the outset of his appointment, he has sent clear signals to everyone with an interest in international rugby about his direction for the team. An emphasis on winning. The appointment of a hard-nosed captain. Setting out a robust vision for the team. There has been a refreshing clarity in every element of his communications.
And, perhaps most admirably of all, Eddie took the pressure off the team by keeping the media scrutiny on himself. He limited the amount of time the media had with the team and kept his own inimitable soundbites coming, which ensured the scribes from the sports pages were kept busy.
In part derived from my experience as a captain and also as a team communicator at #9, I enjoy observing the best leaders’ communications and to try and learn from them throughout my career.
Without being in any way political, the recent Budget was a lesson in how not to get your message across. The Chancellor did everything he could do to emphasise the Budget as being for the “next generation” but the only message that got through to the majority of observers were the cuts to disability benefits. And that is despite the fact that there were some genuinely exciting policies in there for small business.
And there is a lesson in this too. Eddie Jones has succeeded in being clear with his communications to the media but also in backing this up with actions. The team obviously has a clear sense of direction on the pitch and it obviously tallies with the strategy set by the coach. Sadly, under Stuart Lancaster, this was a quality that seemed lacking in the team.
I have learnt now with all the new business pitches that I do, you must back up the words of the presentation with actions. There is nothing worse than making big promises and failing to deliver. In one of my presentations, I discuss how the Rugby World Cup failures of 1999 went on to become the champions of 2003. We set ourselves clear goals that had to be achieved, we all knew how to articulate them AND act them out on the pitch. Easier said than done, but the creativity of Sir Clive Woodward married to the direction of captain Martin Johnson and the other strong leaders across the pitch made it happen.
A business leader I have come to admire is Tim Cook, at Apple. He has the hardest act to follow in the shape of, arguably, one of the best salespeople of all time – Steve Jobs. But he has not tried to force his leadership on either Apple itself or the millions of people who buy the company’s products. Instead, he has brought through other leaders in the company and allowed the products to do the talking for him. And, in his unobtrusive way, he has built gravitas and shown himself to be an uncompromising leader.
There are many people in business and sport that seek to overcompensate by talking too much but there is much to be said for saying less and doing more. A simple pitch can tell a great story without the need for over exposition and detail – as long as you back up those words with right actions.
