4
LEADERSHIP
5
Explain and
engage
There is nothing wrong
with someone saying “I disagree
with that, I don’t want to do it”,
but you have to argue the thing
through. At some stage, you’ve
all got to get 100% to agree to it.
Once you engage people, you
can turn them around.
Create mutual
responsibility
Teamship is a great
concept and was
important to me in my
role. In the real world,
I’m the boss, but then
there’s the team.
Things will
Take punctuality: I
get tough
wanted to know the
When you win a world
team’s definition of
cup, everyone assumes
punctuality. I got them to
it’s all sweetness and
discuss it, and I promise
light. It’s not, it’s a tough
you that no one was
environment. Things
ever late, because every
kicked off at times, but we knew how to
player had been part of
operate, how to talk things through. We
the discussion. If anyone
wanted people getting emotional, as long
was late, you could say
as it didn’t carry on outside the room.
“these aren’t my rules,
they’re your rules,
even though I’m
policing them”.
The key thing is
to get the team to
discuss it first
without you. You
can influence that,
but it’s about
making sure that
Woodward leading
every single person
the England Rugby
is involved in
Team to victory.
the process.
6
7
Don’t fear failure
Sometimes, when recruiting, you look for that ‘perfect’
person – but experience is the most valuable thing
I would actually be averse to employing someone who
hasn’t failed at some point because it’s that very failure
that gives them the hunger for what they want.
RESOURCES
Watch our video of Sir Clive Woodward talking
about the art of developing trust in teams:
bit.ly/SirCliveWoodwardQA
FUTURE TALENT // 67