Over to The Ritz this morning for Harrington Starr’s networking breakfast, hosted by the book-loving, thought-leading Toby Babb (pictured on the left) with Khoi Tu, author of the excellent SUPERTEAMS – The Secrets of Stellar Performance from Seven Legendary Teams.
After posh pastries served up by white gloved waiters, we sat down for a masterclass on what it takes to lead (and be part of) the best teams in the world; from Ferrari to the SAS to the Rolling Stones, Red Cross, Pixar and everyone’s favourite despot, the late great Steve Jobs, who fell out with everyone before falling in love with Jony Ive.
Three things have stuck in my mind regarding Khoi’s experience in the Super League:
1. To succeed you need to be competent, reliable and trustworthy, a bit of empathy doesn’t harm anyone either. If you are the opposite to any of these things, people tend not to want to work with / for you. Obvious right? Try telling the “top entrepreneurs” on the Apprentice. Or me ten years ago.
2. You don’t have to like each other as friends to be a Superteam, you just have to have a common goal and respect for each other’s ability (see above). As Nelson Mandela said of FW de Klerk, the man who helped him conquer apartheid, “I don’t want to hang out with him.”
3. Being a great winner (EG Tiger Woods) is not the same as being a great leader (EG Colin Montgomerie). Apparently Woods Senior used to make little Tiger hit golf balls at his Dad’s face while he shouted abuse at him, to make him focus. I don’t know what Colin’s Dad did to encourage his son to focus, but I assume it didn’t involve shouting anti-scottish insults at him on the driving range. One of these techniques produces Masters’ Champions, the other Ryder Cup winning leadership.
Books For Breakfast 