In an extension to my previous post titled “label you culture later”, I came across a wonderful example of a sporting leader who focused on behaviours, rather than labels, when developing team in an elite environment
An AFL hall-of-famer, Luke Hodge, decided to come out of retirement after an incredibly successful career at Hawthorn from 2018-2020 and assist a young and inexperienced Brisbane Lions side move away from the bottom rungs of the AFL ladder. The Lions administration recruited Hodge with a focus on improving their culture, sighting that their environment valued experience and status, and Hodge’s legacy in the AFL landscape was fast becoming legendary.
Although Hodge wasn’t placed in a formal leadership position, everyone was desperate to learn lessons from the premierships he had won and the best practices that he was a part of creating and driving at his previous club, Hawthorn.
Hodges tells of his approach to helping Brisbane hierarchy early days. He spoke of his own imposter syndrome (irrespective of his success) and his nervousness around trying to place label on the Lions current culture. The last thing he wanted to be seen as was the person preaching to the fledgling team on what they ‘could’ or ‘should’ become. In his mind, the fastest way to lose his new teammates was to attempt to coerce or manipulate them into something they weren’t based solely on his own experiences.
Instead, he initially observed the Lions team-based behaviours, and chose where he felt he could influence and provide options to be better, rather than an authoritarian or pace setting style of request and tell adoption.
An example he explained fondly was sitting back at lunchtime during his first pre-season training camp and being staggered by the amount of soft drink the players consumed. In Hodges mind, if you want to perform at the highest level in elite sport, the little things matter. He was the only one with a water in his hand. On the second day of camp Hodge arrived at lunch 5 minutes early. As teammates lined up at the bain-marie for their lunch he offered 6 of the younger players a bottle of water. When they looked at the cans of coke he simply asked:
“Would you like to try the water instead?”
On day 3 of camp the same 6 players grabbed bottles of water and started handing them to their teammates. Within a month, all group dinners and functions had water at the table. There was no fizzy stuff in sight, not even of the alcoholic variety, to be seen.
At recent awards functions and club events, speakers and presenters often reflect on those ‘little things’ that the Lions now associate with their now labelled “high-performance” culture. Over the last 4 years the Lions have gone from competition easy beats to Grand Finalists in 2023 and winning the big one last year in September
It’s a great story, and an example I often reflect on when I’m helping teams to be that little bit better.
You just don’t need the fizzy drink.