Graham Henry's Management Tips At GE Building Better... | Stuff.co.nz

Successful management means understanding your team, knowing how and where to use key players and refusing to quit, even when times were tough, Sir Graham Henry says.

Success on the field, like in business, was based on understanding how and where to use your players, the World Cup-winning All Blacks coach said at GE Money's building better business conference on Friday.

Once managers understood this, they needed to focus on communicating with their team. One of the biggest mistakes managers made was not adapting their leadership style to the players and times, Henry said.

He gave the example of Keven Mealamu, being the oldest in the All Blacks team and having to work much harder than the others, also being one of the fastest.

"We did the beep test [players ran intervals, while the time allocated continued to decrease] and he finished second" Henry said.

"Back in the 80s you'd tell the guys what they were going to do, because that's how they were raised. But with [Dan] Carter and Richie [McCaw] you can't do that because they don't respond to it."

Instead, players needed to feel included in the decision-making process. The team needed to contribute their thoughts and insights to feel ithey belonged and to play to their strengths, Henry said.

This was not as easy as it sounded. Initially, Carter had been uncomfortable questioning authority so found it difficult to tell Henry when he disagreed with tactics.

"They're [Carter and captain chie McCaw] from Christchurch so they're conservative, they don't like to question things."

To remedy this Henry said he spent time with the pair in Christchurch, where they felt comfortable, developing tactics and strategies together.

"We spent a lot of time there working things through."

Alongside this, he fostered a healthy sense of competition.

"When you ask the players which team they'd most like to beat, they say the Australians because they're our big brothers."

Henry emphasised the importance of tenacity and refusing to quit when times were tough.

He spoke of returning to New Zealand after the unsuccessful 2001 Lions tour to Australia, and joining the Blues team.

"I went from a million [dollars] a year overnight to $20,000."

- ? Fairfax NZ News

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Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8440032/Sir-Graham-Henrys-management-tips

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