Legacy: What The All Blacks Can Teach Us About The Business Of Life by James Kerr

 

Legacy by James Kerr
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

James Kerr's book, Legacy: What The All Blacks Can Teach Us About The Business Of Life is the book the 2023 UGA Bulldogs are reading. The book is about the greatest team of all time. It is a rugby team, The All Blacks" who have the greatest winning percentage in their history. Kerr takes the "keys of this team's success" and applies them to life, business, other sports teams, etc. It is a fascinating book. It you enjoy reading about success, leadership, how to win, how to live a good life, how to train a team, then I highly recommend this book. I hope the quotes below will challenge and encourage you.

James Kerr, “Legacy: What The All Blacks Can Teach Us About The Business Of Life” Quotes from the book:

Successful leaders balance pride with humility: your absolute pride in performance; total humility before the magnitude of the task. ~James Kerr

The challenge is to always improve, to always get better, even when you're the best. Especially when you're the best. ~James Kerr

A collection of talented individuals without personal discipline will ultimately and inevitably fail. Character triumphs over talent. ~James Kerr

Only by knowing yourself can you become an effective leader. ~Vince Lombardi

From self-knowledge, Lombardi believed, we develop character and integrity. And from character and integrity comes leadership.

What is my job on the planet? What is it that needs doing, that I know something about, that probably won't happen unless I take responsibility for it? ~Jon Kabat-Zinn

Winning takes talent, John Wooden would say. To repeat it takes character.

You get nowhere without character. Character is essential to individuals, and their cumulative character is the backbone of your winning team. ~Bill Walsh

The challenge of every team is to build a feeling of oneness, of dependence on one another. ~Vince Lombardi

Because the question is usually not how well each person performs, but how well they work together. ~Vince Lombardi

collective character is vital to success. Focus on getting the culture right; The results will follow. ~ James Kerr

Performance = capability + behavior. ~ James Kerr

Vision without action is a dream. ~James Kerr

Our values decide our character. Our character decides our value. ~James Kerr

A culture of asking and re- asking fundamental questions cuts away unhelpful beliefs in order to achieve clarity of execution. Humility allows us to ask a simple question: how can we do this better? ~James Kerr

Humility does not mean weakness, but its opposite. Leaders would mana understand the strength of humility. It allows them to connect with their deepest values and the wider world. ~James Kerr

Sweep the sheds. Never be too big to do the small things that need to be done. ~James Kerr

A winning organization is an environment of personal and professional development, in which each individual takes responsibility shares ownership. ~James Kerr

Leaders create leaders. ~James Kerr

Organizational decline is inevitable unless leaders prepare for change - even when standing at the pinnacle of success. ~James Kerr

It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change. ~Charles Darwin

Go for the Gap. When you're on top of your game, change your game. ~James Kerr
Play with purpose. Ask why? ~James Kerr

The person with a narrow vision sees a narrow horizon, the person with a wide vision sees a wide horizon. ~James Kerr

Leaders connect personal meaning to a higher purpose to create belief in a sense of direction. ~James Kerr

Humans, by their nature, seek purpose- a cause greater and more enduring than themselves. The most convincing arguments for his theories are the simplest to understand: we leave well paying jobs for purpose driven ones, we volunteer, We have children. ~Daniel Pink

The idea that emotional reward is more important than material compensation. That intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation rules the world. ~Hawthorne Effect

Victor Frankel, who, in his book, Man's Search for Meaning, cites research from John Hopkins University: Asked what they considered very important to them now, 16% checked making a lot of money; 78% said their first goal was finding a meaning and purpose to my life.
“What man actually needs”, argues Frankel, “is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task.”

People don't buy what you do they buy why you do it. ~Simon Sinek

Inspired leaders, organizations and teams find their deepest purpose- their why? -and attract followers through shared values, vision, and beliefs. ~James Kerr

Leaders create leaders by passing on responsibility, creating ownership, accountability and trust. ~James Kerr

Shared responsibility means shared ownership. A sense of inclusion means individuals are more willing to give themselves to a common cause. ~James Kerr

Leaders don't create followers they create more leaders. ~Tom Peters

Instill in your team members a sense of great self-worth - that each, at any given time, can be the most important on the battlefield. ~General David Petraeus

The mission command model requires the leader to provide 1.) A clear defined goal, 2.) the resources 3.) the time-frame. ~James Kerr

By arming staff with intention, leaders can enable their people to respond appropriately to changing context, without losing sight of the tactical imperative. ~James Kerr
Leaders create leaders. They armed their subordinates with intent. And then step out of the way. ~James Kerr

Look for a leader who can bring people together. ~James Kerr

Leaders or teachers. ~James Kerr

In Drive, Daniel Pink lists the three factors that he believes creates motivation in a human being: mastery, autonomy, and purpose. ~James Kerr

“The best sports people in the world practice more than they play,” Sean Fitzpatrick, states in, New Zealand Management Magazine. “Businesspeople should practice too. They should go home at night and analyze their day's performance. They don't and they need to. To be good at something takes practice, and lots of it.”

“Excellent firms don't believe in excellence,” wrote Tom Peters in Thriving on Chaos, only in constant improvement and constant change. He argues that success is result of a long-term commitment to improving excellence - the small steps leading to a mighty leap.

Excellence is a process of evolution, of cumulative learning, of incremental improvement. ~James Kerr

Enlightened leadership promotes a structured system for the development of the team, combined with a tailored map for the development of the individual. ~James Kerr

A map of daily self-improvement acts as a powerful tool to develop teams and organizations; this living document provides fresh goals and develops new skills so people push themselves harder, become more capable and achieve more for the team. ~James Kerr

Leaders or learners. ~James Kerr

You find out that life is just a game of inches. So is football. Because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small . . . On this team, we fight for that inch. On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us to pieces for that inch . . . Cause we know when we add all those inches that's going to make the difference between winning and losing. ~Al Pacino character in Any Given Sunday

Marginal gains: 100 things done 1% better to deliver cumulative competitive advantage. ~James Kerr

Computer programmers have a phrase: garbage in/ garbage out. If we apply the analogy, this means:
• the verbal, visual, and gestural language that will allow to take up residence in our heads;
• the toxins like alcohol, drugs, or sugar that will allow to take up residence in our bodies parentheses and mines);
• the people will allow to take up space in our lives. ~James Kerr

Sometimes it only takes one encounter - one teacher - to change their life, and many lives after that. ~James Kerr

Successful leaders look beyond their own field to discover new approaches, learned best practices, and push the margins. Then they pass on what they have learned. ~James Kerr

The first stage of learning is silence, the second stage is listening. ~James Kerr

Fly information. Follow the spearhead. This is the being of team and the essence of successful organization. ~James Kerr

For the Strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack. ~Rudyard Kipling

The being of team begins from inside. High standards must come from within. Leadership works best when your team takes the lead. ~James Kerr

No one is bigger than the team and individual brilliance does not automatically lead to outstanding results. One selfish mindset will affect a collective culture. ~James Kerr

It's better to have 1000 enemies outside the tent than one inside the tent. ~An old Arab Proverb

A little water seeping through a small hole may swamp a canoe. ~Maori saying

Success can be traced back to the connections between members of the team and their collective character, something true of all winning organizations. Great leaders ruthlessly protect their people, encouraging connection, collaboration, and collective ownership, nurturing a safe environment of trust, respect, and family ~James Kerr

Let us be united, not pulling against one another. ~James Kerr

EMBRACE EXPECTATIONS: Aim for the highest cloud. ~James Kerr

Successful leaders have high internal benchmarks. They set their expectations high and try to exceed them. ~James Kerr

We learned best - and change - from hearing stories that strike a chord with us . . . those in leadership positions who fail to grasp or use the power of stories risk failure for their companies or for themselves. ~John Kotter

Aim for the highest cloud, so that if you miss it, you will hit a lofty mountain. ~James Kerr

The way the sapling is shaped determines how the tree grows. ~James Kerr

TRAIN TO WIN: Practice under pressure. ~James Kerr

Intensity of preparation Who- training to win - conditions the brain and body to perform under pressure. It lets peak performance become automatic. It develops the mindset to win. ~James Kerr

In business, training is often seen as a soft option and is limited to the occasional away-day. However, effective training is intense, regular, and repetitious. For world-class results, it should be central to the culture. ~James Kerr People

Training with intensity accelerates personal growth. ~James Kerr

“Most people have the will to win,” says basketball coach Bobby Knight, “few have the will to prepare to win.”

A Person who is taught at home will stand with confidence in the community. ~James Kerr

KEEP A BLUE HEAD: Control your attention.
(RED HEAD means tight, inhibited, results-oriented, anxious, aggressive, over- compensating, desperate.) (BLUE HEAD means loose, expressive, in the moment, calm, clear, accurate, on task.) ~James Kerr

Bad decisions are not made through a lack of skill or innate judgment: they are made because of an inability to handle pressure at the pivotal moment. ~James Kerr

Mantras are the way in which we can tell our story to ourselves; they are tools for effective thinking, a mental road map in times of pressure. ~James Kerr

From listening comes knowledge; from knowledge comes understanding; from understanding comes wisdom; from wisdom comes well-being. ~James Kerr

The best leaders remain true to their deepest values. They lead their own life and others follow. ~James Kerr

The key to strong peer-to-peer interaction is a high level of trust. This is trust in the sense of safe vulnerability. The leaders need to create an environment where individuals get to know each other as people and gather insight into their personal story and working style. This needs to be supported by the leader’s role-modelling behavior around admission of mistakes and weaknesses and fears . . . this is essential by safe conflict and safe confrontation, where the most important interactions often occur. ~Owen Eastwood

High-performing teams promote a culture of honesty, authenticity, and safe conflict. ~James Kerr

Integrity means that our thoughts and words and deeds are as one, a chiropractic alignment in which our core values, purposes, beliefs, and behaviors all flow in the same direction. It's useful to think of integrity not as morality, as many people do, but workability. It's not about being pure or noble - it's about getting stuff done. Though the end result is trust, belief, and respect, these are merely the by-products of the fact that when we say something will happen it actually does happen. This means that others can count on us to deliver. And, most importantly, that we can count on ourselves. ~James Kerr

Integrity in our model is honoring your word. As such, integrity is a purely positive phenomenon. It has nothing to do with good versus bad, right versus wrong behavior. Like the law of gravity, the law of integrity just is, and if you violate the law of integrity . . . you get hurt just as if you try to violate the law of gravity with no safety device. The personal and organizational benefits of honoring one's word are huge - both for individuals and for organizations - and generally unappreciated. ~“Integrity: Where Leadership Begins”

To the degree that integrity is diminished, the opportunity for is diminished. ~Jansen

If integrity is a central leadership tool and everyone in a team does exactly what they say they will do, clarity, certainty, productivity, and momentum are the results. ~James Kerr

Authenticity is the alignment of head, mouth, heart, and feet - thinking, saying, and doing the same thing consistently. This builds trust, and followers love leaders they can trust. ~ Lance Secretan

Honesty = integrity = authenticity = resilience = performance. ~James Kerr

CHAMPIONS DO EXTRA: find something you would die for and give your life to it. ~James Kerr

Companies that maintain their core values are those that stand alone, stand apart, and stand for something. ~James Kerr

First we shape our values; Then our values shape us. ~James Kerr

Based on strong resonant values, using a common language that employs mantras, mottos, and metaphors, storytelling helps leaders connect their people’s personal meaning to their vision of the future. ~James Kerr

What is the food of a leader? It is knowledge. It is communication. ~James Kerr

RITUALIZE TO ACTUALIZE: Create a culture. ~James Kerr

Inspiring leaders establish rituals to connect their team to its core narrative, using them to reflect, remind, reinforce, and reignite their collective identity and purpose. ~James Kerr

Rituals tell your story, involve your people, create a legacy. Rituals make the intangible real. ~James Kerr

You are but a speck in the moment of time situated between two eternities, the past and the future. ~James Kerr

BE A GOOD ANCESTOR; plant trees you'll never see. ~James Kerr

True leaders are stewards of the future. They take responsibility for adding to the legacy. ~James Kerr

Asus society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they will never see. ~ An old Greek Proverb

What is my job on the planet? What is this that needs doing, that I know something about, that probably won't happen unless I take responsibility for it? ~Albert Schweitzer

The word "character" comes from the ancient Greek, kharakter, meaning the mark that is left on a coin during its manufacture. Character is also the mark left on you by life, and the mark we leave on life. It's the impact you make when you're here, the trace you leave once you're gone. Character rises out of our values, our purpose, the standards we set for ourselves, our sacrifice, and commitment, and to the decisions we make under pressure, but is primarily defined by the contribution we make, the responsibility we take, the leadership we show. ~James Kerr

They're more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are. ~John Wooden

Character is forged by the way we respond to the challenges of life and business, by the way we lead our life in teams. If we value life, life values us. If we devalue it, we dishonor ourselves and our one chance at living. ~James Kerr

This is our time. Leadership is surely the example we said the way we lead our own life is what makes us a leader. It is what gives us mana. ~James Kerr

Our time is limited. Understanding the fragility of life is the first step in understanding our role and responsibility as a leader. Our greatest responsibility is to honor those who came before us and those who will come after, to leave the jersey in a better place. We are the stewards of our organizations, the caretakers of our own lineage. Our action today will echo beyond our time. They are our legacy. Care for the land, Care for the people, Go forward. ~James Kerr

Grow and branch forth for the days of your world. ~James Kerr

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