by LYIS
Sir Graham Henry is a remarkable individual by anyone’s account. His obsession with being the best he could be and wanting the best from others culminated in New Zealand recapturing the Rugby World Cup in 2011, after a wait of nearly twenty-five years. Many books have since been written about it – including a certain ‘Legacy’. Yet, for the first part of his career, Graham was a Physical Education Teacher, Deputy Head and then School Principal, at Kelston Boys’ High School, New Zealand, from 1987 to 1996. He has huge admiration for his own former Principal John Graham at Auckland Grammar School, who developed no fewer than thirty-six leaders who would become Principals in the twenty years that he was principal. A remarkable statistic.
His early coaching career carried incredible highs and crushing lows – even leading him to admit that he needed to step away from the game (albeit momentarily). I recently spoke to Graham and we talked about the role of the school principal and coaching at an elite level. The similarities I found are quite remarkable. We begin with the notion of goal-setting.
The Importance of Goal-Setting
Graham confesses to being a “goal-setter” and shares with me the three life goals he held dear: “A good marriage, Become a Principal and Coach the All-Blacks”. Despite taking nearly thirty years to reach the latter, the first two without a doubt (and by his own admission) propelled him to become the coach of the All Blacks. Whilst the fluidity of work these days means that life can indeed be more interchangeable, having a laser-like focus on what you want to get out of life can help those seeking to use our collective energies to support and develop others. It could therefore be argued that the stability of life gave Graham such a head-start when it came to his coaching. “When your goals include other people in them or are for the development of other people, your drive and passion to achieve them are virtually unstoppable”, says Graham.
Get Clarity of Your Role
Before anyone can begin to experience success in any role, it is essential to seek clarity on one’s purpose and function. What are you there to do and how can you do it most effectively? “A road map of clarity gives you stability”, says Graham. “When you have forty-plus people on that road of clarity, it’s hard to knock them off”, he adds. If you have ever been unsure about what you are expected to do as an international school principal, pause and reflect. What you expect from others and what others expect from you, may not be in a natural alignment. Get clarity on your role and whether you have the knowledge, tools and resources to be successful in that role. If you don’t, it’s worth asking yourself ‘What do I need to be successful’? Give clarity to others and those who need it. Leave others in no uncertain terms about what they are there to do – then set the highest possible expectations you can. Even if they miss, they’ll still be performing at a high level.
Focus On What Matters Most – Most Often
“The school principal doesn’t necessarily have to deal with all of the issues and challenges that face our international schools,” says Graham. “When I was coaching in Auckland, I discovered that a lot of the coaches were trying to do too many things at the same time….spinning too many plates”. As international schools, we can often focus on the niceties and visual things our schools and communities represent and focus too much on what doesn’t matter most. Sound familiar? Then you may have a problem. “Focus on whatever will make the boat go faster – focus on those five things”, says Graham. Whether getting the best staff you can, teaching quality or building long-term sustainable relationships within your school and between your staff – less is so often more. When it comes to policies and communication with staff, Graham’s advice? “Be simplistic. Resist the temptation to produce reams and reams of policies and documents that teachers are likely to end up paying lip service to. Develop succinct, concise documentation that is easily understood”. Without it he says “people will lose focus, and motivation and their awareness and implementation of it will likely suffer”. At the end of the day Graham tells me, “You have to be simplistic. It (leadership) is about people development, people being better people and people helping others”.
The Importance of Doing Your Homework – Due Diligence
To Graham, it is critically important to delve deep into the work history of people that you are looking to hire. Equally important is to look at other people who are not on the list of references that people provide. “Too often we make mistakes when it comes to hiring the wrong people,” he says. Adding “Make sure that the person you are interviewing is going to add to the environment of the school. Will the person you are hiring be involved in the wider life of the school?” Graham noted “As a school leader, the more homework I did, the more comfortable I felt that I had made the right decision” – a valuable lesson for any international school principal and those aspiring to become one.
Graham comments on his approach to homework. “I did what I had to do and I was very keen on winning. What I have learned over time was that I could rely on other people to do a lot more. I still did what I did (that didn’t change) but the more I got other people to do, the better their involvement. The learning for me about leadership was to give others more and more responsibility, and the more responsibility they have (in the main) the better they performed”.
Culture Eats Strategy – But Strategy Builds Interdependent Cultures
Graham gives me an insight into one of his greatest coaching questions, “How do we score from here”. I pause and marvel at the questions’ simplicity, especially as someone who has coached rugby. The multiplicity of outcomes and the ownership among players that such a response can generate. Genius. Imagine if our teaching focus was on students working collaboratively to solve real-life challenges. An obsession for preparedness Graham built around a purposeful distribution of leadership, ultimately led his teams to be some of the best prepared in the world. He dissected every possible moment in the game, thinking about ways to attack and ways to score. Attention to detail in the right manner builds confidence, and when others are involved in building that detail it is also a leadership opportunity.
Planning for adversity also breaths confidence in others, and in 2011, when Stephen Donald came on to kick a World Cup-winning penalty as the fourth-choice player in his position, there was somehow a response among players that even with him being the fourth-choice fly-half, nothing deviated from what the team was there to do. Dealing with adversity by having a strategy for it, developed an interdependent culture. Rewind to 2001 (losing the Lions series 2-1 to Australia) and after a lot of soul-searching on how to deal with defeat, Graham proved how great leadership often allows you to see the bigger picture, where the harshest lessons are often the best.
Leadership Development Never Stops
The All Blacks Rugby team is renowned for its Individual development and support programmes for players – something our schools, their teachers and leaders should take note of. Notes Graham of the time, “We had thirteen people in a leadership group – seven players and six in management. We had senior players mentoring junior players, which was good for both as it was a learning opportunity”. Taking every opportunity to develop people is an important cultural and performance aspect for any team or school. Is your school making the most of this untapped resource of mentorship?
What is Your School’s Legacy?
What can you do as a school leader to ensure that you add to your school’s legacy? “When you have a set of behaviours that are agreed upon by teachers (or players) it can be very powerful” says Graham. “It has to be something that you live with in real-time and chunk your school year into short-term goals. A lot of this will ultimately be up to individuals and what they have agreed to improve upon. It sounds simple, but it doesn’t mean to say it is easy” he adds. Finally, he says, “Being able to contribute to a legacy is a massive responsibility”.
Indeed, “Are we over-exam oriented”? Posits Graham for a moment. “Should we focus more on a legacy of what is necessary for each individual student? So education is very relevant. Learning to learn is a classic example”. A Student-Centred Approach, I learn, may well be the best legacy for our international schools.
In Summary – the Importance of Being Original
Whilst Graham confesses to following and learning from an enormous number of successful leaders and watching an untold number of matches, he explicitly relates the importance of being original. “You can’t follow others. You can get ideas from others, but I think you’ve got to be an original thinker and have your own ideas”. Adding, “You learn from others, but quite frankly, the capacity to learn from oneself is remarkable”. Thinking of our international schools and their collective capacities, we can’t help but agree. Finally adds Graham it is important that our school leaders “take responsibility” for our schools, their communities, and our students.
Graham’s Advice to School Leaders
- Do what you have agreed to do. Always deliver on what you say you will do.
- Stay honest and humble. Learn from your mistakes and use them as part of your ongoing personal leadership development toolkit.
- ‘Chunk’ your school year into its various elements. By using the ‘periodisation’ technique in coaching you can increase the performance and motivation of both students and teachers.
- Recognise that the ongoing individual improvement of teachers means that the school and the outcomes of its students will improve.
- Focus on a smaller number of key priorities that will have a greater recognised effect on student outcomes.
- Give an ever-increasing number of people an ongoing level of responsibility in what you do and how you do it – then watch them flourish.
- Better people make better school leaders. No matter how qualified, experienced or skilled at the job, if you lead with integrity, you’ll take far more people on that journey with you.
Graham Henry – Key Stats
Teaching Career
- Taught for 25 years before becoming a full-time rugby coach.
- Taught at Kelston Boys’ High School in Auckland, where he was also the Headmaster.
- Previously taught at Auckland Grammar School, where he coached school rugby.
Coaching Career
Domestic & Super Rugby
- Auckland Rugby (1992-1997)
Won four National Provincial Championships (NPC) titles (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996).
- Blues (1996-1998, assistant in 2003)
Won two Super Rugby titles (1996, 1997).
International Coaching
- Wales Head Coach (1998-2002)
- First non-Welshman to coach Wales.
- Won 11 consecutive test matches in 1999.
- British & Irish Lions (2001)
- Head coach for the 2001 tour to Australia (series lost 1-2).
- New Zealand Head Coach (2004-2011)
- 103 test matches as head coach (88 wins, 15 losses, 85.4% win rate).
- Won the 2005 British & Irish Lions series (3-0).
- Won 5 Tri-Nations titles (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010).
- Led the All Blacks to 2011 Rugby World Cup victory.
References:
The Upside: The Sir Graham Henry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZLeLRJ9TAI
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