During this unprecedented situation around the Covid-19 pandemic Transition 15’s Performance Director Martin Haag has shared his experience of dealing with adversity, managing in a crisis and fighting for survival, using skills developed and honed coaching and playing professional rugby union.
Martin played for Bath and England during a successful career that moved from the amateur to the professional era and in 2016 he was appointed Head Coach of England’s RFU Under 20’s. Martin has been a key player at Transition 15 since 2018 leading our Performance team.
I often start by referring to Transition 15’s Founder Matt Perry who uses the mantra of 'to deal with ambiguity yet still execute’ which is the exact the situation we found ourselves in today.
Given the ambiguous operating landscape all businesses find themselves in today, as a leader, what can you do to help?
1. Clarity
Providing clarity in complex and ambiguous situations is not easy, but having clarity of thought and developing a clear path towards defined goals is an essential first step.
2. Confidence
Clarity and confidence are partners, with uncertainty and a lack of clarity creating a lack of confidence.
Having direction and a simple clear message when leading others on to the 'field of play’ helps team players get closer to executing what us required to deliver a performance and achieve the right result.
We need to give ourselves and our colleagues the belief that we can achieve in difficult times. Feeling sure in ourselves and in others builds trust and cohesion.
A ‘Situational leadership’ approach, where a leader adjusts their style to fit the development of an organisation, could be the best first step in leading your team or business at this time.
3. Growth Mindset
We want our people to grow, thrive and succeed, and so investing our efforts to help our colleagues through this period, in any period, is time well spent. Take time at the end of the day to reflect 'How do we make tomorrow better than today?’.
You’ll hear coaches talk about the ‘1% improvement’. Making your people feel valued whilst investing in their development will encourage the confidence to flex in their roles or change strategy should they need to.
It’s often during times of ambiguity that innovation flourishes and by encouraging the skills to be adaptable and deal with change will help build strength and resilience.
4. Short term Goals
Your organisational vision and mission should always remain central. During tough times, by breaking tasks in to weekly even daily goals helps teams to focus.
Having a clear picture of what needs to be done will make the steps required more obvious. Often it's as easy as making sure the simple things are being done well and controlling the controllables.
Tasks are like pieces of a jigsaw, nothing in isolation, with all tasks and roles being inter-linked.
-
During these tough times we bring our resilient strengths to the fore, and collaborate more, building even stronger relationships.
-
We hope you find this useful.
If you're a business, sporting organisation or an individual and would like an informal chat please feel free to contact me for any help and support.
Please stay safe and stay well.
Martin Haag,
Performance Director
Transition 15
