We spoke exclusively to Sir Clive Woodward about the art of winning – in sport and in business.
Former England rugby union player and coach Sir Clive Woodward is best known – and still celebrated – for his success in guiding the England rugby team to victory in the 2003 Rugby World Cup.
Their win was put down to his innovative leadership style – along with a beautiful last-minute drop goal from ‘man-of-the-match’ Jonny Wilkinson, and a colossal team effort.
Thinking Correctly Under Pressure (T-CUP) is the cornerstone of Woodward’s approach to creating a winning team. A concept first labelled by Israeli life coach Yehuda Shinar, T-CUP is about making correct decisions under the utmost stress.
The model identifies 12 winning behaviour patterns (covering such aspects as self-control, decisiveness, leadership and time management) which underpin a winning mentality.
Shinar argues that over-reliance on those with talent is a strategic mistake; in many cases very talented individuals do not prove themselves and do not necessarily "deliver the goods" in the way expected. Instead, he pinpoints attributes that contribute to the definition of a "winner" – including a combination of a "warrior" mentality, critical thinking and a reasonable skill level.
In business, T-CUP this could be making the right strategic move in a volatile and uncertain climate. In sport, it means making the right – practised – call at the pivotal moment of the match.
“I made it clear when I was presenting to the board: ‘I’m not asking for permission. I’m telling you what I’m doing’”
For example, in the 2003 World Cup, with scores tied at 17-17, and less than a minute left of extra time, England executed four phases of rugby that ended with Jonny Wilkinson’s match-winning drop goal. In 38 seconds, seven different players touched the ball, making seven passes and one kick. Each player made exactly the right decision at the right moment, under intense pressure.
Making these correct calls was the by-product of hundreds of hours of intensive training, on and off pitch.
In his book, Winning!, Woodward recalls pausing coaching sessions to put individual players on the spot, giving them a high-pressure scenario and asking them to explain, instantaneously, what they would do. Those who hesitated were, he believed, the players who could lose him a World Cup.
As a former England international, Woodward grew up in the era before rugby became a professional game. He was also a successful businessman, working for Xerox, then running his own computer leasing company for seven years until his appointment as the first professional England rugby coach in 1997.
He feels this experience was vital in taking the sport out of the amateur era, particularly with the Rugby Football Union (RFU) used to working with a part-time coach, usually burdened by external responsibilities.
“I had 18 years in business before becoming England coach, so I was used to board meetings,” he says. “Managing upwards is straightforward. You simply have to take people with you. I made it clear when I was presenting to the board: ‘I’m not asking for permission. I’m telling you what I’m doing.”
Woodward has always been happy to test any idea that might help his end goal. Rugby commentator Eddie Butler described him as “the nutty professor, everything bubbling and boiling away strictly in accordance with his calculations”.
The man himself prefers the term ‘critical non-essentials’, which involves a raft of small improvements that can set elite teams apart from their rivals.
Taken from dentist-turned-business guru Paddi Lund, the idea behind critical non-essentials is simple. In business, if you assume your main competitors have an equal quality of employee, resources and training, how do you gain an advantage? For Woodward, you do this by seeking creative solutions that improve hundreds of little details.
He believes there is no such thing as a stupid idea. “It’s a sackable offence in team meetings to think ‘I best not say that in case someone laughs at me’. Get it off your chest.
“I always thought players had more ideas than the management, so you have to harness that. I don’t think I’m great at ideas, but I am great at putting ideas into place.”
Woodward’s time in sport is littered with small adjustments that helped his athletes make the correct decisions under pressure; for example, employing eye coach Dr Sherylle Calder to improve peripheral vision and reaction times. And his use of data and analytics has clear parallels with business.
In the run-up to the 2003 World Cup, Woodward approached sports analytics developers Prozone and asked them to design a data analysis system to allow him to monitor the performance of his players.
Over several matches, Woodward’s coaching team collected data on his players’ work rate, how they developed different plays and where and how mistakes happened. Crucially, he was able to get the same data on the opposition players.
“Initially, we simply showed players the movements they made,” he says. “Getting players to look at it and ask if we’d done the right thing made a massive difference to preparation. We all wanted to win and evaluating ourselves was a part of that. The data allowed players to be more critical of us as coaches too.”
Given his positive legacy, it’s hard to imagine that Woodward has had to face up to failure very often, but he points out that success can breed its own set of pressures.
“In sport, once you’ve done well, expectations suddenly escalate – the moment you slip you know about it through feedback and the media,” he says. “You’ve got to be able to handle negativity because you can’t be successful all the time.”
“Leadership doesn’t happen overnight; you build trust and respect within teams which is a lengthy process”
And he adds that success was never a given. Landing the role of the England rugby team’s first professional coach was exciting yet daunting, and involved building his team and proving himself as a leader.
“I thought ‘I’ve been lucky enough to get this job, so I’m going to give it my all’, as I did with my business, previously,” Woodward recalls.
“There’s no substitute for working hard, you’ve got to throw as much energy and passion at it as possible, and hope your plan maps out. I knew I needed to move the team into professionalism. You also have to get close to your boards and keep them in the loop.
Fortunately, they were a great support.”
His time as England coach was not without ups and downs. In Winning!, Woodward highlights a difficult period when his team members announced they were going on strike – a decision he had not foreseen and did not support at the time. On reflection, he perceives it differently.
“However disappointed I was that they went on strike, in many ways I was proud of them,” he admits. “It took a lot of guts and they clearly trusted each other. Looking back, I’m not pleased with how I handled it emotionally.”
For Woodward, showing leadership – in sport or business – involves a large dose of self-awareness and scrutiny, as well as playing to your strengths and embracing other people’s.
“I’m good at listening, and a huge element of leadership is listening to others and enabling their ideas to happen. Leadership doesn’t happen overnight; you build trust and respect within teams which is a lengthy process.”
He cites former Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, as an example of a strong leader. “Year on year, Ferguson got better and better and left when he was at the top. In the business world, you’ve got the likes of Virgin’s Richard Branson and Microsoft’s Bill Gates who keep moving their businesses forward.”
Leaving a positive legacy involves knowing when to step away from a project or step down, Woodward believes.
His uncompromising style led to clashes with RFU bosses, from discord over the standard of accommodation on overseas tours to the size of his World Cup backroom staff. Despite his 2003 victory, he resigned a year later in a dispute over how England prepared for matches, saying: “I wanted more and we have ended up with less.”
“It would have been sad to have been fired as England rugby coach; it’s just about choosing the right time to go”
“It would have been sad to have been fired as England rugby coach; it’s just about choosing the right time to go,” says Woodward. “I would say the key is to stay highly motivated – I’m lucky I’ve never considered my work as a ‘job’; you’ve got to enjoy what you do.”
Ultimately, Woodward says that he would like to be remembered as someone who wasn’t afraid to learn and try new things.
“I’m always looking for new knowledge and ideas,” he concludes.