If you are looking for an exemplar in leadership, they don't come
any finer than Francois Pienaar, writes Ross Bentley.
When in 1995, as South African Springbok captain, he inherited a
squad of rugby players naive in the ways of top-level sport after
20 years in the apartheid wilderness, no-one gave them a chance of
winning the Rugby World Cup.
What followed, as they say, is history. The Springboks united a
nation as they swept to victory, president Nelson Mandela donned
the jersey and Pienaar, who many credit as the driving force behind
the team, became an international figure. Nowadays when not being
ceo of Saracens rugby club in London, Pienaar draws on these
experiences to speak about successful leadership and
teambuilding.
In December Pienaar will be speaking at an event organised by the
Impact programme, a personal development organisation aimed at
senior IT executives. Computer Weekly spoke to both Pienaar and
Christopher Young, managing director at Impact, about the
importance of leadership and its implications for IT directors.
Young says Impact is focusing on leadership because it is a vital
part of the CIO/IT director's role these days. "It is what is
expected of them," says Young.
"But leadership is not something that the IT function has
historically concentrated on. It has traditionally focused on
technical development and professional certification.
"In IT today the higher you climb the less you are dealing with
technology and the more leadership is required."
Young says recent research at Impact and studies by consultancy
Gartner Group show leadership is a big issue.
"People within the business hate change. We all hate change," says
Young.
"The role of IT is to lead change. An IT director must be focused
on business change and creating better ways of doing things. He
must look for support for this change from senior members of other
parts of the business. You can't bluff your way through this. The
greater the change envisioned, the greater the leadership
challenge."
Young says the high rate of change in technology has been driven by
the rate of change in business.
"But the barriers to change are the people within the business," he
says. "While you can buy in the technological skills, it's much
more difficult to buy in leadership skills."
Cue Pienaar who says, "I think that leadership on the rugby field
is more intense than leadership off the field. In rugby your
financial year ends every week.
"But there are many lessons that are learnt on the rugby field that
can be carried into everyday life. It's true that wherever you are
if you get leadership right, it is easy to manage but when you
start to lose it then it becomes hard."
Francois Pienaar is speaking at the Impact @Creating winning teams
event on 5 December at the London Underwriting Centre, Minster
Court, Mincing Lane, London.
For more information contact shiela.evans@ impact-sharing.com or
tel 0208-940 4662.
Pienaar's guide to making your mark
- Motivation - a major part of leadership. You need to
know the hot and cold buttons of the members in your team
You must both praise and criticise members of your team -it is
usual to use more praise as people will react better, but you must
not shirk from revealing some home truths
- Respect - you must have the respect of your team and
peers. This is crucial. There are two types of leaders those who
lead by example and those who have become leaders through their
intelligence and know-how. In the physical arena of rugby - the
former is more common whereas in the business world the latter
becomes more prevalent
- Vision - a leader must have a clear vision of what he or
she wants, and a leader must also be able to communicate this
vision to get people to do want he wants
- Developing leaders -whereas it used to be the case that
leaders were born, today our understanding of what makes a good
leader means that leaders can be developed
Good leaders will bring on other leaders rather than encourage
followers. In a rugby team, you want leaders all over the field, in
the scrum, at the line out and in defence.