What my Junior Cricket Coaching Taught Me About Leading Teams

Everything we do has an element of enjoyment. It’s a core value to the team and it's amazing how much their performance improves when they let go of the outcome, stay present and smile. They are less nervous, more encouraging, and supportive, bring energy and they build better connections with each other and the opposition. The hugs, banter, bum taps, wicket celebrations, practical jokes and parent involvement (the boys love bowling at their mums and dads at training) all form part of this approach.

So in business, do you foster a culture of fun or enjoyment? Can you destress, energise and build loyalty and enjoyment by being a bit less serious? In my experience, this typically builds a stronger team that enjoys coming to work, focuses on the team before self and ultimately is a longer-term sustainable approach to less turnover, absenteeism, and productivity.

2●  Standards

I’ve set very high standards of behaviour for the boys. Everything from bad language and negativity, encouraging each other, warmups, attitude, timeliness, training, and overall approach to the game and each other. The beautiful part is that I set and enforced the standards for the first 3 years, but this year I’ve stepped back and let the boys enforce these standards within the group. We don’t always get it right, but they are definitely getting better.

So in business, as a manager of a team, the most powerful evidence of an engrained culture, is when colleagues enforce standards and make each other accountable – rather than a leader or manager doing this formally. If it happens organically, regularly and without fear of reprisal, it becomes engrained and ‘normal’. All high-performing teams have standards.

3●  Respect

This is a simple one. We respect ourselves, our teammates, our parents, the opposition, and the umpires. Whilst we celebrate a wicket, a nice little habit has formed (by the boys) that they clap off the outgoing batsman – I didn’t start or promote this, but I’m extremely proud this has naturally progressed from the basic starting point of respect. The other thing I absolutely love is the boys thanking me after each training and game AND shaking my hand. It’s so simple but powerful.



So in business, respect is earned by doing the little things consistently right. Treating each other with dignity and taking the time to understand why everyone is different and may react to the same information very differently. Doing things like personality profiles, building up trust, being vulnerable and actively listening are all ways to show respect in business. There is no quick result here, but it’s extremely tangible when done consistently and openly. When is the last time you proactively (and for no reason) thanked or showed outward respect to a stakeholder, supplier, customer, staff member or leader? Guess what, its free and the long-term ROI is enormous.

4●  Feedback and Results

After every game, we do a postmortem which INCLUDES the parents. The agenda is based on a download of the stats and a summary of the team and individual performance. I always try and remain positive and focus on what went well. I then hand it over to the captain to give their summary, again focusing on the positives, who played well, any funny moments, and finally their player/s of the day (which we celebrate). No rules here and last week it was the WHOLE team…



Finally, we ask everyone for their feedback and comments, including what we need to improve (which then sets the focus of training the next week). Everyone has a chance to speak, typically the boys are spot on with their analysis, and I add in the technical components to help them improve and use my experience to rationally explain ‘why’ things sometimes don’t go to plan and how we improve. We do this because the boys own it – it's not forced upon them and self-reflection is powerful.

So in business, you should always provide consistent feedback before during and after performance periods or when results are known. Open the floor and be honest. Let the team self-assess and come up with recommendations or solutions on how to address poor performance to ensure you get better tomorrow. On the flip side, don’t waste the wins – use them to galvanise the team to ensure the wins are repeatable because you understand WHY you won.

5●  Leadership

The boys choose their captain for the day. The captain decides the batting order, bowling order, field positions and rotations. They set the tone, give the pre-game speech and direction and are in charge for the day. Sounds hectic and it is, especially when all the boys have their own input, order preference and ideas. The captain makes so many mistakes (from my perspective as a 38-year-old cricket tragic). But I let them make them. I only (try) and intervene if it’s unfair, unsafe or there is a lesson that can be explained for the betterment of their own development (and it needs to happen in real time). Typically, my opposition coach (and we both umpire the games) will run the game for them which is fine, but doesn’t teach the kids to think for themselves and develop their own skillset and leadership abilities. It doesn’t teach the kids to think for themselves or show initiative.

I am extremely aware of this because I was always a young cricket captain in a team of men – I had the same chances, made the same mistakes, and learned hard lessons around managing men, egos, abilities and trying to get results. This made me the leader I am today and prepared me for the corporate world where I very quickly as a 26-year-old was managing a banking team of 50 people and most of the managers I led were twice my age.

So in business, let your leaders fail. Teach them to take risks and back themselves. Don’t make your ‘best’ performer the leader because they might not be a natural leader, nor might they want to do it. That is a HUGE mistake I commonly see with businesses we help. As an example, the highest earning salesperson becomes the team leader, but it’s a recipe for disaster given ego has driven the decision or their leader believes they must promote them to keep them.

Leadership is not about being the best technical staff member of a team. It's so much more – it’s why Pat Cummins is the captain of Australia – he’s not the best player, but he’s the best leader. I don’t necessarily want to turn my boys into the world’s best cricketers, but I do want to make them slightly better humans, and leaders, and let them love the game.

My hope is that by sharing these concepts, you can consciously approach how you interact with colleagues, lead teams, and ultimately influence those around you – especially the next generation of who will take over your business and lead our community.



If you need help with building effective teams, get in touch and we can give you a few tips and strategies to improve your performance.

Written by Chris Black

Chris is a self-confessed business nerd and the brains behind Purpa. He lives for helping businesses and businesspeople find their purpose, uncover their potential, and then provide the systems, processes, and accountability to make it happen.

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