I had the pleasure of facilitating a 2-day conference in Melbourne this week for the Precise Air Group which included a special guest speaker.
There are so many parallels between sport and business and Craig Bellamy was able to bring them to life in his wonderfully authentic way. Spending some time with Craig shows you where the Melbourne Storm’s culture of success comes from and the story that really stuck with me was the salary cap scandal in the year 2010.
The club had made some terrible decisions with the management of the salary cap and Craig and the players (through no fault of their own) were forced to play that year for no competition points as a penalty. The team were effectively playing without a purpose. A win wasn’t really a win. Part way through the year the players had asked Craig to ‘tone down’ the training not really seeing the point given the situation. Craig agreed and they scaled back on some training/video sessions. There was something about that approach that did not sit right with Craig and he spoke with the players to share how he was feeling. The players backed their coach and they returned to a proper training schedule with 100% intensity.
They finished that season well (would have finished in 4th position had the points counted), went on to win the minor premiership the following year and won the premiership in 2012. An absolutely incredible feat.
That story told me there is something deeper than winning for Craig. Imagine putting in 100% effort for a game that means nothing?
As crazy as that sounds it does make sense when you understand that Craig’s real driver is his values, not the points or the trophies.
I have studied 1000s of interviews of sporting coaches across codes all over the world and it is uncanny how common that personality trait is.
It is such a pleasure to learn from the masters.