Of team cultures and successful leaders
Asked in the TV post-match interview about what's been her highlight in her journey with the Fireballs so far, Jordaan didn't think twice before saying their team culture.
Of late, I’ve found that a match of any sport is made a complete package by the pre- or post-match interviews, particularly the ones done by the coaches.
Those exchanges can be engrossing and enlightening, inspirational, too.
I often find valuable life lessons that transcend well beyond sport in what coaches say these days.
It could be that I’ve realised that there’s generally much more than tactics that one can learn in sport contests.
The last coach who said something that I drew a lot of inspiration from is Dr Elsje Jordaan, who led the Golden Fireballs to their maiden Telkom Netball League title on Sunday.
They beat then defending champions, the Jaguars, 35-32 in the final in Tshwane.
Asked in the TV post-match interview about what’s been her highlight in her journey with the Fireballs so far, Jordaan didn’t think twice before saying their team culture.
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“We set out to play for love and we care for one another, so for me, the culture off the court is as important as the culture on the court.
“So we got a group of players together and we did a value clarification and what this team stands for, and then we started to live that.
“So the culture off the court – the caring, the respect that they have for each other, and in the end, stepping on the court and having the competence to deliver on their skill.
“I’m proud of them and probably more proud of our culture off the court and the care than actually winning the gold – that’s just a bonus.”
I found that inspirational mainly because of two reasons.
The first is that, as the leader of the team, she understands that they had to develop a culture that would govern how they treat one another as a family before they can even get on the court to play together.
That, of course, inspires a camaraderie that can only make players want to go the extra mile for each other.
Secondly, Jordaan says that is the most important thing, and not the results on the court, which means she has prioritised the togetherness of her squad and has the faith that its strength is what will help them get the desired results.
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In football, Manqoba Mngqithi, the Sundowns co-head coach, also said something I found inspirational after a convincing win over TS Galaxy in March, which made it clear to see that they would again win the DStv Premiership last season.
Mngqithi told a journalist that it’s not winning the championship that informs how they carry themselves on the pitch.
“Our focus is never really on the championship that much.
“We’ve got our processes that we always focus on because that’s where we gauge ourselves whether we’ve done well or not.
“Be it the championship can be won earlier or what, we’ll still be focusing all our attention on making sure that we better our best performance of last season.”
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