Aspire in the World Fellows Book - 2023

/59 My role is to oversee all the national team programs, from senior men and women down to under 17. I’m from a sports science background myself, but I have extensive experience building performance teams, which is something I do in my current role. Two key things for me, where the first probably relates to my own journey. I know over the years; I’ve never gone into roles I’ve had at 100%. There’s always been a gap, always things to learn, and I’ve always looked for roles that are a stretch, that will enable me to grow. I look for that when I’m recruiting people. I’m looking for people who want to be stretched, want to be at the edge of their own capability, who have a growth mindset and aptitude for learning. The second thing is from a cultural point of view. I’m looking for the right fit and that’s got two elements to it. One is around the team and our culture; how we want to be as a team. But it’s also fromanational point of view. Our culture as a country, our context in terms of how football is in our country. If we’re looking outside of New Zealand, who will fit within that context, fit with our values, and understand our culture. So those are the two key things when I’m recruiting. As a small federation which is quite isolated, the starting point is to look inside our own community and see if the skills we’re looking for exist there. If not, then we look further afield. The starting point is understanding exactly what you need and what you’re looking for. If the candidate doesn’t have the basic skills, then you’re just setting them up to fail no matter how keen they are to learn. However, the soft skills are critical, though difficult to measure. It is helpful if the candidate can share genuine and meaningful stories about how they have learned and how they have changed behaviour over time. We also use some psychometric profiling to help with the process. You’re never going to always get it right, but you manage your risk by being as thorough as possible in your process. What we want is diversity of thinking, but alignment of values. Performance problems are too complex nowadays to have a whole lot of people thinking the same way. One of our other national teams, the All Blacks, have a KeirHansen NewZealandFootball: GeneralManager ofHigh Performance very strong performance culture. They have a catchphrase which is, disagree and commit. Robust conversation and disagreement, at times, over what the solution to any given problem might be, but when the solution is decided, everyone must commit. Prepared to commit to the direction once it’s chosen. Regarding retention, if I have a staff member going on to something bigger and better, then I celebrate that. My focus is on building an environment that people want to be part of, where they feel valued, where their input is valued, where they’re growing individually. If I can do that, and build a strong team, then people will come and go, that’s life. Hopefully people will go on to something better and in the ideal world, they come back again in another role. TOPIC 3