Winged All Black captain
-Gives inspiration to Team Air Force
Ritchie McCaw boards the CT-4 Airtrainer with SQNLDR Dan O’Reily.
All Black captain Ritchie McCaw may have been sidelined with an ankle injury but that didn’t stop the aviation enthusiast taking to the skies and inspiring our young leaders of the future with his talk of leadership, professionalism and teamwork. CPL Rosie Masters explains.
Command and Recruit Training Squadron (CRTS) personnel recently enjoyed a spectacular and surprise visit by All Black Captain Richie McCaw. His day began with a flight from Christchurch to Woodbourne in an Air Trainer. Upon his arrival at Woodbourne he was ferried by an Iroquois to CRTS. His visit was arranged by SQNLDR Nigel Cooper, No.3 Squadron and many CRTS Trainee Squadron members were unaware of it.
Richie spoke to a variety of courses and staff from CRTS including the 08/2 IOTC, R2/08 Recruit Course, CPL’s Promotion Course, Physical Training Instructors and selected trainees from Ground Training Wing (GTW) who have shown elements of leadership potential.
L-R: SGT Steven Creegan, Ritchie McCaw, SQNLDR Nigel Cooper, FLTLT Aaron Devlin.
The popular rugby captain’s visit was primarily to speak about leadership. He also gave us a basic understanding about his role within the All Blacks and how the team was structured on and off the field. In 2004 the All Blacks hit a crisis point and the coaches and management recognised they had a problem with leadership. To solve this they identified senior players who had been in the team for a long time and who should have been leading the team but weren’t. From there they formed a leadership group and came up with some objectives. The biggest impact was all of a sudden the senior players realised the coaches saw them as people who were good All Blacks. At their first meeting the coach got up and said, ‘You’re here because you’re good enough. You’re here because we see you as the best players, and the number one way of leading this team is going out and fronting on the field.’ The senior players then acknowledged this and started playing the best rugby of their sporting careers.
Ritchie McCaw surveys Base Woodbourne from a RNZAF Iroquois.
Richie’s job as captain is to ensure that his team makes the right decisions and he is there to help out along the way if required. He operates in a way that allows the players to lead themselves and to be in an environment where they can speak freely and say what they think, even if they are the newest member of the team. He identified that they have ideas and strengths and their contributions are fundamental for their self development as future leaders. Towards the end of last year the team had become a little bit comfortable and their focus was elsewhere. Since the heartbreak of the World Cup everything about the All Blacks was negative. When the senior players got together this year their challenge was to put that aside and be excited about what they were doing. They really needed to drive that through the team to ensure the new members came in and didn’t feel as though there was a huge weight on their shoulders. The team needed to be excited by the challenge ahead of them. A powerful memory that has stuck in many minds is Richie’s philosophy: ‘As long as you have an open mind and keep learning and be prepared to learn from the mistakes made along the way you’re going to be in pretty good stead. If you have the team believing in you and you believe in yourself you can be really powerful with what you do. When the chips are down, belief is a huge part of it.’
Richie was a fantastic role model and mentor to have had at CRTS. He spoke about how important it was younger members of the All Blacks had the opportunity to put their ideas forward, which I believe is fundamental for the development of future leaders. What he had to say mirrored our values within the RNZAF.
With RNZAF 3 Sqn and Air movements personnel at Harewood.
The All Blacks have grown as a team by buying into and applying their values in everything that they do. The values he was professing are similar to what we are doing within our own organisation. His ideas of leadership mirror our own. There were several parallels with his job as All Black captain and the role RNZAF leaders have in guiding their staff to achieve excellence. He showed he has a great admiration for the RNZAF due to our professionalism, teamwork, integrity and discipline. His visit was invaluable and I can assure you that both the trainees and staff of CRTS have taken something positive away.
Other comments made by course members included Officer Cadet Philip Johnson: ‘I was interested in his views on leadership in the team and how they created leadership in such an informal way. They identified the experienced players in the team to give a hand up to the younger team members.’
Officer Cadet Deborah Haines said, ‘I liked the way he spoke about his own experiences. His experience of self belief has been passed onto our course. We now believe anything is possible.’