How New Zealand’s All Blacks can help your team through brutal markets
Today’s brutal equity markets are tough on our Investment Advisors - and especially their support teams.
They are flooded with a myriad of things to do when the quote screens are dark red: answering calls; sending out statements; reviewing portfolios; making market decisions; helping clients stay on track with their strategy; keeping up with research and compliance; hand-holding nervous clients.
It’s periods like this that test a team. It can also, though, be a time when strong teams are forged. We’ve seen it time and again over the years with our IAs and their teams. And we’re seeing this within our own Peterson Capital team.
Last weekend in Edmonton we held a Peterson Capital sales conference. Our team from across Canada and Europe got together for the very first time in more than two years.
We had a lot of fun and learned some very valuable lessons in teamwork from this young man pictured below. We thought You Should Know some of the key things he passed on to us.
Daniel Carr, pictured above, is a 30-year-old professional hockey player who lives in Edmonton. After leading Union College, a small school in upstate New York, to the NCAA championship in 2013-2014 as the team’s top goal scorer, he then played 117 games in the NHL with the Montreal Canadiens, Nashville Predators, Vegas Golden Knights and Washington Capitals before joining a pro team in Lugano, Switzerland in 2021. He’ll be returning to Lugano later this summer for the next season’s campaign.
In the picture above, you’ll see Dan the day he entered the NHL record books on December 6th, 2015. He joined Mario Lemieux as one of only a few players in the NHL who have scored a goal on their first shot of their first shift of their first game in the NHL. Here's a link where you can see that goal.
Last Saturday morning Dan was able to convey to our Peterson Capital team some insights into successful teamwork that he’s seen in his hockey career. But what was really fascinating was when he spoke about New Zealand’s iconic All Blacks rugby team and THE 15 ALL BLACKS PRINCIPLES.
If you haven’t seen these before, you should maybe check them out. Dan highlighted four of them that he thought were relevant to both sports teams and business teams:
SWEEP THE SHEDS - Never be too big to do the small things that need to be done. Rugby is a team sport and everyone needs to contribute on and off the field. Richie McCaw might be considered a legend of the game but he and other well-known names are just ‘one of the boys who clean the sheds’ [changing rooms] after every game. Stay grounded.
NO DICKHEADS - Follow the whanau. (My note: What's whanau? Look it up.) Excuse the language but it conveys the point. You want to enhance your team by adding talented players but that doesn’t mean that any talented player will do. The All Blacks are very much a team first and look to find individuals who have the right character. You can develop talent, you cannot change character.
SACRIFICE - Find something you would die for and give your life to it. After every game Richie McCaw writes ‘start again’ in his training journal. As a group the All Blacks do not tolerate poor performances and as individuals they strive to maintain the highest standards in all aspects of the sport. Good isn’t good enough. Champions do extra.
BE A GOOD ANCESTOR - Plant trees you’ll never see. The All Blacks often speak of their responsibility to protect and enhance the reputation of the team for as long as they are chosen to wear the shirt and to leave it in a better place for the player who follows them. It is not about personal glory, it is about the team. Play for the name on the front of the shirt, not the back.
Dan offered us some fascinating insights into how he’s seen these principles applied, and how he’s met challenges himself, in his NHL and pro career. If you’d like to connect with him, and hear more, let me know.