In a nutshell
High-performing teams, whether on the rugby field or in the office, rely on many of the same fundamentals. Hurricanes CEO Tony Philp shared how humility, openness to feedback, adaptability and the ability to reset after setbacks help his team perform under pressure. The same principles apply at work: none of us are finished products, and getting better means staying open to learning, adjusting when things go wrong and continuing to show up.
What high-performing teams have in common
Most of us at Alphero will never sprint onto a rugby field under the glare of stadium lights, make a match-saving tackle, or take a lineout after being munted by a 115kg forward. Despite this, Hurricanes CEO Tony Philp can see some core messages that still make sense in a business context. When he came to speak to the Alphero wider leadership team, he focused on how high-performing teams handle pressure: they prepare thoroughly, stay humble, and keep showing up. I reckon that makes a pretty solid playbook for Alphero.
The humility piece came up repeatedly, and despite being the #1 2026 Super Rugby Team, Tony shared that the Hurricanes must stay open to coaching and learning. An openness to change is something the recruitment team looks for before they even meet potential team members. According to Tony, professional athletes come to expect coaching. Humility is required as a fundamental value of the team, so there’s no room for ego, and not a single player gets a hall pass to avoid feedback on their performance. They watch frame-by-frame footage of their performance with an entire team picking their play to bits. They review decisions, practise skills, and receive feedback all the time.
Imagine a player responding to every bit of coaching with, “Interesting feedback, but I feel my tackling style is critical to my role and I’m offended by you raising this with me. I’ve never had feedback about this in my career so far, so maybe you are the issue.” It would not go terribly well. In the office, feedback can feel more personal because the work is often tied to our expertise, effort and sense of identity. The goal is to keep improving how we work, how we lead and how we deliver. He also reflected on how the team responds quickly after a setback. They learn what they can, adjust and take the next step. Tony reckons that every rugby match includes errors. Great players do not spend the next 12 business days ruminating about the person who flagged the issue. They reset, learn and get back into the game. Office work has its own bad plays. Grit is about responding well to them. High performance boils down to the same fundamentals: openness, adaptability, and humility.
On the topic of humility, an age-old issue from a people and culture perspective is how confidence can be perceived as know-how (by others, and also by the person with the confidence!). More confident team members often have no qualms about sharing their viewpoints, and because they can do this with gusto, others may take their word for it. When this confidence gets out of hand, an inability to accept critical feedback is the consequence. Any feedback that pokes or prods at the ego can feel devastating, even if the intention behind the feedback is good. Humility is the antidote to this. The acknowledgement that none of us are finished products, we all have rough edges, and we all have a way to go before we are the radiant sunbeams we might want to be. Humility is not a common company value, but I was really refreshed to see it as part of the Hurricanes core principles.
I reckon as 2027 speeds towards us, it’s worth reflecting on how we might each choose to greet whatever the ‘115kg forward’ is that is bound to stampede towards us in the new year. Whatever runs at us, we can stay humble and keep showing up.