LJA Sports: the business world has much to learn from rugby
Laura is an eager and independent young woman with lots to say and full of laughter. As with everything, she’s not shy and engages in conversation with passion, without any filter or pretence.
We are talking about Laura Di Muzio, captain of the Villeneuve d’Ascq women’s rugby team, who has come with Jannick Jarry to talk to us about LJA Sports, a company they founded together along with Alexandra Pertus to promote the development of women’s sports.
As I listen to what Laura is saying I start to wonder is she talking about rugby or business?
This it turns out is for good reason: she’s talking to us about both at the same time, without making a distinction.
Laura’s universe is obviously that of the rugby world, a sport she has been dedicated to since the age of fifteen. But the vision of the collective she shares seems to have a universal dimension. Substitute “manager” for “captain” and it seems what she is saying could also work perfectly in a business environment.
Ninety minutes later (the length of a match!) she has convinced us: the business world seems to have a lot to learn from rugby.
The following are some excerpts that will have you reaching for your rugby boots before your next work meeting.
1. First, you must build a collective
“Over the last ten years, we have advanced from the second division to the first division women’s title in France, after many years in the doldrums. Our training team left and a new team arrived, bringing new rules with them. Their approach was that before looking for results from the team, we first had to build a collective and write our own history between ourselves.
This began with the team’s identity: for instance, we were nicknamed the “ferocious girls” (“putains de nanas”) of Villeneuve d’Ascq. Championship teams often take on names, for instance lionesses, she-wolves, gazelles, etc.
But we were the “ferocious girls” because our trainer came to see us one day and said: “Do you know what you are? You are “ferocious girls”! You are ferocious because you spend every evening investing yourselves and training yourselves. So, if “ferocious girls” is what you are, then that’s what you must show the world.
It started with that creation of identity and values of dedication and investment. ”
2. Everyone has their place
It’s hard to believe when you’re in front of her, but Laura was a very shy child. Her mother used to send her to buy bread to help draw her out of her shell. But was it rugby that gave her the self-assurance she has today?
“Absolutely! Rugby is a sport that teaches you there’s a place for you.
It’s often said that rugby teaches life lessons. It might seem like a cliché, but this has really been my experience.
When you start out with a rugby team, no-one asks about your strengths, your weaknesses, or if you can maybe move around in the team… You’re invited to come, you’re welcomed, and then depending on the person you are, a place is found for you.
When I began playing rugby at the age of fifteen I was extremely shy, I couldn’t speak in front of people without blushing bright red. When you enter this small and very welcoming microcosm, they explain that you have a role to play on the team. Even if you are unable to express yourself initially, you can always express yourself on the pitch.
It’s a place that teaches you to concentrate on the strength of people.
A few years ago, a young woman who had epilepsy joined our team Her name was Jeanne and she told us she wanted to train in rugby because she adored the sport, but each time she tried she was told she couldn’t play because of her epilepsy.
Due to her illness, she couldn’t finish a match. It would frequently happen that after only a half hour playing, she would have an epileptic fit because of the intensity of the game. So, what do you do when you’re the manager of a team and someone tells you one of the players won’t be able to play for the full match?
Rather than saying: “Sorry Jeanne but rugby is not for you” our trainers told her: “If you want to play, then you’ll play! We’ll have a think and figure out how this can work and what your strengths are within the group. ”
So, after digging a little deeper, we realised that the strengths of this young woman with epilepsy were also the source of her illness. She had an energy inside her that she didn’t know how to control because she had had a fairly fraught past and didn’t know how to manage her emotions. But when given the opportunity to channel that energy and focus it on an objective on the pitch, she could use it to move anything in her way.
Quite simply, she was given a chance. We stopped concentrating on her epilepsy and focused instead on what she could contribute.
And that’s what I learned in rugby: that each person within a group will have their strengths and weaknesses, but they can all assume a role with responsibilities. However, this works only by building confidence. ”
3. To be part of a collective, you must take a back seat as an individual
“Abnegation is the denial of some of your own rights in order to be part of a collective.
In rugby, it means understanding that out on the pitch, you are always there to support others. When you don’t have the rugby ball, you’re not inactive, you are part of what’s happening, supporting the person making decisions.
So, within the company, we try to explain this notion of the decision-maker and the permanent support around them. ”
4. Dealing with failure
“It’s important to understand that when you play, you cannot make a mistake: there’s no such thing as a mistake.
We have a code that we use, “bin it” (“poubelle”).
When a player makes a mistake, loses the ball or is in the wrong place and is then disgusted with herself or wants to cry, the girl beside her says: “It’s ok, bin it, let’s move on. You made a mistake, so what, failure is a part of life, even more so when you play sport at a high level, but now you must bounce back. ”
This is what we learn in rugby and what we try to pass on to the business world, ultimately there are no mistakes, only choices.
Good choices or bad choices. Out on the rugby pitch, that’s all there is. What’s important is to be able to transform bad choices into the best possible outcomes. What do I do now that I have made this error?
I am here with the ball, I’m going to come up against a wall. I have helpers who will help me transform my choices, take responsibility for what’s happening.
And when you play sport, you learn that sometimes you win points and matches even after a series of bad choices, things improve by working as a team, things improve thanks to the help around you”.
5. Good communication is fundamental
“Every day, its essential that I ensure everyone on the team has the opportunity to express themselves. This involves creating a climate of goodwill in which everyone feels able to speak out, so that good information is communicated and we learn to know each other. It’s not possible to go out on the pitch aiming to win and face inevitable difficulties with people you don’t know. We have to take the trouble to get to know one another.
The girls I meet every evening, we learn to know each other, our differences and our similarities. You don’t necessarily want to be their best friend. There are thirty of us, that would be impossible. But, together we share the same project, and when that’s not going well and conflicts arise, we sort things out very quickly. That’s my role as the captain. ”
6. Each person brings their own zest
“The second notion, which is fundamental, and which makes this journey with the “putains de nanas” such a marvellous adventure, is what I call taking initiative. We alternate leadership within the team.
We have been training together for ten years now. As the captain, I can’t motivate everyone every evening for ten years, that would be impossible. We need to stop believing that it is captains or leaders that manage groups. This couldn’t be more wrong. At a certain point, leaders can also lose it. My role as captain is to explain to the players that each of them in their own way has something to contribute, each brings their own zest, any one of them can lead on a particular day. By encouraging leadership and initiative in this way, the group practically runs itself, leaving me with very little to do. I’m there as a firewall, in case someone decides they are above the rules.
My role is to create a climate that allows each player to express themselves, to have the confidence to take initiative at a certain time and contribute their own zest.
What do I mean by contributing their own zest? It’s nothing to do with being a major player, it just means being able to give to the group.
I could mention hundreds of examples of times when a player felt confident enough to take initiative.
For instance: I’m wearing a blue and green bracelet on my wrist. These are the club’s colours: One day, one of the girls who almost never spoke arrived with a bracelet she had made for each of us so that we all had something in common.
That’s what adding one’s zest is, adding something more than what we joined the team for, which is to run around a pitch. It’s about more than that. The more zest I can bring, the stronger my group will be. ”
Some final comments
I think it’s hard not to see how striking the parallels are between the rugby and the business worlds. Go on and
be inspired! We’ll leave you with a final word from Laura on the importance of this collective adventure: “Victory isn’t everything. I would rather lose with a close-knit team than win with a team of individualists. Winning matches with players I share nothing with is not of interest to me. ”
