Ed Joyce

Lessons from the Master

We breakdown some of the insights from our interview with Ed a couple of weeks ago…

The Journey

Edmund Christopher Joyce is unquestionably one of Ireland’s greatest cricketers, arguably even the greatest. So for us to get the chance to sit down with Ed and the Cricket Ireland ‘Wolves’ (an Ireland A/development side) for an evening and talk about his career, his experiences and what he has learned upon his journey was a great honour.

Ed retired this week from County Cricket in England due to a mixture of physical demands and his desire to play at the highest level of cricket competition (Test Cricket) for Ireland. He has trodden an interesting and sometimes controversial career path. Growing up between Wicklow and Dublin, and playing his cricket for Merrion Cricket Club in Sandymount, it wasn’t long before Ed’s successes with the Irish sides attracted interest in the UK.

Back in 1999, when he made his debut for Middlesex in London and embarked on a professional county career over the next 18 years — Irish cricket was not a patch on where it subsequently reached in 2007, famously beating Pakistan and Bangladesh and perhaps trumped by the victory over England in 2011, in Bangalore. Till this day, Ireland are prevented from competing at the highest level of the sport, so it would be a bitter person begrudging Ed a chance of a professional career and testing himself against the best, when he was selected to represent England from 2006–2007.

A professional career, widely respected, and highly successful performances for two countries. If that wasn’t enough, Ed also studied Economics at Trinity College, Dublin — and is, as we found is a deeply thoughtful, analytical and (at times) intense individual, who cares passionately about his country, his team and his own performance.

If you are interested in cricket, and more specifically Irish Cricket, sign up to the Trigger Movement newsletter and you will get the link the full interview with Ed shortly.

Ed’s Performance Keys

Ed’s experience can teach us lessons across sport, and any organisation — including business. Ed talks about learning from others, from role-models through his career, and particularly at the early stages from Mark Ramprakash (on the field!) and Justin Langer. His insights reveal that he didn’t take everything from them, but selected what worked for him. What made the biggest impression, and shaped him was their “hard-work”, “focus”, “love for the game” and “routines.”

Regardless of the environment, there are four critical components of highly successful individuals and cultures. Hard-work as you would expect, is a given. To succeed at anything, is to fully dedicate yourself towards it. The most interesting to me though, is “love.” There are many athletes, employees, students who work hard — but how many work hard doing something they love doing? Is it a surprise that working hard at something you love would create better results?

To that end, is it worth questionning what you are currently doing? Do you deeply love what you do? Most people can churn out 30–40 hours a week doing just about enough to deliver on their KPIs or performing well enough to stay in the team, but that extra bit: working when no-one is looking, working on your craft not because you have to, but because you want to. How many people can honestly say they do that?

The other two components Ed mentioned, “focus” and “routines” can support the love and the hard-work, but to be very focused and not be 100% committed, or to have great routines but not love your craft — there is something always missing from the ‘good’ to the ‘great.’

Fulfilling Potential

Referring to the impact the wider environment, or team culture can have on individuals performance — Ed turned a question about fulfilling someone’s potential on it’s head. He spoke about being in a ‘supportive environment’ where the individuals could concentrate on the task at hand, and how they wanted to deal with it in their own way; instead of breaking into a team or getting a new role and ‘looking over your shoulder’ and operating out of fear.

This is a superb insight which many will connect with. From my own experience, the difference is like night and day in simply how I feel when I am focused solely on performing to my best, versus worrying about external factors I cannot control — like what are others saying; who can I impress; how are other people doing it.

Importantly, Ed placed the responsibility here on the more experienced people in the team to create that safe, secure environment. Traditional leaders can do a huge amount to support new employees or teammates, and it is further endorsed by the selection process.

Trust the System

Ed provided two interesting insights, which gave the team and the individuals the best opportunity to perform:

• You have to back the system (selectors, manager, recruiter) to select the right people (i.e. not the ones who are motivated by their own success)
• The individuals and the team need to focus on performing well now, rather than what further honours or reward might be presented down the line.

Trigger Movement Takeaways

• Find or provide role-models. Understand who is modelling the behaviour and the culture that you desire, and encourage the inexperienced team members to learn from them.
• Do something you love. If you want to find out how well you can perform and how much you can achieve — you need a mixture of love and hard-work. As simple as it sounds, it is much easier to achieve when you love something, than when you don’t.
• Focus on performing in your own way — on whatever is in front of you. Don’t think too far ahead, compare yourselves with others, or worry about who is watching — just focus on the problem or task at hand and do what you do.
• Senior, or people in positions of power have a direct influence and responsibility for the performance of new or inexperienced individuals. Take responsibility for setting the culture and the environment that will allow others to feel secure and flourish.
• Focus on doing the right thing, performing, and let the things outside of your control work themselves out.

Thanks for reading. If you have any comments please leave below, or if you have any questions for us — share them with us and we’ll get back to you.

Stephen.