The Blue Bulls were recently crowned Super 14 Champions. Even if you are not a Blue Bulls supporter, valuable leadership lessons can be learnt from the Blue Bulls performance against the Stormers.

The Sowetan summed this up very nicely in their article dated 31 May 2010, “Stormers get properly gored.” The article stated that “Blue Bulls captain Victor Matfield roamed the field like a Roman gladiator and sometimes soared as high as the nearby Orlando towers”.

Although I may be stating the obvious, if you want to be a leader of tomorrow, you have to have to be a leader. The harsh reality is we are not all leaders. I personally believe you need to be visible and you need to lead from the front, just as Matfield does.

The sixth president of the United States, John Quincy Adams, provides a very good definition of leadership: “if your actions inspire people to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” Matfield certainly demonstrates these attributes.

A number of other important lessons can be learnt from the Blue Bulls performance this season. Top of the list is undoubtedly the importance of doing the basics well. As a leader, you need to ensure that your team focuses on getting the basics right. As a leader it is also important to ensure that your team remains focused. Here again, we can learn from the Blue Bulls. They remained focused throughout their game, they had a game plan. Blue Bulls coach, Frans Ludeke, is on record for saying that their success can be attributed to a number of things, including the fact that the scrum has become a focus point.

As a young leader, does your team know what is important, what they need to focus on? Do you stand out as a leader who provides strong leadership,especially when the going gets tough?