10 things I learnt from Kane Williamson
I am a big Fan of sports, especially cricket, and from the last 3-4 years I have been following this guy, who has emerged as the undisputed leader of Cricket, Kane Williamson, he won the first international trophy for new zealand cricket. And he is an inspiration for all the cricket lovers.
His calmness, his dedication to the game of cricket, his level of commitment to NZ cricket, is worth admiring and appreciating. Today, I will share 10 things I learned from Kane.
Hello everyone I am Rakesh your coach, author, speaker and Career Transformation Expert
Let's talk clarity podcast is for Career Transformation, productivity and life fulfilment. Please subscribe or follow my podcast so that you don't miss any important episodes.
It was the 2019 world cup final and both teams were on the same score, even after the super over, and everyone was mesmerised by one man, the man of the series of world cup 2019, Kane Williamson, he literally took his team to the final and almost got the cup. He scored 40% of new zealand team runs, yes 40% contribution was from Kane.
However, after the finals, he was praised for his humility.
That was no 1 quality, which I learned from Kane Williamson, even if he was on the losing side, still he was calm, composed and centered. So much balance, I saw on that day.
We all can learn humility in the face of defeat or failure, in any area of life, in career, show humility, that is not the end of world, prepare well, come again and win the test championship. Always be humble.
No. 2 quality is he is the master of his game, no one can beat him, in his batting style, leadership style, his personality, he is a master of cricket right now, Master in all formats of game, be it Test, ODI or T20. He adjusted his game to perfection. He is in the best form from the last so many years, from U-19 world cup days.
His stats speak for himself, great average in all forms of cricket. Always there for the team. Watch his batting, it is like a song, a poem, you want to watch again and again. Flawless & confident.
I learned to be a master of my game, my life, my career, Be a master in Executive Coaching, be a master in Career Transformation.
No. 3 - His leadership
After he became the captain,
The stats of all the members of his team started to improve, everyone is giving their best, and he is leading from the front, like a calm and composed leader, accessing the situation of the game and then allowing everyone to flourish, allowing everyone to enjoy the game and to be in the flow like a river.
Be a leader like him, leading from the front and allowing everyone to grow themselves, giving them the chance to learn and perform to their full potential.
No. 3 quality is his leadership
No. 4 is switching the gears at the perfect time. Don't be confused with the calmness, he can switch gears, whenever his team needs, whenever it is the question of performance, he is always in a beast mode. Yes beast mode.
There was one test match against Pakistan, Newzealand was 70 odd runs and 4 wickets down, He scored around 15 runs in 60-70 balls, and once the scores and conditions improved, he scored the next 90 runs in 90 balls. He switched gears so fast, with the conditions of the game. He came up with amazing double hundreds, whenever his team was in trouble.
In T20, he is always in that beast mode to deliver for his countrymen.
I learned to be calm and go as per plan but when the situation needs, be a beast, switchin to 6th gear, go for that glory, don't think twice about physical health or odd time. Switch gears, when the going gets tough, when the situation demands. Be a beast.
That takes me to 5th quality and that is patience, have patience for the cup, he lost in 2015 & 2019, but today he got the maze, world test championship maze, have patience, and do that work hard, the good guys will win someday, and this is your day, Kane Stuart Williamson.
Have patience and be ready to grab the opportunity. In life or in career, have patience, even if you don't get that promotion or raise, instead raise your game, have patience and raise your skills.
6th quality - respect for other leaders of the game - he always praise for other leaders like Kohli, Smith, babbar, ben stokes, etc. Respect the game, the spirit of sportsmanship, respect other players their hard work,
I learned that it is not about competition with others, it is about respecting each other and learning from each other. Learning from other coaches,
Here comes the 7th one - you can search the whole world but you will not find any haters for this gentleman. Everyone loves him, even we Indian admire his style of leadership, performance, and cool as cucumber attitude. That is some critical leadership style, that everyone loves him, he is so soothing as a personality.
How many of you are fans of his smile, that is my 8th quality of Kane Williamson. Even when he was on a losing side, he was smiling, that deadly smile. Even when a generalist asked him before the 2019 world cup final that New zealand were underdogs for the cup, he smiled and replied beautifully. The gesture & the smile, when ben stokes unknowingly obstructed the ball with his bat and that went to the boundary line for 4 in the last over of 2019 Final.
I am a die hard fan of that deadly smile.
After the retirement of captain cool Dhoni, I think the next cool captain is Kane Willaimson, that is my 9th learning from him. His cool and calmness on the field and that calmness is reflected in every player of the New zealand team. He is the calmest ambassador of cricket right now. You can feel that warmth, even though he won over India 2 days back in the WTC final. It hurts as an indian but his calmness does this without hurting deeply, it is a game and one will win and other will lose, it is a game.
He is like a calm river flowing freely, but when you go into the river, you will feel the current and understand his intent to win for his country. Amazing calm and composed hero of present generation.
I want to be like him, cool, calm and composed and ready for win the game.
Here comes that last one, 10th - self-believe and believing in his team, he never gave hope after so many failed finals, 2015 & 2019 world cup, even when majority of the teams runs, are made my him he believed in the team, prepared the team, pumped that belief in everyone, and won the WTC finals, even when 2 days are washed aways. He continued his belief and made sure to complete the task of winning the game and taking it to the finish line.
Self-belief is the ultimate thing in this world which drives everyone towards your goals and target, always believe in yourself and your team.
That was my 10 most important learnings from Kane Williamson, let be repeat all of them
- Humility
- Be a Master of your game
- A great leader pushes everyone - leader Leads from the front
- Switch to Beast mode when we need to our top most gear
- Patience for that cup
- Respect for other leaders / learn from each other.
- everyone loves him - be a non-hater leader
- Have that Deadly smile on your face
- Be calm be cool as cucumber, everytime
- Believing in the team. - always say I can or I Kane
At last , I want to share a statement I read in one of the blogs in 2020, around a year ago.
If cricket were a painting, Williamson would be the Mona Lisa. He is beautiful to watch in action.
That was a beautiful statement, to be a monalisa of your game, of your cricket, of your coaching, of your career transformation.
And for all the Indian cricket fans, I want to say that even I was not able to sleep that night, 2 days back. It hurts. Better game next time, and let's move on. yes , Let's move on,
Only one piece of advice is to watch Kane williamson’s talk or speech on youtube, that will definitely give a soothing effect.
Rakesh here singing off, thank you for listening Let's talk clarity.