In this episode, we meet Stirling Mortlock, former Wallabies’ captain on going from amateur to professional, Rugby World Cup and connecting success.

Stirling is an Australian Rugby Legend and now a Partner at Unio Advisors.

In this episode, we talk about:

• The transition from amateur to professional
• Giving and receiving feedback
• Being curious and the mindset to constantly be better
• Setting goals and his mentors
• Rugby world cup tips
• Some of his best and worst moments in the gold jersey
• Who he feared the most and how he looked to dominate the competition.

Connecting with Stirling Mortlock

You can reach Stirlo via LinkedIn and his company’s website, Unio Advisors.

“And on the top of my page was to play for Australia. And then two years later Gordon called me up and said, ‘You’ve achieved your goals, time to set some new ones.”

On innovation in his rugby career

• There was no way that we just think of something, like, “Hey, this is a good move. Let's just play it in the game!” A lot of time the innovation would happen in off-season or pre-season, and then there was a bit of opportunity to innovate in midweek.
• The evolution that can happen during season means teams would beg, steal and borrow anything that's working. So you do something that worked in the first few weeks, but five weeks from now it might not work. So you had to constantly keep on trying to evolve.
• We were lucky that in those days we had a lot of guys who had great rugby intellect or IP in the game. They were constantly thinking about how we can get better and be more efficient, more effective, more innovative. And so we would actually say, “Why don't we trial this? Why do we still do that?”

On receiving feedback

• The first thing is you've got to actually have an understanding of where you sit relative to your peers or relative to the market, ie. your customer value proposition.
• Then it’s being able to measure that or at least have a really clear understanding of that. Then you can try things or look at the feedback you've been getting and the research, so that you can then make an informed decision to improve.
• The great thing about sport is that it is all about evolving and constantly challenge yourself to be better day in, day out. The challenge is when you transition into the corporate world, often the cycles are so much longer and people don’t necessarily like changing or constantly evolving. If you show them that it's going to categorically make their job easier, or more beneficial to the group or the organisation, people absolutely gravitate towards evolving and changing.
• Feedback is just gold, especially in sport. Athletes have a performance every week almost and so you got feedback from that performance almost every week from your coaching staff and people who are there to help you get better.
• From my point of view, it was more about trying to create a constant feedback loop for people on an informal and formal basis, whereby feedback wasn't considered to be me telling you that you're not doing a good job, but that it can also be positive reinforcement. It was trying to break down that stereotype, that feedback is always going to be negative. And it’s not personal.

On the most valuable advice from a mentor

• My first coach in senior rugby was Gordon Ogilvy, who coached the U19s. All the lessons that I learned when I was 19 about goal-setting and really audacious goals, not small ones, was through him. And then he showed me how to map out a way to achieving those.
• He would say, “Gentlemen, if you want something to come true in this life, you must write it down. So get your goals, write them down and then share them with someone.” By doing this, it goes from the virtual world to the real world. And secondly, sharing them with someone makes you categorically accountable to those goals that you set and it gives you a deeper connection with the person you shared them with as well.

On connecting success with Unio Advisors

• So we’re about high-level connectivity and understanding the clients and what motivates them and drives them. Then seeing if there's alignment with what we're trying to do with what they're trying to do.
• Then it comes down to the unique investments we're getting access to and then marrying them up with clients. So as soon as we understand the clients at that level, then we can say, “We've got a guy who's in that sector that you should meet.”
• So it's more about us connecting our client base with customers or companies that we know and trying to help them do what they're trying to do and be more efficient, more effective and create success.

On the hardest lesson he learnt from rugby

• In that World Cup quarter-final loss against England, as a captain, at half-time I came into the change room a bit later than everyone else and it was like a morgue. It was almost like we'd already lost the game at half-time. And I remember just being so frustrated and so we took some time out to collect ourselves. I said, “Right now, we’re not a winning change room. When we're a winning change room, I'll start talking.”
• And that's the biggest challenge when you're a leader, to try to right the ship when you know it's not where it needs to be heading.

Final message of wisdom and hope for future leaders 

• I think it's critical for executives to lead by example and part of doing that is making sure that they provide clarity and empower the team that you manage so that they can then do that for their team. And it goes down the chain. In the corporate world, a lot of people manage up more than they're managed down. So make sure that you lead by example with great standards and you provide a framework and clarity for your team.
• By doing this you create a constant high-performing environment whereby you're giving them feedback, and they’re giving you feedback and you're expecting them to do that with their team.

Stay epic,
Greg