Adrian Birrell - Coach to the Irish Cricket team at Link! Network Meeting
Adrian Birrell - coach to the Irish Cricket team which surprised and delighted us in World Cup 2007, presented at the September Link! meeting.
His presentation - Leadership and Motivation for Start-up Entrepreneurs – drew on Adrian’s unique experiences as coach to the 12 amateur and 3 professional cricketers who unexpectedly played their way into the world’s Super 8 last year.
Declan facilitated an interactive and energetic discussion on various leadership styles and their uses. Charismatic leaders like Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela were proposed by some of the tables as ‘heroes’ in their roles as leaders. Declan assured us that heroes didn’t have to be famous and described his father, who successfully traded through the last recession, as one of his own examples. Another LINK! member proposed his former headmaster as a source of inspiration and motivation to a host of students.
It was agreed that Situational Leadership, where a range of styles is drawn upon and adapted to the circumstances, should be the goal of entrepreneurs as their businesses grow and change.
Adrian agreed that once you have familiarised yourself with the territory you are operating in you need to adapt your methods accordingly to achieve the best results.
On his arrival in Ireland, he said, he found a sport thirsty for leadership and in urgent need of a change of culture. Adrian described his surprise at finding that many Irish meetings take place informally ‘over a cup o’tea’ as he put it. Very early on, Adrian met with every board member over a cup of tea while he found his feet and developed his network.
He told us that he also arranged to meet with each team member’s boss for tea. This provided him with the opportunity to negotiate the extra slack needed for his guys to train and play in order to bring them to world cup standard. This exercise really paid off, he explained, when - due to their unprecedented successes - the team ended up spending four weeks longer than expected in the Carribbean. It was hugely important that, as mostly unpaid amateurs, the Irish squad stayed focused and didn’t have the distraction of worrying about their jobs back home.
Adrian delivered a quick-fire, witty and frank version of the Irish team’s World Cup journey. Behind the accounts and anecdotes – far too many to cover here - it was possible to identify a vast array of management skills which, as a leader, Adrian drew on in varying degrees and at various stages. This innate ability resulted in him orchestrating what has been described by commentators as the biggest upset in Cricket World Cup history.
With passion and honesty Adrian covered the full expedition – from his first impressions of Ireland through to the aftermath of the World Cup whirlwind. Throughout this journey, the privileged network members and guests were treated to a treasure-trove of advice and tips.
If Adrian’s story as told to us were analysed for a business library, the following are just some of the cross-references which would apply: Vision; Mission; Values; Beliefs; Leadership; Motivation; Change management; Creativity; Innovation; Team-working (he used the behaviours of the lion pride in his family’s safari park as inspiration), Skills-development (he got the team to practice pitching with balls dipped in soapy water – imagine their delight to find that five of their key games were played in the rain!!) Networking; Goal-setting, Decision-making, Image Management and, of course, Competition.
Adrian Birrell arrived in Ireland in April 2002 as the Irish National Coach. Under his leadership Ireland’s cricket fortunes started to change, they beat Zimbabwe, the West Indies and Surrey County Cricket Club amongst others. They became Associate Champions in the 4 day format beating Kenya in the final and also qualified for the 2007 World Cup.
Ireland’s performance at the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies caught the imagination of the cricket world when they tied with Zimbabwe and beat the fourth ranked team Pakistan in a pressure game on St Patrick’s Day. This elevated Ireland into the super 8 stage of the competition to which has been described by commentators as the biggest upset in World Cup history. This Ireland team produced another feat beating Bangladesh to gain a top 10 World ranking for one day cricket.
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