"right now they're they're in win the series mode, and it's dealing with what's happening right in front of them"

How Do You Balance a Long-Term Goal With the Job in Front of You?

Sir Steve Hansen, Episode 2, The Shaun O'Neill Podcast

There is a Rugby World Cup coming.

Every coach in the world knows it, every selection gets read through it, and every decision gets second guessed against it.

So I asked Sir Steve Hansen the question I actually wanted answered. Are Dave and Rassie thinking about that right now, in the middle of a series they are trying to win. Or does a coach just park it.

His answer was more useful than I expected, because he did not say they ignore it.

He said the thinking already happened.

The long-term thinking was done earlier, when the squads were picked. That was the moment the World Cup got factored in. Once the series started, the job narrowed to the series, and the people who carry the cost of any distraction are the coaching staff rather than the players.

The thinking already happened

"I don't think they'll be thinking too much about World Cup right now."

His point is that the World Cup was dealt with at squad selection. The bigger squads, the players brought in, the ones left out. All of that was the long-term call, and it got made once.

Which is a much better model than the one most of us run.

We tend to keep the big goal permanently switched on, checking every decision against it, all year. That feels responsible. What it actually does is put a second job on top of the first one, so you are never fully doing either.

He is describing something cleaner. Do the long-term thinking properly, at the right moment, in a decision you can point to. Then put it down.

Win the series mode

"right now they're they're in win the series mode, and it's dealing with what's happening right in front of them"

Win the series mode.

I like that because it is a mode, not a mood. Something you are deliberately in, that has edges, and that you can be out of at another time.

Nothing has been abandoned. The World Cup is still coming and everyone knows it. But the attention has been narrowed on purpose, and narrowing attention is a decision somebody has to make and then defend.

Somebody has to absorb the distraction

This is the part I did not see coming, and it is the best thing in the answer.

Hansen points out the All Blacks have a midweek game that week. A distraction sitting in the middle of a test week. And he says it lands harder on the coaches and the staff than it does on the players, because the players have it easy by comparison. They know their game is Saturday.

"the coaching staff will have to work overtime um to make sure that both parties are are getting what they need for their particular week"

So the players get one clean week with one clear job.

That does not happen by itself. Somebody upstairs is working overtime to make sure the mess never reaches them.

What I take out of that

That last bit is the whole leadership lesson and it gets missed constantly.

Focus is not something you tell people to have. It is something you build for them, usually by absorbing the complexity yourself so it never lands on their desk.

If your team is distracted, there is a fair chance it is because the distractions are being passed straight through rather than being caught. Every reorg rumour, every shifting priority, every competing request. The leader who forwards all of that is not being transparent. They are handing over a job they were supposed to do.

So there are two things sitting in Hansen's answer. Do the long-term thinking once, properly, at a moment you can name, then put it down and work on what is in front of you. And accept that keeping the week clean for everyone else is going to cost you your own.

Book Sir Steve Hansen

Sir Steve Hansen is available for corporate events, conferences, leadership days and in-house sessions through Essential Talent.

He is a strong fit for leadership teams juggling a long-term strategy against short-term delivery, and for anyone whose people are being pulled in too many directions at once. He has run both at the highest level in the game.