He may well be the Wallabies captain, but Stephen Moore has some leadership challenges this year with his move to back to Super Rugby club Queensland Reds.
The big difference for Moore, who will play his first game for the Reds since 2008 against the Sharks in Super Rugby's opening round on Friday night after leaving the ACT Brumbies in the off-season, is that he won't be captain.
Instead, Moore is part of a four-man leadership team operating under Reds captain James Slipper.
There's absolutely no issues with his new role, but Moore tells The Australian Financial Review he will have to adapt his leadership style when he pulls on the maroon jumper.
"What we are hoping to do is to help the next generation of leaders in the team emerge," he says. "Rugby has not necessarily been good at that in the past. So to help the guys that could be leaders in four or five years time. So succession planning in that way."
Different styles
This is a big change, Moore admits, from earlier in his career when he was a young hooker running around with the Brumbies. Back then he says he thought every player needed to be as outwardly serious and obsessed about their rugby as he was.
But as he has become more experienced, he has seen the need to adapt his leadership style and be able to accept and then nurture and encourage different sorts of characters – all for the good of the team.
"Early in my career, I thought I had a clear idea of what people had to look like in professional sport. I was pretty naive. I've learnt it is important to embrace different types of people to just your type, and to make sure all can thrive in a team environment. You can't have a team of robots with similar traits and characteristics.
"You will have the person who is quiet, very focused and trains really hard. But you have others that like to have a joke as well. That can help the group too, especially when you're away on tour for so long. You have to remember to enjoy it."
C-Suite adviser
In another change for Moore, he has begun putting his leadership theories into work off the field. He has joined with former Deloitte chief strategy officer Gerhard Vorster to form Quidni Advisory, which offers strategic and leadership advice to the corporate sector.
Vorster operates at the C-Suite level, while Moore has begun taking groups of executives and staff members on leadership workshops and discussing his leadership experiences and various styles that do and don't work in certain situations.
It is part of Moore's plan to transition to the business world in retirement, he hopes, after the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
"The big thing about leadership I think is you have to keep learning," he says. "I think the big thing is to develop your own leadership style, you don't just have to copy someone else. It is a never-ending process, and you can take a lot from learning from people around you and other leaders, and keep adding to your own leadership tool-box.
"And probably one important thing I try to get across is if you're in a group, and this applies to sport and in the corporate world, even if you aren't in an official leadership role you can still be a leader and have leadership qualities. It is important to foster that across the whole group."
When asked about the leaders he admires and has learnt from, Moore nominates former Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh and ex-Test opener Justin Langer from the sporting world.
A David Thodey fan
The Wallabies captain then nominates former Telstra chief executive David Thodey as a business leader he admires. "He is one I've read a fair bit about and thought was very interesting, how he transformed Telstra and also made it a more fun place to work it seems. And he is doing interesting things at CSIRO now too."
While Moore sizes up his challenges off the field, his sport is facing considerable issues on and off the park as well.
The Wallabies continue to struggle to beat their mighty rivals New Zealand, and the five Australian Super Rugby sides are struggling to make ends meet financially as fans seemingly lose interest in a complex competition that includes teams from South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina and Japan.
Meetings will take place this week about what structure the wider competition should take, and where the Australian teams sit within that, with the Australian Rugby Union reportedly giving some consideration to whether five teams is one too many.
Moore, in line with the Rugby Union Players' Association, says five teams is a must. But beyond that, he admits the competition needs some simplifying.
"We need to make it easier for the fans to understand, but five teams is a definite and I think we have the player talent pool for that. I think I leaders have the best interests of the sport at heart and hopefully they come up with a good model."
That will require some strong leadership. Something rugby is in big need of at the moment.
