Interview with Andrew Cosslett, Chief Executive of InterContinental Hotels Group
Andrew Cosslett is C.E.O. of InterContinental Hotels Group, based near London. He says rugby helped teach him how to deal with adversity, and to rally a team.
Q. Was becoming a manager an easy transition for you at first?
A. I’ve always been very positive and confident, and I guess that goes back a long way. I’m highly competitive, but I’m also very relaxed with people, and that combination makes people feel quite happy to be part of my team.
I can talk about changing things for the better, even if I don’t know what it is we’re going to change. I’ll just say we’re going over there somewhere. And I don’t quite know what that looks like, but it’s going to be fantastic. And on the way we’ll love what we’re doing, have some laughs and a few beers, and it’s going to be O.K.
And I’m going to make you really happy that I turned up and sat next to you, and we went on this journey together. And that’s always worked. It goes back to sport.
Q. Talk about that.
A. Good teams are easy. But if you’ve been a captain of bad teams and you’ve had to find a way of making the team believe in itself and have a hunger to do something — which involves a lot of sacrifice and pain and training and fitness and all that stuff — that’s a lot harder. And I’ve done a fair amount of that.
That whole notion of getting beaten up and actually losing a lot and still having the vision and the confidence out front is a huge part of leadership. It’s a belief, a conviction and confidence in the future prospects of what you’re trying to do, and just keeping the flag flying no matter what’s going on around you.
I learned that by captaining bad teams. When you’re getting beaten by 60 points on a rugby field and everyone’s walking around with broken noses, it’s really hard. But you learn that you either fail or you find a way of dealing with it. And everyone’s different, so you have to know people. I think having a sense of self-awareness is very important, like how you impact each of the people you’re with differently.
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Source - New York Times
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