How Great Leaders Turn “We’ve Always Done It This Way” into Growth
- PG Geldenhuys
- Sep 2
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 3
The year was 1998, and I was with my dad in Wellington when Pieter “Slaptjips” Rossouw took a short pass from Henry Honnibal to score under the posts. The Boks had just beaten the All Blacks in New Zealand for the first time in the professional era. It was monumental. Yet it would be another 10 years before we managed it again, while at home, the All Blacks would still often have the better of us.
Fast forward to now. We’ve had the upper hand on New Zealand in recent years, but Eden Park is different. That stadium hasn’t seen a home loss since 1994. You need to go back a full century to find the last Springbok win there. For context, it’s the mirror image of Australia at Ellis Park: they went 62 years without winning there, and then they did it a couple of weekends ago.
That loss to the Wallabies is a reminder: when you are changing how you play, you will take some knocks. The Boks are evolving, mixing traditional power with more expansive styles… and yes, growing pains come with that. I was as frustrated as the next guy watching the Boks implode a couple of weeks ago, and as happy as can be to share the live game in Cape Town in the cold weather with my family, where the Boks inevitably made good. It was a reminder that you can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs. The risk is short-term frustration; the reward is long-term resilience.
Eden Park now looms, and let’s not kid ourselves. It’s a biggie. But a hard serving of humility and introspection, coupled with undeniable talent, momentum and belief… hell, maybe we could do it. I’ll ready my superstitious contribution for a 10am Brandy-and-Coke, it should be an early birthday present.
Later in September, there’s an even bigger show coming in global context: the Ryder Cup. Golf has its version of Eden Park - winning a Ryder Cup away from home. For decades, it was a near-certainty that the Americans would beat the Brits, regardless of continent or venue. Then legend Jack Nicklaus broke tradition. In 1977, he wrote to the PGA and said, This isn’t good enough. For the Ryder Cup to mean something, we need Europeans to join, and players like Seve Ballesteros. It was a cultural shock. Why would the U.S. voluntarily make their job harder by giving their opponents more range? Because Nicklaus knew true competition needed shared respect. That act of humility and courage reshaped golf for generations.
I dug into this in Ballesteros to Bradley: 14½ Leadership Lessons from the Ryder Cup. Adding Europe created more than just stronger teams. It created a playbook: tactics, exposure to both home and away courses, and alignment under leaders like Tony Jacklin and Seve Ballesteros. They built a culture of team over individual, and from 1983 to 2023, Europe dominated 12–8, with only one draw. It’s an exceptional reordering of the pattern, and it happened intentionally and inevitably as the environment shifted. It happened with strong and deliberate leadership that focused on harnessing differences, not ignoring them. It happened by creating little clusters of culture and chemistry within the bigger team, and it happened because exceptional athletes put the team before self. And there is an amazing early leadership lesson here - Luke Donald opting for consistency, Keegan Bradley putting the team before self.
It reminds me of Siya Kolisi and Rassie Erasmus taking over the Boks in 2018. They faced a divided and demoralised squad and a sceptical public. Like Bradley, Siya chose to embrace something bigger than himself: diversity, shared purpose, and belief in each other. With the backing of a visionary coach that understood man management like no one before him, Siya brought in the powerhouse voices of Du Toit, Etzebeth and Pollard. He didn’t lead with aggressive energy, he enabled leadership with a gentle charisma and empowerment. Like Nicklaus, he chose the harder road, and in the process, shifted the culture of the Springboks.
The same truth holds outside sport. Remember the Titans showed how Coach Herman Boone rebuilt a fractured football team into a symbol of unity. The empathic style of Satya Nadella transformed Microsoft from arrogant and insular to humble and learning-driven, reigniting its competitive fire.
This is the essence of what Jim Collins calls Level 5 Leadership: personal humility combined with unwavering belief. Nicklaus didn’t want the Ryder Cup to be about him; he wanted it to matter for generations. Kolisi didn’t rebuild the Boks around his personality; he simply embodied a behaviour and an ethos that inspired and included. Nadella didn’t chase headlines; he patiently shifted habits and values.
That’s why cultural change is so hard, and so rewarding. It is the test of Eden Park, the test of an away Ryder Cup: you don’t just need skill, you need the courage to change what “we’ve always done”. And if you stay the course, you build a legacy. I think the odds are still against us - but we are making a habit of defying the odds. Let’s go Bokke… and as Ben Crenshaw memorably said in the ’99 Ryder Cup: “I have a good feeling about this. I believe in fate…”
PG’s Pro Tip:
Name the Old Culture. Say out loud what “the way we do things here” really is - warts and all.
Paint a Better Future. Be bold enough, like Nicklaus or Kolisi, to imagine a culture that seems almost too ambitious.
Anchor It in Daily Habits. Culture shifts when small actions become shared rituals, not when posters go up on the wall.
AI Prompt for You
“Draft 5 new culture statements that would inspire your team to think and act differently.”
So yes, the Springboks are breaking eggs right now. But if they stay the course, they may yet serve us an omelette worth remembering - maybe even one cooked up at Eden Park.
The Boks at Eden Park. The Europeans at the Ryder Cup. A high school team in Virginia. Microsoft under Nadella. Different fields, same story: the leaders who earn their place in history are the ones who dare to change culture when it’s hardest. So the question is: what’s your Eden Park? And do you have the courage to change the culture that will help you win there?
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