The Art of Captaincy: What Sport Teachers Us About Leadership

Mike Brearley is one of the most successful cricket captains of all time, and, in 1981, he captained the England team to the momentous Ashes series victory against Australia. In The Art of Captaincy, his treatise on leadership and motivation, he draws directly on his experience of man-managing a team, which included a pugnacious Ian Botham and Geoffrey Boycott, to explain what it takes to be a leader on and off the field. Giving an insight into both his tactical understanding of the game, as well as how to get a group of individuals playing as a team in order to get the best out of them, The Art of Captaincy is a classic handbook on how to generate, nurture, and inspire success. With a new introduction by former England player and BBC commentator Ed Smith, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its first publication, The Art of Captaincy remains urgently relevant for cricket fans and business leaders alike. Covering the ability to use intuition, resourcefulness, clear-headedness, and the importance of empathy as a means of achieving shared goals, Brearley's seminal account of captaincy is the ultimate blueprint for creating a winning mindset, but also shows how the lessons in the sporting arena can be applied to any walk of personal and professional life.