Rassie Erasmus hates the word quotas.
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NEWSLETTER 006
19 October 2026
Rassie Erasmus hates the word quotas. Iโll come back to why. First I want to take you to FNB Stadium in Soweto, 5 September 2026, the third Test of Rugbyโs Greatest Rivalry, the All Blacksโ first full tour of South Africa in thirty years, with 85,967 people in the seats. The anthems come first. New Zealandโs, then ours, and the Springbok fans sing it in five languages, start to finish. I was there with my family, and it was beautiful.
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If youโre reading this from outside South Africa, a quick note on our anthem. Itโs two songs joined. Nkosi Sikelelโ iAfrika was the song of the liberation movement. Die Stem was the anthem of the apartheid state. They were made one anthem in 1997.
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The Boks won 29-24 that day to go 2-1 up, and took the series 3-1 in Baltimore the week after.
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The team theyโre singing for has won the World Cup four times, more than any other country, and the last two came back to back, in 2019 and 2023. Both were won under Siya Kolisi, the first Black African to captain the Springboks, given the job by Erasmus in 2018. That side is the most transformed Springbok team in the countryโs history, and itโs also the most successful one. I donโt think thatโs a coincidence. Diversity, genuinely recognised and developed, is the engine of excellence.
What to take from the story
Which brings me back to Rassie. Quotas, in South Africa, means the policy that sets a minimum number of Black African and Coloured players in national teams. Erasmus has said he hates the word because itโs embarrassing on both sides. It says some players were picked for the wrong reason, and it says the rest have to be defended for being picked at all. Then you look at the record, and the word falls apart. Nobody in that squad needs defending.
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What 85,967 people were feeling in Soweto has a shape. The psychologist C.R. Snyder spent his career on hope, and found itโs made of three parts. A goal you can name. A pathway you can see. The belief that you can walk it. Take any one away and youโre left with wishing, or waiting. South Africans have never been short of goals. Nearly four centuries of colonialism, slavery, segregation and apartheid wore down the other two, and the thirty years since added state capture and the lights going off. On a match day the Springboks hand them back: a team that people from every walk of life can see themselves in, a goal thatโs plain, a pathway the team has shown is real, and the belief that other parts of the country could be built the same way, given the same patience.
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The anthem and the crowd carry the team on the day. Something quieter carries them the rest of the year. The Springboks find high-potential talent from all walks of life, develop them, hold them to a standard nobody is exempt from, and ask each one to build the one who comes next. Thatโs the engine running.
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If you want to unpack their new operating system, the book's is at paulsteenkamp.com/books.
The weather this week
Most of this work happens where nobodyโs filming. There are teams and companies in this country doing what the Springboks do. The Boks are the ones we all get to watch.
Monday Morning
One question for your team this week. Are you patiently building the engine in your organisation, team and career?
ONE SMALL
BRAVE THING
Pick one thing only you can do on your team, and start teaching it to someone this week. Thatโs how you build the one who comes next.
Paul Steenkamp Writer. Speaker. Builder.
If you've been wondering how to find the people your pipeline keeps missing, bring that question to a Stacked launch.
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Wednesdayย 21 Octoberย โ Crystal Towers Marriott Hotel, Century Cityย โย 5PM
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Thursday 29 Octoberย โ Exclusive Books, Rosebank Mallย โ 6.30PM
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To book your place at any of them, go to paulsteenkamp.com/contact, click the book launch registration button, and tell us which one you're coming to.
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I'd love to hear your answer to this week's Monday Morning question in person.
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