FREE online courses on Building a Winning Team - Managerial Inputs in
Development - Image Build
When
the Barnum &
Bailey circus
was touring the now more-or-less peaceful West, their ace sharpshooter, Frank
Butler, faced a sudden challenge from a slim girl with a rifle: Annie Oakley. Clad in frontier buckskins, Annie
would gallop into the Big Circle on a snow-white horse, and circling Frank as he
whirled three glass beads, tied on rawhide thongs, around his head, smash the
beads with three shots. On one
occasion, Chief Sitting Bull of the Sioux tribe watched the
performance. When Annie, at full gallop, shattered the beads with three rapid
shots, a grunt of astonishment escaped the stony-faced Indian. After the show,
he went up to Annie: “ Little Sure Shot never miss”, he said then walked
out. And poor Frank decided that ‘if you can't lick ‘em, join ‘em' was right for
him, and married Annie. (From-- ‘Annie, Get Your
Gun!').
Showmanship is based on the sound
principle that the only reality is what people perceive. Others
must perceive what we do as being right; we have to walk the talk. Just
blowing one's trumpet won't do… there is a need to openly practice what you
preach; otherwise there will be rapid erosion of credibility and collapse of
team spirit. The recent disastrous crises in the world of cricket have been
precipitated by the revelation of skeletons in the Captain's cupboards,
shattering myths and leaving big reputations in tatters. The image of the whole
team takes a beating.
Dramatize your pleasure at crossing milestones, achieving targets. The
scenes at Oxbridge after Roger (now “Sir”) Bannister,
with the pacing of Chris Chataway, Chris Brasher, and Gordan
Pirie, broke the ‘4-minute
mile' barrier were quite unprecedented. Oxbridge expected Bannister to break it,
and he didn't let it down. (‘ The Four Minute Mile”-Roger
Bannister). They let him know they were thrilled. Try to emulate Oxbridge:
- Celebrate a bit; ‘ let
the team let off steam'!
- Publicize success
- Talk to them
‘one-to-one' at their workplace
- Be your team's roving
ambassador, network on their behalf, let them get feedback that you brag about
them behind their backs
- Take pains, coach/
mentor
It is not an accident that the era
of the great player-mentor-coaches… Sobers, Lloyd and that man from Antigua, Viv
(The King) Richards, was also the heyday of West Indian cricket.
QUESTIONS:
1.
What is ‘image'? Why do managers need to boost it?
2.
Why is image so difficult to maintain and so important…to a manager?
What is so important, and what is involved?
