I remember a rugby player in my year at school who played as full back for the school team. He was very good. He once explained his philosophy to me. He said that if he had two players running towards him, and the try line, with the ball he made sure he at least tackled one of them. As he said he couldn’t then be blamed and it was hardly his fault if his cover defence was nowhere to be seen.
In a crisis or other serious situation in a work context actually sometimes all you can do is just get on with your job and do it to the best of your ability. Some events (like one of the two rugby players passing to the other and scoring) you cannot prevent.
On one deal I worked on recently we were finalising all of the contract paperwork when a last-minute hitch nobody had anticipated cropped up. We were told the contact would not be signed. The person I was with was all for stopping and going home. I refused and insisted we complete at least what we could.
And low and behold the crisis eventually got sorted out and a week later the preparation work we had carried out for contract signature proved essential as the deal was indeed concluded.
There are more apt sporting analogies for this. The mantra of the American football team the New England Patriots under their coach Bill Belichik is just that “Do your job”. See this articlewhich explains We all have a simple understanding of that mantra. In a football sense, you have an assignment and you execute that assignment.
Any team in a business context depends on the individual members with particular skill sets – sales, architect, legal, finance, delivery – getting on with their particular role no matter what crises may be going on around them – whatever the “score in the game may be”.
To return to the sporting theme Phil Jackson the American basketball coach said The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team. More generally and perhaps philosophically he commented Like life, basketball is messy and unpredictable. It has its way with you, no matter how hard you try to control it. The trick is to experience each moment with a clear mind and open heart. When you do that, the game - and life - will take care of itself.
I think ultimately all we can do in our professional working life, like in top level sport, is the immediate task in front of us to the best of our ability with clear focus and attention, whatever may be happening around us. In that simple way great things can be achieved. As Francis of Assisi said Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
In a crisis or other serious situation in a work context actually sometimes all you can do is just get on with your job and do it to the best of your ability. Some events (like one of the two rugby players passing to the other and scoring) you cannot prevent.
On one deal I worked on recently we were finalising all of the contract paperwork when a last-minute hitch nobody had anticipated cropped up. We were told the contact would not be signed. The person I was with was all for stopping and going home. I refused and insisted we complete at least what we could.
And low and behold the crisis eventually got sorted out and a week later the preparation work we had carried out for contract signature proved essential as the deal was indeed concluded.
There are more apt sporting analogies for this. The mantra of the American football team the New England Patriots under their coach Bill Belichik is just that “Do your job”. See this articlewhich explains We all have a simple understanding of that mantra. In a football sense, you have an assignment and you execute that assignment.
Any team in a business context depends on the individual members with particular skill sets – sales, architect, legal, finance, delivery – getting on with their particular role no matter what crises may be going on around them – whatever the “score in the game may be”.
To return to the sporting theme Phil Jackson the American basketball coach said The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team. More generally and perhaps philosophically he commented Like life, basketball is messy and unpredictable. It has its way with you, no matter how hard you try to control it. The trick is to experience each moment with a clear mind and open heart. When you do that, the game - and life - will take care of itself.
I think ultimately all we can do in our professional working life, like in top level sport, is the immediate task in front of us to the best of our ability with clear focus and attention, whatever may be happening around us. In that simple way great things can be achieved. As Francis of Assisi said Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
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