Focus in times of crisis

Having watched the South African Cricket Team choke again a week ago, this leadership lesson, was particularly relevant.

Our MD is an Indian, and like many Indians he is cricket mad. Today he addressed our workforce and made a stunning analogy about how in times of crisis we all need to focus on what we are good at.

He said, “Imagine I am a batsman, I can’t choose the pitch, the field position, the bowler, the umpire or even the weather. All I can do is bat, my team needs me to focus, play each ball on its merit and play to the best of my ability.

It is the same in business, we can’t choose the market, the economy, the customer or the competition. All we can do is do what we do best, read the market and be smart. The rest is not in our control.

I am sure that the employees he addressed will soon forget all the graphs and the bullet points on his PowerPoint, but all will remember this analogy.

Not only is the story powerful itself, but the lesson of using well chosen analogies as a means of securing a principle is profound. A lot of what good leadership is about is getting people to align with a specific concept or direction. The use of an analogy or story, is possibly the most powerful tool to achieve this. Power point slides and graphs, at best make a point, but a story can focus people on a direction.