This week has been an interesting week, in the worlds of my
two favourite sports, cricket and football.
The England Cricket Board have decided to part company with Kevin
Pieterson, in the same week Swansea Football Club have sacked Michael Laudrup.
These two decisions have split opinion, but to me have
highlighted the trickery in managing prodigious talent. You have to give genius time to grow, but it
often needs boundaries to focus the talent in the right direction.
Take KP, England's all time leading run scorer, without
question a 'box office' player capable of magical things. Just him batting could and should be
inspiration enough for his teammates.
He has been given time to develop, given chances to make up for wrong
doing, and on every occasion, when push came to shove, delivered for his
team. In a
world where success is judged by how many runs you put on the score board, he
seems to have banked a few credits.
However, his failing seems to come when he is involved in non batting
issues, when he steps out of his core skill, and uses this success to create an
agenda that should be none of his concern.
Does he need sacking, or re-directing?
Is the pay off for having to bring him into line every now and then
large enough to risk it happening over and over. I hope that this latest end of the road has
come after weeks or months of trying to channel and focus him in the direction in
which he can have the largest pay off for his team. If this has been tried and he has been unable
to tow the line, then perhaps this was the best decision for everyone....but
you must be sure when you are risking such a talent.
Michael Laudrup has brought more success to Swansea in the
last 12 months than they surely could have wished for; he is recently going
through a dip in form. In my experience
people with true talent use these times to become better and stronger. Surely it is better to back a known quantity,
someone you know can be successful for you, than to back a newcomer who may be
great, but may be not so. If you give
some time and you are wrong, you have lost some time. If you don't give them time, and you are
wrong, you have lost all that talent.
I always read such stories and wonder how I would manage
such situations; there is never a wrong or right answer. I always hold on to the notion that good
people don't become bad overnight, but bad people can become good overnight. If
it's your job to influence behaviours to improve performance, take a long hard
look at yourself before you spend too long investigating everything and everyone else.
Give people time, space, direction and focus, and if they
want and are able to win, they will and then - so do you!
