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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?
