Life and cricket; Leadership and communication; African Soul Talk II (local culture)

With all the cricket we had over the past few months (I’m not going to discuss the results!), a metaphor from the sport – and later a number of them - sprung to my mind when I thought about life and how to get the most out of it. Building a good innings as a batsman, as in test cricket, clearly is a lot of hard work. Natural talent definitely helps – some apparantly get their runs with a lot more ease than others. However, it is a useless exercise for any batsman to envy another one’s natural talent. In life and in our work we all have to make the most of what we uniquely are able to do, and we never achieve that by looking at others – their achievements or the flat wicket they can bat on. The comparison I actually was thinking of has to do with the way a batsman needs to clear his mind after each delivery and start focusing and concentrating on the next one as if it is the only ball he has or ever will face. I believe that we should start each new day in the same way. Similar to a batsman, I think we can make the mistake of either carring over the baggage of our emotions of the previous day to the next one, or leave too much to chance when we start a new day. We optimise our time in the middle by consciously clearing our minds after we have fully taken in what we could learn from the experience of the previous ball that we had to face. It is a matter of trust because we have to trust our subconscious mind to store the information effectively for us to use when the appropriate moment for it comes. It is also a matter of trust in the sense that we can’t worry about the curve ball – one that we never have seen before or at least never had to play ourselves - that we might receive next. Our preparation is to clear our minds and sharpen our senses to be able to pay full attention to what is coming to us. The fact that life is unpredictable and often played on a pitch that we feel makes it unfair, also raises the ‘if’ questions. What is there to life beyond the game I’m playing right now? As Jack Nicholson asked in the movie: what if this is as good as it gets? What if I do get out even after I have given my best? What is waiting for me after the game is over? The fact is that even though facing the next ball demands all our mind and physical abilities, we are more than that. We are also spirit and from time to time we are reminded that we need to be at peace spiritually. The more at peace we are with ourselves and our destiny, the more we are at peace with others and with our life circumstances, and the better we can do facing the next ball.

One last comparison: A lot of the joy of life – to my mind – comes from realising how everyone by their contribution on the field makes a difference to the whole. We enhance the result tremendously if everyone learns to start each new day as the good batsman who gets ready for the next ball, focusing on his own responsibility to respond effectively. The idea of being a part of a team, all with unique talents and potential ways of contributing, is powerful. Without celebrating it regularly, we are missing out hugely.

Leadership and development

If there is one area where we never can become complacent as a leader, then it is the art of communicating effectively. Again, as the batsman need to do after his attempt to play a good stroke, we constantly need to review our communication. How well did I do when I tried to communicate the challenges that we face as a team, or when I tried to explain what is unacceptable in our current processes or with a team member’s work? A surprising communication statistic is that only 7 percent of the objective message communicated is composed of spoken words. The remaining 93% is made up of ‘style’: tone of voice (38%) and body language (55 percent). The bad news here – in many cases - is that even if we don’t plan to do so, we communicate mainly our attitude and feelings stemming from our beliefs about a certain individual, group of people or situation. To communicate effectively, we need to be aware of our own filters and those of others. The primary groupings of communication filters are our mental state (i.e. feeling optimistic or pessimistic, assumptions, intentions, beliefs, judgments etc), our emotional state (insecurities, stress, fear ego needs, unhealed wounds, alternatively good mood etc) and the current state of a relationship.

To improve our effectiveness is clearly not a mechanical process. It is rather a process of introspection and personal growth. A lot of the problems we experience can be related to our ego’s. Healing, says Carl Jung, comes only from that which leads a person beyond himself and beyond his entanglements with ego.

African Renaissance

Another thought provoking quote from African Soul Talk is the following one. Dumani, grandson of Mandela, in his dialogue with Warren Goldstein:

I have no doubt that most South Africans love this beautiful land that we live in. But their problem is always how to
contribute to it - what is their role in this society. Those I believe are the questions that must be answered by those who want to maintain this African Renaissance. People need a simple and clear vision to bind them together. If a country governs only by cutting its community off from the rest of the world then you will develop fear because people will fear what they do not know.
I told you I was speaking to someone the other day and he was adamant that South Africa should develop close ties with America at this point, and that Mbeki should have been in New York the second that the Twin Towers crisis happened to change South Africa's image internationally. He said that if we are to survive economically and if we are to have a political voice in the world, we must appease America. But I beg to differ.

South Africa must develop its own unique identity, built on a separate platform. We cannot engage other countries on their platforms. Our leaders must seek to appease their own people and no one else. Everything else must be secondary. We cannot look anywhere else for inspiration except within. I believe strongly that if we are going to make South Africa work we must work on our own people and the perception we have of ourselves as South Africans. This notion of trying to find meaning in institutions and ways of life that are not ours is really problematic. We have so much history and culture here in South Africa that we can use for our own development. We live in one of the richest countries in the world. What the heck is stopping Africa from having a voice in global politics? I will tell you. It is nothing other than our lack of confidence. We look for guidance from outside so much that we forget this country's beauty and its capacity for endless inspiration and knowledge.

We must go to some of the rural areas together one day and you will see the pride of the people and they joy they have in their land. They accept their land as an extended part of themselves and they would never look anywhere else for guidance other than where they stand. Africa is great and we should all come to the realisation that we can govern and lead our country to greatness. We must believe that we have a contribution to make to the world. That will only happen when we develop a sense of national and historical pride in this land. We are not America and I believe we should never strive to be like her. We are Africans who should be united in forming a basis of culture here that does not aim to supersede or outdo any other culture in the world, but one that aims to serve its inhabitants holistically.

Enjoy April and the lovely highveld autums we are blessed with. Keep on batting ball for ball.

Best regards