It was with much disappointment that I watched my beloved
Scottish rugby team lose yet another Six Nations rugby match in 2015. That is
now three loses in a row and there is a very real chance that I will be adding
one more “Wooden Spoon” to my ever expanding collection.
I once again found myself shouting expletives at the
television set on Saturday afternoon and in the dying minutes of the match I
began to look for scapegoats. Unfortunately, I started blaming the Irish
referee Mr Georgio Clancy-Cappuccino-Cinquecento for what I felt, in the heat of battle,
were some very unjust decisions and the awarding of the penalty try in the dying minutes was just
the straw that broke the camel’s back. I could not believe that I was to
witness another defeat on the back of some very dodgy and biased refereeing
decisions!
How could Scotland be so unfairly treated by two consecutive
referees in two consecutive Six Nation’s matches?
I was of course feeling hard done by and was naturally
looking for someone else to blame, as often happens when poor performance is
witnessed and experienced. I should have just accepted that Italy were the
better team on the day and out muscled and outsmarted Scotland. In the cold
light of day they deserved to win and I should not have been looking externally
for excuses and I should have been focusing on how poorly the Scottish team
performed.
“Honourable in victory and gracious in defeat”, my Grandpa
once told me as a wee boy on holidays in the North East of Scotland in the
beautiful City of Elgin. This mantra takes pride of place in my sporting life
and yet sometimes due to passion and adrenalin I do wander off this track and
become the ubiquitous bad loser. My family and friends will testify to that.
It is very clear that in sport and business we should be
benchmarked by our own performance and to succeed on and off the field of play
we do need to perform at the very highest possible level. This often means
working as part of a larger team and knowing what you are or perhaps more
importantly what you are not contributing to any given set of goals. To succeed
as a team all the constituent parts have to work together for a common cause
and every cog, wheel and motor must work in unison and work as one. Should any
part malfunction then the whole mechanism will grind to a halt or break and subsequently
fail.
It is therefore important to have very clear goals aims and
objectives within any organisation or when attempting a project.
My disappointment at yet another Scottish rugby false dawn
was soon forgotten when the Waterford Business Group (WBG) “Night at the Dogs”
followed on from Saturday’s Six Nations climax with Wales beating France in
Paris. The “Night at the Dogs” was a fundraiser for the WBG, with a pledge of
money going towards the Ballybeg Brick by Brick Appeal.
A cold crisp evening awaited the WBG, the dogs, the race
punters and the supporters of the Appeal at Kilcohan Park Greyhound Track. We
had 11 great sponsors supporting ALL 11 races on the night and the highlight of
the evening was the Waterford Business Group Sweepstake with a €1000 prize
available for the winning dog.
The whole evening went by extremely smoothly and without a
hitch due to the teamwork of the WBG Committee, support of Willie Moore and his
Committee, and the great work of the staff at Kilcohan Park ably led by Carl
Pallas, the Stadium Manager. Like a well oiled machine everyone knew what they
had to do and what was expected of them and the success on the night was simply
due teamwork and planning.
There were no scapegoats and no one to blame, as nothing
went wrong on the evening because everyone performed to the very best of their
ability.
And this ability to perform at the very highest level leads
me on to ask these very simply questions “Is Waterford really performing to the
very best of her ability?” and “Are we ALL really pulling the right direction or
are we pulling in opposite directions?”
These two questions really should initiate considerable
debate and if the answer is “No” to the first question and “No” to the second
question then how do we turn that around and how do we ensure that we are all,
to use a well worn phrase, “Singing off the same hymn sheet?”
When we see so many of our competitive towns seemingly
stealing a march on Waterford City is it because they have a more cohesive
approach to working together or do they simply get projects over the line by
“Hook or by Crook”. Do our competing towns take the attitude that this will be
good for our town so we will make the project work?
It does seem that getting projects off the ground in
Waterford is difficult and securing support also seems to be rather laboured
and full of ever-present barriers. Yet when driven people have the strength and
determination to keep going the rewards are there. And projects that are lead
by driven people do come to fruition, but why oh why does it have to be so difficult?
There are many great projects, schemes and developments
going on in and around the City and yet there could be so many more if we just
fostered a culture of being willing and able to identify what projects will put
the City back to its rightful place as Ireland’s fourth City of the Republic.
We need to encourage those with drive, vision and
determination and help them deliver for the betterment of ALL. We need to see
REAL teamwork at play and REAL strength of mind to work with the right people who
can deliver for this great City of Waterford.
By finding the right people and creating the right “Team
Waterford” we will not have to find scapegoats such as I had to do towards the
end last weekend’s Six Nations rugby match. Instead we can create a well oiled
machine that delivers for Waterford City, County and the South East.
“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of
enthusiasm,” said Winston Churchill, maybe secretly he was a Scottish rugby
fan.
ENDS
No comments:
Post a Comment