The last 7 days has demonstrated one unquestionable fact, Professional Sport does not mirror life....it is life. So even if you hate sport you need to read this..
In sport life is condensed into 60, 90, 120 minute versions of a workday, where you can see high performing 'professionals' deal with their workday in full HD and with instant opinion from a raft of observers. Each day at the office culminates with heroes being created, villains being identified and diagnosis being made by countless 'social media doctors!'
Lets take some examples, On Saturday 5th May 2012 Kenny Dalglish, one of the greatest players ever to wear the red of Liverpool FC took his team as the returning saviour Manager, back to the home of Football, Wembley to try to bring home the oldest club trophy in the world the FA Cup. Having already secured the clubs first trophy in 6 years, winning the Carling Cup, this was to be the platform to a great era. 1 week later, having lost the final to Chelsea, Kenny is on a plane to Boston to explain to his employers why the season was so poor when his employers (Fenway Sports of Boston Red Sox) had backed him to the tune of £120m in transfers.
On the opposition bench on that Wembley day was Roberto Di Matteo, again a former Chelsea hero, who had scored the winning goal in the FA Cup Final for the blues in 1997, and had been installed as the 'interim head coach' when billionaire owner Roman Abramovic dismissed their latest manager after less than 1 year in the job. Since Di Matteo was asked to help out until the end of the season he had guided them to the FA Cup Final, Champions league final and settled a highly restless dressing room of senior players who earned more in a week that he did in a year, and some of which he had played with when at Chelsea. If he ultimately leads them to winning the champions league next week, that may not be enough for the owner as they favour 'Star Names' in the managerial role.
Two very different finishes to a tumultuous season may well result in the same outcome for both, namely more time to work on their golf handicaps.
With this continual increase into the minute by minute update we have on the working lives of our sports stars is it surprising that we get a front row seat to the 'bad days at the office'
This was polarized this weekend as the Premier League came to it final weekend with 2 possible champions needing to win and 2 clubs staring at relegation from the most financially lucrative division in world football. To add to this 2 of these Manchester City and QPR came face to face, as close as you can when you sit at different ends of the table. All manner of sub plots and possible outcomes were in the mix, with only 90 minutes to get the job done. Players, managers, coaches were all literally playing for their jobs.
And along came Joey Barton, the QPR club captain, ex Manchester City player who left under a cloud of assaulting a team mate and has bounced from club to club (with brief stints behind bars) all of which has limited his career to one international appearance. He has become well known for being as direct and aggressive on twitter as on the pitch.
Barton was fouled from an arm of Man City's Carlos Tevez (he could have a TV show just on his career) and responded by elbowing Tevez on the chin, and when he was rightly dismissed he assaulted the star player for Man City, and attempted a head butt on another. This was then followed by a 24 hour tirade on twitter against anyone who questioned or had an opinion on him, attacking their professional lives, personal values and even their choice of shirts! Man City went on to win scoring twice in injury time after Barton's team 'mates' had spent the rest of the game defending with any part of their body only to be saved by results elsewhere.
The outcome of all this could be the same for each man, they are all at risk of having more time to work on their golf swing, but actually they all need the same help. Not one of the 3 has any control over their employment status, so what should they do? The only thing they can do is focus on and take responsibility for their own actions. In the cold light of the following days their needs to be some serious questions asked of themselves, and some honest answers to follow.
My suspicion is that this process may be easier for some and some may need some professional help, I have said for a long time now another challenged sportsman Tiger Woods should pick up the phone and hire Tony Robbins the best performance coach available, it is not a swing coach Tiger needs...
The power of a strong results focused coach cannot be underestimated, but the paradox is those the most in need are usually the ones most resistant to make that call.
So the parallel is that we all have these challenges, all have days that make us want to react in this way, most of us do not react in the extreme ways, but remember most of us do not perform at elite levels daily either. So when casting your opinion on the sports you love, try looking through a different pair of glasses next time.
Mike Taylor is an NLP performance coach, you can contact Mike via email on mike@mbstrainingandcoaching.com and follow @MBScoaching
