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IN her blog, Life and Career coach, Ann Mehl  uses excerpts from a book to advise on decision making in business.
She says in the book, “The Mindful Leader , Michael Carroll tells the story of a capsized riverboat in a Chinese village. As all the villagersran to the river to help, one man, an old fisherman, went off in the opposite direction. People grumbled: “Look at him, what a coward! Now we know what he’s made of.” As people rushed towards the scene of the disaster, they struggled to save those in the water, but they were too late. Those who had fallen into the river had been swept away by the strong current. The fisherman, knowing the tides and currents, carefully positioned himself downstream from the accident. And with the help of a long bamboo pole, he single handedly rescued dozens of people, one by one from the surging river.

“The fisherman’s thoughtful reading of the situation allowed him to react intelligently in the face of emergency. Instead of getting swept up in the drama of the capsized boat, or the petty judgement of others, he carefully analysed the situation, before arriving at the most plausible and obvious solution. Clear sightedness is an important first step in the management of any crisis or situation; more important than the need to take swift action, or the need to be seen taking swift action.”

She adds that it can be difficult in the modern workplace not to react like a villager, and always rush headlong to the scene of the next dramatic accident. We have become so overly reactive to outside stimuli – unreasonable deadlines, internal politics and demanding clients – that clear thinking seems like an unaffordable luxury. But like the fisherman, we need to look at the whole picture, if cooler heads are to prevail, and good decisions are to be made in the face of crisis.

Admittedly, recent weeks have seen the oldest football club in the country, Highlanders, in a crisis.
Results are not coming from the field of play, leading to an uprising from fans, that saw them throwing missiles at their own players and coaches at Hartsfields ground, and inevitably led to the departure of head coach Kelvin Kaindu.

With the Zambian gone, his assistant Mark Mathe was elevated to the hot seat, but got a baptism of fire in his first match when he lost 0-4 to Caps United, a result which confirmed Highlanders are out of the championship race.

After the result, the media was unforgiving as usual. Mathe was hammered right, left and centre and his capabilities questioned. It did not end there, the executive was not spared.

It was criticised by the media and fans alike, for making a crucial decision, to part ways with Kaindu before a replacement was found, the argument being,why replace Kaindu with someone who is not better than him.

Perhaps, that is why they say, leading a club like Highlanders, is occupying a hot seat and  chairman Peter Dube is in a hot seat because all eyes are on him.

Under the barrage of criticism from fans and pressure from the media, Dube and his executive felt they needed to strengthen their technical team.

I am one of the guys who has always believed in Dube’s cool judgement, but when it was announced that Cosmas Zulu had been brought in as technical director for the remaining five games of the season and the few cup games remaining, I was left asking myself if Dube had not acted like the rest of the Chinese villagers who went head long to the accident scene.

It appeared like a panic decision after Mathe had lost his first match in charge, against a team which is in top form for that matter.
The pressure appeared to be weighing too much on the executive and I suppose they are praying day and night that Zulu brings with him some form of magic to change the fortunes of the team because if that does not happen, Dube and his executive will be in deeper trouble.

This is not to suggest that Zulu is not a cool coach, no, but the timing of his appointment has far reaching implications, regardless of the results.

Nonetheless, while club fans want results, perhaps it is time they allow coaches and players to concentrate on their game, support them all the way and see what happens.

If there is a time when Highlanders players and coaches needed their supporters most, this is the time.
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