Sunday, August 31, 2008

Discipline That Works... Until It Doesn’t

Andrew Symonds’ preference to fish over meeting with team mates highlights an ever present issue in professional sport, and life, today; it’s a lack of commitment to the greater team cause and good. The News press seems to perpetually feature these sorts of stories as undisciplined players ‘vote 1 for self’ and ‘2 for team’.
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It’s essentially a lack of values that foists a player’s teammates in preference to his or her own desires. Through their actions they lack understanding, heart, imagination, and courage to put the team first against their own desires and passions.
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Team discipline: a phenomenon that comes about when a player on a team turns aside to the collectively espoused code of conduct of the team. In a word, it’s rebellion. It’s a flouting of the agreed law for individual and selfish gain, and it brings with it the potential of undermining team unity. It must be swiftly and consistently dealt with.
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If team officials and leaders let it go unpunished they give permission for more of it to occur. Other members of the team watch on with interest with what will unfold.
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Most of all discipline requires leaders to keep faith with what’s established, tried and tested. They’ll be pressed to cave-in and compromise but they can’t allow this to occur. For when the worlds of truth and lies collide there is an explosion of emotion and any leader must anticipate and expect this and stand firm. The impact soon dies down however, and even if it didn’t they’d have to remain true for the greater good, no matter the collateral damage.
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We’ve all been guilty of lacking commitment. The best thing for us at the time was to receive what was coming to us. Without the courage to act, our parents, teachers, leaders, and employers would have done us a massive disservice. Discipline, in the spirit of good, works -- it always does; until we give in to compromise... then it doesn’t. Keep the faith.
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Copyright © 2008, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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