For most of us, the significance of the Australian Cricket Team to our national identity matters, hence the reason we all feel a little disappointed at the recent ball-tampering scandal. We expect more. We hold our cricket team to a high standard. They are after-all representing our country on an international level.
As a nation, we are unnecessarily adding to the severity of the situation by publicly participating in the overwhelming judgement directed at the players involved, with absolutely no consideration of the eroded standards we live by ourselves.
Let’s take a look at our education sector. We’ve eroded the ability for our teachers to adequately discipline students by taking away education standards designed to support teachers in building rigour and judgement in the beliefs of young Australians.
Our governments make excuses for their poor behaviour, we sit our kids in front of screens and call it parenting and our banks continue to take money from their customers, bleeding them dry to get results for shareholders. We make excuses for the increasing obesity problem in our country, laying blame on the food industry as opposed to the individuals who take no responsibility for what they put in their mouths.
The lack of standards in this country has created a society where’s it’s more important to look good than to be good. We’re happy to put success on the credit card and take little responsibility for our actions, simply shrugging off the poor decisions we make. So, why do we hold our cricket team to such a high standard?
There’s nothing wrong with expecting more, in fact, we should, but the standards aligned with these expectations need to exist in the first place to give us guidelines to operate by, accountabilities for our actions and responsibilities to deliver on. These standards then need to be discussed, agreed upon and actively pursued on an ongoing basis.
Yes, people need to take responsibility for their individual actions in maintaining agreed standards, but how can we hold people accountable for something that eroded a long time ago? Is it reasonable to penalise someone for taking shortcuts to achieve the desired outcome when so many of us are guilty of doing the same thing? The Australian Cricket Team are an extension of our society, so they too suffer from the same eroded standards.
When assessing failed expectations, we need to be mindful of any existing standards and whether or not the culture of the organisation is prone to embrace or ignore them. If culture is made up of the individual’s which form a business, team or relationship, then it is fair to assume that a business is dependent on its culture to effectively achieve their goals and meet expectations. So are we being too quick to judge?
The recent Australian Cricket Team scandal is the perfect example of people doing what they thought was justifiable in the absence of robust standards. Their decision would not have simply transpired on the day, instead of materialising over time, as the erosion of standards under pressure, disintegrated. Clearly, the characters of the individuals concerned were not challenged by the leaders responsible for creating and fostering high standards within a performance culture.
If your organisation was under similar pressures and being scrutinised at the same level as the Australian Cricket Team, would it stand up and be supported by a strong culture with high standards and solid leadership?
I believe that every culture is a result of the sum of the individuals involved, irrespective of title, position or hierarchy. Poor culture is a reflection of poor leadership and poor leadership is the result of poor personal awareness and responsibility.
Accountable leaders understand that the majority of results they are striving for are delivered through and by the teams they lead, so how do we ensure our teams are in the best position to deliver? We invest in developing a winning culture.
When it comes to our criticism of the latest scandal affecting the Australian Cricket Team, instead of calling for players to be sacked, we should be calling for serious investment in the people we once believed in to deliver a win for our country in a sport that we love, for a nation of sporting fanatics both young and old.
