Dunces and Geniuses – a great quote

Feb05
by admin on February 5, 2014 at 8:21 am
Posted In: Buncrana, Carndonagh, Derry, Donegal, Greencastle, L/Derry, Letterkenny, Moville, Redcastle
Quote
I just discovered a great quote this morning that I had never heard before.
It was in reference to England sacking their best ever batsman, Kevin Pietersen, at the very early age for a batsman of 33 (Tendulkar retired at 40 recently), after the Ashes defeat in which he was still their top run scorer.
Jonathan Swift once said that “when a true genius appears in the world you shall know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in confederacy against him”.
Roundheads and Cavaliers
The Roundheads have thrown out the Cavalier.
Part of management is being able to handle all the different types of players and keeping them facing the same direction and operating as a team.
Alex Ferguson was a Roundhead, as well, but he knew how to keep his Cavaliers like Cantona and Beckham aboard as well as his Roundheads’ Keane and Scholes.
That’s what proper man management is all about.
Sure, he fell out with Beckham and Keane  eventually but he got their best years out of them first.
Different
You have to treat your Cavaliers differently from your Roundheads.
I used to manage an IT department of 80. There were some really good people there working for me. I used to say to my boss, who used to tell me that I should be tougher with some of them, i.e. the Cavaliers, that all of them would be able to command more money elsewhere.
I would tell him that I was closer to it them he was and knew which ones needed to have their egos massaged and which ones needed to be prodded along.
Motivation
The reason that the good ones stayed was because they enjoyed it and felt motivated to perform. Management’s job is not to be the star but to allow all of your people to perform to the best of their potential and to keep their motivation levels high.
Ferguson, an archetypal Roundhead was prepared to go to Paris to ask Cantona not to pack it all in when he got banned for 9 months for kicking a fan.
There is always the danger that the Roundheads think you are giving special treatment to the Cavaliers. One can imagine what Roy Keane would have thought of the manager basically going to Paris to beg Cantona to come back after he walked out on the club.
The Roundheads would say that everybody should be treated the same. they would say that people should motivate themselves.
Don’t Understand
That’s because they don’t understand how it is necessary to treat Roundheads and Cavaliers differently. That’s why some Roundhead players, like Keane, don’t succeed as managers. They go with the mantra that everyone should be treated the same.
it may work in the lower divisions when a bigger percentage of the players are Roundheads but not in the top divisions where more of the players are Cavaliers.
If everyone was the same that would be true. You’ve got treat different dogs differently never mind different human beings if you want to get the best out of them.
Two Types
Not all of the best ones are Cavaliers. Who would be better, Beckham and Cantona or Keane and Scholes?
It shouldn’t be a choice. Man Utd won titles and trophies because they kept all four of them on board.
It looks as if England cricket selectors are about to dump their main Cavalier and their best player of all time when he should still be at  the peak of his powers.
To requote Swift  “when a true genius appears in the world you shall know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in confederacy against him”.
How true!