Madeleine writes: The other day, a friend and keen rugby enthusiast was telling me about a clever tactic employed by a Fijian rugby player. I thought it would translate really well to other life challenges.
My friend was involved in arranging a charity rugby match between two amateur teams. An experienced Fijian player happened to be in the UK at the time and as he was friendly with one of the team members he was asked to play for them. He was very happy to agree to be involved in such a good cause.
My friend was curious about how this Fijian player managed to play so much better than everyone else. So he observed the Fijian closely throughout the match.
One tactic that caught my friend’s eye was how the Fijian dealt with being tackled.
He noticed that most players in that situation toughed it out and met resistance with resistance. They got so tangled up with the other players that they often lost the ball…but the Fijian didn’t.
No, he relaxed his body momentarily and it bought him fractions of a second to do something constructive with the ball – for instance, throw it to another team member who had some space to run with it.
Your Action This Week
How does this relate to everyday life? Well, if you’re verbally tackled this week by a colleague, client, friend or family member, instead of tackling them back, take a moment to relax and move into your next constructive step.
Want to discover more? Try this:
How to Deal With Difficult Conversations and Behaviour Assertively Workshop Thursday 14 August 2014, Cambridge, 8.45 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Are you:
- Avoiding talking about a difficult subject that needs to be aired at work?
- Or maybe you have employees and team members who are difficult to manage?
Then this half-day workshop for professionals, managers, owner managers and aspiring managers about how to remain assertive and in control of difficult people situations is for you. Click here for more details
“The Dealing with Difficult Conversations Assertively course was very helpful and has opened my eyes to using different approaches towards staff and myself.”
Louise Hounsome, Manager, Cambridgeshire
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