Half-time and Leinster’s Heineken Cup dream seemed over. 22-6 down and having blown off the park there seemed no way back. The Leinster scrum was in disarray, it was men (Big South Sea Island Men) against boys.  Cut to the Sky studio and Paul Wallace’s analysis. In 1 minute he summarised how Leinster could fix the scrum, and said that if they did they would win the game.

Now I never learned the dark secrets of the rugby front row, but something miraculous happened in that dressing room.  The Leinster forwards coach, Geert Small, must have had a direct line to Paul Wallace when he brought the front row together. I have it on good advice that there was no panic, no roaring and screaming, just calm analysis, recognition of the problems, and agreement on solutions. What followed was stunning- the first scrum of the second half, Northampton went marching backwards- from then on it was game over!

Can we apply this lesson to our business… As Barack said a few weeks ago in Dublin, “Is Feidir Linn”!

The key is being able to recognise if there is a problem. Often as a business owner we are caught up so much in the day to day running of the business, paying the wages, keeping the bank manager happy etc. that we do not take any time to step back and have a strategic view at how things are going. If we did, the results would probably be alarming (22-6 down at half time was fairly alarming for Leinster!). However unless you can recognise a problem, you will never be able to rectify it!

Michael Jordan (of basketball fame) talks of “The Balcony View”- this was an ability that he had of, while participating and being in the heat of a game, being able to look on it as if from above, and make tactical changes accordingly to swing the game in his side’s favour. Take time out at least once a week to look at your business from “The Balcony”- if you need to, get outside help (I am available for a moderate fee!) it is only by doing this that you can identify and get to the core of the problem, and then start going about fixing it!