This is, absolutely, true. I have, actually, stood on the stage at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as a performer.
Many years ago, the construction company, where I started my Personnel and Training career, had the contract for refurbishing the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. It included the installation of a new stage. At the time, I was a member of an itinerant personnel team. Its purpose was, regularly, to visit the company’s contract sites to maintain good labour relations, welfare and accident prevention standards. It included the Royal Opera House. That is how I came to be ‘treading the boards’ on such a hallowed platform.
A key member of the team was a former Guards Officer and recipient of the Military Cross, called ‘Dusty’ Miller. Dusty was our acknowledged Safety specialist. He was extremely capable, well-informed and conscientious. He was much respected, not just within the company, but throughout the Construction Industry. He was recognised as a leading authority on Accident Prevention.
When he arrived on any site, Dusty was instantly recognisable, by the way that he dressed. His attire, usually, consisted of cavalry twill trousers, tweed sports jacket, coloured shirt with matching tie, brown safety shoes and, of course, a ‘hard hat’ (red). Everyone recognised and respected Dusty.
From time to time, our team was augmented by a young management trainee. These trainees were engaged on a rotational development programme, which involved periods of experience in different departments. Our team was a stop on this ‘Cooks Tour’.
It was rare that, by the end of their first month with the team, some management trainees had not assumed aspects of Dusty’s general manner and vocabulary. In more extreme cases, a number of trainees, had, even, adopted something of his mode of dress. It was the subject of much good-humoured teasing, of the trainees, by site staff.
And so, what common theory or lesson can be construed from my Covent Garden debut and our ‘Dusty-like’ management trainees?
In my case, just because I stood on the same stage, at the Royal Opera House, as Pavarotti and Domingo, didn’t make me a great operatic tenor. It’s unlikely that Luciano or Placido would have felt artistically threatened, if I had, actually, broken into song! I, just, don’t have the innate talent, training and experience to be a great opera singer.
The same principle applies to our ‘Dusty-esque’ management trainees. It is important, if not essential, for young or less experienced managers to exhibit respect for, and appreciation of positive role models. However, you cannot acquire the experience and achievements of such people, simply, by emulating them. The secret is to learn as much from them, as possible, whilst developing the essential skills, knowledge and experience that you need, for what you want to achieve.
You should be known for your own persona, management style and approach, rather than being the facsimile of someone else. Otherwise, it is, simply, role-playing.
‘This above all; to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man’
(Polonius to his son, Laertes, on his departure from Elsinore. Hamlet 1, ii. William Shakespeare: London, 1602.)
The ‘Dusty-style’ trainees contributed to the DNA of the following Training Package.