Nigel Job, CEO of Remtec Talent Management, writes:
According to George in his book Finding Your True North, “crucibles” are challenging periods of our lives that may be career or possibly even life-threatening experiences. Painful though they are, some people, particularly those with extraordinary leadership capability, are able to use the unwanted test to embrace self-reflection and determine who they actually are and, in turn, what really matters in life. Crucibles can test your patience, belief systems and core values.
So what of our two cricketers?
Ben Stokes was riding high in the summer of 2017. He was being recognised as one of the greatest talents in the England cricket team, if not the world, and was Vice Captain. His Wikipedia entry shows that he holds the record for England's fastest ever Test double-century, the fastest ever Test match 250, and the highest ever score for a Test batsman batting at number six. Even by the standards of international athletes, he is extraordinarily gifted.
However in September of that year he was involved in an incident outside a nightclub and was charged with affray, having punched a man in an argument. He was subsequently acquitted, but his reputation had taken some damage and in the intervening period he lost the Vice Captaincy and was unable to play for England in the Ashes 2017–18 Ashes and the second Test match against India due to the subsequent trial. He also lost lucrative sponsorship deals.
Steve Smith was once captain of the Australian cricket team, and is widely regarded as one of the top test batsman of all time. One would have thought that someone of such outstanding capability and a reputation for hard work would not feel the need to cheat, but in 2018 he was accused of overseeing ball tampering in the third Test against South Africa, and felt compelled to step down from his captaincy and was subsequently banned from all international cricket and domestic cricket in Australia for one year. Additionally he would not be considered for a leadership role for a further year. Cricket Australia clearly likes to represent high standards, and felt that he had gone against its values and ensured that he paid a price.
The reputations of both these sportsmen went from the heights of adulation to the depths of media criticism. Such crucibles would break many lesser beings, but the evidence clearly suggest that it has not been the case with Stokes and Smith. At the time of writing, they, as part of their respective teams, face each other in one of the greatest cricket contests there is; The Ashes. Already, both men have performed heroically and magnificently. Smith uncomfortably laughed off the singing and banners among the English fans referring to sandpaper, and answered his tormentors with what he does best; hitting runs! Ben Stokes has faced suggestions of having an uncontrollable temperament, but that myth was clearly hit out of the ground by his amazing performance in the Cricket World Cup earlier this summer, and in the current Ashes at Headingley where he scored an amazing 135 not out to take England to victory and level the series, completely against all the odds.
Without the benefit of a parallel universe we do not know whether these two outstanding sportsmen would have still performed exactly the same this year had they not had to go through their painful crucibles. We do not know what support they received to help them through, whether personal or professional, and perhaps more significantly what they learned about themselves as they went through it. What we do know is that they did not allow the experience to take away their brilliance, as that has been clear to see, and perhaps they are even more brilliant now partly because of those setbacks, and how they have responded to them.
Author Nigel Job is a specialist in the evaluation and selection of High performance Talent, and has written books and articles on High Performance Indicators and how employers can access the best talent. He is CEO of Remtec Talent Management.
Follow Nigel on LinkedIn for more articles like this. He is also founder of @theinterviewspecialist on instagram, a free resource for jobseekers.