Following through
One thing I learned fairly early in the world of work is that, if you say you're going to do something, you should do it. I was to see this in action a while later, when someone threatened to hand in their notice if something didn't go the way they wanted it to. It didn't go the way they wanted it to, and they, well, didn't hand in their notice. Essentially, their bluff had been called and, by not doing what they said they would — by not following through — they lost all credibility.
Why am I on about this now? Well, Kevin Pietersen today quit as England cricket captain. My guess is that he put himself in a position where he had no choice but to go because he'd probably issued an ultimatum: it's the coach (Peter Moores) or him. Not being willing to countenance such behaviour, Hugh Morris, the chief executive of the English Cricket Board and the man tasked with making the relevant decisions, called Pietersen's bluff.
This reading holds up because originally, and as the Pietersen himself said, he hadn't resigned. He probably thought his being captain was the key issue. But then, following Pieteresen's "recent communications with the ECB" [English Cricket Board], he found it "extremely difficult" to stay as captain. Thus, he's gone.
At least he followed through on his ultimatum. My guess is that he might return to some form of captaincy, but will continue to flourish as a gifted batsman irrespective.
(Compare and contrast, by the way, the situation facing Margaret Thatcher when Nigel Lawson, her Chancellor in 1989, said he would resign unless she sacked her economics adviser, Alan Walters (see obituary of Walters here — he died last week). Thatcher didn't sack Walters and Lawson walked. Walters resigned too, and Thatcher was gone within 15 months. In this case, Pietersen is Lawson, Walters is Moores, and Hugh Morris is Thatcher. Let's hope things turn out a bit better for English cricket than they did for Britain's economic policy.)
Filed in Politics, Sport, Work