Eye of the tiger

“Was it 1957 or 1958 when we met?” – Roy asked

“I think it was 1957 but I am not sure any longer” – Siegfried responded

Today he was turning 59, but Roy felt that he was 46 as the day he met Siegfried in that old rusty cruise ship in Bremen, his life experienced a second beginning. And what a life…

As the make-up artist was working on hiding his wrinkles, he stared at the spotlight mirror and his mind quickly winded back to his humble professional origins in Germany. First pfennigs (German pennies/cents) and penuries in post-war Europe, then some French and Swiss francs and finally glamour, success and piles of notes first in Monaco and then in the US.

Tigers were his second love. They had given him glory and recognition. In return he had offered them optimal living conditions, protection from their threatened habitats and invested in numerous conservationist projects. He smiled with pride.

The show would be starting shortly. Over 1500 people, some of them travelling from overseas to Las Vegas just to watch the famous Siegfried & Roy duo, were probably now counting the minutes to admire him on stage. One more time after thousands of times. A perfect greased machine. An errorless operation.

He was admittedly a bit tired of repeating the show night after night. Tonight, he had many friends visiting for his birthday and, to make it easier, he was intending to have a docile tiger cub as the prime character of the show. But Chris, one of the animal carers, had convinced him of having Mantacore - the big white tiger - as the guest on such special occasion. He had agreed. His bond with the animal was supernatural no matter how less time he had spent with it lately.

Silence, lights, action. As Roy walked Mantacore on stage, he pushed away his memories and tried to focus on the moment. The animal seemed to wander off the mark. He took control, asked the animal over the microphone “What is wrong?” and steered it amicably with his arm. All the usual plans and routines were ruined by then. He tried to return to plan A by asking Mantacore to say “hello” over the microphone. But instead of a word, the cat snapped his shirtsleeve with its jaws.

“I have no scars”, he had always publicly boasted. But then, as he saw the eye of the tiger, he realized it was too late. Mantacore, in front of a stupefied and horrified audience, bit him on the neck and dragged Roy out of stage holding his master in its mouth.

He resulted severely injured, but he survived and lived 17 years longer devoting time and love to tigers. Mantacore came back to “his crew” shortly. He never performed again.

This narration of the facts comes from Chris Lawrence, Mantacore’s carer. Roy’s version was that he fainted after suffering a heart attack and that the tiger candidly brought him off stage to be taken care of…

 

We, as leaders, usually have our “book of managing”, and tend to apply the same approach towards our people, again and again. When workload increases or as years pass by, we may disregard signals of disengagement of individuals or unusual dynamics within the team. You may give things for granted and reacting when you see the eye of the tiger will be too late.

-      How comfortable do you feel today in your manager seat? Too comfortable?

-      Thinking back, is there any signal lately from any individual in your team that you didn’t consider and should have picked up?

-      How often do you change your ways of doing?

-      Do you take any other learning from Roy’s story?