Monthly Metaphor: Count Him In

Having survived a near-fatal car accident in 1984 on New Years Eve in England, one could assume that 21 year-old Rick had plenty to be grateful for. Gratitude was, however, possibly and understandably somewhat delayed.

The accident unfortunately resulted in Rick losing his left arm and badly breaking his right arm. During his time in hospital, he learned that there was a chance he might lose his right arm too. Due to the infection clearing and the great work by the surgical team, Rick was able to keep his right arm. It turns out that this was a huge turning point with many a challenge ahead for Rick and his colleagues.

One of his colleagues, Joe, visited Rick in hospital and said “I hated every minute of being there. I just didn't want to see him in that state.?I was seeing a body that would never work the same again.”

Rick worked as part of a successful team and the circumstances of the accident would have ended many a career for people in his role.

There were pressing deadlines for them to achieve and huge expectations due to their recent success and one could imagine many a team in a similar situation taking the decision upon themselves to move on without him.

But that’s not what they did.

Firstly, Joe and the team put things on hold. Then they left the decision to Rick as to whether he’d like to proceed or not. They gave him time to find himself again without a deadline on the decision. The significance of this cannot be underestimated – they gave Rick a choice and one that he must make in his own time. “There’s no way he’s gonna get fired, I mean, he’s like a brother, he’s … he’s part of the family.” Joe recalls.

Joe explains "Most of Rick's parts at that time had been done, so apart from the mental anxiety for the first week that we were obviously going to suffer, there was nothing physical to stop us from carrying on. But we also knew that if Rick had been conscious, if he'd been in any state to say anything about it, he would have said 'Get on with it.' We had to do it for him.”

Rick attested that this was all that he needed – the time to build confidence and realise that he could do this. From his hospital bed, he started to get ideas about how things could be going forward.

Next, his team gave him the space and time to develop and adjust to his new circumstances so that he could learn how to function in his role again.

Clearly they valued him as a member of the team.

He left the hospital one month later and a further two months later – returned to his role with his team. Rick worked in a separate room to his team having to rethink everything he ever learned. Joe was committed to having him in the team even if they needed someone else to support the aspects of the role he had done previously – if he was unable to do them again.

It was that important to have Rick in the team.

Away from the team, Rick worked with equipment manufacturers to make the necessary adjustments to his set-up and to continue his development.

Joe explains?"he wanted to make all the mistakes on his own. And then he called us all in one day”. Rick wanted to show them the progress he’d made.

Rick showed where he’d got to.

Joe said “We all ended up crying. From that moment, I think we all started to believe."

Joe, Rick and the team continued with their work, and despite spiralling costs, further setbacks that would have broken up may a team - they finally got the project over the line.

Finally, in 1987, the album “Hysteria” sent Def Leppards career stratospheric with it charting at Number one on both the UK album and US Billboard charts. It’s their biggest selling album to date going on to sell a whopping 25 million copies to date and spawning 7 hit singles.

It was also the first album to feature Rick's custom-made drum kit which he used to re-record all of his parts.

35 years later Rick Allen is still the drummer for Def Leppard.

As a leader, I’d like you to consider:

• How can you use adversity to strengthen as a team?
• Do you give your team space and time to make choices that they’ll truly own?
• What would you never do in order to preserve a sense of belonging in your team?

About the author: Stephen Manley is the Coaching Director for Spitfire, a global consulting firm based in the UK, US & Europe. As an Accredited Executive Coach with the Association for Coaching, Stephen works on large scale projects as well as an Executive Coach on a 1:2:1 basis across various sectors in both UK and internationally to achieve transformational change in thinking, behaviours and ultimately results. For further information, you can reach Stephen by e-mail ([email protected]).?www.spitfireconsultancy.com)