The John Griff Column: When you want a job doing well...

The tree surgeon you see in the picture is in the middle of a second day up what was once an enormous Beech tree, roughly sixty feet in height. Now dead, it posed a danger not only to the house underneath it, but also pedestrians and road users close by. Tons of timber had to be cut down piecemeal in order to safely dispose of a previously much loved but now dearly departed part of the area. Now look closely at the picture again. Spot anything impressive there?

Amongst the lines and cables, you can see a loop around the trunk of the tree and the waist of the woodsman. On his back is a safety harness attached to a line running to the ground via the taller of the remaining trunks (there used to be about eight of these until the operation started). On the soles of his boots there are sharp teeth enabling him to gain a purchase on the trunk itself. But that’s it as far as his security goes. The single remaining line is attached to the five foot long section of trunk that he cut through roughly a second before the picture was taken – it’s still swinging around him. Imagine the mass and kinetic force contained in it.

Got the connection to the multi-million selling musician yet?

If you go onto the BBC’s iPlayer service, or if you saw it live on TV the Sunday before last, you can see or might have already seen 76 year-old Sir Elton Hercules John tearing the roof off the Pyramid Stage as the headlining artist of this year’s Glastonbury Festival. It has been said that his performance was the last one he’ll give in England in front of a live audience and from the way he attacked the setlist and roared through a summer’s evening on the Somerset Levels it certainly looked like it. In recent years he’s been on the global ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ tour which should have ended a long time ago. Instead, thanks to the pandemic and various medical needs of his own he’s still on it – perhaps the longest professional farewell tour ever. Originally announced as his final goodbye to fans all over the world, he’s certainly had time to get the message across. As a fan myself I’ve seen him play live a few times – most recently at Blenheim Palace when, accompanied by mizzling rain, he proceeded to romp through hit after hit until his helicopter came to whisk him home to Windsor. By then the weather had closed in, to the point where you couldn’t see it, but you could certainly hear it. There was also the time he played entirely solo on a Northamptonshire summer’s evening in the grounds of Castle Ashby. It was a magical event and a masterclass in musicianship without the rock band and paraphernalia of the same. Very stripped back – very minimalist.

And that’s where my connection between the woodsman and the piano player comes in. Both are professionals, both have particular equipment that they use and neither needs much of it to demonstrate their skills. Come to think of it, neither has a safety net either – and in recent years there had been murmurings that maybe the time had indeed come for him to enjoy a period of retirement before the dangers of being accused as a glorified pub singer materialised.

As it was, some two Sundays ago, Elton signed off (if, indeed that IS what he has done – I’m by no means convinced yet.) with more than a flourish. In a wonderful arc of entertainment history, his first performance at Worthy Farm was also his last. Beforehand he’d said that he was a little nervous about the scale of the event and that he had wanted to go out without letting his audience down. He needn’t have worried – the day after his performance the tabloids were writing that it was the greatest headline performance in Glastonbury history in front of an ecstatic, if slightly more mature audience than festival organiser Emily Eavis and her team might have otherwise catered for on a Sunday night at any other Glasto. Then again, she knew a shrewd booking when it came knocking – and Elton was bona fide gold in his suit of the same colour. Risk-free, he was a bankable megastar, as the festival’s bank account probably shows.

Two individuals, two experts in their field. You can add people from just about any sphere to that list, (with the possible exception of reality TV contestants). With that expertise though, comes a high degree of uniqueness and I wonder whether there aren’t lessons for business and individuals too as a result.

All too often we see people putting themselves up for just about anything and everything going. I’ve seen businesses do the same thing and I’ve often felt that they’re missing the point. Instead of being a generalist and running the risk of being mediocre, isn’t it better to find your specialism and maximise the opportunities from that, assuming that your specialism has an appeal to the wider market? Our economy needs specialists on a global scale, not generalists and mediocrity. It’s partly why places like the University of Northampton entertained over 2,500 young students at their STEM & STEAM day at Waterside recently. Get someone in to do the job because they’re the right person for the job – not because someone says they’ll ‘have a go’, even if that’s well intentioned enthusiasm. To quote an old adage – ‘measure twice, cut once’. Indeed.

I’m willing to bet you’ll not find Elton in retirement wielding a chainsaw if he needs some tree work doing anytime soon. Or the woodsman belting out ‘I’m Still Standing’ in someone’s garden. Well, not unless he’s been defeated by a mighty Oak somewhere.