One remark  last week by England’s Test captain, Andrew Strauss, has lead to several thousand mentions on google, with extensive coverage in every newspaper and on  radio and television.

” The Australian side no longer carries an aura of invincibility”

Various headlines developed this. A  favourite was, “Australians poorer with no aura”.  A  few journalists gave their definitions of the word.  These ranged from “a sort of all round halo” to, from Simon Barnes in the Times, “a subtle, luminous emanation”.

Most agreed with Ricky Ponting, that however you define it, “an aura is created over a long period of sustained excellence and that this has  the ability to scare opposition.”  People expect to lose against teams or individuals with aura.

 A few companies and/or their leaders do have an aura that will  help them in pitch situations. It will derive from  the virtuous  circle of success breeding confidence breeding success. How do you break the circle to compete?

 Taking a leaf out of the Strauss handbook, the antidote is to recognise that an aura is ephemeral and to focus singlemindedly on playing to your  own unique strengths, not worrying about theirs.  Develop your own virtuous circle of preparation and rehearsal breeding confidence-the first step to creating an aura of your own!