Globalization of Leaders
Win or lose, a true leader handles it right afterwards
Everyone is talented, everyone is charged up. Yet, the tiniest margin or an improbable regulation can cause your downfall. When your team is not the one taking the champagne shower, it is up to you to motivate your players to come back with undiminished josh the next day and the day after.
IF YOU love sports, you must wish every day was Sunday. More specifically, Sunday, July 14, 2019. And that you had the ability to be at two places at the same time. (Or three, if you also love the Grand Prix.)
What finals! Both the World Cup and the Wimbledon. What a pity that someone had to lose. As I see it, they were all winners— New Zealand as much as England; Roger Federer as much as Novak Djokovic.
The grace and poise with which both the winners and the losers (the unfair losers as many think) accepted the results have won over hearts across the world. There was a time when India’s early loss would have resulted in house-torching and stone-throwing (ask Dhoni what happened in 2007). Yes, hearts of Indian supporters were broken this time around, but everyone applauded the efforts and achievements instead of being blinded by emotions.
That is a happy trend for sports and humanity. And leaders. Why leaders?
Thousands may not be cheering us on, and a dozen cameras may not be capturing our every move but, as leaders, aren’t we engaged in sports every day? Giving it our best to help our team win? Learning and teaching to use failures as launching pads to reach greater heights of success?
Talent is just the starting point
Some years ago, I ran into an old cricket friend at a club. Not that I played cricket with him. But I knew him as an umpire at the domestic level. He was now a talent scout.
I had a question for him. With so many tournaments happening at different levels, there was no dearth of players on display. How did he spot a talent that was likely to turn into a Virat Kohli or a Jasprit Bumrah? Why were there so many flashes-in-the-pans but very few long-lasting stars?
“What I spot is the spark, the promise, the potential,” he explained. “Whether that converts into enduring performance is entirely up to the player.”
No one is without some weakness, however talented one might be. One who is truly champion material is honest enough to acknowledge this, comes up with ways to counter this and is open to suggestions and hard work to straighten out the kinks.
When the star batsman or bowler progresses to captain the team, he (or she, let’s not forget that the women’s cricket team is also a force to reckon with) has to develop additional leadership skills to eke out the best from his fellow stars in the team. At the same time, his own performance has to remain top class.
“When a good player is out there, he considers it his personal responsibility to take the team through. For this, in addition to his own contribution, he has to be a catalyst, partner, cheer leader and, when necessary, an instigator. That is a different skillset altogether, one that takes time to develop,” my friend said.
Discipline and confidence
Paddy Upton, who was once the mental conditioning coach of the Indian cricket team, considers that talent is a blessing that becomes an achievement only when one is willing to “tirelessly study, train and practice to develop that talent.”
This is what Paddy has to say about the “god of cricket”, Sachin Tendulkar. “He paid more attention to and invested more time into practicing his batting than any other player. He never once cut a corner in his preparation for a game, making sure he attended to every detail. Not a week went by where any player, youngsters included, hit more balls in practice. Add this attention to detail and impeccable work ethic to his extraordinary God-given talent, and it doesn’t take much to figure out why he is so successful.”
The description is likely to fit most successful cricketers (or sportspersons) from anywhere in the world. And every star in the corporate firmament.
Another cricketer who has acquired celestial status was happy as a goalkeeper when he was persuaded to become a wicketkeeper. M S Dhoni, according to his one-time coach Greg Chappell, “had to prove himself at each level, and he had to do it frequently because of the dramatic progress he made. He was modest, but it was an honest appraisal of how he moved through the game. It was remarkable in a country where you didn’t see so many young people with such self-confidence. They had decisions made for them by parents or schoolteachers or coaches or older people. Dhoni obviously built that confidence from having made his own decisions.”
As a leader, you can put a value on education, expertise and experience. However, can you even begin to assess the worth of a Dhoni (“a survivor and a resourceful, self-sufficient person, who likes to be put in situations where he has to innovate to survive”) in your corner?
It is always World Cup for a leader
How many Tendulkars and Dhonis do you have in your team? How do you manage them differently? How do you ensure that they hit the nets every day?
You do not have the luxury of relaxing a wee bit because the next World Cup is four years away. As a leader you are talent scout, coach and captain—always. You are constantly tapping the best every member can contribute for the good of all. It could be the teenager Rishabh from software or the wily senior Ashwin from planning.
You cannot afford to let “45 minutes of bad cricket” dash the hopes of millions who count on you. Your opportunity lies within those 22 yards, for just 100 overs.
Everyone is talented, everyone is charged up. Yet, what separates the winner from the loser is the tiniest margin. Or an improbable, unpalatable regulation that you never thought would come to bite you.
When it is all done and dusted, and your team is not the one taking the champagne shower, it is up to you to motivate your players to come back with undiminished josh the next day and the day after.
Born apart, winning together
If you are planning to go global, what are the chances that you would consider Ireland, Barbados, Serbia or Romania? Not your favorites? Would rather fancy your chances with a bigger, better-known country?
Well, the captain of the England team, Eoin Morgan was born in Ireland. Their sensational bowler, Jofra Archer was born in Barbados. Serbia gave us Novak Djokovic. The other Wimbledon champion, Simona Halep, is from Romania.
It does not really matter where one happened to take birth or grew up. What matters is what you have to give the team and what you can do to elevate the whole team’s performance. Out there in the business world, wherever you are, the collective good is the prime goal. “All for one and one for all” holds good not just for the three musketeers but for every global team. Looking for excuses and scapegoats can only pull you down and break you apart.
True champions
To repeat, the most exhilarating part of the World Cup was what happened after it was over. The result ought to have divided; yet, humanity rose above the divisions to applaud winners and losers alike.
This is a happy trend in corporations worldwide. Every leader continues to be fiercely competitive in the marketplace. But the modern leader is caring, compassionate and empathetic, and yet gets results. They take the time and the trouble to nurture the team.
Unlike in a sports team, a member of the corporate team is at liberty to move, to abandon a toxic boss or environment for another. Therefore, the new leader goes beyond appraisals to retain the best in the team.
How will they remember you?
Miscreants attacked Dhoni’s home because the Indian team had an early exit from the World Cup in 2007. Yet, a few months later, he was elevated to the heavens when the team won the T20 tournament. Two extreme experiences within a few months taught Dhoni not to let his life be defined by the sport. He gives his 200 percent when a match is on; he does not go to bed with a bat.
Perhaps, as Paddy remembers, Sachin Tendulkar has the right advice: “Who I am as a person, my nature is permanent, my results on the field are temporary – they will go up and go down. It is more important that I am consistent as a person, this I can control, my results I cannot. People will criticize me for my results, and will soon forget them, but they will always remember the impact I have on them as a person. This will last forever.”
As a leader, what are you? Are you your designation? What do you carry home? When it is time, what will you leave behind?
Your turn
Have you ever had an experience when team spirit won over a setback? Or the team rallied behind a colleague to raise spirits in the face of a mistake or failure?