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jul-aug 11 perfect people managerperfect people managersearch for thesearch for the

leadership coaches

harsha and anita bhogle

former CMD, Bank of Baroda

dr anil khandelwal

professor, London Business School

lynda gratton

CEO & MD, MindTree

k natarajan

cofounder, Infosys

ns raghavan

the father of Indian HRD

tv rao

reading room

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eading roomR

the winning waylearnings from sport for managersby anita bhogle & harsha bhogle

book ExtRacts

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hank God that Imran Khan did not suffer from insecurity, or else

the cricketing world would have missed players like Wasim Akram and WaqarYounis. Because Imran always put Pakistan first, and was very secure himself, he didnt mind picking young players who, in a few years, would actually become better than him, for his skills would decline with age. But he also believed in leading from the front and so, when his fast-bowling skills had significantly declined during the World Cup campaign of 1992, he moved up to number three in the batting order. The captain was making a statement there.

What starts early in life with the best student in class being made the class monitor continues till much later with the best salesman being made sales manager or the star batsman becoming captain. The law of natural progression is followed the world over, in spite of it being proved wrong over and over again. Star performers are supreme individualists, totally focused on themselves and their craft. In a sense, their obsession with themselves is what defines their genius.

by anita bhogle & harsha bhogle

TA leader, on the other hand,

needs to think beyond himself and ahead of everyone else. He needs to relate to people whose talent does not match his own, and needs to spend time with players who are not performing as well as him. And in doing so, answer for himself the question that every leader must: Do I spend more time with people who are in form and delivering or do I spend more time with under- performers who need some hand-holding?

Indeed, one reason outstanding talents dont always make the best leaders is that they tend to weigh everyone in the same scales they weigh themselves in and so, sometimes are unable to understand the limited capability, even the insecurity, of another player. As one international player said to us about his captain, Has he ever known what it is to go to bed wondering if he will make the team the next day? In fact SachinTendulkar admitted to us in the interview we did with him that his fast bowler Javagal Srinath told him that he tended to measure people in the way he measured himself.

Understanding the person, therefore, is critical because you

Westland Limited2011, 196 pgs, R200, paperback

Anita Bhogle & Harsha Bhogle

the winning waylearnings from sport for managers

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still need him on the team and need to get the best out of him.

Michael Holding, as we have seen, said something similar when we asked him about his captain Clive Lloyd. There was a feeling that you didnt really need to do much with that great West Indies side since everyone knew their role and they were the most awesome bunch of players to take the field. (In years to come, New Zealander Chris Cairns would say that his mother could captain Australia!) But as Holding said, Lloydy took the trouble to understand that we were all different and because he respected us, we respected him.

The other reason the best performer need not make the best leader, therefore, is that leadership requires a whole new set of skills. An outstanding software programmer, for example, caught up in the daily affair with his machine, might never learn to handle people; a very good shop floor manager might not possess the communication skills to lead a less homogeneous group. Understanding that the qualities that brought you so far are not the ones that will necessarily take you forward is an adjustment that many fail to make. And so teams might

be better off looking at less-gifted individuals if indeed they possess the ability to bring the best out of the team.

The need to have both skills being a performer and being able to understand the capability of others is therefore a combination that few possess, for, as Madhabi Puri-Buch told us, The leader must also come with impeccable credentials. Todays youngsters, in particular, will not respect a leader if he/she is not a performer in his/her own right. Her philosophy is that a leader can command respect only if he is able to say, If you cant do it, I will.

Genius also has a twin brother in ego, and success only strengthens the bond between the siblings. Saugata Gupta feels that greed and a lack of humility are the two main reasons why leaders fall. Sometimes, leaders get caught up in pet projects. You should be able to judge things from a distance. Often, there arent people who will tell the leader that he is wrong. It is lonely at the top.

leaders come with a shelf-lifeWhile discussing leadership issues we often talk about different situations needing, almost

demanding, different kinds of leaders. Wartime generals are required for inspired action, for taking the bull by the horns. Peacetime managers are brought in when you need to sustain a campaign. Neither of those skills is superior as seen by the case of Winston Churchill who was rejected by the British electorate when the need to rebuild, after the euphoria of the victory in the war, became paramount.

Post the match-fixing issue at the turn of the century, Indian cricket needed a flamboyant, inspirational leader, not just to carry the team along but to convince the fans that they were out there doing their best. Sourav Ganguly was the right man and he was wonderful in transforming India from a defensive, uncertain side, especially overseas, into one that could win anywhere. By doing that he brought the people back into the game and towards supporting the national side. In fact, you could say cricket in India recovered almost too quickly from that match-fixing affair!

The qualities that brought you so far are not the ones that will necessarily take you forward.

Excerpted with permission from Westland Limited from The Winning Way Learnings from sport for managers by Anita Bhogle & Harsha Bhogle