Management Lessons from the Indian Team

The current Indian Team has probably got the best players. But they are washed and white washed so badly in Australia that as an Indian I feel utterly humiliated.  Humilited not because we are weak, its because we are strong and yet playing such bad cricket.  Contrast this Indian Team which is wealthy and comfortable to the Pakistani Team.  The Pakistani Team has been accussed of match fixing that it reached a point that two young players were jailed.  Then the bomb attack in Karachi and Pakistan cannot even play in their own country anymore.  The IPL, worlds richest league, boycotted all pakistani players.  Imagine a time like that torn to shreds and brought down.  Yet they perform, in a neurtal venue last week they pasted the talented English team by beating them by 10 wickets.

 

Now this is something that we get to see staring in our face every day in our work life and yet we tend to believe what ever gives us comfort.

 

1. Past form or experience has no place in the present. 

 

Time and again it has been proved beyond doubt that one cannot rest on ones laurels. The minute you think our existence for long years give us the depth of experience to take on the challenges of the present you have lost the plot.  So what about experience?  How does it help?

 

Experience is useful only if it teaches a human being to be selfless and bold.  If experience were to make a person proud and haughty and give him/her a "I know everything auro"  then like a two edges sword the experience factor can be self defeating.

 

Good experience managers or leaders are willing to do what they have to do even if it were to hurt them.  They are commited to the cause or the organization.  If they have to give their head to the guillotine block they will first to do it. Do they fear professional death?  not at tall.  In fact they beleive that nothing can bring a man down, there is always an after life.  They also know that by them laying or willing to lay down their position they send the right message of boldness to the team. 

 

Now look at the Indian Team, we have venerated players of yore like Sachin, Dravid, Laxman who are good and continue to be good in all respects.  But can they become better ?  Their reservoirs are more or less dried out.  Yet they want to hang on.  Why do they do this?  They have shut their eyes and do not see the present.  They are blind to the talented players who are waiting in the wings with immense potential.  Cant they just pass on their experience to few of them and sit at the side and enjoy them play? 

 

2.  Comfort Kills hunger

 

When comfort sets in the murderous rage (kolaveri) to take on challenge diminishes. They talk about reaching the pinnacle called 'self actualization' in Maslows pyramid.  The closest I can get to the meaning of the word SELF ACTUALIZATION is vegetable patch.  Most people get so comfortable as they make money, they keep improving their lifestyle and pay no regard to their life.  Then they reach of imcompetence and try to run their life by flashing the best cares and clothes and parties.  They call themselves accomplished and then sail across to the end of time. 

 

The Indian players including the respectable ones, allow themselves to be traded like commodities. They would not mind it as long as their bank account bloats.  As some point in time these players have earned enough to take care of their entire life with out working. What drives them further is a mystery?  The only thing that probably gets on the field is their hunger for publicity certainly not the love for the game or money.

 

We need to be challenged constantly for the juices to flow.  Leaders will not look for challenges to happen they will constantly challenge themselves for they know that without challenge there is no learning. 

 

 

3.  Strong People are not strong.

 

I have told the story of the Vinayaga and Kathekeya race to many audiences.  Before telling the story I always give the the scenario of a thin strong guy and a fat flabby guy getting ready for a running race.  I pose the question who will win and the obvious answer is the Thin strong guy.  We all know what happened the Fat man won the race. 

 

In most organizations the so called strong senior people are the ones who do the least amount of work and create the most amount of confusion.  The low paid staff at the bottom of the pyramid tireless and silently perform most of the work and keep the engine running.

 

Successful organizations acknowledge this and make sure the ones who really  work are  provided with the right climate for them to work. In fact they understand the power of the weak.  This is probably the reason why most Indian companies and homes keep the Vinayaga statue upfront.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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