Published>Mon, Nov 15 10 04:17 AM
Lost in the din of the jubilant celebrations of the Aussie brown-wash and Sachin Tendulkar's fabulous batting form was one little fact?MS Dhoni stands at the cusp of becoming one of India's most successful captains of all times. He has already won the inaugural T20 World Cup; he also won the IPL and Champions League. With this series, Dhoni becomes the first Indian captain to have a 100% success rate against Australia. What he is doing brilliantly, consciously or unknowingly is a lesson for all B-school students who will be leaders one day.
We've been used to skippers who are very expressive and emotive. If Ganguly bit his nails and had a Salman Khan moment at Lords, last IPL we had the dubious pleasure of seeing Sachin Tendulkar swearing. In contrast, Dhoni has been refreshingly cool. He looks unflustered during crunch times and doesn't run to bowlers to change the field settings. He just lets the guys do their jobs, which seems a very sensible thing to do. In our lives, sites go down, servers malfunction, executives goof up, sales teams don't deliver and it's easy to vent out frustrations. The Dhoni approach would be just let the guy do his job?you hired him and chose him with that particular task?let him do it to the best, irrespective of the result.
Leadership is not just managing your juniors but also managing your bosses. MS Dhoni reports to the BCCI, the most powerful, most fickle and most demanding board in the world of cricket. If that was not enough, the team owner of Chennai Super Kings is N Srinivasan, and if even that was not enough, K Srikkanth chooses his team. For other captains, there were selective leaks about the Board's unhappiness with them?we've heard no such rumours about Dhoni. Whatever his style, he seems to be doing a great job and managing these bosses.
Dhoni had greatness thrust on him. Draw back to the time he was made captain for the T20 World Cup. India had just been hammered by England; the 3 big guns, Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly, had decided to skip the Cup for obvious reasons. With a rag-tag bunch of unknowns, he achieved the unthinkable. India prevailed beating archrivals Pakistan. The final over was bowled by one Joginder Singh and the rest is history. Dhoni has made it a habit of testing the untested.
The closest equivalent I can think of outside the sporting world is Barack Obama putting Chris Hughes in charge of his Internet campaign in the 2008 presidential elections.
Hughes was just 23 whose claim to fame was that he was the co-founder of Facebook. Again, the rest is history?Obama's Internet strategy was a game changer. Ask yourself?how many leaders will put so much responsibility on someone so young!
Dhoni has drawn out the best from his senior pros?he has the unenviable task of working with a galaxy of superstars such as Tendulkar, Dravid, Sehwag and Laxman, to name a few. Imagine telling a Dravid to bat lower down the order or tweaking Harbhajan Singh's field placing. Any leader who has worked with rock star programmer or creative director or art director will empathise with the situation Dhoni is in. These guys are the best in their jobs and one never knows how they will react to suggestions and criticism. The Indian team looks much more settled and comfortable under Dhoni. He seems to have achieved this by being open and transparent in all his dealings.
Dhoni's personal life is personal?not splashed about by the tabloids and Pg 3s like Yuvraj Singh's and Sreesanth's. His family maintains a low profile and so does he. His marriage was a low-key affair. Dhoni's handling of the press has also been exemplary. Every cricketing correspondent is an armchair expert who is ready to dole out advice, they are notorious for quickly placing you on the pedestal and equally quick to pull the rug from underneath you?so far, everybody seems to love Dhoni.
Dhoni made a sensational entry into international cricket?his flowing mane and swashbuckling batting style won him accolades even from Pervez Musharraf. He made a name for himself for his unorthodox style and aggressive batting. Gradually he modified his game, cutting out all the risky strokes and focusing on winning games. He has changed with the times. Very often, we meet with professionals stuck in the past?reliving their glory days. It could be creative directors stuck with their own styles that made them famous or software architects not adapting to newer languages and approaches. All of us would be wise to remember that cricket has changed, India has changed, our jobs will change and it would be best that we adapt our game, just as Dhoni has.
The author is COO, Contests2win.com
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