With the world cup going India’s way (three cheers to Team India), it is worthwhile to look back and draw some lessons in leadership from the Indian captain – MS Dhoni. What stood out through the tournament was his candour and courage. He did not hesitate to admit mistakes and that too in a country where cricket fans are to say the least fanatical. This transparency was impressive and took a lot of courage – am sure many will agree that this approach shows commitment and that the man had nothing to hide. Second, he was not afraid to take risks and displayed tremendous courage in standing by his decisions. On the day of the finals, he led from the front and made sure his team won the cup! All the cricketing greats have hailed him to be a true leader – am sure this will continue for some time.

However, let’s stop for a minute and understand that the same principles hold true for a business also. We have the recent example of the Nokia CEO publicly acknowledging their missteps. Now, that takes courage too. Businesses should learn to worry less about perceptions and do what is right for the company and keep moving towards their goals.

Anand Mahindra summed it up nicely in his tweet – This party MUST last more than a night-not the booze&fireworks,but the self-belief&desire to be the best. Thanks for the lesson,men in blue..

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Wipro’s announcement last week on the stepping down of its two co_CEOs and a withering attack on the management of Mindtree on the continued below par results makes you wonder about the role of leadership in guiding an organization through troubled times. Are CEOs made scapegoats or is it really the case that they have been unable to take tough decisions?

Leaders need to be adaptable (without being whimsical) and at the same time firm and stay convinced even if others around them look sceptical. The latter is important to be able to steer through difficult times and keep away from the danger of taking “popular” decisions by going with the majority.

I remember reading an article I read recently, “Solitude and Leadership”, where the author Deresiewicz speaks about being able to think independently, introspect, being with oneself and hence backing oneself to taking the right decision as being extremely important. I thought it made abundant sense. Today, with collaborative leadership styles being recommended, it is worthwhile to take a pause and also examine this seeming contradiction. What do you think?

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A bunch of techie co-workers had queued up at the coffee vending machine. Well, coffee early in the day definitely works wonders. All in their 20s, giggling as they shared stories of their respective flat-mates.

One of them asked her friends, “Do you know when the Open House is and at which location?” The only guy in the bunch of girls frowned and said, “No idea. Don’t think anyone really reads mails from the Communications team.”

I was part of the same team. I felt hurt. Can I generalize the statement and share the feedback with boss, I wondered? Isn’t it ironical that some days back at lunch, our team was discussing how satisfied everyone was with the regular communication that is going out from us in a more structured manner?

The obvious question that came to my mind then was, so who was really satisfied? Is it management? Is it some layer below management? Is it the communications team and its head? Or is it the audience to whom the communication was addressed?

Who were we writing for? Was our objective to make the management happy about the visibility we created for them? Or was it really aimed for the techies who were more than half the population and help them understand where the organization was heading?

I realized the problem was more in the way the communication was delivered. I am sure the communications team did a wonderful job of putting across the message, but we did not realize that there could be other associated activities to pull people to the message. Would it have been better if the mail had gone from the leader’s desk than just another mail from the communications team? Did we need a regular feedback mechanism by which we got to know what our audience wanted from us? Well, we can continue debating.

Ultimately, if the message does not reach the desired audience, the communication fails. Trash the brownie points! What do you say?

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My inspiration for this blog came from a video clip of Harsha Bhogle’s talk at IIM (Ahmedabad). Bhogle is a well known sports commentator who also happens to be an alumnus of IIM(A). The essence of Bhogle’s clip, for me, was that beyond a point, talent can be a liability, as it breeds complacency and arrogance and also that in a given peer group, all people are equally talented and what can make a difference is your work ethic, application and attitude. So true, yet so often we don’t internalize this. Especially in India, where we so glamourize talent and under emphasize the importance of practice, diligence, discipline and thus the right attitude.

We have so many examples around us that we never cease to talk about- Tendulkar – who has shown such application and dedication ( given his talent) of course, but how often do we discuss that aspect? Likewise, take the new national hero- Saina- it is not talent that won her the CWG gold, but her grit, determination and great attitude that saw her turnaround a match from the jaws of defeat. It is the same attitude that is making her (at least for now) stay away from the lure of ad money. Likewise, the Infosys team led by Mr Narayana Murthy- showed tremendous attitude to stay and make it happen at a time when the business climate was difficult, and offshoring was an alien concept- why else, have we not had more success stories like Infosys- surely India has many, many more talented people than the co-founders of Infosys. And thus, one can quote more and more examples.

The bottom-line however is how well we apply it to our own walks of life. Personally, I am a great believer in the importance of attitude and so the clip resonated so well with me.

In fact, I think the leverage that we would get if only all of us with the talent inculcated the right discipline and attitude is unimaginable. What do you think?

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