Concept of Leadership as it applies to me

                  The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say “I.” And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say “I.” They don’t think “I.” They think “we”; they think “team.” They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but “we” gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.-----Peter Drucker

A leader is an agent of change, and progress is about change. In the words of Robert F Kennedy, 'Progress is a nice word; but change is its motivator.'

Leadership is about raising the aspirations of followers and enthusing people with a desire to reach for the stars. For instance, Mahatma Gandhi created a vision for independence in India and raised the aspirations of our people.

Leadership is about making people say, 'I will walk on water for you.' It is about creating a worthy dream and helping people achieve it.

Robert Kennedy , summed up leadership best when he said, 'Others see things as they are and wonder why; I see them as they are not and say why not?'

Concepts of leadership as applied to me are ---

1) Forward looking

            To achieve our goal, we need to set one. I believe team could achieve its goal only when they are set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely). Only then team members could understand each of their roles in achieving the goal and work constructively towards it. My principle is to Set goals and to have a vision for the future. The vision must be owned throughout the organization.

2) Honesty

         I believe team members could trust me only when i am honest to them. To win the trust of team members I believe "Honesty is the best policy". According to me "Honesty is a facet of moral character and denotes positive and virtuous attributes such as integrity, truthfulness and straightforwardness".

3) Supportive

        The team members tend to makes mistakes. I believe instead of being reprehensible, one need to be supportive and foster a positive environment that allows team to flourish. By doing so, the team members will believe that I care in their growth and progress in their career. I could instill in them "Never say Die" attitude in whatever task i allocate to them.

4) Empowerment and Engagement

           The team members should feel emboldened and powerful to take stand against whatever they feel wrong and destructive for the progress of organisation or what hinders the progress towards the goal of the team.

I believe leaders will be able to get all members of their teams engaged. This can be done by offering them challenge, seeking their ideas and contributions and providing them with recognition for their contributions.

5) Inspiring and Confidence

            "I think it's very difficult to lead today when people are not really truly participating in the decision. You won't be able to attract and retain great people if they don't feel like they are part of the authorship of the strategy and the authorship of the really critical issues. When opportunities are given to them to take decision and lead the actions, they will inspired to do more and become confident on the task.

It should also be backed by certain actions of leader. Take their blame and leave success to them. This will inspire and instill confidence in them to achieve their goals.

6) Clarity

               One of the ways get confidence is by becoming really, really clear about who you are and what is most important to you. I feel few leaders fail when they try to become all things to all people, or try to do too much out of their area of excellence. Clarity helps one to say "yes" to the right things -- and "no" to others.

7) Leverage team strengths

                Part of awareness is not to expect people to change. If one think that one can change someone,he should think again. This doesn't mean one can't help them grow and develop. But don't expect to change anyone (even our self behaviorally). We are who we are. I believe one of my job as a leader is to understand each person's strengths and place them in positions where they can flourish and grow. If a leader good at that, he has a huge part of the equation for success.

  

Corporate Leadership: My all-time captain: Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly was made the captain of Indian cricket team in 2000, when Indian cricket was going through its most turbulent phase. The match-fixing scandal had left an indelible imprint on Indian cricket with some prominent players being banned from the game. In addition to this, the team had lost a rare test series at home and the morale of the team was at its lowest. Also, India's cricketing icon, Sachin Tendulkar declined the captaincy. By default, the captaincy came to Ganguly who then transformed the meek Indian Cricket team to one of the aggressive teams in the world.

The Man Who Changed the Face of INDIAN CRICKET

LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS

STRONG LEADER

Sourav is an example of an outstanding leader who was willing to take strong hard stands and being gutsy during hard times. He challenged his superiors (Selectors) for the right cause towards development of team by getting players he thought who would add value to the team rather than go by the whims of selectors. He produced many match winners of today like Virendra Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, and Harbhajan Singh and so on.

Yuvraj Singh on Sourav Ganguly: “I can die for this captain”

Sachin Tendulkar on Sourav Ganguly: "The best captain I have played under"

Sourav Ganguly - Master of Mind Games:

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

He as a captain always believed in replying on the face and responding in an appropriate fashion. Again, the prime example of this is his waving of the shirt violently from the balcony of Lords in 2002 to Andrew Flintoff. 

VISIONARY

His vision was to win the world cup for India and indeed came very very close to win one after a gap on 20 years.

SACRIFICE FOR TEAM'S SAKE

He demoted himself; to make the space for the opening slot to accommodate Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar. Ganguly will be remembered as most successful captain for having forged a winning unit from a bunch of young talented players.

                 

This Sacrifice by Ganguly did produce one of the most aggressive opening pairs for India. It also helped us to reach the final of World Cup 2003.

RESPECTED BY RIVALS/OPPONENTS

Sourav Ganguly is one of rare leaders who were appreciated and regarded as one of the most successful captain for India.Though Ganguly irked Steve Waugh during the toss for a match, Steve Waugh regards Ganguly as one of the best captains that India could ever have. He was also treated with high regard/respect by rival captains.

EXCELLENT MANAGER

Sourav managed his team well and backed number of young players in the team. He backed Virendra sehwag during his initial matches and promoted him as one of best top order batsmen in the world. So is the development with careers of Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh notably.

In one of matches against South Africa, he knew that his bowlers are not in good touch and there were two aggressive batsmen on the crease. Though they required 8 runs from the last over, he bowled that over despite having not bowled any overs previously. India lost that match; he took the blame for the loss rather than passing it on to his trusted bowlers. He always took blame for the loss and passed the credit for the victory to his team.

TEAM MANAGEMENT

         Words such as ‘groups’ and ‘camps’ have vanished from the dressing room. That is when we saw the “Team India”. He is very influential and built the team India like never before. He was impartial, non-parochial and pushed his players to perform better. His interactions with media, fans, and detractors were uncompromisingly honest.

MOTIVATOR

Sourav Ganguly had been constantly motivating his team members to perform better and better in every matches. When he took the responsibility of being a leader, the team had no match winners. He motivated lot of young players who came into the side and he produced lot of match winners that Indian team had.

Harbhajan Singh on Sourav Ganguly:

Virendra Sehwag on Sourav Ganguly:

Anil Kumble on Sourav Ganguly:

UNABATED OPTIMISM 

Sourav Ganguly was credited for bringing optimistic vision to Indian team. He felt that India could achieve better success in International cricket. It was under his captaincy; India started winning test matches in Australia, Pakistan, England and other test playing countries. The strength and most aspiring point of Ganguly is his firmness to the goal decided to achieve. His never ending wining spirit, dedication to work always motivated the Indian team.

PERSEVERANCE

Many thought that when Ganguly was sacked from the captaincy in 2005, that was his end of the career. But he didn't quit and kept playing domestic games to prove his form. He then made remarkable comebacks in ODI against West Indies by scoring 98 and in TEST against South Africa by scoring the highest runs for India. This perseverance reflects his tough mentality rather than giving up himself. 

Sourav Ganguly Interview During His Come Back:

Sachin Tendulkar on Sourav Ganguly:

PASSION TO PROFESSION

No body can deny that Sourav Ganguly was more passionate about cricket which is evident from the fact that he is a commentator now and expressed his interest to coach India in the future. 

Rahul Dravid on Sourav Ganguly: 

“Ganguly had a passion for the job. He had a desire to win. He was willing to do whatever it took to win."

Sourav Ganguly has demonstrated some very important qualities of corporate leader. He has shown how to build a team, manage a team and succeed at home and overseas. He demonstrated the importance of getting the best resources and talent; motivating them to emerge as competitive player.