Sunday, August 03, 2014

HR Lessons from India's defeat in 3rd test at Southampton

HR Lessons from India's defeat in 3rd test at Southampton 

Man Management is all about keeping the flock together & getting best of them always. Historically Indian Teams have the tendency of revelling in short term success & faltering at series subsequently. The recent loss at Ageas Bowl is shocking as the team was expected to steamroll Poms, instead we were beaten in our own game of spin by lesser known Moin Ali 

Here are my 12 lessons for all of us.

1. The thin line between Confidence & Over Confidence which the leader has to carefully tread was breached by the Captain while choosing the personnel, this did affect the final result 

2. When you loose your best performer, the ideal thing to do is to go to your next best or senior player ( in this case it wad Ashwin, who for mysterious reason gets dropped), instead India handed the 282nd Cap to Pankaj, who bowled well in patches

3. Some of the players are struggling to produce results, as a leader one has to spend time with performers like Kohli, Dhawan & Shami, making them feel important & ensuring they play out of their skins

4. A happy dressing room is a performing dressing room, similar to settled work teams who produce better results, it is leader's job to keep them cheered. I see the players jaded & under pressure

5. When the team comes together, it follows TUCKMANN's 4 quadrant of FORMING, STORMING, NORMING, PERFORMING, this is an ever evolving process, the Leader has to understand where each player fits into it, to bring the best as mentioned in earlier point

6. I feel Kohli has reached a stage where he needs to be reminded of his NEED FOR ACHIEVEMENT (NAch) as in the Achievement Motivation Theory, a Champion & Legend in the Making like him is too precious to be left on his own, Can THE WALL help him please

7. As I had mentioned in my previous post, Jadeja's previous success is only harming the team now, than doing good, he is neither a wicket taking bowling option or stable no 7 batsman to be carrying, Leader has to let go his ego to play a team for winning than going with lotteries like Sir Jadeja

8. I remember speaking to one of the India's greatest fast bowlers, Srinath about how the 2003 WC Team had multiple off field captains in Sachin, Anil, Sri, Rahul & Viru to help Sourav in the decision making, the empowerment showed in India's show then, who are Dhoni's men in the current team, I don't see much of his interactions with Kohli, Gambhir & Ashwin on field at least

9. The Shared Leadership will not only help the Captain but also team in general on such a long tour. The Leader should Trust & feel Confident to have such a core team

10. The Captain's Merry Men's ( Dhawan, Rohit & Jadeja) contribution in bowling & batting are 45.5 & 24 respectively not including Dhoni's. This clearly shows backing the wrong set of personnel, having played the game, I can only tell such prolonged supports sends wrong signal to others & discontent brews within the team

11.The post match comment about justifying horrible shot by Rohit Sharma was no different from the shot by Stuart Binny in the Lord's match, yet one man was penalised by way of getting dropped & the other was defended, this again proves that if you are in the good books of the captain, you can get away with such crime. The leader has to show impartial judgement with the team for the better dressing room atmosphere

12. I feel the off field happenings had certain bearings on the mindset of some players, it's important for the leader to keep them focused on immediate goal as well as long term goal ( winning the match & the series in that order).

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

HR Lessons from Team Sports

Team Sports teaches us lot of HR lessons, one has to look at it with great deal of interest & prism to decipher the goods & deltas, I shall be writing about Indian Team starting with India's Tour of England, the series of writing will have good things as well as deltas analysed with my experience as Cricketer & a HR Person

HR Lessons from India's famous win at Lord's

POSITIVES: 

1. As a leader go for the kill with your best man, give him all the right tools do so, as was evident in field placings for Ishanth Sharma's bowling
2. Let the team know who is the LEADER during the crunch times like asking Sharma to bowl short right at the stroke of lunch when most batsmen tend to switch off & back them
3. Winning is a habit, great leaders have gambled small losses for big gains, so giving extra runs to buy wickets was a clever thought
4. Clever understanding of the rules of the game & Desi Jugaad which ensued he had 3 fielders behind legs by standing back to spinner was a new thing in cricket history, it clearly shows Leader's out the box thinking ability
5. Backing your known set of personnel will yield the desired results, ask Jadeja, Ishant & Vijay. This is what famous Steve Waugh did with all conquering OZ side
6. As a leader, one should learn from the past ( Jo'berg & Basin Reserves) & try to live in the present situation to not to make same mistakes, which resulted in a win
7. Having Plan B & executing it to perfection like Bouncing the Batsmen worked wonders in conditions known for Pitch it Up plan. As a leader to come up with that plan spontaneously was a masterstroke

DELTAS: 

1. When you pick a player, you have to give him the confidence, this is also so true when we hire a new employee in the team, Dhoni's whatever reason for not using Binny to full extent is inexplicable & defies the logic of picking him. 
2. Making a player unwanted can dent his confidence for long, how captain & think tank handles Binny fiasco will be keenly watched by me.
3. When you are producing results people may not see through your lack of personal contribution, but moment the results reverses, the Leader will be put under a microscope. Dhoni's glove work has never been a sight to behold, in the match today, he looked horrible for pacers, standing back to a spinner was the last thing
4. The innings by Jadeja in fact may do more harm to team & himself than good, the individual has come good after 13 innings with the bat & with ball he was efficient & not effective, the Leader should know when to let go the personnel for his as well as team's good. He is actually blocking the place for an effective wicket taking bowler as well consistent batsman in Ashwin
5. Couple of players like Kohli, Dhawan & Shami look jaded for whatever reasons, as a leader one has to spend time with such performers to bring a sense of purpose in them, the best man who did it with players is sitting the commentary box, The Prince of Calcutta can be tapped to know more of it