“Does Indian Cricket Have Leaders or Players?” – Professor M.S.Rao

"Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall." - Stephen R. Covey

As the World Cup fever is on it is time to focus on the difference between leaders and players. Although it is a debatable issue whether Indian Cricket needs leaders or players, I will throw some light by distinguishing between the leaders and players. And finally we will arrive at conclusion what we need to have.

There is always difference between leader and player. There are few players who did well individually but failed to lead from front either due to their excessive focus on their strengths or areas or lack of leadership abilities. However, there are players who are leaders as well and succeeded in teams and group through their team spirit and emotional intelligence. When you look at Indian cricket player Sachin Tendulkar he is an amazing player who deserves India’s highest civilian award – Bharat Ratna. However, it is a challenging task for him to prove himself as the captain of the cricket team. It may be due to his excessive focus on being a better player as a batsman than as a leader of the cricket team. On the other hand, M.S.Dhoni is the captain of the cricket who is a good leader but not an amazing player like Sachin Tendulkar. The fact is that good players can become great leaders and not vice versa. Similarly we find few managers becoming good leaders but often good leaders cannot become good managers.

The mindset of managers is different from leaders. Leaders are visionaries while managers are missionaries. Managers often think of how and when while the leaders often think of where and why.

Leaders’ job is to bring diversified members under common fold and get the best out of them. While the managers’ job is to think within the box to get best out of others. Leaders often look at success while managers often look at survival. Leaders emphasize their focus more on process than content while the managers do the other way.

Coming to the conclusion we need both leaders and players to win in this world. The leaders must don the hat as managers and vice versa depending on the situation and we can call the same as managerial leaders. Hence, Indian Cricket needs managerial leaders and players to eat the cake and have it too.


Professor M.S.Rao
Founder and Chief Consultant,
MSR Leadership Consultants, India
Blog: http://profmsr.blogspot.com
Where Knowledge is Wealth
Email: profmsr7@gmail.com



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