Performance Matters - Leadership Lesson from Sunrisers Hyderabad decision to replace David Warner as Captain

“Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.” — Vince Lombardi.

Firstly I hope all of you are doing well and keeping safe. My best wishes to all of you for safe and healthy days ahead. Be Responsible and Stay Safe.

It’s very difficult to play the role of Leader especially during the crisis ensuring that team comes out victorious. As a leader Everything you do is magnified. Leaders need to influence and inspire action in others, and respond with vision and agility during periods of growth, disruption or uncertainty

Most of you who follow cricket and IPL would be aware about the biggest news of 2021 IPL season which has come recently is that David Warner, Captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad, has been replaced not only as Captain but also is not included in team.

David Warner captained SRH to their maiden tournament win in 2016. He was the second-highest run-scorer for them in their title-winning effort with a monumental 848 runs at a strike rate of 151.42. He had a good IPL season in 2017 as well and returned back strong in 2019 scoring 692 runs in 12 matches. As captain in the 2020 IPL edition, he took Sunrisers Hyderabad to No.3 on the points table. The left-hander is also their leading scorer, having won the Orange Cap three times in 2015, 2017, and 2019.

Unfortunately, 2021 has been very bad season for SRH and they are struggling bottom of the table with only 1 win in 6matches played so far and almost all their key players except (Bairstow & Rashid Khan) have struggled in most of the matches. They have not clicked as team this year. There are also rumours of David's disagreement with Sunrisers management on team selection in 2021 season. They have made 12 changes and used 21 out of 25 players in season so far but still not able to deliver results. David Warner’s own form this season has been very poor struggling with Strike rate as well as average, he looked pale shadow of his past.

Other than being captain for few seasons, David Warner has been one of the most valuable & successful player from Sunrisers camp. He was leading the team till yesterday and today is not found good enough to be part of team. It's a bold decision by management definitely with good intent but Right or wrong time will decide.

What are the key learnings from this episode, some of them I have mentioned below but I request if you can share your views in comments so that we can have collective learning and sharing?

1. As a leader you are always responsible for success and failure for team, buck will always stop at you if you are Leader
2. Skills required to be a successful leader are different than to be a successful individual. They may complement each other but don't fill in for each other.
3. Even as a leader you need to ensure that you are adding value as an individual, ultimately you need to play your individual role in your team
4. Past Laurels can build your image but cannot guarantee you a place, performance always takes precedence.
5. What got you here may not take you further. Past strategies may no more be effective so it's important to be continually Improving and Adapting.
6. Ensure alignment and clarity on your vision and action plans with the critical stakeholders & Decision makers. Else the uncertainty will only aggravate the situation adversely.
7. Frequent changes may not be effective always, instead they may create insecurity and adversely impact the performance of team members ultimately resulting in poor team performance.

 “A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.” — Arnold Glasow

David warner & SRH have had many memorable comebacks in past. As they say form is temporary and class in permanent. Lets hope that both David and SRH get back their form and start delivering results.

Looking to hear from you all on your views and feedback.

Thanks,

Chandan Shirbhayye

https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/chandanshirbhayye