Lesson for leaders in Asif's come back

At a time when Afghanistan team & its fans could sense a historic win against Pakistan, the man in picture (Asif Ali) hits four sixes & took the game away from Afghanistan.

He did the similar job against New Zealand couple of days ago. At a time when New Zealand was very close to a victory, Asif smashed some thrilling shots and changed the game in Pakistan's favour.

So what is the lesson for Business Leaders in these two innings by a player who wasn't performing well in the past a few seasons. We all know that Asif was really down due to his daughter's long illness & unfortunately he lost her in May 2019. He was really down after that tragedy & any human being would feel in such a situation. What we have to understand as business leaders is that sometimes we aren't sure what is actually happening inside our employees' minds. Sometimes their performance is not adding up to their personalities. Sometimes we can see our exceptional team members not bringing the results that we expect. We have seen personal or family matters affecting the performance of talented people.

So, what shall we do as business leaders?

Show empathy, show your support, treat them with respect and offer your genuine help where they need. Sit down with them & ask them if they need a help. Ask them if they are having any issues. I have seen managers telling their employees, 'don't bring your personal or family issues to work'. A leader can't say that, a leader offers help in situations that are not part of his work directly. Because indirectly that issue their team member is having is linked with their work.

The time will change, they will start performing as they are naturally talented. But if leaders don't understand what empathy can do & if they act like arrogant Bosses they would lose people like Asif.