Talent Identification

The?American Film Institute (AFI)?honors film industry veterans every year with the lifetime achievement award. They invite the ones who collaborated with the recipient of the award to come and share some words about them. I love watching these speeches and one such speech I revisit often is actress Jodie Foster talking about Robert De Niro.

In her speech Jodie Foster says,?“Robert De Niro took it upon himself to introduce her to the craft of acting”, when working with her on “Taxi Driver”. She adds, “I had spent nine years in the industry, but no one bothered to teach me what acting was, but Bob did.” Good leaders play the role of mentors. They are coaches. They see potential and talent and bring them to the front.

Clive Lloyd captained the West Indies team during the 1970s. He was not an exceptional batsman or bowler and could never be one,?for greats like Vivian Richards and Gordon Greenidge surrounded him. But Clive Lloyd was the most remarkable leadership material that could have happened to the West Indies. Some?call him the most excellent captain ever.?Why??There are many reasons, but mainly?Clive Lloyd brought together a diverse collection of talented individuals from different Caribbean islands who lacked direction, focus, discipline, mental toughness and shared purpose and transformed them into a highly professional, disciplined, and all-conquering unit that dominated the world cricket for more than fifteen years. Clive had a clear and powerful vision of what he wanted his team to achieve and become.?He imprinted that vision into his players’ minds and showed them how they would benefit from achieving the team’s goals.

Some other names that come to mind on the same lines as Clive Lloyd are?Sourav Ganguly,?Steve Waugh,?Mahendra Singh Dhoni?and?Arjuna Ranatunga. They were not superstars like?Don Bradman,?Sachin Tendulkar, or?Brian Lara, but they had great leadership traits,?mainly when it came to identifying and nurturing talent. And that’s precisely what Robert De Niro had. In a recent interview, director Martin Scorsese said, “It was Bob who recommended that I work with Leonardo Di Caprio after he had shared screen space with him in “This Boy’s Life”. Bob generally doesn’t recommend actors, but he said this kid is good and you should work with him. That’s how I casted Leo in “Gangs of New York”.