What does an India-Pakistan cricket match teach us about leadership?

“Now, I am an educated man, Charlie, but when somebody tries to explain Cricket to me, all I want to do is hit him in the head with a teapot.” 

Martin Sheen, playing the fictitious President Jed Bartlett in West Wing, spoke for most Americans when he found cricket too complicated and/or boring.  

So, what could this game teach us about leadership, management and execution?

Last Sunday, I was watching India play Pakistan. Contests against Pakistan always take on an intense tone. There is history at work, with its bloody shade clear even through the fog of multiple wars.

Additionally, during these games, I get to explain to my American spouse what happened and why it matters and she tries to listen as a small price to pay for being married to a wonderful person.

 The match proceeded along familiar lines:

• India batted first, and got off to a slow start. Even so, the opening batsmen (batters) put the team on course for success.
• Pakistan has always had better bowlers (pitchers) than their Indian counterparts. On this occasion, their pace and strength was unallied to discipline. As a result, they failed to get the requisite early breakthroughs. To make matters worse, the fielders charged with restricting the runs were sluggish, as if they had a case of Delhi belly.
• India, benefiting from their solid start, scored a lot of quick runs at the end and finished with a formidable score.
• Pakistan, who batted second, had to pass India’s score to win. They failed to start well in that their batters kept getting out without scoring too many runs.
• In the end, they had neither the foundation that India benefited from earlier, nor the ability to make up lost ground later, and lost the match.
• In a nice bit of subcontinental solidarity, the Indian fielders were just as abysmal as their Pakistani counterparts, dropping catches I would have collected in an inebriated state the night I graduated college.

There is much to learn about leadership from this game.

Plan the work, and work the plan

The Indian win was based on a solid start that was not flashy. It was dour and incremental. However, those batters enabled the rest of the team to do well later on.

Some of the most consequential work involves details and planning that will remain invisible and often unacknowledged. This is often where lessons are learned and progress is made.

The modern workplace celebrates flashy smooth-talkers and self-anointed ‘visionaries.’ They bring the house down with their pizazz only to eventually get buried in the rubble.

Creating something of value takes painstaking effort. Create a culture that respects this fact.

 Pick a team for the occasion

The Indian team had folks who were willing to do the grunt work for hours so that someone could he the hero at in the final minutes and become the face of the win. Each successful team needs diversity - people with skills and perspectives such that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Not everyone can be or needs to be a rockstar, but you need different skills to make your words sing. There is value and dignity in different kinds of contributions.

 Staff your teams accordingly and treat everyone with respect.

Don’t tune out criticism, but don’t be deafened by it

As the match progressed, an Indian fielder dropped an easy catch. An Australian commentator, also a former cricketer, was scathing in his criticism. My wife was surprised at the bluntness. As a lifelong India supporter, I was accustomed to it, and the Indian sloppiness that brought it on.

Australian cricketers are to the game what California is to the rest of America. Even people who despise their attitude admire their aptitude. They have won 4 of the last 5 world cups and are electric in the field, and therefore have credibility to throw spitballs. In any case, the Indians would have dropped the spitballs too.

The important lesson here is to listen to the criticism, even if delivered by an adversary, internalize it and improve. Don’t dwell on it and lose faith in your abilities either. Hone your judgment to find this balance.

The happy ending does not justify the means

In spite of the sloppiness, the Indians prevailed. This was in part because the Pakistanis were sloppier, but also since the Indians excelled in other areas. As a partisan, I hope against my better judgment the Indians will improve their catching and maintain their expertise in other areas for the battles to come.

Don’t let a successful outcome blind you to your flaws. Unless addressed, they will resurface like a dead body and you will be found out.

The best time to fix your defects if before you pay for them. As JFK once said, fix the roof while the sun shines.

Don’t lose perspective

India-Pakistan matches always generate a lot of hype and advertising dollars. Commentators line up to offer their wisdom and then adjust their analysis to explain the outcomes. It is like watching a high-energy version of Wolf Blitzer on steroids.

This game, on the other hand, was one-sided and the tournament moved along. Anticipation proved brighter than appearance, as it often does.

At work, you will work on projects you deem to be life-changing, super-critical, and highly-visible (did I miss a cliche there?). Everything seems important here and now, but eventually finds its place in a larger hierarchy on a growing canvas of personal and professional accomplishment.

Be passionate, but professional

In today’s workplace, we are told to “turn up the temperature,” “always be closing,” “crush/kill it,” etc. Volume always competes with wisdom.

Which made it impressive that these two teams, carrying the burden of troubled and shared history, competed fairly and professionally. New blood does not always make up for bad blood, but it is a start.

As New York Times columnist Bret Stephens said in a recent commencement speech, “Befriend your intellectual adversaries. Assume that they’re smart, that their motives are honorable and that they are your fellow travelers in a quest to better understand a common set of challenges. Master the civilized art of agreeable disagreement. Try to remember that words are not weapons, and that politics is not warfare, and debate is not a death sport.”

Neither should the workplace be.

These lessons may take a lifetime to learn and are not cathartic like hitting someone over the head with a teapot. But you will feel and be better for it, much like after a cup of tea on a chilly day.