When You Pick a Team...Hire Cats!

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's leadership style has been hailed by one and all “the best captain India has ever had”. In an interview a few years ago, Sachin had once stated a very pertinent fact, "Yes, Dhoni is a great captain, but you cannot ignore the fact that he has a very good team with him. A captain or a leader is only as good as his team. Without taking anything away from Dhoni, a great team makes even a mediocre captain look good.

"Don't lead a pack of sheep. Herd cats instead." When I first read this statement, it took me some while to understand it. "In modern-day corporate, as leaders, one often has the flexibility to pick his own team. Most managers’ stumble at this roadblock, "Mediocre managers do not realise the benefit of picking your own team, and end up choosing members whose intellect and capabilities are limited by the leader's own bandwidth." This perhaps explains on how intellectual mediocrity creeps into an organisation,

"Leaders end up picking members who do not challenge them, who do not threaten their own position. They pick team members who would fall in line easily." In other words, they end up picking a pack of sheep. Have you ever seen a pack of sheep? All of them huddle together and meekly follow instructions of the shepherd. A small stick wielded efficiently keeps the whole pack together. In such teams, where leaders hire sheep, a bulk of the leader’s time is spent in doling out instructions, tracking and managing individuals and in the end, when he has the time, strategically thinks about the organisation's future.

Sheep do not dissent, do not challenge, do not question and, most importantly, do not contribute to the team's cause intellectually. Unfortunately, managers' insecurity and lack of faith in their own abilities leads them to pick a herd of sheep as their team. Cats, on the contrary, are a completely different breed. These are animals with minds of their own. Put three cats together and you will find them doing their own thing. Each one will be jumping around, pulling in different directions.

Have you ever considered what it will take to manage a herd of cats? Looks impossible, doesn't it? However, in a group or out of it, cats are fast, intellectually stimulating and managerially challenging. No wonder that when we refer to smart outstanding individuals in a team, we call them cats. Many leaders are often scared by the challenges they will have to face in case they hire cats on their team, and end up settling for sheep. For these individuals, I would like to point out one aspect of cats you can derive solace from. Cats, if they get comfortable, start trusting and become extremely loyal. Sheep, on the other hand, can be herded by almost anybody.

It all depends on how you treat cats and get them to build trust in you. The message for managers in companies is simple — If you want to succeed in the long term, are desirous of building equity in the organisation, want to be known as someone who is capable of building teams which have great execution skills, then 'sheep' will not get you there. Hire cats in your team. Getting the right team is half the job done — efficiently leading them to accomplish the mission is the other half. Cats ensure the first half and guarantee a fun-filled second half.

After all this, do you still want to hire sheep? If so, you are definitely not the one, I would have in my pack.