Leadership - Dhoni's way

Mahendra Singh Dhoni was born in Ranchi, Jharkhand to Pan Singh and Devaki Devi. His paternal village Lvali is in the Lamgarha block of the Almora District of Uttarakhand. Dhoni's parents moved from Uttarakhand to Ranchi where Pan Singh worked in junior management positions in MECON. Dhoni studied at DAV Shyamali, Jharkhand where he initially excelled in badminton and football and was selected at district and club level in these sports. Dhoni was a goalkeeper for his football team and was sent to play cricket for a local cricket club by his football coach. Though he had not played cricket, Dhoni impressed with his wicket-keeping skills and became the regular wicketkeeper at the Commando cricket club (1995–1998). Based on his performance at club cricket, he was picked for the 1997/98 season Vinoo Mankad Trophy Under-16 Championship and he performed well. Dhoni focused on cricket after his 10th standard.

Few had heard of him as a 23-year-old when he savaged a Pakistan A side in Nairobi. There had been the odd excited whispers from those who watched his big-hitting exploits in Kolkata club cricket, but hardly anyone expected that he would be playing for India within months of that Kenyan safari. In his fifth game, he lashed a match winning 148 against Pakistan and later in the year, he clubbed 183 against Sri Lanka. Such was the impact of his stroke play that a far-from-polished wicket keeping technique was almost ignored as he was fast-tracked into the Test side. Within two years of that, he was leading an inexperienced team to glory in the inaugural World Twenty20, and winning the last tri-series to be held in Australia. When Anil Kumble handed over the Test reins in 2008, he celebrated with a home victory against Australia. And in 2011 came the biggest triumph of all, the World Cup, on the back of an exceptional batting performance in the final and bold leadership throughout from Dhoni. Apart from wins in world tournaments, his leadership also oversaw India's rise to the pinnacle of the Test ladder, and a massively successful three years for the Chennai Super Kings franchise that did well in each of the first three seasons of the IPL before winning the event in 2010, and going a step further to claim the Champions League in the same year.

What is Dhoni's Management Style?

Performance

One should be a performer and should demonstrate the same to his team. Performance is itself the most effective communication down the line.

Humbleness

Leaders need to be assertive yet humble and must rarely allow their personal egos to be an obstacle for the success of their organization and that’s what M.S. Dhoni showing us through his current leadership style.

Experimentative, innovative and risk-taking

Managing under change is a vital attribute to be learned from the leadership under Dhoni. A good leader doesn’t mind going out and exploring. Dhoni’s risk taking ability, inclusiveness and time-pressure qualities are good examples of leaders on the business side. He allows the team members to experiment and take risk. In case of failure, encourage him / her to introspect and do it next time with more vigour and better planning.

Making everyone feel to be part of the team

Dhoni said that the secret to man management lay in realising the difference in each character. Make everyone in the team feel that, even though we are leaders, we are just one among them. We should also believe in the ones who failed in the team. At crucial times a team member who was not able to deliver might do miracles. Dhoni utilizes every team member at his disposal and brings out the best performance whether he is a senior or junior player. He provides opportunity for every team member to prove themselves and contribute to the best of their abilities. Eg. he gave the last over to Joginder Sharma who doesn’t have much a track record., By putting such a person in front of a challenging task, it tells the person that the leader has confidence in his abilities and will be fired up to put in 120 per cent. This happened with Joginder Sharma in two critical matches, where he was hit all around the ground and still given the last over. He delivered on both instances.

Lead from Front but share the credit

 As a leader, be calm in extreme situations and lead the team from front.  Share the credit of success with your team members and praise them in public. Whenever he has an opportunity, he showers his players with praises.

Optimal utilization of resources

Another learning from Dhoni is about, optimal utilization of resources, which is vital for any business. Instead of giving excuses for lack of best resources, especially with the current scenario economic crisis, it is better to perform in whatever resources a leader has to his disposal

Calm in extreme situations

When team members see their leader calm in extreme situations, they will not be rattled. It will enable them to focus on their work and do what is expected of them. Dhoni was always calm – whether the bowler started off the last over in the finals with a wide ball or the batsman played a series of dot balls in a slog over.

Dhoni’s Inspiring Quotes

When asked why he was not happy at the moment of victory at the post match conference, Dhoni replied, “I didn’t like way we played. With such a strong batting display, we should have won comfortably”.

“I never predict what will happen in cricket. We believe in each other and we believe in the process. We will take each game in the right frame of mind”.

“We are not thinking about what may happen if we achieve or what may happen if we don’t succeed because those two things are beyond our control. So rather than thinking about something that’s too much ahead of us it is very important to take every game in the right frame of mind and that is what will be our process throughout the tournament”.

“If you have not achieved something, there’s pressure on you to achieve it. Once you have achieved it, there is pressure to sustain it. Nothing comes easy”.

“We didn’t rely on one specific individual, everybody contributed. Each and every batsman scored at some point in the series and the same applies to the bowlers also”.