Leaders are a lonely bunch, yet they can’t do it alone : The Business Times, Editorial section,June 17th, 2010

Tony Hayward the CEO of BP, got chastised for his remark “There is no one who wants this thing over more than me. I want my life back”. He apologized of course, but might still lose his job.

Clearly the oil spill caused by the explosion of BP’s rig in the Gulf of Mexico and the subsequent struggles of the technical team that could not cap the leak, was not Tony’s doing. But his comment which came as a result of his frustration and sincere desire to end the suffering for all (including his own) was seen as a poor example of leadership.

Leadership happens when a leader interacts with followers in the context of a situation. Very often in the euphoria of building so called leadership qualities we forget that a leader is only as good as his team allows him to be. Tony’s frustration was driven in part by the fact that he was being let down by his team who though doing their best were not delivering the desired results.

Rob Hughes in his heart of football column in the Straits Times ( June 6) talks about the travails of Liverpool and the need for a direct line between the chairman, the team manager, the general secretary, and above all, the players on the pitch. He had the privilege of spending an entire day at Anfield with Bob Paisley the Liverpool coach – and the words Bob used over and over again that day was that he could not do it alone. ‘It’s a lonely job’ he said and I am sure Tony Hayward would relate to that in more ways than one.

Steven Gerrard the captain of Liverpool when asked if he would relish becoming the captain of England for the world cup replied “I don’t know if relish is the right word, but I will be ready to lead the country if called upon”. Steven clearly knows that as much as he believes he is captaincy material, at the end of the day football is a team game and everyone has to perform to the best of his abilities.

Nobody knows this better than the CEO of an organization who has the unenviable task of presenting his performance numbers quarter after quarter to a Board that has placed their faith in his leadership.

When I work with CEOs almost to a person they feel that having one or two stars on the team may be good for the short term, but in the long run everyone has to pull their weight or the mission does not get accomplished. In fact very often it is the stars themselves who could be a hindrance as their prima donna behaviors can be extremely disruptive and distracting to an otherwise motivated and capable team.

Going back to football, nobody knows this better than Dunga the Brazilian coach on whose shoulders fell the responsibility of rebuilding a team that failed in 2006. Since then, he has deliberately and systematically changed the team culture, getting rid of the so called stars in favor of dependability and sustainable team performance.

Whenever I have looked at the Brazilian team of late, I have not seen the great stars that were so inspiring and magical in terms of their ball skills, but in the last 4 years Brazil under the leadership of Dunga has not lost a single tournament they have entered.

Surely, results matter and nobody knows this better than the leader whose responsibility it is to deliver it in a way that meets expectations. France’s coach Raymond Domenech knows how challenging it has been to live up to the performance levels of 1998 when the French team played as a diverse yet sublimely well knit team to win the world cup.

At the recently concluded ICC 20:20 world cup cricket event in the West Indies, it was an unheralded English side that performed well as a team and won the event for the first time, when many a star studded side failed to live up to expectations.

At the 2010 World cup, when all is said and done, and one country picks up the winner’s trophy let us spare a thought for all the leaders whose job it was to inspire, motivate, and bring out the best performance from their respective teams.

Thirty one of them will fail, not because they did not try, but because there can only be one winner and don’t forget there is also this thing called luck.

Leaders will have to learn their lessons well and with a lot of introspection become more aware of themselves and what they need to do to get their teams to do better in the years to come. Yes, leading is a lonely job, and it is the team that always wins.

Pratap Nambiar is the Executive in Residence at the National University of Singapore Business School. He is the founder and Chief Executive of Thought Perfect Pte Ltd an organization that helps CEOs and Business Leaders maximize their potential.

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