There is more IPL action happening on the front pages of newspapers than the sports pages. The controversies, the money spent on buying “super players”, $2.75 million on Kieron Pollard, $1.3 million on Shane Bond, got me intrigued. Does stacking your team with the best players guarantee success?

The myth of the Lone ranger
Personal leadership is the most studied, researched topic in American life. However romantic the idea of a larger than life individual working alone and accomplishing great things may sound, the fact remains – seldom can success be attributed to one individual. Most of the times, it’s not great men or great women, but great groups that have been responsible for success.

Great groups are formed not by putting extremely talented people together. In fact, talent alone can never result in success. The fact is that even Michelangelo worked with a group of 16 artists to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel – one of his most famous works. The lone ranger can only achieve as much, while a great team can break all boundaries and even do the impossible. What makes a team truly great is the fact that they are bound to each other with a “Great Dream”. Henry Ford once said, “Coming together is a beginning, working together is progress, achieving together is success.” The feeling of togetherness comes when you have a shared goal.

Last month, an interesting documentary hit the theaters. It was titled “Waking Sleeping Beauty”, by director Don Hahn. He explains the second coming of Disney studios, which had been left far behind after Pixar entered the business. Hahn, a Disney producer himself shows how the Magic Kingdom was staffed with the best talent in 1984 with young, very energetic & extremely creative people, yet, every production bombed. It took two great team players – Michael Eisner, and Jeffrey Katzenberg to turn this creative chaos into a movie-making powerhouse. Then in the 90s, due to ego clashes and various other reasons, they stopped playing as a team and the downward spiral started again. As Hahn himself says, “I can’t look at animation as anything other than a team sport”. This is true for most business – and good leaders know that.

A lot of us may feel we are good team players, for we are helpful, friendly and are actively involved in the happenings of the company. This is passive leadership. The real “team players” are those who not just bring out best in themselves, but have the knack to identify the true potential of their team members and charge them up and stimulate them so much that they go ahead and do the impossible.

Often, superstars come with ‘super egos’, but ‘super team leaders’ are ‘super ego mangers’ – and that’s what success is all about.     Read More....


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