Lifting the Leadership Pitch with Airlift

Leaders are neither born not bred; they emerge from the caveats of possibilities deemed dead.

They say a crisis births a leader like no other cause. Pity then, how often we fail to see leadership traits we would have used during crises in our lives. Leaders are not a different breed. Of course, history is peppered with eulogized leaders, while messages and propaganda meld together to create the present-day ones. But let us cut ourselves some slack when it comes to highfalutin ‘leadership skills’.

Every time we leave it to others to step up, we do ourselves a disservice. By all means, let the team grow, let them make decisions, give them a reasonably free hand, but first lead by example. The movie, Airlift, brought this to mind recently.

In Airlift, there were around 169,000 Indians stranded in seized Kuwait, and one – Ranjit Katyal – who could see the big picture of the ways out of the situation. We now know the creative license taken with the facts of the rescue mission, but in both the cases, the power of the initiator is clear. Others too emerged as leaders, but not before the initiators decided to make the first move instead of waiting for someone else to save them.

Mid-managers lulled into the drone of everyday delegation, leaving the ‘leading’ to the top-management often ring the death knell for an organization’s nimbleness. Like Katyal, all of us, in the corporate world, could potentially transform into knights in suited armour. The protagonist, played by Akshay Kumar, starts off as a selfish, albeit successful person but begins to transition into an empathetic benefactor as the problems emerge, creating solutions with thought and daring. The clues are ingrained in Katyal. How many of these did you spot when watching the movie?

NOT A ‘PAL DO PAL KA SHAAYAR’, BUT A LIFETIME LEGEND
People say there are two Indias, divided by economic access. To Mahendra Singh Dhoni, there was only one. He never differentiated by class, appearance, money, power or any of the usual aspects that people are judged by. Gary Kirsten once said that if he had to go to war and could choose just one person to take with him, it would be Dhoni. True; Dhoni led with power, perseverance and determination.



MSD’s phenomenal success as a team leader can also be attributed to the fact that he always played on people’s individual strengths. He never forced a person to master something that didn’t come naturally to them – he helped them develop their strengths until they excelled.

But how did he accomplish all this? Dhoni read the game like an artist. He made the right moves. He has always been a hustler – with the primary objective being to get the job done. His strategies were par excellence. When he entered the game, there were legendary seniors who he managed with care – Sourav Ganguly, Virendra Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh. Dhoni’s secret has always been to lead with respect and that won him the hearts of both the old guard and fresh talent. He played for the nation and never for himself. That’s why he was able to come up with winning strategies like focusing on fresh talent and unconventional steps for growth.

MSD has never been flamboyant, but whatever he did had a natural style. Even when he retired, he did so without shouting it from the rooftop. All he posted was “From 1929 hrs consider me as retired.” there were no victory laps, no drama on the ground. That was it. That was all it took to break a nation’s heart.