Anupam- The Dreamer

When I was in high school, our school children had a tradition (as does every school). In the lunch break, many of the boys played basketball as a ritual. And one peculiar thing to notice was that the player who got hold of the basketball would never pass it onto the other players, and instead would attempt to shoot the basketball into the ring or the hoop, irrespective of the suitability of his position to take an attempt. And around 9 out of the 10 times, the ball will not go into the ring. Still, the player would not pass the ball to the player who is best placed to “shoot”. Why? Because for the simple reason that the credit would go to the player who shoots in the ring and therefore scores the most points for the team. The other players, however significant, are not given much credit as they don’t score “directly”.

Similar thing you can notice in the game of football, when it is played in the schools or colleges. The players have a tendency to play as “forward” or as a “midfielder”, instead of being a “defender”. Because the credit here also goes to the one who scores the goal. In cricket too, the players have a tendency to go to bat first, so that they can get a chance for batting and they can score more runs. In the arena of Bollywood also, you saw the same thing between the girls in the “Chak De India” movie. They all wanted the credit for scoring the goals during hockey match and so would not pass the ball onto the next player. It took “Sattar Minute” motivation speech from Shahrukh Khan (their coach) to break the silo mentality and play together as a team in the final match against the mighty Australia.

What is the common thread that weaves all the above stories into one? It is the tendency to take “credit” for what a person has done or has the potential to do! Everyone, wants name and fame for himself/herself. There is nothing wrong in that, till the time a person is not inhibiting the achievement of common bigger goal for his/her team. But, as soon as the interests of an individual take precedence over the interests of his/her team, it is here that the problem begins. When the person starts to think that he is bigger than the team or the group of which he/she is just one part, then the person starts to act in the self-interest only. And that is more often than not, detrimental to the larger interest of the whole group. You have seen that in the above example of “Chak De India”, where the Indian team was losing matches after matches, not because the players didn’t have the talent, but rather because they did not play in the team spirit. They tried to outplay each other, rather than outplaying the opponents, and as a result harmed the winning prospects of Indian team only.

This tendency of taking credit can be seen in many aspects of life like workplace, society around us, friend circles, business, politics, etc. etc. There are many people, whose only job is to take credit for the things that he/she does and also for the things that he/she doesn’t do. Some are smart enough to snatch away the credit that duly belongs to their colleagues, subordinates and to their superiors. And then, they try to gossip around and spread rumours about the other deserving ones. These people are not less than “Manthara” (Ramayan) and “Shakuni” (Mahabharata). They have no other work than to spread mistrust about the others in the team, so as to propogate their own selfish interests.

I would like to share one such incident that happened when I was working in the corporate sector. In the company, one Manager was very efficient in terms of work, in terms of inter-personal relations and in terms of his leadership skills. There was a “chugalkhor” Assistant Manager, who tried to manipulate the situations and say only ill-things about that Manager to the Manager’s boss (who was superboss of Assistant Manager). Whenever, the Manager got an opportunity to speak on the stage, the chugalkhor silently walked upto the Manager’s boss and told that “Boss, apka bolne ka opportunity cheen liya ye. Ye hamesha aisa hi karta hai”. And the Boss was furious listening to this chugalkhor Shakuni mama dressed in a suit and a tie. This continued for a long time, and the whole focus of the chugalkhor was on this bitching instead of focusing on his own work, which I must tell you was in shambles. He didn’t do his task properly, and only indulged in blame game on his subordinates. Thus, you see, the credit game, destroys the inter-personal relationships and also harms the organizational effectiveness as the camaraderie is broken.

Now, imagine a scenario where the individuals in a team are more concerned about the bigger goals rather than their own personal credit. Such a scenario, does not exist ideally in the practicality, but still all efforts should be made to move towards that direction, as Shahrukh Khan did in the movie with his speech. And one interesting thing to note here is that- When the person rises above the notions of credit/discredit and focuses on his/her own performance, enhances own skills, and works in the team spirit, then sooner or later the credit returns to the place where it is due. When Sachin Tendulkar or MS Dhoni play in the team spirit without thinking about their own personal score, then only the best results come out of the game. And they also get their credit, both as a team player as well as individually.

Can this thing be emulated outside the sports as well? Why not! Atleast in the workspaces, startup companies, social circles etc. Although seems difficult in politics, as many of the politicians live and die only for the credit, whether or not they deserve it or not. But, there are examples of many leaders who rose above this petty thing and worked for the larger goals.

In this context, I am also reminded of the story told by legendary APJ Abdul Kalam about his boss legendary Satish Dhawan. Dr Kalam was the leader of the satellite launch project in 1979 and Prof. Dhawan was the ISRO Chairman. Upon launch, the satellite instead of launching into the orbit, went straight into the Bay of Bengal. Dr. Kalam was terrified to go before the press. At that time, his boss Prof. Dhawan calmed him down and instead took the responsibility of failure upon himself as the head of the organization in the press conference. After a few years, when the satellite launch succeeded, Prof. Dhawan asked Dr. Kalam to go to the press to brief about the success. Such leaders are rare who rise beyond the credit game and instead focus on the bigger goals by building a great team. Credit for them is a by-product and not the primary area of focus. And the credit does come to them eventually, in much bigger measure than they can ever imagine.

Till next time….