Reluctant Leadership

Is leadership all about the top positions or the fiefdom of a few? Do we not learn leadership lessons from commoners as well? Sharing 3 situational examples from my own life journey, where as an individual I had an opportunity to lead. Did I do the right thing by my reluctance, I will let the jury of people decide!

6 balls and 4 runs

This story goes back into early 1990’s presumably. When there were lot of open spaces and parks to play in my neighborhood. I being an outdoor sports afficionado was into Cricket, Football etc. full-time! Even the rules of cricket had not evolved as such by then. Like the “substitute” player rule! The story starts towards the end of a cricket match, between two teams, a conglomeration of those who played together in different parks. The visiting team needed 4 runs of 6 balls. Easy, task isn’t it, with short boundaries!

The crux was not just the runs to be scored. But who will score them! I had not participated in the entire match, but the visiting team captain and some players knew my ability. They replaced me secretly with one of their last team members who was supposed to bat! This happened unconsciously for the host park team, who possibly failed to recognize the members of the opponent team! Cricket substitution rule came years later, here we had already applied it😊

 I had a good reputation as an all-rounder and happened to be at the right place at the right time! What was not in my favor was that the visiting team, was playing with 10 players, and there was no non-striker! To add to that, I had to face a fast bowler, who if I remember correctly was a leftie! Expectations were high, as the match outcome would decide some exchange of prize money.

My batting prowess used to come down tangentially to zilch when facing fast bowlers bowling bodyline. And those days it was just a bat with go gear protection! The climax started with me making room to swing the bat, connect with the ball and get 4 runs on the offside! I missed one ball, then the second. Yes, they missed my stumps by a whisker as well! With the team members shouting and telling me to play straight, cover my stumps; and the opponent team sledging me as well; I got ready to play the 3^rd ball. To my team’s dejection, on the third ball I was not so lucky, my stumps were clattered, so was the prize money!

The key lesson for me was that it was case of lost opportunity! Not only did I miss a trick by playing straight and waiting for a bad ball, since the square boundaries were short on both sides; I also became a discussion of ridicule by the player and his supporters whom I had replaced!

Not agreeing for stalling the traffic on a highway

This event transpired in my life during my college days in early 2001 or 2002. I will be sharing complete chronology of events in my upcoming book. However, a brief summary is presented below.

A group of students from various sections of engineering had varied demands for college management. Some were related to repeat exams, free classes, enrollment number, career opportunities, professors and so on. The cumulative effect was a section of students in 4^th year from my branch raised the bugle of class boycott. I inadvertently joined the cause as a leader of them, seeking enrollment numbers from University as my main issue!

This leadership became both dejure and defacto, with the college shutdown for 3^rd and 4^th year students affiliated with aparticular University. In order to find support for our case, we visited local authorities. To our chagrin, most of them were callous while lending some ear. The college was located near a highway. Some students with a semi-urban background suggested to do a sit-in on the highway road. I had to put my foot down and refuse any such step. Not only it would have inconvenienced the riders on that highway, would have brought a law enforcement intervention and a night in jail as well! Something I decided not to barter for.

To ensure negotiation to happen with management, I had to take help of some intermediaries from the college. The negotiation lasted an hour or so with some reluctant and some ready classmates and juniors joining in. The effect was availability of enrollment numbers in 3 days plus some other things.

Not standing up for election in MBA class

2012 was a yeoman year in my life, when I was finally able to enroll for my much-cherished MBA class outside my country’s shores. Studying with peers from different nationalities was a dream come true. Nothing to be surprised, my class comprised 11 Indians, including me in a class of about 20+ students.

The election for class representative posts of President, Vice President and Treasurer was to be completed. Names were listed down, and votes registered. In order to concentrate on studies and the aftermath, I did not register my name for any of the posts. Consequently, an Egyptian classmate was chosen as President, a Puerto Rican as Vice President and a Hong Kong national as treasurer. I made an intervention in getting a new name for treasurer post and the person was elected as well.

One of my Indian classmates suggested, that with 11 Indian votes, we should have got an Indian representation for any post! However, I passed the buck by saying, that the names chosen were worthy of it. Whether I made the right decision or not, is difficult to say, considering my career goals while studying at that point of time.

These 3 anecdotes from my life history have represented distinct opportunities in different situations to lead and not follow. More anecdotes and stories to share in my upcoming book as well.

Thanks for reading and providing your feedback.