It is a surreal feeling! When suddenly you realize that you are leading a team of superstars, yet ordinary mortals.
I had been part of great teams. In fact, I had even written about one here before. I had had some brilliant bosses, and have worked with happy and highly productive teams before. But this is different! Completely different.
Six months ago, this was a different team! There were trust deficiencies. A boss had failed us. It surely was not a happy team. I, myself, had started looking for a different place. Our jobs didn't look secure either. Gossips started floating around. Everyone looked hurt. Confused would be a better word.
Today morning when we gathered around for our morning huddle, it just dawned on me, it has been six months and we have never been a happier team! We survived the job crisis as well, and in fact, have never performed this well in the last two years. What did we do right as a team? I'm looking back and learning
I learn life lessons through sport, and so, I'm bringing in sports here as well.
1) Look for the small lights at the end of the tunnel: The master of the chase, MSD in his heydays, always did that. He will poke and prod for a single. The small victories amidst the glooming loss. He will concentrate only on those ones and twos, never on the nervous atmosphere around. It helped him stay afloat. My team did the same. We wrote a proposal; wrote it again and again and concentrated only on that! Till it got approved, our focus never wavered away from that small beacon of light, amidst the darkness! The light in our case was the chance to give the proposal, one more time.
2) Regularise routines: When the going is very tough Rafael Nadal always goes back to the basics. Just plain basics. No unforced errors. No fancy backhands. And never the big booming serves. This is what we did. we regularised our catchups, which were missing. Calendarised our morning huddles. Suddenly as a team we felt like we were doing something right.
3) Open conversations on expectations: Ambati Rayudu was considered a prodigy as a 16-year-old kid. Yet he was always an underperformer growing up, till he started playing for CSK under Dhoni and Stephen Fleming. He became the rock star he was destined to be only after that. Whatever changed? CSK gave Rayudu a clarity of purpose, which he missed before. His role in the team was clear. The expectations from him were written on stone. We tried that in STIR TN. Through the changing leaderships and confusing change in the role of the DL, we tried to define our roles more clearly. Our expectations were talked about more openly. We wrote them down. Even bigger responsibilities were carried, for the expectations were clearer. We do have a long way to go. But, clearer expectations led to even clearer role clarity.
4) Learning culture: When the original dream team, the American Basketball team of 1992 Olympics was formed, it was full of superstars. They played their first practise match against a university side, and to everyone's shock, lost it. The team had huge ego's going against one another; Chuck Daly, the coach of the dream team, brought them together and helped them see an opportunity like never before to learn from one another. Here is the best chance for Michael Jordan to learn about Magic Johnson's iconic ball handling skills; How else can you become better than by being with the best themselves? In our first team meeting, when we were discussing the culture the team will abide by, someone said, it should be a learning culture. That has broken the ego's down. We are officially now a team of rockstars learning from each other, wanting to be better at every step.
5) The friend to goto: Gary Kirsten had just taken over as the coach of the Indian cricket team. India had just lost a big world cup. They were hurting. The previous coach was the controversial Greg. Sachin was almost on his last legs then. He had seen more lows than highs. Gary went to Sachin and asked, what does Sachin want out of him. Sachin replied, 'I want a friend'! Deepening relationships had played a major role in the TN turnaround. We have developed healthy relationships. We have at various points definitely found it easier to work with the friend rather than the colleague.
As I look back, it is worth it! Every single effort of each one of us. We started off as four, now we are six. We were working in 3 districts, now 13. We never knew data analysis, now we do pivot tables. We had bitterness. Now we sure have big and trusting shoulders of each other to trust. We were lost. Now we dream of extending the programme to the entire state.
The last six months had been quite a ride! As I look back and thank the heavens, I also look forward. For the long narrow road ahead, filled with dreamy expectations and unanswered questions, does seem inconquerable. But for my team! The team of fallible superstars.
