The Leader and The Boss

The football World Cup throws up many interesting facets that connect with you beyond the playing arena. This time, let me take you down the memory lane to World Cup 2018 in Russia.

Here’s a picture of the famous Brazilian coach Tite on the ground. He was celebrating Brazil’s injury time goal against Costa Rica when he ran into the field and tumbled on the ground. There is many a picture of the same coach dancing with the team after being victorious. The coach later said in some interviews that celebrating on the field helps build his connection with the young generation and it unites the team. I doubt if anyone disputes the gesture of the leaders celebrating good times with their teams. The juniors and youngsters feel happy when seniors join them in having fun. It is a great unifier and elevates the stature of the leader.

In the very next match versus Croatia, Brazil lost in the penalty shoot-outs and was eliminated from the tournament. The team was completely heartbroken, and long after the game was over, they were seen sitting on the ground with their heads down and some were even weeping. Having been winners in five editions of the World Cup, every time a Brazilian team gets down to playing, the whole country is never satisfied with anything less than winning the tournament. This has a huge impact on the minds of the players wearing the country colours. But where was the Boss at this point when things were down? He was seen walking quickly back to the dressing room leaving behind a sea of players and supporters in a state of sadness, desolation and regret.

Contrast this reaction with that of the Japanese coach in the same tournament when Japan lost to Belgium 2-3 in the Round of 16 after leading by two goals. The coach, Hajime Moriyasu, walked into the field, went towards the section where the Japanese fans stood in sadness and bowed to them in a gesture of gratitude and respect. Seeing him, the whole Japanese football team repeated the action facing the crowd of supporters in the stadium.

Reading about this story of the coaches, I was reminded of an incident way back in the summer 2009. It was a Saturday afternoon and I was returning home from Borivali Court, trying to get a Nationality Certificate for my daughter for her admission to a government medical college in Mumbai. She had her passport, birth certificate and multiple documents apart from newspaper reports of her being the national science topper for CBSE. It was a possible precursor to the SIR that is now underway. I got a telephone call from my branch office at Bandra. Even though we had a five-day official work schedule, the sales and operations teams usually worked on Saturdays as well to catch up on back log and training of employees and agents.

“Sir, there has been a serious incident in the office this afternoon between Saurav Sen and Sanjay Mahtre. Sanjay got pushed around, so he left the office and got in some tough characters who came into the office asking for Saurav. By then Saurav, had run away and switched off his phone. They then asked all the employees to vacate the premises and made the guards lock the entrance. They have taken four of our guys to Bandra Police Station and have said that they will not be released till Saurav surrenders and is punished for beating up one of their party workers. “

I asked for some more details and came to know that it was a minor scuffle and no one had actually suffered any injuries. The party workers who had entered were part of a local political force known for their aggressive and violent means of getting their demands met. Saurav Sen was unreachable on the phone. Someone must have passed on the news of the goons coming for him. I got the names of the employees in the lock-up and asked a few seniors from the branch to keep me informed of developments till I arrived.

I knew the situation was difficult and had never faced any such incident which had a political angle to it since my arrival to the Maximum City  eight years ago. My first reaction was to seek help from the seniors in the corporate office. I reached out to the Heads of Operations, Human Resources and Legal Departments. All three listened to the whole story, one by one, and all of them had the same piece of advice for me, “Just go to the police station and get the employees released. We are with you and you can reach us at any time if you need to.” Despite my requests, none agreed to come down in person and help resolve the crisis. These bosses ensured that the troublesome monkey stayed on my shoulders while they offered verbal moral support to me which meant nothing. I knew that if something were to go wrong in the case or if the goons were to get violent, the sole blame and the beating would fall on me alone.

I reached the police station quickly. Sanjay, who had a big bandage on his left arm and was sitting at the entrance, stood up and came towards me. With him came a few of those big-sized guys. Sanjay introduced me to them as ‘Sen Sir’. The others only heard Sen and thought I was Saurav Sen, the culprit they were all waiting for to give a good thrashing. Fortunately, Sanjay quickly clarified, “Yeh Sen Sir hamare boss hain (This Sen Sir is our Boss) and he is not the Sen who beat me up.” The thugs took a step back and I went to meet the police officer in-charge after speaking to Sanjay and offering him my wishes for an early recovery from his injury.

The police officer on duty was very clear. “Please sort out the matter with these people who are insisting on filing a police case against your office and these employees who we have so far not put them behind bars. If they approve, I will immediately release the employees.”

I now started my talks with four of the biggest and most ferocious looking characters. I felt like a lone striker in the opposing football team’s end with four formidable and aggressive defenders rushing to head butt, shoulder push trip me over and ensure that I leave the field on a stretcher. All my dribbling skills were of little use before these ferocious foursomes. When all my pleadings failed to melt their hearts, I raised my hands in total surrender and asked them if I could financially compensate Sanjay for his injuries. They flatly refused the deal. Instead, they shamelessly put forth their new set of demands. “You have to immediately terminate Saurav Sen from service; make Sanjay a permanent employee from off-rolls and pay us twenty thousand rupees. You know the police. We will have to pay them to withdraw the case plus we will pay for all the chai-pani for the party workers who have been working hard on this case since the morning.”

I spoke to the three seniors at office once again if I had any authority to decide on the demands that were put forth. None of them gave a definite answer- they were doing the tiki taka style of Spanish football where you constantly keep passing the ball from one to the other. I decided to act according to my judgement, keeping the interests of the employees in mind. I told the people on the other side of the table. “Hiring and terminating an employee is not in my hands but will raise the issue with the HR Department. It will take time. Secondly, I am not carrying so much money with me. I will need to go to the ATM nearby and get the same.”

 The toughies forgot their other demands and readily accepted my offer of paying them off. As I hailed an autorickshaw to go to the ATM, two of the toughies jumped into the vehicle without any notice. “We will accompany you. What if you also run away like the other Sen?” I nodded my head and found myself with a heart that was racing fast and a butt that had to be squeezed in on the smallest bit of space available on the passenger seat most of which had been taken up by the two muscular guys, smelling of sweat and tobacco, on either side. The auto reached the ATM. The duo got off and started following me inside the bank enclosure. I had to tell them to wait outside, to which they reluctantly agreed. I pulled out the cash from the ATM and they had a glee on their face seeing me back in their custody. The auto was kept waiting, and once again, the three of us somehow fitted into the back seat to reach the police station where I handed over the money to the party boss. He counted the money, smiled and shook my hands. He then asked the station officer to release the four employees.

The great rescue act was complete. Saurav was later transferred to another office. Sanjay quit work and never returned after this incident. The employees and their families were all happy and thanked me. I, too, felt a huge sense of relief and satisfaction.

Last Word: Tite is considered one of the greatest coaches Brazil has ever had. My intention is not to show him or my seniors down for this may have been a one-off incident in their long and illustrious careers.  Dancing with the team in good times is fine, and possibly, many a boss would happily do but standing with the team and your people in bad times and dark days like the Japanese coach is, possibly, what differentiates a leader from a boss.

Dancing with the Team 

SS

PS. World cups pics courtesy internet

The Hand of God

We all remember 1986 World Cup in Mexico and the Hand of God incident where Maradona fisted the ball into the England goal, hoodwinking the on-field referee. That was the time when there were no VAR and Trionda Ball that could detect the mischief. Of course, the magician from Argentina thereafter produced what most pundits claim to be the Goal of the Century where he picked up the ball in his own half and dribbled his way past half a dozen English players and then dodged passed the helpless goalie, Peter Shilton, and put the ball into the goal. The world erupted in frenzy for God had finally arrived on the football field! Maradona almost eclipsed Pele in popularity and half the Bengalis shifted their allegiance from Brazil to Argentina. His leadership style was praised and his dazzling footwork was something people yearned to watch and he never disappointed them.

Fast forward to 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan. This was a group stage match between Brazil and Turkey. Turkey’s Hakan Unsal kicked the football at Rivaldo’s legs while a corner kick was being set up. The whole world saw that the ball hit Rivaldo’s thigh but the Brazilian fell down on the ground clutching his face in a severe display of pain. The referee missed the act and saw Rivaldo writhing in pain. He promptly took out a yellow card from his pocket and showed it to Hakan. Since this was Hakan’s second booking of the match, the referee then brought out the dreaded red card and gave marching orders to the shocked Turkish player. The ten-man Turkish team lost to the full squad of talented Brazilians 2-1 and the winning goal was scored by none other than Rivaldo. Some people said that Rivaldo could have won the Oscar for his brilliant portrayal of a man in pain and agony.

On a professional front, about fifteen years ago, I was faced with a similar dharma sankat or dilemma of a somewhat similar nature. I was heading the business operations of a large office at Mumbai with over two hundred and fifty employees reporting to me. The business targets, as usual were stiff, and the markets extremely competitive. Every month we would do a review of the business numbers and we had a mix of some good and some bad months but by the time the last month arrived, it seemed the office match could swing either side. Finally, when we closed the books at the month-end, we appeared to have exceeded the target only to be told by the higher ups that one large business renewal of ours, that we had won after much struggle, would be booked in the corporate office as per the new norms. Despite my protests about the unfairness of the system where the budget was allocated to the branch but the business credit was being denied due to last minute change of rules. The office ended the year on 99.4% completion of the budget at the end of the financial year on 31^st March.

Since the time of Indus Valley Civilization, we have ensured the presence of the revered humped bulls in our lives, be it in the temples or the corporate world where you will see it taking the shape of the ‘Bael’ curve often pronounced by the stiff upper-lipped Englishmen as the Bell Curve. This is the most prevalent form of adjudicating the annual appraisals in companies with a large number of employees. Usually, this curve has five points ranging from 1 being the outstanding performance to 5 being the worst or unacceptable. Rating of 3, where most employees find themselves, is considered as average but in official parlance ‘meets expectations.’

Immediately after the closing of the financial year the Human Resources jamboree of appraisal exercise commences and so it was with ours. Business heads were told by the senior management that they had to be very objective in their markings which had to be clearly based on business performance. Only those who had achieved 120% or more of their targets were to be marked as ‘outstanding’ and those with 100% or more achievement but not 120% were to marked 2 which qualified them as ‘exceeding expectations’. Anyone between 90% to 99% would be marked as 3. 4 and 5 ratings are below par. All this sometimes sounds harsh but the HR justifies it by saying how else can you evaluate the employee performance using a single common yardstick. Subjective elements, they say, are emotion driven and is too dependent upon the Boss’ whims and fancies, which can pose a bigger problem. And so, the humped bull process prevails.

I was forced to rate a large section of employees as 3 since they were in this below 100% bracket even though, deep in my heart, I felt sympathetic towards them for having put in so much effort and hard work. They deserved better than merely meeting expectation. Lastly, the time came to write my own appraisal report and then I came to the end where self-rating had to be done. It was the most difficult decision to make. The 99.4% achievement could easily have been rounded off to 100% which would have merited a rating of 2. Should I or should I not? I asked myself. With no one watching, I could have used my ‘Hand of God’ and slipped up my rating. With the prospect of getting high bonus money and a promotion at stake, the Devil in me said… Just Do It and Swoosh! No one would have questioned the rating. The temptation was high but at that moment I decided to take the moral high ground and wrote final rating as 3 of having met expectations of the organisation.

When the COO did my appraisal based on my report, he called me over to his office and asked me to change the rating to 2 and explained the pitfalls of average rating. I told him that I had used the same yardstick for myself that I had done from my other team members. As a leader there should be no special privileges or separate set of rules of appraisal. If I were to act selfishly today, I would never be able to look into the eyes of my subordinates with honesty especially those people who were also in the ninety percent bracket and had self-rated themselves as 2 but were downgraded by me during review. I would have no moral standing before the people who loved and respected their leader if I were to upgrade my personal rating even if the short coming was a paltry 0.60%. Later, when the final appraisal letter was handed over, I got the expected rating of 3 and missed out on the higher bonus and possible elevation to the next level.

With the World Cup happening now in USA, Mexico and Canada, I was reflecting on these past incidents of the playing in the football and corporate fields. I have no reason to doubt the footballing genius of Maradona and Rivaldo or any desire to want to show these two champions down. They did what they felt right. However, I wonder whether for the sake of winning, if everything is just as fair as they say it is in love? Has every hero, every champion and every person occupying the corner office and its vicinity had to make such compromises on issues of personal integrity, honesty and sportsmanship? Do the trophies and glorious triumphs cleanse all the deeds that these champions may have done which was not completely legal, fair or gentlemanly?

Maradona won the World Cup at Mexico and became a G.O.A.T. Rivaldo and Brazil won World Cup for the fifth time, most by any nation so far. Having scored a self-goal, do I regret not having taken the Champions route to success and reaching for greater heights?  No, not for once, for I too won something precious that day, my life’s cup of joy. With that moral victory, I am able to sleep well at night knowing I was fair to my people and more importantly to my own self. It gives me greater happiness and consolation to know that not always the best players end up in the corner offices. The Ultimate G.O.A.T and someone I have always admired, Pele, won three world cups and scored many a goal in his career but never captained the Brazilian football team in any of the championships.

Post superannuation, I sometimes run into those youngsters who worked with me in those days, some of whose names I have even forgotten. They still remember their boss of old, come forward with open arms and show their love and respect in their own simple ways. And I am happy to be able to look straight into their eyes and smile with honesty. I can also look into the mirror and smile at myself for I had stopped at the red light on the road when no one was watching.

SS

PS. All pictures except the last are from the internet