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