The Indian Cricket team’s recent wins(Dec 2020 – Jan 2021) in Australia sparked some debates on leadership qualities of soft spoken people.
Sporting events offer a great learning platform to observe leadership and team work.
There were 2 people who were spoken about: Ajinkya Rahane and Rahul Dravid.
Ajinkya, for his leadership of the team and Rahul, for his development of U-19 team – some of whom were able to perform brilliantly at the recent series.
They are both soft spoken and quiet leaders.
Which of their leadership qualities garnered attention?
– Staying calm when things get out of hand. It is said that when emotions hijack a person, it affects their higher mental functions like attention and concentration. So staying calm is important so that you can make the right decision at the crucial moment.
– Earning the respect of team mates
– Ajinkya Rahane demonstrated team spirit when he was run out. He went up to his partner and kept the team morale going by encouraging him to carry on and not be disappointed.
– Rahul Dravid’s focus, commitment and integrity during his playing days were always appreciated. His recent assignment with U-19 team and with National Cricket Academy showed his eagerness and passion to create more cricketers. The results of his efforts were noticeable and well demonstrated at the recently concluded series.
Calmness, respect, team spirit, morale, focus, commitment, integrity, passion for creating more leaders – these are all qualities that every leader should develop and nurture.
Being soft spoken does not equate to lack of leadership material.
The qualities described previously are part of leadership skills, which a person can develop and demonstrate by increasing their own self-awareness of what qualities they excel at and what ones need to be nurtured further.
Author: Johncey George is an International Coaching Federation certified Leadership and Life Coach. He focuses on working with Introvert Professionals, helping them grow as leaders by unleashing their potential.
He helps introverts celebrate their strengths and become successful as leaders. Being an introvert himself, he understands their thinking process. He combines this knowledge, his corporate leadership experience and his coaching experience to help create more leaders among the Introverts.
Johncey has 23 years of corporate leadership experience and done his BE and Management Education from IIM Bangalore, Harvard Business School, ISB Hyderabad.
His company, Johncey George Consulting Pvt Ltd, does Leadership Development through Coaching, under the brand Coach Johncey (www.coachjohncey.com)
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