In an interview to a sports channel, Imran Khan; the cricket legend from Pakistan, gave interesting insights on captaincy that were consistent with Schuitema’s approach to leadership.
Imran had captained the cricket team that brought home the much coveted World Cup in 1992. This was a momentous achievement for many reasons; one of them being that the Pakistani cricket team was amongst the least favoured teams of that tournament and that Imran was teetering towards retirement and felt physically strained.
Speaking of his experience as a captain, Imran said that a captain’s focus should be on his players who are his end. Unfortunately for some, captaincy itself becomes the end and the focus on making players perform loses out. This insight resonates with the ‘Means and Ends’ concept by Schuitema which says that a leader must view his subordinates as the end in themselves. The subordinates are the output and their tasks are the instruments by which they achieve excellence. If a leader starts focusing solely on how to get results out of his team (for instance, win a tournament) the team starts realizing that THEY are the means to an end and actually they aren’t cared for. Once this feeling sets in, the team stops performing willingly and eventually de motivation sets in.
Imran went onto say that one of his principles as a leader was to never expect from his team, anything that he himself couldn’t do; whether it concerned their personal or professional lives. But what he could do and wished from his team as well became strict standards. For instance, he himself went through rigorous physical exercise each day and expected the same from his team. If anyone couldn’t come up to this requirement, it was clear that they would be sent home. Etsko Schuitema talks about this in his book; Leadership: The Care and Growth Model. He says, “Apply the criteria that you impose on the other on yourself, with equal ferocity and ruthlessness.”
Finally, Imran said that a good leader is one who is perceived to be fair. And he defined a fair leader as someone who is just.
At Schuitema, we stress that a leader must be trustworthy for him to be considered a legitimate leader and for him to engage his workforce with him willingly. We define somebody who can be trusted as someone who is willing to suspend his own self interests to do what is right even if it may be difficult for him to do so. For instance, it may be difficult for a leader to dismiss his own brother from the organization he leads if it is proven that his brother has been involved in a scam. However, if a leader dismisses his brother regardless of his own relation suffering, he will instantly be considered a trustworthy, just, fair and legitimate leader.
It was pleasant to hear Imran’s insights on captaincy. They only made clear that it requires a person of extraordinary (though entirely possible) qualities to steer a talented group of people towards phenomenal success.