Taming Virendra Sehwag

Virendra Sehwag needs no introduction. He is an opening batsman, who threw cricketing logic to the winds. Day One of Test match, historical wisdom was you give session one to the bowlers. “Says who? ”,  asked Virendra Sehwag. Hitting on the up, meeting aggression with aggression, he suddenly confused the hell out of bowlers.  It was not unnatural to see a perfectly pitched ball outside the off-stump to be driven to the cover boundary. The angry bowler would then pitch it short, and Sehwag would just upper-cut it to the third man boundary.

Aggression was his forte. However if you think it was blind aggression, you are mistaken. He had a superb defensive technique, and fantastic hand-eye co-ordination. His motto was simple, see ball – hit ball. In 2008, he was picked out of the blue for the tour of Australia and he was a success.

There are many Virendra Sehwags at the workplace. The brashness of youth knows no fear. They come with bright ideas, don’t fear failure, and are aggressive. They are the ones who speak out, without fear of authority or rebuke. Many times their comments are met with sarcastic replies by seniors, even public humiliation. And why does this happen? Simply because they are right, and the seniors have the weight of their ego behind these comments.

These people are go getters and succeed, till they get into the performance management cycle. One of the biggest aspects on the performance management cycle is 'areas of improvement.' Here these people are told, “You are too aggressive. You need to tone down.” Unfortunately these people don’t realise their own value. They rely too much on seniors for advice and try and mould themselves.

Imagining telling Sehwag, you need to curb your aggressive instincts. You would have killed the natural player and I am sure he would have been a failure very soon.

One innings of Virendra Sehwag stands out. January  28^th 2008, Adelaide. One day to go and India were starting their innings 37 runs behind. Early morning on 28^th January, India’s most dependable batsman who could save a test match, had retired hurt. Virendra Sehwag batted close to six hours and scored 151 runs in 236 balls to save the match for India. He played defensively according to the need of the situation. Important thing, is Sehwag had  a test debut in 2001 and this innings came in 2008. The tiger had matured over time, but not lost its claws.

Unfortunately, we expect maturity from young, 23 year kids, with fire in the belly. In the process of building the maturity, we kill the fire. My advice is let them be, these kids will mellow over time. Trying to curb their attacking instincts is trying to destroy the batsman in them.

Team management is not about constructing clones of what is an ideal employee. It is actually, recognising the competencies of an employee and exploiting his / her strengths. Their areas of improvement, can be filled by hiring somebody who is complementary. Teamwork is about hiring different people with different competencies, and ensuring they work together.

After all, you don’t convert Messi into a defender, and don’t ask Michael Schumacher to drive slowly. It is time the corporate world moved from “Areas of Improvement” to “Capitalizing on Strengths.”