Robert Morris Univeristy

Individual Research Paper Leader Effectiveness

M.S. DHONI

Yousuf Abrar Siddiqui 9/10/2012

Table of Contents

The Leader Followers and the Situation Contextual and Operational Leadership Motivational Approach Theories and Models Social responsibility and Ethics Lessons Learned Bibliography

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The Leader:

M.S. Dhoni is a current captain of the Indian National Cricket Team and a winner of Cricket World cup of 2011. He was born in Ranchi, Bihar (Now in Jharkhand State). MS Dhoni is one of the most successful leaders of India. He has been the second successful person to lead India next to Kapil dev. He is the captain of all the three formats of cricket-Test, ODI (One Day International) and Twenty-twenty. He initially excelled in badminton and football and was selected at district and club level in these sports.

Courtesy

Image: http://4.bp.blogspot.com

Dhoni was a goalkeeper for his football team and was sent to play cricket for a local cricket club by his football coach. He did not play cricket, he impressed with his wicket-keeping skills and became the regular wicketkeeper at the Commando cricket club (19951998). Based on his performance at club cricket, he was picked for the 1997/98 season Vinoo Mankad Trophy Under-16 Championship and he performed well. Dhoni focused on cricket after his high school.

Many of India's top players including Tendulkar have crumbled under the pressures of captaincy. With Dhoni, on the other hand, the additional responsibility has made him come into his own as a player.

Followers and The Situation And Contextual and Operational Leadership:

In this game the Captain is the backbones, who have to lead the team thru various situations comprehending various tactics and techniques to win the game. M.S. Dhoni who started his career as one of the Eleven players but, by his policies and affection and commitment to the game he was awarded the role of a Captain. He had the ability to guide and lead the team to a successful path by promoting new ideas and new themes to the play.

The players in the team are united and each given an opportunity to prove themselves. If one lags behind its the duty of a captain to backup him and counsel him and train him to be perfect in the area where he excels.

When they were playing Cricket World Cup 2011, Dhoni had a lot of problems with the team effort, being poor. He then managed skillfully the whole situation and planned ahead of each game and put the responsibilities on each and everyone to play the game well. He planned the strategy and game plan to put the fielders and bowlers thru the right areas and made the batsmen score runs, which proved him to be the one of the wise captains of India cricket team.
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Motivational Approach:
Team India is led by M.S. Dhoni and is no doubt the entire team has thrown weight behind him. The management lessons have a universal appeal of Dhoni, by reflecting the structures and strategies of the game.

When India was about to lose the game in the super 8s against Australia, captain came to the rescue of the team and managed to overcome the Australian domination of the game by scoring the runs in the proper area and help not to lose wickets at regular intervals.

He did not deflect the teams poor performance blaming against any individual player, but in spite of the huge pressure he overcame as a man in control. Many people take a life time to understand and accept that life is filled with full of negative traits such as joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, of all most important winning and losing of the game but Dhoni learnt it at the very age of 29.

Dhoni also had a convinced idea of the senior players in the team and their role and contribution to the team. He also learned from the seniors experience and wisdom by drawing conclusions and build teamwork.

When India was playing a Semi final game match against Pakistan in a do or die game, Pakistan was in a aggressive way scoring runs and smashing the Indian bowling and fielding, but Dhoni reluctantly stopped his anger and overcame the depression and had a strong determination that he could control the match going away from them by regularly motivating the players on ground and took control of the game. He is never excited no matter what the situation is going to be. This makes him an exceptional leader, for controlling ones emotion under stress and thinking clearly under the crisis is the mark of the excellent leaders. He also gives feedback to the players without any malice. He also believes that a leader should be frank in both positive and negative, and focus on the issues that the player is facing than the person itself. In some cases of failure he revitalizes the player to perform and do well with a better planning.

Theories and Models:

There are many aspects when Dhoni came to the rescue of the team when it was in the state of failure. The statistics show that he is one of the most successful captains of India ever had. He was picked up as the captain of India for the Inaugural ICC T20 World Cup held in South Africa in the year 2007 and emerged as the winners in a thrilling victory over the arch rivals Pakistan. Later on he was capped as Captain of the ODI team, Simultaneously he was also honored as the Test Captain too. It was under his captaincy that India had emerged to the No.1 spot in Test Cricket. He then under his leadership won many overseas series against Australia, South Africa which never had done before by any captain. It was also under his leadership that India emerged as the World Cup Champions held in April 2011 where they beat Sri Lanka

Dhoni Statistics as a Captain with Other Captains:

Number Name

Year

Played Won Lost Tied

No result

Win %

Sachin Tendulkar

1996-1999/2000

73

23

43

35

Ajay Jadeja

1997/8-1999/2000

13

62

Sourav Ganguly

1999-2005

146

76

65

54

Rahul Dravid

2000/1-2007

79

42

33

53

Anil Kumble

2001/2

100

Virender Sehwag

2005

60

Mahendra Singh Dhoni

2007-2011

101

58

35

56.41

Suresh Raina (Limited Overs)

May-June 2010

25

Gautam Gambhir (Limited Overs)

November-December 2010

100

The above stats show that the modern day Cricket Captains of Team India.

Social responsibility and /Ethics:

As a Captain he has a lot of social responsibilities against the team, and the country who cheer for their efforts. He has a lot of patience in the situations when at times India lost the games in some situations and backing up with the team effort though they relentlessly worked for the win but they eventually couldnt make up. He works tirelessly towards making the team to come over the problems faced during their previous matches and work out with the players along with the coach. He focuses on each and every player towards their fitness and the area where they excel and the areas where they lag behind. He is truly an Ethic following Captain, who works in his boundary according to the rules set by the International Cricket Council (I.C.C) and try to stop players from being aggressive in their behavior in the field and make sure there are no verbal issues with other team players. The ICC has set rules for a free and fair match conduct and see that there are no racial issues are going on in the team or among the teams. Due to racial discrimination by the Govt. in South Africa, the country was boycotted from playing cricket for almost a decade.

Lessons Learned:
Mr. M.S. Dhoni is a trusted leader whom team India can rely on .He has the strategy to make use of the resources available and bring out the new way to a lead a successful path. To say a matter of fact he has the style and Charisma to lead the team and has enormous self confidence in him along with self belief to lead the team. He also makes sure that all the players are grounded well in comfort and is always ready to lead the team especially in times of crisis. A leader like him always believes to live in the present rather than thinking of the past which cannot be
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corrected by thinking of it. The most powerful quality he has is give feed back without any hesitation whether it may be positive or negative. Also learned is that every match which is played is to be started from the scratch and have game plans and execute them when needed. Many of the leaders feel proud about their past, but in his case he is very special and looks for more and more and to live in the past than to look back or peep in to the future. He is a leader who led the team by an example by marking a glorious victory of the Cricket World cup 2011.

Bibliography:
1. Introduction of the leader was partially collected from the from various sources available on the internet. 2. Cricket journals available over the internet 3. A History of Indian Cricket by Mihir Bose. 4. Website. Cricinfo.com 5. Website. www.mahendra-singh-dhoni.com 6. Image by http://4.bp.blogspot.com

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