While the entire world was busy gushing over Virat and Anushka’s fairytale wedding, I couldn’t help but don my corporate hat and look for lessons I could draw from it. And I managed quite a few.
The first being the need for leaders to create a healthy work life balance. How often is it that the fear of missing out on achievements and milestones makes us reallocate our personal time to work engagements?
Now figure this, Virat Kohli with 2818 runs in 2017 was the third highest run scorer in a calendar year in the history of international cricket, barely 50 runs behind Sangakkara who tops the list. Had Virat made himself available for the Sri Lanka series, there is little doubt that he would have overtaken Sangakkara. While I hope that he gets another shot at shattering the record sometime in his career, but then form and fate are hardly known for their loyalties. Why then did he opt to let go of this once in a lifetime opportunity when he could simply have shifted his wedding to accommodate it? Is this then an example of the ever-elusive work life balance that we keep striving for in our professional avatars? If yes, are we willing to pay the same price for it as Virat?
The Indian team, in Kohli’s absence, was ably led by Rohit Sharma to resounding victories against the visitors in all three formats of the game. This, when the jury was still out on the team’s ability to perform in the absence of Kohli’s stewardship and his rock-solid presence in the middle order. If I am to stretch this analogy to our professions, how many of us are confident of our team’s performance remaining unaffected by our absence? How many of us have nurtured a second-in-command, who is capable of picking up the baton from exactly where we drop it? In fact, when I look around, I mostly see a world riddled with insecurities and turf-wars, where leaders do precious little to groom and empower their next in line. Are we gripped by this fallacy too, or can we overcome it to establish ourselves as true people leaders?
My third learning came from the pictures of the couple with the Prime Minister which were plastered all over social media for several days. The natural question that came to mind was that what does a cricketer and an actor have to do with the world of politics. Why did they take the pains to invite the PM for their wedding reception, and what made him find time to attend this personal function? The answer is quite simple actually – the need for networking. One common trait among most successful leaders of today is their ability to create influential networks outside of their professional domain. Kohli might never fight an election in his life, and Modi might not find himself on the cricket field ever, but the gesture and its reciprocation could only have added to their influence as leaders.
As I sign off, I wish the newlyweds a blissful life together and hope that they continue to enthrall us with their performances in their chosen realms.
First published in Suburb Life magazine!
