Robert Morris Univeristy

Individual Research Paper - “Leader Effectiveness”

M.S. DHONI

Yousuf Abrar Siddiqui9/10/2012

Table of Contents

The Leader 3

Followers and the Situation 4

Contextual and Operational Leadership 4

Motivational Approach 5

Theories and Models 7

Social responsibility and Ethics 9

Lessons Learned 9

Bibliography 11

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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 (1995–1998). 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.

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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 it’s 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 8’s 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.

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He did not deflect the team’s 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.

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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

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Dhoni Statistics as a Captain with Other Captains:

Number

Name YearPlayed

Won

Lost

Tied

No result

Win %

1 Sachin Tendulkar 1996-1999/2000 73 23 43 1 6 35

2 Ajay Jadeja 1997/8-1999/2000 13 8 5 0 0 62

3 Sourav Ganguly 1999-2005 146 76 65 0 5 54

4 Rahul Dravid 2000/1-2007 79 42 33 0 4 53

5 Anil Kumble 2001/2 1 1 0 0 0 100

6 Virender Sehwag 2005 5 3 2 0 0 60

7 Mahendra Singh Dhoni 2007-2011 101 58 35 1 7 56.41

8Suresh Raina (Limited Overs)

May-June 2010 4 1 3 0 0 25

9Gautam Gambhir (Limited Overs)

November-December 2010

5 5 0 0 0 100

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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 couldn’t 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

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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 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.

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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.com6. Image by http://4.bp.blogspot.com

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