This is not a topic that will appeal to too many people that don’t follow cricket – simply because of the context being so deeply connected with cricket. But the theme that I am attempting to discuss here is beyond cricket. It is about flawed geniuses and what the rest of us – as friends/colleagues, managers, coaches or stakeholders in some form – can do towards channelizing their disproportionately superior gifts for the greater good as well as the benefit of the individuals themselves.
Those of us who follow the game of cricket closely have been consumed by all the press – mostly negative – that Kevin Pietersen’s book is attracting. The England cricket administration has its response, the management group that KP has targeted in his book has felt compelled to come with its response, some ex–players resorting to Twitter to offer their retorts/interpretations and so on. I am sure we have not seen the last of this saga and several more gigabytes of press will be wasted on this subject. But the most insightful article that I have seen on this subject comes from Martin Crowe – an ex-cricketer himself and not far from being a genius himself with the bat, especially when he was at the peak of his powers. His analysis of KP’s psyche and its evolution over the last decade or so is very deep and insightful and offers a window into people of KP’s ilk that we run into every so often in our lives – whatever disciplines we practice. I am talking about those extraordinarily gifted people with extremely high skill/IQ, but are also characterized by a fragile ego and absence of emotional intelligence or stability.
Early in my career, I had the good fortune of watching – from the sidelines – such people either being expertly managed by excellent coaches/managers towards some larger good and also cases where such “flawed geniuses” either burned themselves or environments that they were in. As I started my career as a people manager, I often found myself confused about the approach and action to take with such individuals. My own think-tanks would come up with opinions ranging from quickly cutting such people loose from the organization all the way to simply dealing with such people and their fragile egos with kid gloves in anticipation of them turning into “the goose that lays the golden egg”. After a fair amount of trial and error with such individuals, I have come to settle to what I think is a recipe for handling them….something that has worked for me with a reasonable hit-rate. I am sure I will find that this recipe will fall flat on its face in several situations and I am also sure that it will keep getting refined in my own mind as I go through more such experiences. At the risk of sounding like yet another “5 Habits of …” prescription, I will try to outline this formula using a combination of view-points and actions or suggestions:
- You will know such a “flawed genius” when you see one. It is generally never very hard to figure out if someone fits into the class of people that form the subject of this discussion., There’s so specific check-list that I can think of to describe such people, but the incandescence of their brilliance is generally matched by how visibly fragile – and big – their egos are.
- Very low tolerance as well as blind impunity are both approaches that are doomed to fail with such people. There may be time-bound periods and specific situations where a competent manager may take such an approach, but neither of these can be the steady-state formula.
- The most important thing that such people need is TOUGH LOVE…..not unadulterated admonishment or blind ego-boosts. These people know they are good, and they never tire of hearing that they are good. But they need an equal dose of reality-checks. This is where, I have seen many a good manager lose sight of the “tough” part of the tough love.
- The most important value that one (as a manager or a coach) can add to such individuals is to help them discover and stay connected with a broader purpose beyond themselves. While this is true for most individuals, these outliers have a tendency to transfer focus from the broader purpose to themselves very often and for seemingly petty reasons. It takes a lot of effort to get these individuals to buy into a larger goal than themselves, but it is possible. The key is to find goals that either (a) enhance their reputation at a company/industry/society level or (b) are challenging enough that they can be the difference between the success or failure of an important initiative. Some of the things that are compelling sources of inspiration are – the opportunity to make an imprint on the industry, opportunity to upset the hegemony of a market leader, leave a strong legacy of proficiency and accomplishment.
- Pair them up with fairly intelligent, but very high EQ (high emotional intelligence) individuals – self-assured people that understand the value of such individuals as well as their psychological and emotional make up. They serve two very specific purposes – (a) be a willing sounding board…often at short notice and at unreasonable frequencies (b) serve as a “sink” to drain out all the negativity and poison that inevitably builds up among such people – by simply giving them a hearing.
Back to the case of Kevin Pietersen – for all the mountain of runs that he has collected, he will remain one of the most unfulfilled talents of his time. He really should have retired with at least 12,000 test runs, lot more test and ODI victories and many more compelling duels with the best bowlers of his time. It is a major loss for cricket and for that, the English Cricket Leadership should share the blame with the man himself!
In the mean time, we all can continue to do some simple things to make sure that these flawed geniuses don’t squander the gifts that they’ve been blessed with. They deserve better and more sustained support structures than they generally get. And organizations can create huge value by thoughtfully supporting and harnessing such special talents.
Sachin Desai
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An Amateur's Blog - Sachin Desai 