MS Dhoni, Tewatia, Dr. Murali and Leadership Lessons

If they screw up, I will fix it!

Surely, you’ve heard of MS Dhoni. Over the last couple of days, you must have heard of Tewatia and his heroics (if you follow the ongoing IPL, that is). But I’m pretty sure, you have no idea who this Dr. Murali is, but then because it is a common name (in India), you maybe wondering if it is some Murali you know.

But why two cricketers and a doctor? Dr. Murali was the head of the department for a surgical specialty when I was training in medicine. When MS Dhoni sent Sam Curran to bat up the order, all of us had questions. Who is this guy? Why is he coming ahead of a finisher like Dhoni?

Even before Sam slammed those sixes, I was reminded of Dr. Murali. When I was posted for my rotations in his department, he spent time teaching me what he thought was very important for a physician to know about surgery. He didn’t have to do that, but he did. More importantly, at the same time someone was operating on his patient . His post graduate students were operating while he was teaching me, quite a distance from the operating theatre.

Two week into my rotation, I finally gathered the courage to ask him, “Sir, what if something goes wrong in the OT (operation theatre)?”

“What can go wrong?”, he asked. “At worst, will they tear the bladder? I will fix it. But they need to learn, man.”

I had no further questions. He just quoted the worst possible outcome of that surgery and said, he will fix it, but his students needed to learn. He then said, “Over the years, I’ve learnt who and when to let to do this.”

When MS Dhoni came in later, this entire episode went through my memory. MS Dhoni was confident of finishing the game even if Sam Curran failed. He also knew which game to give him a chance and who to give that chance. The same with Tewatia, his captain gave him the chance, it looked like he failed miserably before he played the game of his life.

And there are many like Dr. Murali in the world who are (quietly) building the next generation. These are people who are so good at their work, that they can (and willing to) repair the damage caused by their apprentices without breathing down their necks. I’m grateful to have been under a few of them in medicine and management. The people who nurtured (and nurturing) the next generation and played a role in who they are today.

He said, “I hope you do the same,” so I hope to live up to his expectations!

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Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.