Captaining Club Cricket

Those of you who come to my blog to read about management, this post is about management.

For the past eighteen years, I have played for the Titans Cricket Club in South Florida. Of those eighteen years, I have led the team for about half of them. Leading a team on the field has taught me so much about leading teams in offices, and management of teams in general.

Titans Cricket Club on Tour

Below are some things that I have learned as the captain of Titans -

1. Your job as the leader is to create the system and get people to buy into the system. The system puts players in positions to take best advantage of their strengths, has backup plans built in, while at the same time improves upon the team’s collective weaknesses. The performance on the day is out of your control. Setting up the right system though, increases the probability of a good collective performance.
2. As a leader, you have a slightly different relationship with each individual on the team. It is primarily because slightly different ways of communicating and different situations help individuals thrive. This helps you figure out how you need to adjust your system to give individuals the best chance to succeed as well.
3. Not every player is a good fit for the team. There is nothing wrong with letting players move on. Try to get everyone to fit in with the team, but if an individual, after multiple attempts has trouble being part of the team, it is ok to let them move on rather than negatively affect the culture on the team. This is regardless of how good that player is.
4. The primary job during the game is temperature control — How do you lower the temperature when things are not going your way, so that players can continue to perform at their best. When things go wrong, there is a tendency for players to get frustrated, getting folks to relax so they can do their best is not just great for this game but also the upcoming ones. On the other hand, how do you raise the temperature when you are on top, to make sure the opposition does not get comfortable.
5. There is more to life than the game. Know that most players are not professionals and will make mistakes. The best thing to do after a mistake is to get the team behind the player and encourage them to keep their chin up.
6. Listen to everyone, but do what you feel is best. Everyone should feel heard, and should know that their input is being taken into account. That does not mean that their input is the only thing that matters.
7. Not everyone will agree with every decision. That is a good thing, it means your team has variety of thought. You do not have to please everybody, you just have to put the team in winning positions. Have good reasons for your decisions so you can explain them to yourself(not necessarily to others), in the context of does this help the team get into a winning position.
8. Every decision has a probability of working out and a complementary probability of failure. Most of the time you want to make high success probability decisions. Sometimes, the risk of a lower probability decision is worth it.
9. Always be clear about whether you are being aggressive or defensive. Set up fields and batting orders based on that. When in doubt, be aggressive.
10. Start by playing to your strengths. Get your best players to start the game for you. Quickly switch to playing to the opposition’s weakness as soon as you figure it out.
11. Always strive to be a better captain at the end of the season then you were at the beginning of it. You are always a student of the game. Watching where the batsman’s bat comes from, which hand is dominant, how their legs move against different types of bowling, are all things that should affect your decisions. The way you make better decisions is by studying these things and how to take advantage of them in every game.
12. Timing of conversations is important. Conversations before the game should have a cautiously optimistic tone. During the game, collaboratively directive. After the game, reflective and learning.
13. The season is more important than the game. If you have the chance to give people opportunities so the team is better set up for the remainder of the season, take them. Creating more options for the team as the season progresses will only help.
14. Understand the current confidence level of each player and put them in the right situations to help take advantage of high confidence and help raise low confidence.
15. The team matters more than any individual. Do not treat any single player preferentially, regardless of how good they are.
16. Sometimes you will sacrifice your personal game to promote other players. You have to learn how often you are comfortable doing this. You can be comfortable to a fault at this(as I have been).
17. Superstars are good to have, but not good to rely on. You want to make sure that the team is not heavily reliant on one or two players. These players missing games is a good thing, it helps others step up.
18. Acknowledge everyone. Not just the best performers of the game. Especially people who are improving. Someone playing above their current level is more impressive than someone doing well playing at their level.
19. The game is not done till the last ball. This means there is an opportunity to win the game, gain confidence, or set up the team better for the remainder of the season.
20. The team takes on the personality of the leader — Your body language, the way you talk, how you carry yourself on and off the field, all matters. Be the person you want the team to be.