Of many qualities a leader should possess, one of them is, being able to absorb the pressure and not pass it on to the team. And this quality was very well demonstrated by Dhoni during the recent world cup matches. Even the billions of Indians and cricket followers would agree, the way the high pressure matches were handled with ease.
A team under pressure cannot perform at its best, be it scope change, revised schedule or reduced resources, the team is always exposed to pressure situations every moment during the life of a project. It is true that every team member should be aware of such changes and should be able to adapt to such situation. But how? Well! That depends on the action of the leader. How a leader reacts to such situations, is seen in team's performance.
I have experienced working under leaders who kept a calm face even during the time of crisis, but at the same time being firm in their decisions. This has helped the team in completing the task at much faster rate and with less rework. On other hand, working under leaders who would pass on the stress/tension to the team right down to the last man, this made the team members less confident in solving the problem and feeling inferior to others. Thus, neither solving the problem nor making better/confident team members.
These less confident members, when they take up such leadership position pass on the same to their teams (alas, we have more of such leaders around...). If the leaders want to see the success, they need to learn the art of absorbing the pressure...only then the team will push the leader to lift the cup...
The world cup was no doubt very entertaining, but it also demonstrated calm leaders and confident team...
