India-born Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, in a recent interview, revealed that he had got his early leadership lessons while playing for his school’s cricket team. The leadership lesson was about when to intervene and when to build the confidence of the team. In fact, sports teams are a perfect example of how people with varied skill sets and experiences can work together in harmony to achieve a common goal. While sports teams can provide examples to employees on working as a part of a team, sports franchises have much to give organizations in terms of building and managing successful work teams. This paper takes a close look at the object lessons on team building—an essential management skill—that the highly successful Indian Premier League (IPL), an Indian cricket league conceived and crafted in 2008, has got to offer corporates.

Satya Nadella, in an interview to The New York Times (published on February 20, 2014)1, his first since taking over as the CEO of Microsoft, was asked the following question: “What were some early leadership lessons for you?” And Nadella, with his characteristic simplicity and candor, responded:

I played on my school’s cricket team, and there was one incident that just was very stunning to me. I was a bowler—like a pitcher in baseball—and I was throwing very ordinary stuff one day. So the captain took over from me and got the team a breakthrough, and then he let me take over again.

I never asked him why he did that, but my impression is that he knew he would destroy my confidence if he didn’t put me back in. And I went on to take a lot more wickets after that. It was a subtle, important leadership lesson about when to intervene and when to build the confidence of the team. I think that is perhaps the No. 1 thing that leaders have to do: to bolster the confidence of the people you’re leading.

Soft Skills Journal, Team Building, Corporate Lessons, The Indian Premier League (IPL), Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Delhi Daredevils (DD), Right-to-Match (RTM), Mumbai Indians (MI), Indian Premier League.