A bowling spell in a high school cricket match gave the Microsoft CEO not just an adrenaline rush but also taught him a leadership lesson...
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00:00When I look back, you know, I think all sport teaches you a lot.
00:03He took over from me, got a wicket, which is a breakthrough, but then he gave me the
00:08ball back and then I went on to have perhaps the best bowling spell I've ever had in my
00:12life.
00:16Another foundational influence for you was sports.
00:19Now my fellow international classmates and I were mystified daily by American sports
00:23references.
00:24So we're very happy to talk about cricket.
00:27You love cricket and you dreamt of playing professionally.
00:32What lessons did you take from the pitch?
00:34Well, I mean, you know, all of us who are South Asian are obsessed with that sport.
00:40And you know, it's sort of, in fact, that's right.
00:44I mean, that was what I was pretty much all bound up in all through my high school into
00:50college.
00:52And, you know, when I look back, you know, I think all sport teaches you a lot and especially
00:58at least I feel team sport, I think, has a huge impact in how you think about leadership.
01:06I'll never forget this one particular incident that I think subsequently written about.
01:13There's this guy who was my school captain who went on to do pretty well in the context
01:18of Indian cricket.
01:20I was bowling trash that day and he took over from me, got a wicket, which is a breakthrough.
01:28But then he gave me the ball back and then I went on to have perhaps the best bowling
01:32spell I've ever had in my life.
01:35And I've always reflected as to why did he do that?
01:39And then, in fact, much later on in life, I went back and asked him even.
01:44And so at least the way I surmise it was a leadership decision he made of saying, look,
01:49I recognize that this guy, he had recognized the importance of not breaking my confidence.
01:54And I said, look, well, that's a pretty enlightened decision for a high school leader, you know,
02:00captain of a cricket team to make.
02:02And a lot of leadership lessons is that, right, which is you've got to make hard calls on,
02:06say, performance, but also you've got to be able to sort of understand that you need your
02:11team and it's not like everybody's going to have a good day all the time.
02:14And that subtle distinction and that judgment, right, which is one of the things that I feel
02:21which is the most understated part of leadership is judgment.
02:27And it's so important.
02:29And that judgment comes by you exercising this muscle around passing judgment and learning
02:35from it.
02:36And I thought that's one of the lessons I learned.
02:38He was building your confidence in a way by making you.
02:40That's right.
02:41So you didn't end up playing professional cricket.
02:44Here I am.