Chandrayaan-3: Key Leadership Takeaways for Leaders & Organizations
ISRO has become the pride of India and the toast of the world with Chandrayaan-3’s incredible success. A space agency from a third-world country with the least space budget is now at the forefront of the Race to Space! This historical achievement is also replete with rich leadership lessons. Now, I am not going to share the obvious aspects. They are all out there already! I’ll concentrate on the more subtle yet important aspects of leadership that align closely with coaching competencies and the coaching mindset.
Organization’s success is your success
I saw the interview of Dr. Sivan, former ISRO chairman. He was at the helm during the Chandrayaan-2 mission and narrowly missed making history. How must he have felt when Chandrayaan-3 succeeded?! How would any leader have felt?
That’s why I was deeply touched by Dr. Sivan’s genuine happiness and team spirit at what was achieved under his successor’s leadership. A true leader keeps their organization and team above personal ambitions, a key quality of a coaching leader.
No failure is a failure if you learn from it
When Chandrayaan-2 failed, ISRO promptly assessed what went wrong with Chandrayaan-2 and concentrated on filling the gaps. The leadership took the setback as a learning opportunity that ultimately led to Chandrayaan-3. Coaching, too, sees problems and setbacks as opportunities to ultimately realize one’s leadership potential. This shift in perspective can be highly empowering for leaders.
Build on what’s there
ISRO has the least space budget amongst the world’s major space agencies. This has not stopped them from breaking frontiers with their cost-effective missions to Mars and the Moon. The secret behind ISRO’s achieving so much on a shoestring budget is that they don’t keep reinventing the wheel. They build upon and improvise old technologies.
As leaders, we often go back to the drawing board to start afresh, hunting for newer resources, newer people, the latest technology, bigger budgets, etc. We often overlook the resources we currently have that are underutilized. As they say, curation is the best creation! So remember that, as leaders, what you have in hand is more valuable than the illusory ‘next best technology.’
Take everyone together
NASA is renowned for its great team culture. ISRO’s equally inclusive culture was revealed to the world during the Chandrayaan-3 mission. Their team spirit was palpable through the small screen during the launch and the touchdown of Chandrayaan-3. Mr. Veeramuthuvel, the Project Director, was vocal about the efforts and contribution of all his team members when called on to speak after the launch. In an online interview with India Today, Dr. Somanath was present along with his entire leadership team. He introduced each one of them and highlighted their contribution to Chandryaan-3’s success.
Successful organizations are built upon an inclusive, nurturing culture that acknowledges and applauds the individual contributions of all. Coaching leaders and leaders exposed to coaching can naturally and effortlessly create such as culture.
Be humble
As I watched the live coverage of Chandrayaan’s landing, it struck me how unassuming and humble the scientists of ISRO are. Men and women of few words, they let their achievements speak for them.
Humility is the hallmark of inspirational leadership. This humility comes from the understanding that success is not based on individual brilliance or effort alone but on having a supporting ecosystem built by the hard work of all. As the saying goes – It takes a village to raise a child. In leadership, it requires an ecosystem for a leader to succeed.
Don’t rest on your victory
“We reached the moon? Great! Now let’s aim for the sun!” is ISRO’s outlook, literally!
Are you complacent after achieving a milestone? Then set an even more audacious goal! That will keep you and your team motivated. One has to keep moving forward!
The takeaways I have discussed above aren’t rocket science. We all know them. But how many of us actually practice them in our lives? Do you? Do you wish to? Fantastic! But that enthusiasm inevitably recedes to the background as wishful thinking till another event (maybe the success of Aditya L1) brings them to the fore (It happens to all of us!)
Or maybe you can introduce these takeaways into your leadership journey with a highly effective catalyst like executive coaching.
Use Executive Coaching to Shift Orbits
Executive coaching is a scientifically backed & reliably tested method to maximize your leadership potential through decisive action. The secret to executive coaching’s effectiveness is that it works from intrinsic motivation. You are at the steering wheel. The coach affects self-awareness, which allows you to see & understand things you couldn’t view clearly before. They enable you to act upon that self-awareness through SMART goal setting. Coaches also act as accountability partners to ensure that you accomplish/are on the path to achieving those goals.
We coach leaders and executives who wish to take their performance or their business to the next orbit. Reach out to us if you are looking to hire an executive coach.