Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam was the President of India from 2002 to 2007. He was a career scientist turned statesman and was also known as the Missile Man of India for his impactful work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology.
In 1973, Dr. Kalam became the Mission Director for the Satellite launch program at Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). During that time Prof. Satish Dhawan was the Chairman of ISRO. Dr. Kalam was tasked with building and deploying a Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) system, capable of launching a 40 kg satellite into a 400km circular orbit around the earth. His team completed this four stage SLV within six years. The first flight trial was conducted on August 17, 1979. Just eight minutes prior to the launch, the control system indicated that there was a leakage in the second stage of the SLV. Dr. Kalam's team members recommended continuing with the launch. and reasoned that even though there was a leak, there was sufficient oxidizer and the SLV could still be launched. Dr. Kalam accepted the recommendation and proceeded with the launch. The first stage of the SLV performed to perfection, but the second stage failed and the SLV was destroyed 317 seconds into its flight. Needless to say, the mission was a failure. This incident caused profound disappointment within ISRO.
Next morning, Prof. Dhawan asked Dr. Kalam to join him at the press conference. In teh press conference, Prof. Dhawan faced tough questions about the failure with some reporters questioning their judgement about proceeding with the launch even after an possible issue was reported. Prof Dhawan took full responsibility of the failure and indicated assured the reporters that knowledge and experience gained from this failure will ensure a successful launch the next time. He completely turns Dr.Kalam’s and his teams failure to his failure. In a situation like this any other place a director would have lost his job. But he tells Dr.Kalam that he can to put this Satellite in the orbit
Exactly a year later on 18th, July 1980, the team takes the Satelitte launch vehicle again to the launch pad. All the four stages are executed flawlessly and the satellite is set in motion into low earth orbit. The mission is a success. Thirty minutes later, Prof. Dhawan calls Dr. Kalam and asks him to address the press conference alone.
Such as beautiful story, when a failure occurred, the leader humbly accepted it and when success came, the leader had the humility to give credit to all the people who worked for it.
If I reflect back in my own twenty years of career. The managers I truly enjoyed working for were team builders. They knew that your success was their success. They were respectful and did not take credit for something the team member did. They were there to catch us if we fell and coached us as we grew in our careers.
