There are different styles of leadership, related to individual personalities, nations and cultures. They can be equally effective in giving a strong direction for people to follow.
Hassan Sardar is a gentleman with excellent social etiquettes and refined manners. He is always quick on his feet, with sensible reactions
in all the circumstances we've seen him in. He is capable of handling any situation with thoughtfulness and maturity.
Hassan possesses leadership through knowledge; what leaders need to know and be. He is a resourceful, active, hardy, careful and quick-witted. In sports, opponent can never be under-estimated, a leader must be gentle and brutal and hence Hassan is. When he was in the field as a player, he was skilful in defense and attack. Being capable of both caution and surprise, rapacious and lavish, generous and mean and there are many other qualifications, some acquired, some natural that he possesses. While studying him as a projected personality, we came to know that unlike many other leaders his leadership style is free from fear. (Adair, 1997) states that fear makes men more attentive, more obedient, and more amenable to discipline. But it didn't happen in this case, as he is friendly and sociable in nature. (Adair, 1997) clearly thought that professional or technical competence should be a prerequisite for holding position of holding leadership responsibility.
Hassan's competence in his game gave him confidence to be associated as coach and mentor with his junior fellows and Pakistan Hockey Federation.
Here a question arises that are knowledge and experience enough? As of his great qualities as a leader, he was fond of adventure and as the central forward he always remained in an awaked position. Hassan is famous for leading by example. As a good leader, he gives direction, sets example and share danger and hardship on equal footing. Having a good understanding of human needs, Hassan meets the needs of his men just a good-
shepherded looks after his flock. Besides qualities approach and the knowledge approach, he has a third functional approach to leadership that centers on what he has to do in order to lead.
He can be recognized as a leader of leaders in this business. He is never lost even though is occasionally bewildered. Hassan has a charismatic personality, and recognized as the Flying Horse. Charisma is a certain quality of an individual personality by the virtue of which he is considered extraordinary and treated as endowed with supernatural or exceptional force of qualities, (Weber, 1920). While studying Hassan as a leader we realized that personal loyalty and blind obedience are not in the picture, because they end not only freedom and equality but also of leadership. In Pakistan, perhaps no one has a better right to be called a charismatic leader than Hassan, and so he makes a goods case study for the phenomenon. As a core player, he possessed that all-important power of being able to sum-up the certainly confused situations on the playfield and then to take the appropriate action in a calm, effective way. He used to judge the possible moves of his opponent team's players, thus had sure intuition - a feeling for the real situation long before it becomes plain to others.
Reasons and calm judgment are the qualities especially belonging to a leader, (Tacitus, 1970). Hassan has an intellectual dimension of leadership. Practical reason, intuition and imagination are all included under this heading. A leader must be able to guide a problem solving or decision-making body, such a board of director, whose members may have different mental abilities as well as different personalities. In this case, Hassan is Chief Selector of Pakistan Hockey Federation, thus leading a decision making body which consists members from all over Pakistan.
According to (Thompson, 1975), Thinking is work; one must thick until it hurts. The power to give sustained though to the way ahead is part of a strategic leader competence. He is subject to heavy schedule and many distractions. Hassan manages his position as Additional Director of Customs Valuation, Federal Board of Revenue, Chief Selector Pakistan Hockey Federation, and Advisor to Asian Hockey Federation. It is part of his competence to take time to think through issues.
Hassan has ability to make things happen. During Olympics 1984 His team spirit and the never say die attitude carried the team forward to this outstanding victory.
(Tzu, 500 B.C.) emphasized the importance of clarity in giving orders. In the context of leadership, to communicate means to share with or impart to others one's thoughts and information in order to obtain a desired response. In a hockey field right messages must be communicated at the right time. Such message need not to be a verbal message but a number of different non-verbal indicators are shown to take the ball to outnumber the opponent in a particular area of the field at a moment in time. Two-way communication is inseparable from leadership.
Change and leadership are closely linked. Change tends to throw up the needs for leaders; leaders seek to create change. Leaders take initiative and initiative breeds innovation. Hassan has an evergreen welcoming attitude towards changes. He feels that hockey has changed over the years, with technology and latest methods coming in, its time for Pakistan hockey to move ahead and reclaim its position as the world number one. As Chairman - Selection Committee, Pakistan Hockey Federation, he is highly visible and carrying out "what needs to be done."
5. Main Challenge(s) of the Past and how He Resolved it / them
As discussed with him, he had his first-ever challenge - the proactive challenge - which includes finding the gap between stimulus and the response, to increase the impact on gravity and to manage the stress. He made every effort to explore what needs to be done to be the best in the business, physical and mental exercises, lots of practice and brainstorming to be an Olympic-winner team. Another important challenge was "the influence challenge" - to make an impact, concisely or not. While an active members of the team he used to recap in the team meetings about the formation of the team in up-coming matches. He believes that feedback is the breakfast of champions. Gradually, the team realized that the feedback gathered from peers will lead us toward a winning strategy and hence the victory in the world cup. Not much happens without a dream. There is a dreamer of great dreams behind every great achievement. Hassan had "the vision challenge" when he entered into hockey world. He articulated a picture of the future to be the fastest forwarder of the world. Following this vision, he kept flying as a flying horse and within two years of his entry in the national hockey team, he created a world record of scoring 11 goals in the tournament. He faced the strategy challenge as well. One can not even think of winning in match without a winning strategy. Hassan always remained desperate for accepting challenges. He finded out what is going-on, created his strategy, planed to achieve each strategic goal and evaluated the result. In 1984 Olympics, he used to participate in team meeting before each match to have a line- of-action in the upcoming match.
Another challenge was "the bigger and bigger challenge" which is simplified as continuously growing your skill base. It includes increased responsibility, increased authority, increased consequences, and increased expectations. After winning world cup in 1982 most of the fellow players of Hassan thought that the biggest challenge of their lives has been achieved and they got what they dreamed for. But, Hassan had something different in mind. Now he started thinking of beyond the world cup and was looking at Olympics. Like a great conqueror he won the battle after battle.