In 1973, India's space programme started work on its first satellite launch vehicle. Prof Satish Dhawan was the Chairman of ISRO. Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was the Project Director of SLV-3.
On the morning of 10 August 1979, the countdown for SLV-3 reached T minus 40 seconds. The onboard computer flagged a problem and put the launch on hold. Kalam's experts told him the calculations were sound. He overrode the computer and gave the order.
The first stage fired perfectly. The second stage went out of control. The rocket and its payload fell into the Bay of Bengal, 560 kilometres from the coast.
Soon after, Dhawan walked Kalam into the press conference. Dhawan took the microphone himself. He said: We have failed today. I want to support my technologists, my scientists, my staff, so that next year they succeed. Kalam, as Mission Director, was the man whose project had failed. Dhawan took the failure as his own.
The team went back to work. Eleven months later, on 18 July 1980, SLV-3 lifted off from the same pad. All four stages worked. The Rohini satellite went into orbit. India had joined the spacefaring nations. Another press conference was called. This time, Dhawan asked Kalam to address it himself.
I take two lessons from Dhawan from this story.
The first is patience. By 1979 Dhawan had been leading the SLV programme for six years. The original four-year timeline had stretched to over six. After the public failure on 10 August, he led the team through another 11 months of work before success came. Through the delays, the criticism, and a public collapse, he kept the project moving. Krishna's word for this is titikṣā. Heat and cold, pleasure and pain come and go. Endure them. (Bhagwad Gita 2.14)
The second is leadership. After the failure, Dhawan took the blame himself in front of the press, although the failure was the Project Director's. After the success, he gave the credit away, asking the Project Director to address the press. Krishna says that whatever a great man does, others follow, and whatever standard he sets by his actions, the world pursues. (Bhagwad Gita 3.21) Dhawan's example became the standard ISRO has followed since.
If you are leading a team through long work, the patience to endure delay and the willingness to take blame and give credit are both part of the job.