Day to Day Rangolis: Pictures of the Week: 18th July 2010

I recently shifted to Bangaluru (earlier known as Bangalore), a mecca of IT industry in India. Recently I noticed that people (normally females) in Bangalore draw Rangoli in front of their house each morning with chalk. The message of rangoli in front of house is a welcome and hospitality sign to the visitors and guests.

Visit my following album to see popular form of Indian common man's art.

Rangolies

Ramayana and Leadership Lessons

Ramayana is the Hindu epic that has been communicated from generations to generations via different means. I saw Ramayana on TV when I was a small kid around 20 years back and some of the teachings are still with me. Last week end, I again revisited the Ramayana TV serials on YouTube. This time I looked at epic from a different aspect that is "Leadership"

What Ram (human incarnation of Vishnu ) taught to the whole world are the principles of Leadership. On the other hand, Ravana taught to the whole world what mistakes a leader should not commit.

What Leaders Do:

Fight for a right Cause / Vision (Dharma): "Right" is relative and I will not try to define what is right / wrong here. Leaders stand and fight for the right cause and vision.

Fulfill your commitment/promise: "Pran jaye par vachan na jayee" (Will die but do not break the promise) was the mantra/principle of Ram. He has demonstrated this principle in two important scenarios:
a> Ram promised Sugreev to make him king of this lost kingdom by killing Sugreev's elder brother and Ram ultimately fulfilled the promise.

b> Ram promised Vibheeshan (younger brother of demon Lanka king Ravana) that he would make him king of Lanka and ultimately that had happened when Ravana was killed in the war.

Fulfillment of promise create trust in people and make them believe what leaders says is actually going to be true one day. As a result of trust, Ram achieved unparalleled trust of His supporters and army, confusion and doubts in the minds of His enemies and most importantly self confidence.

A leader must fulfill his commitment.

Relation build over trust: Ram built relations on the basis of trust. Friendship with Sugreev and Vibheeshan, Brotherhood relation with Laxman & Bharat, God - Devotee relation with Hanumaan are some of the examples of it.

The relation should not be merely a business but built over trust and respect.

Make the impossible possible: This is another quality of a leader. Leaders make apparent impossible possible. Rad and Laxman were only two individuals searching for Sita in the forests. To fight a most powerful demon king and rescue Sita is impossible task in itself.

Master in One thing: Ram was considered as master archer equipped with all weapons possible in this universe. A leader must be master in their his/her domain.

What Leaders shouldn't Do:

Be on the wrong side: However smart, powerful and rich a leader may be, everything will fall if the leader is on the wrong side (I will again differ to define right vs wrong here). Ravana was mighty, intelligent and invincible but he was standing on the wrong side.

"There is always win for Dharma in the end" seems to be winning mantra that causes doubts in the mind of people who people standing on the wrong side. The mantra had divided the Ravana family and created doubts in the minds of his own close people.

Do not identify and correct mistakes early: Kidnapping Sita was a big mistake done by Ravana as history shows. What I feel is that not rectifying his mistake over a period of time was the biggest mistake he had committed.

If a leader does not commit mistake then leader should be worried about it because mistakes are one of excellent ways to learn. However the committed mistake should be identified and corrected early otherwise there wont be any learning otherwise.

Do not listen: The day when a leader stops listening, ideally that should be his last day. Ravana stopped listening to his brother, wife, father, mother, son and almost everybody. Every leader must be a good listener.

Do not foresee Black Swan: If something has not been done by somebody upto now will never happen. Ravana believed that no man or ape would ever going to kill him and so he excluded them in his boon. Ravana believed that no army had ever crossed the sea so would not do it in the future.

When I reflected back over Ramayana, I clearly saw a set of assumptions that Ravana had never revalidated. He committed blunders after blunders at each step.

Leaders must validate their assumptions and foresee Black Swan.

Ramayana is one of the most important source of strategic leadership because it tells us what matters in the long run for a leader. I have not tried to be very comprehensive and there could be vast amount of other lessons hidden in the epic.