Surround yourself with good men

Once upon a time, there was a king who kept a monkey as a pet. The monkey servedthe king in whatever way he could. He had a free run of the royal household because he was the king’s pet. One hot day the monkey sat fanning by the side of the king who was sleeping. He noticed a fly on the chest of the king and tried to swish it away. The fly would go away for the moment and come back again to sit on the king's chest.


The monkey could take it no longer and decided to teach the fly a lesson. He looked for a dagger to kill it and when he found it brought it down with all force on the fly. The fly flew away but the king died as result of the dagger blow delivered by the monkey.


The moral of the story is that a king who cares for his life should not have a fool as his servant. - Panchatantra


This is quite true of any organization. We have seen top management, well even lower level managers, surround themselves with chamchas who are quite incapable of doing anything other than what we call 'apple polishing'.

Most of these managers have ended up in grief, much like the King in the above story, at least metaphorically.

So beware of this trap. When you are a manager, recruit not yes men, but top quality people who have a mind of their own and are not afraid to tell you on your face that you are wrong.