Ramayana beautifully depicts the qualities required of a leader. When Vibhishanan expresses his doubts as to the ability of the vanara sena to take on the mighty army of Ravanan, Rama explains to him the need for a clear vision. Then he goes on to explain the concept of leadership using the analogy of a Horse Driven Chariot. This thought process can be extended to a top manager in an organization.
Rama visualizes the four wheels of the Chariot as the four critical traits requied of a leader - Character, Ethics, Courage and Valour. Character is the most fundamental of all. It is absolutely essential that the leader should be clear of his value system and he should be able to communicate this clearly to his subordinates and other stakeholders. The communication should be through action. He should walk the talk. He should also be ethically perfect to gain the moral high ground that is so essential for earning the respect of the employees. Power earned by virtue of official position, as depicted in ones business card, is meaningless unless one earns the grudging respect of one's peers and subordinates. Courage, comprises of both physical and mental courage in the Ramayana context. But in an organizational context, this has to do with taking unpopular decisions when required. Leader is a change agent, and people abhor change. One has to have terrific strength of character and the Valour, which is the mental fortitude to stand by one's decisions so needed to achieve the vision.
Continuing the analogy, Rama explained that the horses of the Chariot stood for Strength, Energy and Passion. One should have the Strength, of staying power to beat back the competion and stay in the hunt, and should possess unlimited Energy, which should act as a tonic, not only for the manager, but also for those around him. Finally, my favourite - Passion. A leader should be passionate about his work, however small it might be. One should throw one's whole weight behind every activity, should have complete involvement and love doing it.
But a leader is incomplete without the traits represented by the reins of the horses - Forgiveness, Compassion, Consistency and Equanimity. A leader has to be consistent all the times or else it would send contradictory signals to his subordinates. Along with Equanimity, it helps to develop trust amongst them, so essential for the success of the venture. A leader should be humane. He should be empathetic, and understand what is in the mind of the subordinates before they express it. This helps him develop pathos -for unless you apply to the subordinate's emotions, the support wont be whole hearted. Here is where Forgiveness and Compassion play an important role.
Add to the above, Knowledge, Strategic competence, Intelligence, Skills, Commitment and absence of ego - you now have a wonderful set of tools to win under any trying circumstances.
It is time that we take the leadership in developing a Managerial Style suiting the Indian mindset using the wealth of knowledge hidden in our scriptures.
(Picture sourced from the web shows Krishna giving Gitopadesam to Arjuna, just prior to the commencement of the Kurukshetra War)
