In this dog eat dog, greed is good world, what is the role and relevance of righteousness & honour ? What behaviour should the leadership should emulate; is the behaviour of winning at any cost relevant or winning with the right cause ?
The Nine Lessons from Maryada Purushottam
- Vulnerability is Strength
- Duty Bound / Dharma is Divine
- In the Present (Now & Here)
- Harnessing the Potential
- Beyond the Comfort Zone
- Compassion to Accommodate
- Devoted to Commitments
- Self-Aware
- Empathy over Equity
Empathy over Equity – (Focus on Emotions and Emotions will drive results)
In an instance in Sundar Khand, when Jatayu lies dying on Lord Ram’s lap and narrates his battle with Ravan trying to save Maa Site, it is narrated that Lord Ram was devastated with sorrow and grief but held back his tears. Later he explained that it was because of his concern that if his tears would fall on Jatayu’ s wounds, the salt in his tears would further aggravate Jatay’s pain. This is empathy! During the final rites of Jatayu, Lord Ram stated that it was an honor for him to be able to perform these rites as he missed that duty when his Father died. In an emotional note while performing his duties, Lord Ram states that loss of Jatayu is more painful than that of losing Maa Sita
In another instance when Vibhishana (Ravan’s brother) pleads to meet Lord Ram, Ram asks his council’s advice on how to proceed. Sugriva advises him to tie up Vibhishana with ropes since he belongs to the enemy camp & suspects him to be a spy. Instead, Lord Ram gets up from his seat, embraces him, thus displaying a message of acceptance while emotionally embracing hm.
Often, we are blindsided to the emotions of our team members either due to our preoccupation with the overall goals or simply our insensitivity towards the emotions of our fellow travelers. In either case, we come across as the misguided leaders, who knowingly/unknowingly land up hurting our team members with our lack of empathy by diverting our focus to our goals /equity for investors.
At times, we as leaders are so obsessed with the end results/metrics that we start all our conversations with end goal in our mind rather than investing on the people and their emotions.
It is important to remember that as a leader we should not focus too much on the end results, but rather ensure that the right people and processes are in place which will help drive and derive the results.
By Srini
