Leadership skills from epics

The ongoing COVID 19 crisis is difficult time for everyone across the globe. In this difficult times leadership roles have very important role to play. Leaders across different spectrums resonate certain actions which can be clubbed under wide range of traits. It is widely believed that difficult times usually paves way for strong leaders, it weed out the weak leaders. In the book ‘why nations fail’, author Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson writes about the ‘critical juncture’. How a nation responds during such crisis or critical juncture shapes the future of the nation. But I feel this analogy is applicable to corporates, young entrepreneurs and all of us.

Remember, the 1991 balance of payment crisis was one such critical juncture when India decided to open its economy. When I say open the economy I mean opening the economy for private sector, exiting the license permit raj and of course last but not the least allowing MNCs to operate in India. Since then, in terms of GDP we have nearly expanded more than 9 times! From nowhere to 5th largest economy by nominal GDP. It is precisely, during this time Sunil Bhrati Mittal exited on of his business to form Airtel which went to become one of the largest telecom company in the world!  

In this lockdown time, the two great epics of India Mahabharat and Ramayan can give us very good insight on leadership skills. In fact, watching the two epics together will show how certain skills make sense irrespective of the ‘yugs’ (Treta yug, Dwapar Yug or even Kal yug). I have listed four of my observation

Conflict of interest- King Dushrath when he was on a war, his wife Kakeyi saved his life and he gave her two boons, which eventually led to the exile of Lord Ram. Dushrath probably mixed his personal life with professional life as a King. All promises made by King should be subject to the constraints of the rules laid down in his kingdom. In other words, certain promises lead to conflict of interest. When a person is leading a company or is owner of company such conflict of interest situation may arise. A true leader will put his personal interest aside. We can also look at this issue in cognizance with the rising corporate governance issue including the NPA disputes, which are more or less the outcome of corporate misconduct.

Promise- In Mahabharat, Devrat promises to Satyavati’s father he will never marry anyone. He also promises in the ‘Rajya Sabha’ that he will remain loyal to the throne. He kept this promise till his last breath. Well, the question on the whole oath whether it was correct or not is altogether a different topic. The learning here is; a good leader will make sure that all the promises done by his firm is kept. Very often we come across companies which promise big but delivers small, this causes a trust deficit and eventually, leads to the downfall of the company. Hence, bite what you can chew in other words, promise what you can deliver. Setting the expectation is corollary of keeping the promises.

Mentor- Guru Dronacharya was the guru of both Kaurav and Pandav. The two groups of students were diametrically opposite to each other. Nevertheless, both groups were equally skilled in their respective arms, then there was Eklavya, who mastered all skills without any ‘Guru’ physically present to teach him. Big brands such as IITs NITs IIMs or big startup names who mentor young people can only impart them certain skills but how to use the skill totally depends on the mentee. Even if you don’t have any mentor you can still be like Eklavya. A good ‘leader’ has to be mentor to the young ones. Preparing the next in line leaders is the job of the leader. He or she should not create vacuum post retirement. In Mahabharat, when King Bharat decided to coronate the next King he chose none of his nine sons rather chose Bhumanyu. King Bharat gave importance to merit than to blood relation. But due to oath taken by Devrat, Shantanu gave priority to blood relation than merit, which eventually led to the downfall of Kingdom.

Parameters set apriori- In Mahabharat, King Dhritarashtra, wanted to make his son Duryodhan the next king. He asks the ministers for their opinion. Here the key take way is that a good leader in discussion will not fix the outcome and then decide the parameters to set prove his outcome correct, rather the parameters are set apriori. By doing so the leader sets the foundation of an unbiased discussion.