Mahabharata is not only the second largest epic of the world, but
also a compiled book of Philosophy with much of management lessons ingrained in
it. It comprises of many lessons of management and strategy(art-of-war) which can be used
with greater significance in modern life of management practices. Written by Veda
Vyas about 3000 BC, Mahabharata consists of numerous life lessons with a
touch to "dharma" and "truth". My first memory about Mahabharata
joins to B.
R. Chopra's TV serial of Mahabharata that was broadcast-ed in Nepal Television when I was a kid. Mahabharata has many
instances from which parallels can be drawn. From leadership, strategy tips to marketing tips, Hindu mythology can help solve a contemporary manager's many 'dharamsankats/dilemmas'. The most basic lesson that Mahabharata
teaches us is: Try managing yourself”, meaning that reach a level of efficiency
and effectiveness or else you are going to be a face in the crowd”.
With a faint collection of some parts of Mahabharata
and taking help of some references, I have come forth with some lessons that
can be applied in real life scenario.
1. Develop Trust-worthy and Powerful allies:
No matter how strong you are, how invulnerable
you seem to the unfavorable circumstances, you need allies for your lifetime. Friendship
(network) is power at this contemporary time just like it was in the time of Mahabharata.
Everyone knows that in contrary to Kauravas, Pandavas were poor: with no
accumulated power, wealth, but possessed powerful allies. They established
relations with Panchal via marriage with Draupadi, Dwarika via marriage of
Arjun with Subhadra, Magadh via marriage of Shadeva and Viajya and so on. As such
the allied forces were powerful and with a single goal to defeat the Kauravas.
2. Transform your weaknesses into strengths:
We need to transform our weakness into
strengths. The process needed to convert our weakness into strength takes time.
It requires dedication and determination. A careful identification of ones' weaknesses and identification of the methods to overcome them is essential. Though the process make take time, but at the end of the day perseverance pays.We can take reference of Pandavas
brothers in this case. During the years of exile, Pandavas brothers focused in
the transformation of their weakness into strengths. For instance: Arjun went
on to attain “Divyasastras” during his years of exile. It is also said that
Yudustir excelled in the “game of dice” and turned out to be invincible in the
dice game. This reveals that when you go on overcoming weakness with strength,
in the long run you are sure to be a successful manager.
1. Develop Trust-worthy and Powerful allies:
2. Transform your weaknesses into strengths:
3. Value teamwork Over individual work
Together Everyone Achieves More is the essence of the TEAM-Work. Right team consists of right set of individuals with right man assigned for the right job. When you are in team you need to assume that every man has unique capabilities and should try assigning responsibilities matching their unique capabilities. Lord Krishna in Mahabharata can be seen as a counselor. His way of inspiring, invigorating and counseling the entire Pandavas and associates in the War-time is truly exceptional. Also while considering Teamwork we must assure that team-goal is prioritized over the individual goal. Here Kauravas were engaged with individual goals: Karna wanting to kill Arjun, Bhisma wanting to protect throne of Hastinapur, while Drona and Kripacharya were because of their allegiance to the throne of Hastinapur. In the contrary, Pandavas and their associates, we mostly had kinship among themselves acted as a team with a single Goal. They were united to their “common war” against the Kauravas.
4. Share your responsibilities
While in a team, assume shared roles and
responsibilities. In allocating roles, a perfect match between ability and responsibility
is essential. Identification of ability of team-mates and assigning them with
the right task is essential. Imaging how awkward the situation would have been
if Arjun was asked to use “Gadha” and Bhim “Dhanush”. In case of the Pandavas,
though they had been assigned with different individual responsibility, they remained with a common goal of defeating the Kauravas. They were driven by team spirit
and achieving of the team goal in a unison effort. In contrast, most of the Kauravas were involved into the war with an individual goal, the team spirit was low and thus led to an devastating result in their favor. As such epic Mahabharata
provides us with a golden moral lesson of achieving a goal via effective sharing of responsibilities.
5. You failed: wake up, the reason is You
When the reason of your success if based on your inherent talent, why is not your failure a result of your incompetency?? If you go on blaming the cause of your failure to be some external factors, you will never achieve success in life. The most basic thing that you need to execute when you fail is to make an assessment of self, of your team and combined capabilities. When Pandavas lost their kingdom to Kauravas in gambling, they blames the lost for treachery and fraud. In another epic “Ramayan” we find that Lord Ram while leaving for exile says that neither his father nor Kaikeyi is to be blames, in contrast what we find in Mahabharata is that the Pandavas blame Kauravas for fraud.We can take this story as an analogy/metaphor to business misfortune. If some misfortune happens we must make self-introspection of where we lacked, what we were incompetent in and so on. In case of Ramayana, Ram took the responsibility though he was not the reason, while in case of the Mahabharata the Pandavas didn’t took the responsibility though they were to be blamed at. The onus rests on you, whether you want to be a Ramayana type manager or Mahabharata type.
6. Make a gender balance team:
What was significant during the time of Mahabharata is also equally true at the contemporary time. Female empowerment was very crux of the strength of the Pandavas as Kunti (their) mother was focal point of their unity. The Pandavas always took advice from their Mother and other females associated to them. Their wives were always their better-half as they were constantly involved in the collective decision-making and played their roles very effectively. By striking a gender balance we make sure that we are balancing the aggressive and dominance part of male by feminine traits of sensitivity and empathy of the females.
7. Know your enemies, Exploit their weaknesses
Being powerful is not only sufficient to win war/business. Sometime more that being powerful you need to hit on where the enemies are weak and hit that weak spot. Before the Pandavas entered into war with Kauravas, Yudhistir went to take blessings from his seniors from Kauravas. While doing so he was not only taking blessings from his elders but also entering in to an implicit contract of receiving favor from his seniors. He touched the chord and was supported by his allies. In fact he played a real Master game there and knew all the loopholes of his enemies. Thus in real life also you need to find the loophole of your enemies/opponent and act accordingly.8. Know and accept the ground realities
When you are exposed to different situation s and people with different walks-of-life you are supposed to broaden your knowledge. Knowing people of different strata, working with people of different problems, understanding differing cultures, adapting to differing workplaces etc not only enhances your knowledge but also strengthens your adaptability skills which is really relevant as a trait for a successful person. If you are a top-level manager of your organization you need to destroy the barriers/remove ego problem to understand the life of your subordinates and jurniors and then only you can inspire them for a greater result. Taking a reference from Pandavas we can say that in contrast to Kauravas they spent the greater part of their lives in poverty, constantly shifted to different places, confronted to different ideologies and principles, experienced with ground reality by being in contact with people from various walks of society, and in most of the case followed a sense of brotherhood as taught by their mother (always stay together).9. Art of decision making/ Consequences of a decision
Decision making is really a difficult task. E.g.: the condition
that Shantanu faced while making Bichitrabir the Prince and not Bhisma, the
condition that Bhisma felt when he denounced the throne and promised to
maintain Bhramachari, the condition that Pandu faced when out of repenting killing
of Rishi he denounced the throne and so on. At each decision making point we
are confronted with difficulty as we are supposed to make a careful analysis of
the calculated risk of each decision, the trade-off of the result of the
decision and if another decision was made and so on. As such decision making is
difficult and at each time is perceived differently by different people based
on his or her individual point of view. Thus while making any decision one must
take into account of the repercussions of the decision to be made. Also he/she
should have a valid point to back the decision. Most of the time decision made
are not rational but needs to be rationalized. Just in case the preference of
Bhisma to die from hand of Shikhandi (female), though female were not supposed
to take part in warfare.
References:
Wow!!!! Thank you for summing it up from the Great Bharat...
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