Oriental Twist at Leadership

Introduction
• In management lot of literature is available on
‘LEADERSHIP.’
• Many research studies are done to find attributes of
successful business leaders.
• The world is changing rapidly.
• It is assumed that in changed circumstance leaders
need different set of attributes to meet new
challenges.
• Then, talking about oriental look at leadership
appears little odd - it is reversing the wheel!!!
• But it may not be so. Let us examine.

Introduction
• Arjun [pandava hero] got dejected just before the
beginning of the Great War between Pandavas &
Kauravas.
• He declared that he would not fight the war.
• The task before Krishna was to motivate Arjun to
fight the war & win.
• During the course of this conversation Krishna
described certain attributes of leadership.
• Surprisingly, they look as fresh as tomatoes in
vegetable market today.

Attributes of Leadership Described in
Bhagwad Geeta
Leaders who endure heat & cold, pleasure & pain, gain &
loss, victory & defeat bravely are fit to navigate
organization in all conditions.
Managing an organization may be seen as fighting a
righteous war.
If the leader fails to fight righteous war it will be seen as
having abandoned his duty & fame.
The future is always carved out in the present.
Tomorrow’s harvests depend upon today’s ploughing &
sowing.

Bhagwad Geeta
Any conscious attempt on the part of an individual to lift
his present available personality and attune it to a
higher, perfect ideal is called Yoga.
Evenness of mind, the tranquility of mental composer in
facing all pairs of opposite such as loss & gain, victory &
defeat, pain & pleasure makes a person acceptable
leader.
Leaders should avoid wrong imaginations, false
expectations, day-dreams about fruits of actions, anxiety
for the results, and fear of future calamities that have
not yet appeared.

Bhagwad Geeta
In leaders dissolving his past, his future, his hopes, his
fears into the fiery contents of the present work as an
inspiration.
Leaders maintain equipoise in all situations.
He whose mind is not shaken by adversity and he who in
prosperity does not hanker after pleasure, he who is
free from attachment, fears and anger is called a leader
of steady wisdom.
Leaders should be like a sage who has abandoned the
sense of ‘I-ness’ & ‘My-ness.’

Bhagwad Geeta
Man is essentially an imitating animal. This is
psychologically true. Whatever a leader does, that other
men also do [imitate]; whatever he sets up his
standards, that the people follow.
An intellectual fumed with anger experience delusion.
The deluded intellect has no power of discrimination,
because he loses all memories of the past. Anyone with
anger is capable of doing acts totally forgetting himself
and his relationship with all others.
Leader to prevent masses from going astray, setting up
for them an example in himself.

Bhagwad Geeta
The Supreme Creator is ever centered in all actions
pursued by one or many people in an honest spirit of
self-dedication for the good of the all.
Positive thinking brings into mind the least amount of
disturbance.
A creeper will never grow in a desert. It is the Nature’s
law that every leaving creature find itself in the most
conducive outer world conditions.
Power to act has come out of the creator; action is a gift
from the Creator.

Bhagwad Geeta
As fire is enveloped by smoke, as a mirror by dust, so the
wisdom is enveloped by anger.
Man is considered superior because of his divine faculty
of discrimination.
Leader should act for the protection of the good, for the
destruction of the wicked and for establishment of
righteousness.
An intellect, strengthened by his own intrinsic capacity
to distinguish between the right & the wrong, is the
mighty instrument of self development in man.

Bhagwad Geeta
Ego draws its substance from the ‘hopes of the future’ &
also from the ‘satisfaction from the present possessions
& achievements.’
Successful leader will be one who synthesizes all the
three paths – path of action, path of love, path of
knowledge.
An action, in itself, cannot be considered either as a
good or bad. It is the motive behind it which determines
the quality of the action.

Bhagwad Geeta
Even if you are the most sinful of all sinners, yet you shall
verily cross all sins by the raft of knowledge.
A leader is one who is always trying through all the
means that are in him, to raise himself from his state of
physical, mental & intellectual imperfection to a more
perfect state of existence.
The ignorant, the faithless, the doubting-self goes to
destruction; there is no happiness for the doubter.

Bhagwad Geeta
The sacred is pursued by those whose intellects are ever
on fire with a great seeking of something beyond,
something deeper than the mere surface existence.
The ways of life in any given generation always fall under
two categories – SECULAR & SACRED.
Secular is pursued by those who feel that fulfillment of
life lies in the satisfaction of the largest number of
physical & emotional sense-ticklers, and whose
intellects are cold & satisfied.

Conclusion
• Management has travelled a long way.
• In different phases certain aspects were considered
essential for leadership.
• Initially it was thought that it is intellectual ability
that write the success script.
• Then it was thought that emotional ability play a
critical role.
• And, then came to light that spiritual ability facilitate
both – organizational growth & self-actualization for
leadership.

Conclusion
• Bhagwad Geeta is essentially a discourse on motivation
& focus on as to how under odd conditions success can
be made sure?
• In this candid discussion Krishna talks about three
approaches that can lead to obtaining desired results:
• He leaves it to Arjun which path he wants to choose?
• Geeta is a synthesis of essential abilities that leaders
need to exhibit to write success stories.
Path of
Action
Path of
Knowledge
Path of
Love

This presentation is not the destination.
It is beginning of the journey in search of excellence !!!

Oriental Twist at Leadership

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Oriental Twist at Leadership