MONDAY MUSINGS SEASON 2 - Episode 260 - Fourteen leadership flaws

MONDAY MUSINGS SEASON 2 - EPISODE 260

#FourteenLeadershipFlaws

6th May 2024

‘Seven habits of effective leaders’ is quite popular but are you aware of the fourteen leadership flaws? Is there a list of defects leaders should carefully and consciously avoid?? Yes, Valmiki Ramayan has a list for this also and the list is:

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Fourteen defects a leader should avoid are:

Atheism, falsehood, anger, carelessness, procrastination, disregard of the wise, laziness, gratification of five senses, autocratic decision making without consulting others, taking counsel with those of perverted insight, failure to undertake the initiatives already decided, failure to keep secrets, failure to do auspicious acts (at the beginning of an undertaking), and rising from one's seat (indiscriminately) to receive all.

Most of the defects in the above list are self-explanatory. Let us take a few selectively for further analysis here:

Atheism - You might ask the rationale behind including atheism as the topmost leadership flaw. Apart from the fact that this sloka is in a purana where theism is the connecting thread, I too would concur with Valmiki that theism is essential for positivity. Faith is essential. You have to build strong faith on something. Your faith can be on any God, on anything as supreme, does not matter. But have faith. Faith strengthens.

Procrastination & Laziness – Procrastination is the act of putting off something until a later time. We procrastinate when we know what to do but put off doing it until later. This?can lead to feelings of anxiety and guilt. It can also leave us feeling stressed, unproductive, lazy, and ineffectual.

Procrastination becomes a vicious cycle: you become overwhelmed with what must be done, and the lack of time left to do it, become increasingly stressed, and feel completely stuck and unable to move forward.?Lack of motivation is part of procrastination. You are in avoidance mode, rather than drive mode!

#IsProcrastinationAHabit?

Yes. Procrastination is a habit?– a deeply ingrained pattern of behavior. This means that you probably can't break it overnight. Habits only stop being habits when you avoid practicing them. Here is a story from Mahabharath to destress:

Is there a guarantee?

Pandavas got back their kingdom after the gruesome Kurukshetra war. A poor man came to the court of king Yudhishtra asking for help

Yudhishtra Maharaj was busy with some important work and hence asked the man to come the next day with a promise that he will get whatever he wanted.

Bhima saw this incident and cried loudly:

“Attention to all the residents of the city!

King Yudhishtra is sure that he is going to live up to tomorrow! He is quite sure about this!”.

Yudhishtra Maharaj realized his folly, and he immediately called the man and gave him charity.”

#ThreeFishes

Bhisma in his advice to Yudhisthria on leadership in his deathbed pointed out the importance of farsightedness and planning and the disadvantages of procrastination. He also cited examples of how one could deal with the situations using presence of mind if unable to plan for it beforehand. He cited the story of three fishes who lived in a lake.

One of the fishes was farsighted and always responded proactively to any situation that he anticipated. The second one had a great presence of mind. He could deal with any situation with his intelligence. The third one was lazy and procrastinated over every matter. Once the fishermen came to the lake and started diverting its waters to catch the fishes. Sensing danger, the first fish warned his companions and suggested that they should escape through one of the outlets to the nearby lake. The procrastinator said that they should wait and should not decide in a hurry, after all they were born there and they would face unknown dangers in other lakes as well. The fish who had a great presence of mind was not worried that he was confident of finding a way out if such a situation would come.

The far-sighted fish then swam off to another lake through a channel leaving the other two behind. At last, when the fishermen found that the water level was reduced, they cast their nets in the lake and drew up the fishes. The fish who had a great presence of mind clung to the net in such way that though he was outside the net, it appeared as if he was inside. When the net was drawn he simply let it go and left the lake through one of the outlet. The foolish, lazy and procrastinating fish however could not escape. He was caught and sold in the market.

Bhisma said that one should always take note of the impending danger and plan accordingly. Else one has to have a great presence of mind and risk appetite to respond to dangerous situations. If a person has neither of the above, he is sure to repent like or flawed leaders.

Other flaws in the next episode.

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POSITIVE NEWS PAGE

An apt news for our topic of the day ie Laziness and Procrastination

A viral video in June 2022 showing a Burger King staff, Kevin Ford, receiving a gift from the management for his dedication to his job at Burger King, after not missing a shift in 27 long years made huge difference to his life.

The gift from HMSHost, the company from which Burger King hires, included a Starbucks reusable tumbler, a bag of Reese’s candy, pens and two rolls of Lifesavers and other items. Ford, who expressed his gratitude in the video he originally posted on Instagram, garnered quite the response online, with many feeling he deserved more.

His daughter Seryna started a GoFundMe in his honor, and it has raised nearly $450,000 to date. Ford used a sizable chunk of the donations to buy a house for him, his dream in his life.

The donations to Ford’s GoFundMe are still regularly coming in more than a year and a half after his daughter started it. Many people have donated $27 in honor of Ford’s now more than 27 years on the job.

Ford says his attendance record is still going strong, even after getting so much money, and that the drive to work from his new house is a peaceful one. He adds that he is continuously planning for his future, setting some money aside to hopefully open his own “little restaurant” one day.

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Conceived, compiled and posted as a newsletter #MondayMusings in #LinkedIn every monday by Jaganathan T (www.authorjaganathan.com). Subscribe and read every Monday.

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