Work, Navrasa, and Key Questions for Leadership

The concept of Navarasas, or the nine emotions, is rooted in the classical Indian arts encompassing a broad range of emotional states that human beings can experience. These emotions can be effectively connected to how people feel about their work or how they experience their professional lives.

Here's a random exploration of how each of the Navarasas might relate to one's relationship with work:

1. Shringara (Beautifying/Attraction) - Some may like to display or signal their designations/achievements/ hard work/ smart work / smart gadgets with which they work, directly or indirectly for what Evolutionary Psychologist Geoffery Miller might say "sexual selection" (helps in mating strategies). Or it may be for gaining what Economist Robin Hanson may call "status signalling"
2. Hasya (Laughter/Fun/Joy) - This Rasa can be seen/demanded in workplaces for a light-hearted, fun, and joyful atmosphere. It's about enjoying the moments of levity and humor even in stressful situations, promoting a positive company culture. *In his popular book, "Stumbling on Happiness," Psychologist Dan Gilbert" discusses how people often mispredict what will make them happy and how they will feel in future situations. This concept is very relevant to workplace settings, where employees and managers frequently make decisions (without deep dives) based on assumptions about future satisfaction with job roles, promotions, projects, and workplace changes. This concept needs to be seen from the lens of three states or conditions or degrees of happiness of perception, possession and enjoyment are called?priya,?moda?and?pramoda, as mentioned in ancient Indian text called the Ananda Mimansa.
3. Karuna (Compassion/Sorrow) - People experiencing Karuna in their work might be those engaged in jobs that involve caregiving, social work, or any role that requires empathy and caring for others’ sufferings. It can also involve feeling empathy towards colleagues. People in other fields/sectors could also experience work as karuna or possibilities of it by crafting specific strategies to be compassion with each other (internal/external).
4. Raudra (Anger) - This emotion can manifest in work environments where there is conflict, injustice, or high stress. It could spur individuals to seek changes and address grievances in their professional settings. Or use particular product/service to correct the injustices in society. Sometimes when people are not able to reconcile or remedy the sources of anger, they turn it in some other way. It could be many different ways. Like: "Infrapolitics" is a concept that refers to the subtle, often covert ways in which subordinate groups resist and survive dominant power structures without engaging in overtly political actions. The term was prominently used by James C. Scott, an American political scientist and anthropologist, particularly in his book "Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts."
5. Veera (Heroism/Courage) - Reflects the courage to face challenges head-on, leadership roles, and the drive to achieve and overcome obstacles in one’s career. However, as imported from the great Indian text - The Gita, the same action can come from completely contrasting intents. One act of heroism could come from dark triad in psychology (narcissism, psychopathy, machiavelli). Another could come from the sense of duty/ nimit (medium).
6. Bhayanaka (Fear) - This could relate work to job insecurity, fear of failure, or anxiety about meeting job expectations, affecting how one interacts with their work environment, or overall market conditions or some existential crisis. Fear can get people to tune their actions to compliance, but it could rob people of their long term commitment to their peers/managers/company/work in general. Fear switches on the fight/flight/freeze/faint biological mechanism. Chronic degenerative fear could disengage people from their duties in the long run. And such cannot be revived by the over-jubilant parties/ training programs/ rhetoric.
7. Bibhatsa (Disgust) - This emotion might arise in response to unethical practices or poor working conditions, leading to dissatisfaction and a desire for change. Prof Himmat Sinha, scholar of ancient Indian texts, once mentioned that the three basic drivers are desires, status or morality. However, there is adaptive morality and maladaptive morality. Some people become egoistic about them being more moral than others. The Bibhatsa, like any other navrasa, can be channeled in a certain direction for betterment of all.
8. Adbhuta (Wonder) - This Rasa is about experiencing wonder and amazement, possibly through innovative and creative work that constantly challenges and excites. As Swami Sukhobodhananda mentions about "wonderment". That there is the ongoing natural ways in which one could sometimes experience wonderment. But there are ways in which one can cultivate wonderment too. Which he calls ascharyavat pashyati (cultivating wonderment in visuals/seeing), ascharyavat srunoti (listening wonderment)...and so on.
9. Shanta (Peace) - Represents peace, tranquility, and a sense of fulfillment at work. It could be found in stable, supportive, and harmonious workplaces where individuals feel content and secure. This doesn't mean that there aren't any room for conflicts. It means that conflicts shall become portals for co-discoveries and co-developments.

While Navrasas can help individuals/leaders understand one of the dimensions connected to work, there are many other factors that can invite a genuine leader's mindshare to reimagine and revise relationship with work.?

If you are a leader/manager/aspirant and not delving on the following, then you may not be able to grasp what/ why/ who/ where/ when/ how you are leading whatever you may deem as leading:?

1. Should every opinion count?;
2. Should every experience count? Should every narrative count?;
3. What aspects of human nature and bandwidth support this?;
4. What aspects of human nature and bandwidth constrains this?
5. How do we know that the opinion and experience of a novice is less biased or not biased than the opinion and experience of a veteran?in the field? How to harvest better from the diversifications??
6. How do we know that the one closer to the issue is the best to solve it? (read: don't get information to authority, get authority to information)? And could this be contextual again...some issues requiring multi-scale/span of decision making, while some could be locally managed?;
7. How does the Dunning-Kruger effect (incompetence to know one's own incompetence) kick in? How does Impostor Syndrome (self-doubting one's excellent abilities) kick in? How do introverts participate in your meetings and decisions, as extroverts naturally might be expressing or overexpressing?;
8. Do bright and best people perform at their best all the time, in all the emails, in all the meetings, in all the issues?;
9. How does all of the above interact with the fundamental "nature of the problem"?;
10. What problems need to be solved at the individual level?;?
11. What problems need to be solved at interpersonal level?;?
12. What problems need to be solved at inter-group level?;?
13. What problems are wicked problems and hence need a different approach?;?
14. What aspects of the problem will be addressed by skilling, and what aspects by structures (policies/rules/norms/

Conclusion: Leadership, among other things, is also about raising the consciousness of the ones that they lead, including self. And such cannot happen without constantly being aware of and revisions of, actions and reflections, and pursuits.?