The more I reflect the more I get absorbed at how certain basic tenets do not change over time. Anyone who has read the book by Partha Bose "Alexander the Great's Art of Strategy" would agree with me that corporate strategy and warfare have not changed since then. I would dwell on that some time later. Continuing from the earlier issue, I would like to explore the aspects around Performance and Performance Management. This time I am picking up shlokas from Chapter 2 of Srimad Bhagawat Geeta.
"And if you do not engage in this righteous war, you will lose the dharma of your Self and glory, and be guilty of sin.''
"And all will for ever speak of your disgrace and such disgrace is worse than death itself for a man of honour.''
All of us engaged with the organization to perform a particular task (dharma) in a righteous manner. What is righteous is driven by the Values and Beliefs of the organization. In absence of Values and Beliefs the "Right" becomes subjective and can get trapped into interpretation of convenience.
If we do not perform our duty (Dharma) we are losing our self and would be guilty of misdeed (sin). We can probably make ourselves believe that we only acted / behaved as instructed, but a simple soul search will tell us the truth. One can lie to all but not to oneself. Abraham Lincoln quoted most appropriately
You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
"Unknown"
People will long speak ill of errors and omissions committed by one. We often forget the goods done by individuals, but remember the misdeeds in granular details. We all remember the misdeeds of Indira Gandhi during emergency much more than her contribution to the country.
One must act based on what people would like to write in their epitaph rather than what people would say behind their back. When your life has ended (maybe after you have lived a long, long time), how would you like your friends to remember you? Write a dialogue between two of your friends. What do they say about you?
"Those who say that life is worth living at any cost have already written an epitaph of infamy, for there is no cause and no person that they will not betray to stay alive"
--- Sidney Hook
We must perform at levels where we can make the wish expressed by Iqbal in his famous lyrics true in organization.
"Khudi ko kar buland itna ke har taqder se pehle
Khuda bande se ye poche bata teri raza kia hai"
(simple meaning of this lyric is one must make oneself such that god would ask one before deciding one's fate)
We must also be aware of the forces that would prevent us from achieving this kind of success. We would definitely remember the famous story of a frog that succeeded only because it was deaf enough not to hear the discouraging calls by his friends.
We try to identify these others. Who are these other great warriors? They have to be warriors as they would either fight for your growth or against your growth. They could be one among your seniors, peers and at time even subordinates at your work place.
"Even the great warriors who have a high regard for you will then scorn you for having turned your back upon the war out of fear.''
The other formidable warriors are those who desire for pleasure/ opportunity towards your visible acts that may not righteous, even if you did it out of ignorance (We do have people who have sadistic pleasure in your failure). These people would prevent you from taking the right path partly out of ignorance and partly intentionally. It is these who would be more critical of you when you fail. Beware of them. Let them not transgress you from your path of success. Identify them as quickly as possible.
We would continue later to discuss how to work around and succeed without wasting energy to identify these warriors.
