7 Effective Leadership Skills In Valmiki Ramayana – Ep 18

उत्साहः पौरुषं सत्त्वमानृशंस्यं कृतज्ञता।
विक्रमश्च प्रभावश्च सन्ति वानर राघवे।।
— Valmiki Ramayan 5.37.13।।

Maryadhapurush Ram practiced seven traits which are essential for a good leader and they are

1. Enthusiasm
2. Fearlessness
3. Goodness
4. Kindness
5. Being Grateful
6. Commitment to work and
7. Prowess

as told by Sita Maa to Hanuman when Hanuman met her at Ashok Van.

Love what you do. If you cannot love what you do, do what you love.

“Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.”

~ Kahlil Gibran

Very strong words but true. If you want to become the best in your field, which you must do anyway, you must settle in a work which you would enjoy. If you have still not found out, introspect today.

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”

― Steve Jobs

If you love what you do, you will never get stressed. You can enjoy even tough work.

If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.

– Marc Anthony

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

Steve Jobs, Co-Founder of Apple Computers was a college dropout. He decided to discontinue his college education at Reed College because he did not want to waste his parent’s hard-earned money in a course which he did not love. But he stayed back in his friend’s rooms by sleeping in the floor of the rooms and that changed the course of his life. Since he could not attend the regular classes, he attended optional subjects which he loved. One such course is Reed College is calligraphy course which he enjoyed. He attended calligraphy classes because he simply liked them without knowing how it would help him in his life. He quoted later in a speech that his decision to drop out from the regular classes and take the classes he liked helped him to design Apple Mac with beautiful typography.

Steve Job founded Apple from his father’s garage at the age of 20. He loved what he was doing, and the passion enabled him and his friend Woz to take Apple to the level of $2 billion company with 4000 employees in a space of 10 years. Then unexpected happened, he was thrown out of Apple, yes thrown out of the very company which he founded. He was devastated. Did not know what to do. But since he loved what he was doing, he decided to restart what he loved with the same passion. His passion in his work helped him to face the failure. He started another company NeXT Computers and Pixair where he continued his passion. In a strange sequence of events, Apple acquired NeXT and Steve came back to the company founded by him.

His love for his work gave him the motivation to continue when things were down for him.

Lord Ram became the best in his field of work, valorous fighter, best archer, most respected king, etc. He too faced many difficulties before he could achieve the splendour. He achieved the fame not using supernatural powers, but as a simple human being, an extra ordinary human who achieved the distinction because of his practice of other six traits placed before splendour ie Zeal, Fearlessness, Goodness, Compassion, Gratitude and Commitment to Work.

Let us give obeisance to Lord Ram by following his traits and becoming the best in the chosen area of work.

Seven effective leadership skills ends but there are lot more learnings from Valmiki Ramayan and Lord Ram.