Skip to main content

Understanding Leadership From The Animal Kingdom


Keeping your eyes, your mind, your heart and your intellect open can lead to wonderful experiences, as also insight. This is exactly what happened today, as I watched a flock of birds, and their coordination. My mind went to a few days ago when I chanced upon a line of ants, as well as the Bees nest which I also observed quite closely. It struck me that these beings, incapable of complex thought, can achieve tasks far in excess of their apparent capabilities, and with stunning coordination between the various members of their community. I also noted with chagrin that Mankind, despite being advanced in comparison, has proven itself wholly incapable of pulling off similar coordination in its efforts.



BEES, BIRDS & ANTS
Close observation of Bees and Birds, as well as Ants has lead me to really admire their capabilities of team work, coordinated effort, and task-centricity. What I wouldn’t give for a similar level of task focus in my life, be it personal or professional. Sadly, I am forced to conclude that this is currently beyond our ability, despite our obviously higher position on the developmental scale. We can look at our achievements {of Mankind}, and take pride; but stop a moment, and think again. Given our advanced capabilities, as well as our impact on the environment, I respectfully submit that we are under-achievers.

WHY IS THIS SO?
The reason for this is quite simple : Humans have the ability to think, and in addition have desires, wants. Given the diversity of Humanity, there is a wide disparity between thought processes of divergent individuals. Adding to this is the difference in status, class, economic profile of the people, and you have a situation wherein each individual has his or her own set of wants, which diverge widely from other people. This is the backdrop which one needs to keep in mind. Due to this diversity of thought & wants, a situation is created wherein a group of people will like as not have widely diverging priorities. Human ego, status etc further complicates this by ensuring each person has an opinion; the net result is, human activity seems disorganized in comparison!

THE PARADOX…
Paradoxically, it is these very abilities that ensure that the Human species has evolved so fast and so well; wants, desires, thoughts, ego etc – these have fueled Human Endeavour like nothing has, and no other aspect has a similar capability to unlock potential. The very aspects that ensure that all  Human Activity is by definition less organized and seemingly chaotic is what makes us, us – so to speak. In other words, our abilites are a two-edged sword…. Used well, they work wonders. Else…

THE LEARNING
In most modern organizations, Teamwork, getting buy-in of the entire team is perhaps one of most risk-prone steps, and has led to incalculable business losses. In fact, in most human organized activity, it is the ability to pull the entire organization along in one direction that is the most vital aspect. One would think that sentient beings like us would have no problem in doing so; yet, time after time, this has proven to be the waterloo of many a concerted organized effort. This is the last frontier of Human Endeavour – unlearning those precise abilities that got us here in the first place.

As we can see in the Ants, the Bees or the Birds examples above, the entire team combines, each doing their own roles to near-perfection – to achieve things that we still wonder at, marvel at. The key is the subjugation of individual desires to the group goal; while ensuring individual needs / wants are also met. Since lower-scale development has consequently lower apparent needs / wants, this is doable for them. But for us – with our intellect, egos, desires, economic problems – is this equally easily achievable? Can we somehow figure out a win-win situation – as this will obviously directly impact productivity on a far larger scale than just about anything else?


That is what true team leadership is all about, in a nutshell. The requirement is aligning Team Goals with individual goals such that the entire team comes together in a synergistic fashion, multiplying its effectiveness such that the result is much greater than the sum of its constituent parts.  Put simply, the propensity, the tendency of team member to highlight, prefer and focus on individual vested interests needs to be challenged, met head on and solved.

I use the word solve : most managers could interpret that word as “sack” – well, I didn’t say remove such team members, I said solve. It means an entire strategy – right from choosing the right person {If you have a retail strategy, keeping a wholesale specialist is not the answer, for example!}; motivating this person; clarity in KRAs – which should be fully aligned with overall objectives; lack of hidden KRAs {oh, yes – there are hidden KRAs, situations when the expected result is not the one that is written in the strategy. Happens, all too often}.

This extends to having proper milestones & benchmarks; measurement; checks, balances and feedback; and most vital – employee & team trust, without which vested agenda are certain to rise. It includes proper, transparent Rewards and Recognition programme; communication with the team – even of hiccups; as well as ruthless culling of problematic individuals, people who insist on driving agenda detrimental to the stated strategy for personal gain. Not one of the above can happen successfully without ethical treatment of, transparency with employees, and winning their trust. That is the totality, the essence of true landmark leadership – that is the goal every Corporate Manager must strive for!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PK, The Movie : One Of The Best...

\ PK : A Movie Ahead Of Its Time; A Movie That Is A Very Vital And Current Need! I dont normally review movies; my blog does not lend itself to such an activity, given its positioning as one that asks some tough questions to Indians. I am making an exception for this movie, not because it is a landmark movie {which it is}, but because this movie is also one that asks some pretty blunt, and to some people, offensive questions.  It is rather sad and humbling to see the vigorous protests to this movie, and some cases of active on-street protests and interference in some places. Sad, because there is almost nothing in the content that should excite such actions; and humbling because it is a painful reminder that we as a nation have still a ways to go in our quest for true development! Before I move onto the movie, I have just one question : did the protesters also protest to Haider? If no, you did not find the negative portrayal of The Indian Army objecti

Tarkeshwar Mahadev : Pune Hidden Gems

What do you do when you have something good, something that is praiseworthy, and something that can be an attraction? Answer, if you are in Pune – keep silent about it, tell no one. This is seemingly exaggerated – perhaps it is exaggerated; but I am flabbergasted by a series of unbelievable locations that I have visited in Pune City – within main Pune City, mind you . These are not well known – at least not one single localite informed me, even on asking . At least those I talked. If I didn’t talk to the right people, perhaps I am in the wrong. But – if you expand your vision to TV, Cinema, Popular opinion, hotels – the situation above gets proof. I earlier visited Pune on a family holiday, stayed in a good Hotel. Not one Hotel informed me of these; not one person – Taxi, Tour Guide – even mentioned these . Thus, it seems to me that Puneites don’t realise how lovely a city they have, how mesmerizing are its many, many tourist-worthy places, how rich and unspoiled,

Book Review : Chhatrapati Shivaji

Chhattrapati Shivaji stands as one of the most celebrated medieval heroes in Modern India; it is a name that touches a chord in almost every Indian, and is a powerful force to reckon with even today, three centuries after his death. He is present everywhere you can see; he is one of the few to withstand the onslaught of naming everything in sight after the Nehru family. A Chhatrapati square her, a Shivaji Terminus there – many cities have honoured themselves with some landmark, statue, street or square in his name. Such is his current followership, and so powerful is his presence. This makes reviewing any book related on this personality a big responsibility, a tough task  – and not one to be taken with insincerity, or with bias,  or attitude. I had always thought of The Chhatrapati as a tall personality, a commanding and great Indian; but had never given a thought to the pull, the deep connect and the powerful influence this genius had on me; as I read the current book, as I t