In the previous episode, we had witnessed Bhishmachaarya continuing with his detailed accord on “Aapad Dharma”, wherein he highlights the importance of friendships / relationships to Yudishtra. Upon a very important question put forth by Yudishtra, Bhishmachaarya explains which categories of people should we encourage into our close circles, which category of people we should appoint as trusted aides and which categories of people should be constantly kept at bay. In these lines, Bhishmachaarya subsequently explains the importance of “Monitoring” people. Here, a leader’s ability to be on top of the task at all times comes to the forefront. Bhishmachaarya explains that while giving autonomy to people is an important aspect of leadership, this should not become 100%. A leader should have the control in his / her hand every time. However, this doesn’t mean that the leader should start micromanaging with his / her employee’s at all times. There should be a fine balance between giving absolute control and micromanaging.
Moving on further thus, Bhishmachaarya explains – “Oh Yudishtra! While delegating tasks to someone else, you should be careful not to delegate the entire work to just one person. Even if this person might be a great “Dharma-Atman”, he / she could spoil the entire work within no time. Instead, you should hand over the work to a team (more than one person), so that one can monitor the other effectively!” This is an extremely important point that Bhishmachaarya is highlighting here – If we’re delegating work to people, we should first judge who is good at what. Secondly, while delegating, we should be careful not to give the entire task to one person. It is rather advisable to split the task into multiple sub-tasks and distribute the work according to people’s competence. This would be a better option, as monitoring also becomes easier for the leader. This is why in today’s context, we have brought in the concept of “Team work” in corporate organizations. Rather than an individual sitting and breaking his head on a certain complex task, if it is broken down into smaller granules of work and allocated to multiple people, the work gets completed easily, faster and more efficiently. This is exactly what Bhishmachaarya is explaining here.
Moving on further, Bhishmachaarya explains a very important point, which is directly applicable in today’s context in several places. Bhishmachaarya explains thus, “Oh Yudishtra! For instance, let us assume that you have an agricultural land parcel. Adjacent to yours, your friend has his parcel of land where he is doing agriculture like you. There is a pipe carrying water to both of your fields. Since the pipe passes through your friend’s field first, your friend gets a lion’s share of the water. Whereas, you get whatever water that is remaining after his usage in the field. Upon seeing this, you become jealous of your friend, and just because you’re not getting enough water, you break open the pipe at your friend’s field and take away his share of water – Is this the right thing to do? The answer is “No”! If your friend gets a greater share of water, let it be. At a time when it rains bountifully, and when there is excessive water discharge at his side, he will have no option but to automatically open the pipe for you to get the water, isn’t it? Hence, the point here is that, as a leader, you should develop patience when it comes to obtaining and using resources. You should not constantly keep fighting with others to obtain resources. When the right time comes, you will automatically get the resource that you’re looking for!”
Now this is a very important point, which is applicable in several states within India. For instance, two southern Indian states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are perennially fighting over the waters of River Cauvery for several decades now! While Karnataka being an upper-riparian state, claims that the entire water from River Cauvery is theirs, and it should only be at their discretion that Tamil Nadu should get water, Tamil Nadu claims otherwise – Because the river is a shared resource between two states, water should be shared equally between the two parties! The fight is ongoing perennially. However, when there is excessive rainfall in the catchment areas of the river (Karnataka’s side), Karnataka will have no option but to open the sluice gates of its dams to release water into Tamil Nadu! During drought conditions, Karnataka will play politics! However, Tamil Nadu keeps pressing its demands every now and then, and this becomes a point of friction between the two states. This is exactly what Bhishmachaarya wants Yudishtra to avoid as a leader.
So for today, let us understand up to this point, and in the next episode, we shall witness an important reason as to why Bhishmachaarya is saying this! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 