Esprit de Corpse- In Union there is Strength

Lord Rama With Lord Hanuman

When Your Team doesn't Buy Your Values

Leadership and teamwork are critical to the success of any management endeavor. This is more true today than could have been at any other time. When your team members are not in line with your values and are not convinced about the objective you want to accomplish, this is a clear indication of


 the fact that the vital management principle of "Esprit de Corpse- In Union there is Strength", is missing. Such a huge gap with in the team , shall be nothing less than fatal if this anomaly doesn't  get rectified , till it is still with in the elastic limits of regaining its desired strong position. 

This concept was true in the times as early as the period where Lord Rama , incarnation of Lord Vishnu, lived on this earth in the human form. The epic which narrates the story pertaining to the birth and life of Lord Rama is known as Ramayana.

Expertise , Dedication , Dexterity & Commitment are exhibited due to Employee Motivation

Ravana Kidnapping Goddess Sita

 There is an episode in Ramayana , where Goddess Sita, the Wife of Lord Rama is forcibly kidnapped by a demon, King of Lanka, called Ravana
  and Lord Hanuman goes, out in search of Goddess Sita, to the kingdom of Ravana , the Lanka. When Lord Hanuman tries to enter the fortress of Lanka, there is a lady demon guard, by the name Lankini, at the entrance. Lankini is responsible for the security of the entry  gate which Lord Hanuman tries to enter , there is opposition from Lankini, whom Lord Hanuman hits with a fist, because of which she starts bleeding and falls to the ground. Then she gets up, on gathering her senses and tells Lord Hanuman that Lord Brahma had given her a boon that when she is overpowered by a monkey then she should know that the end of all the demons is very close at hand. She expresses her gratitude towards Lord Hanuman that he had personally come there and blessed her with his divine presence. This is the time, she drops all resistance and Lord Hanuman slips through that gate of the fortress into Lanka. The point to be noted here is that when she stops Lord Hanuman, he is of the size of a mosquito ,such was her expertise , dedication , dexterity and level of commitment to her job of guarding the gate,that not even a mosquito could enter the restricted area.

Organization Unity was Broken and Security of Lanka was Compromised  

Lankini surrenders to Lord Hanuman and goes against her leader, Ravana by

• Allowing Lord Hanuman, unauthorized entry into Lanka
• Not communicating about this event to Ravana and others responsible for the security of Lanka 

because Lankini was convinced in her heart that the act of Ravana, to kidnap Goddess Sita was incorrect and Lankini could no longer buy into the the wrong values followed by Ravana. This turned out to be a very important event, finally resulting into the defeat of Ravana.

Lankini's Motivation Declines as she Realizes that  Ravana's Cause was Unjust

View of Fortress Lanka 

Now she herself had allowed Lord Hanuman to enter the fortress and that too without raising any alarm or sending any warning signals to her other team members. So we can see that there is a shift from the earlier loyal and dedicated behavior of guarding the fortress to that of surrender to the enemy entering the fort. This shift came about, with her realizing that what her King Ravana was doing was unjust and she was convinced that Lord Hanuman was on the right side.Therefore despite the fact that she was officially responsible for guarding the gate, she still doesn't comply with the official requirement.

 

How this Relates to Modern Management ?

This in other words means total failure of the security system of Lanka, and this happened just because the basic management principle ,   Esprit de Corpse- In Union there is Strength, got compromised. This also means that

• Strength of the chain is its weakest link
• Any leader/ manager who has to manage a team must have her/his team believe in the basic values for which the leader and the organization stand.

  

  Strength of the chain is its weakest link

• Only authority can be delegated, but responsibility cannot be delegated to the lower levels. Team members share the responsibility , when they internally feel this obligation, as they strongly feel that the values lived by the management of the organization are correct.
• Even today when the top management of any organization engages itself into activities, which are perceived as incorrect by the people down below and even if only one member of the organization compromises his/her role due to this realization, then the complete organization is exposed to the risks, with the fatal consequences, unknown and unexpected by the top management.