LEADERSHIP STYLE AND THEORIES IN MAHABHARATHA:

June 6, 2005

from hindu_answers/message/106

(This has many such articles on mahabharatha)

Various theories on leadership like traits theory and leadership style are mentioned in management texts.Management gurus prefer some styles and theories over other.I am surprised to see pandavas following those good theories.It is no wonder they succeeded.

TRAITS THEORY:leadership traits theory mentions various essential traits for a leader.many such traits are possessed by yudishtra.patience,fairness,honesty,motivating at times of extreme hardships etc.

LIFETIME EMPLOYMENT; This is a japanese management

technique.Japanese employees never leave their companies even when their pay is cut.At difficult times they even work without pay.It is the extreme case of loyalty.company and employees being totally loyal to each other.Only death/retirement seperates employee from company.

To build such a loyalty is not an easy task.But yudishtra seems to have built it.When he leaves to forest with his brothers many of his employees follow him to forest.They stay with him in forest and only after persuasion from yudishtra do they leave him.

THEORY Y LEADERSHIP:Theory Y leadership says that a leader should follow participative leadership style.He should not be autocratic,should listen to all opinions of employees,should use carrots rather than sticks to motivate.Yudishtra follows this style.He always listens to opinions of all elders and brothers.He doesnt punish if employee fails.But duriyodana on the other side

doesnt follow a participative leadership style.He doesnt listen to anybody else.He threatens people like bheeshma,drona often that they were angry on him always.

To write more about traits theory we can see that yudishtra was not the most aggressive of kings in bharat.Inspite of it he became the greatest even king in bharat by conducting ashwametha yagna.How did

he raise to such a level?He had many unique characteristics.Some management techniques followed by him were

1.HE NEVER LET DOWN HIS FOLLOWERS: Yudishtra never let down those who followed him.He was willing to sacrifice anything for them.For example when a dog follows him in the last stages of his life,dharmaraja offers him heaven.But yudishtra wants the dog also

to get salvation.Dharmaraja refuses.Yudishtra then forsakes heaven for the sake of a dog.

Imagine the greatest happiness a man can ever achieve is

salvation.He refuses it for the sake of a follower as low as a dog.Then we can imagine why kings,soldiers and brothers were ready to die for him.They knew yudishtra will never let them down.

2.FAIRNESS:This is a very important trait of a leader.Yudishtra was always fair.When yaksha asks him which of his brothers who drank poisonous water should be bought alive he asks sahadeva.He is even willing to sacrifice his dreams of regaining hasthinapura to be

fair.This extreme case of fairness makes him unique.

Even his enemies believed in his honesty.Dronacharya trusted nobody except yudishtra's words in battle field.Yudishtra hesitated to lie even at the most important stage of the war and added the

word 'kunjara'.But bheema blasted the coonch,drona couldnt

hear 'kunjara' and fate took care of drona.

3.KEEPING THE FLOCK TOGETHER:

Yudishtra knew how to keep his flock united.He maintained extreme unity within his family.He knew that if the brothers seperated they are doomed.He even did unusual things like all 5 brothers marrying the same woman to maintain unity.His leadershjip was so strong that

even when he made the gravest of mistakes his brothers did not leave him.credit goes to duriyodana too for maintaining the unity among his brothers.

"one for all,all for one"-yudishtra and duriyodana knew how to achieve it.