It is a pleasant day. I am strolling
through the arid lands of Indiana in the United States.
Aah, here I see a majestic creature
walking towards me. I am frozen with goose bumps. Stranger than ever, she starts
speaking to me, “Hey who are you?” I reply, “I am a human; by the way, who are
you?”
“Whoa! You don’t know
me? I am the king of birds. I was once ravenously hungry and picked up a mule
deer fawn on my way home for supper!
Tennyson penned
a poetry on me
I am THE EAGLE. What brings you to my home pitch?
What
an attitude! I thought. She went on…
“When eagles
are still eaglets, they get literally kicked out of our nests by their parents!
Parents feed them
less. Eaglets squawk and complain, but mom tries to entice them to leave the
nest and hunt for themselves. If these initial efforts fail, she will fly by
the nest with food in her mouth. Often this is all it takes for eager,
overachieving young eagles. However, there is usually a stubborn one or
two couch potatoes like me, determined to remain in the nest and play video
ga….eh, I mean stay in the nest and wait to be fed.
When this happens,
Momma Eagle will eventually kick the youngster out of the nest. See, she knows
that the world is scary for the young eagle and that he would rather stay where
it is safe, and all his needs provided. If the parent eagles continue to feed
and provide for them, they have no reason to leave the safety and comfort of
the nest. Eagles know that by letting them stay in the nest for too long, they
will miss out on the essence of all it means to be an eagle.
“Amazing! Yet I am happy to be
born human where my parents fed me for 20 years”, to which the eagle
said, “I
am proud to be born eagle”.
“When I hit 40…”
“You have a mid-life crisis…is that it?”
The
eagle snapped me. “Can you be a little serious please? At 40, her long and flexible talons can no
longer grab prey which serves as food, her long and sharp beak becomes bent and
old aged and heavy wings, due to their thick feathers, stick to her chest and
it’s very difficult to fly. She is left with 2 options - either to die or…to go
through a painful transformation process which lasts 150 days…yes you read it
right...150 long days...
She will have to fly
to a mountain top and sit on the nest. She knocks her beak against a rock until
it comes out. Then she waits for a new beak to grow back. Next, she pulls out her
talons and when new talons grow back, she plucks old, aged feathers. After five
months, the eagle takes its famous flight of rebirth and lives for 30 more
years”.
I bid farewell to the eagle and fly to the Yellowstone national park.
There I see a shy fella repeating a slogan, The strength of the pack is the wolf,
and the strength of the wolf is the pack
Hey, you are Akela, right? Mowgli’s wolf friend, I
exclaimed.
Yes, he said coyly and continued, “Every day is a constant struggle
for survival as we wolves work to patrol miles of territory, take down large
and dangerous prey, face harsh elements, and battle the constant threat of
illness, injury, and disease. While it is possible for a lone wolf to navigate
these challenges successfully, the odds of survival are drastically increased
for wolves living in a pack and working as a team. In addition, packs operate
in a manner that requires each member to contribute equally toward the group’s
shared responsibilities. This manner of cooperative living works to alleviate
the pressures on not only the pack alpha member, but on every member of the pack.
Ultimately, wolves understand that the pack’s survival relies on teamwork, and
that working together yields the greatest potential for success.
Success
is never guaranteed. In fact, when it comes to hunting, wolf packs fail in
making a kill far more often than they succeed. On average, wolves land
themselves a meal approximately one out of every ten hunts. Imagine, for a
second, how a human might feel in a similar situation, having put hours of time
and effort into a group activity that ultimately resulted in failure. I expect
that a lot of negative emotions come up like anger, disappointment, blame.
Wolves, however, have no use for these feelings. Placing blame won’t result in
a meal. Instead, they analyse the group’s mistakes to learn from them, adding
to the pack’s collective wisdom over time, and in doing so, increasing their
chances of success in the future. When wolves get into a confrontation with one
another, it’s big, it’s loud, and it’s immediate, but then it’s over. Wolves
don’t hold grudges or nurture hurt feelings.
You might think their howling is all noise, but we wolves have highly
tuned and refined communication skills. Via barks, howls, and tiny adjustments
in our body language, wolves convey messages, excitement and warnings. This communication keeps each pack synced and efficient.”
Hey, who is this who is splashing water on me? Oh my
Gosh, it’s my mother trying hard to wake me up reminding me that it’s my
daughter’s exam day and I was supposed to drop her? Uff I just realized that it
was all a dream! Or was it augmented reality? Don’t you think the fascinating
dream had some answers for some of my pursuit on leadership.?
The
eagle gave the first leadership lesson from the parenting story. A leader is
one who nudges you and if you don’t budge, pushes you out of your comfort zone.
I also recollect a few of L&T’s leaders Mr. Srinivasan and Mr. Venkatachala
Babu and my mentor and boss in Areva Mr. Prashant Sinha, who really pushed me
out of my comfort zones multiple times and each of those times shaped me as a
better professional. Transformative Leadership is what comes to my mind
thinking of the eagle’s second innings. It brought chills down my spine thinking
of the deep pain taken by the eagle to transform.
Wow! What an insight I have got from just 2 animals. I
already understood what coaching and transformational leadership style is from
the eagle and participative leadership style from the wolves is. The other
styles like delegative, authoritarian and affiliative must be exhibited widely
by social creatures in nature like ants, bugs, elephants etc. Now what style do
I exhibit? Experiencing these guys, I feel I exhibit more of coaching and
participative leadership, though it is not to undermine the other style. It’s
the circumstance that shall dictate the style of leadership and there can be no
good or bad style. To implement tough decisions, autocratic style suits best;
whereas to arrive at tricky solutions, participative style is the one to go with.
LEADERS: Are they Born (or) Made? Or as Stephen Covey
said, are they self-made?
It is for you to ponder and find your answer guys! Happy
Leadership journeys to all of us!
Good Videos to watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ryv1u2yXCk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6EKK0EZm40
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ehvyAMFL30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcW5uMJrSwg
