An old Hitopadesa story
Once upon a time, in the Dandakaranya (forest), there lived a group of
sparrows under the leadership of an old sparrow by name Chitragreeva. One
day, as they were searching for food, they saw some grains being strewn on
the ground. When the sparrows wanted to go down and eat the grains,
Chitragreeva told them, “This appears strange. How can grains be found
strewn on the ground in a forest where no human beings live? There must be
some danger behind this.” One of the young sparrows said, “One listens to
old people only when one is in danger or needs some advice. Old folks
doubt everything and if one listens to them, one can not do anything in
life”. Other sparrows agreed with the young one and descended to eat the
grains. Chitragreeva also followed them. It so happenned that the grains
had been strewn by a hunter to catch the birds and they were all caught in
the net that was hidden on the ground. The sparrows soon relaized thier
folly and started abusing the young sparrow who suggested to them to go
for the grains. Chitragreeva told them , “It is not his fault. We have
been trapped by our greed. Let us see how we can get out of this. If we
all combine our efforts and fly together, we can fly with the net. Let us
try”. All sparrows tried with one mind and they could lift the net and
flew away. The sparrows asked, “What do we do now?” Chitragreeva said, “I
have a friend Hiranyaka, a mouse living near the river. Let us go to him
and he can cut this net and release us from this net”. They landed on the
banks of the river. Hiranyaka saw Chitragreeva and enquired about how they
got into that trouble. Chitragreeva said, “We have been duped by a hunter.
Can you release us from this bondage?”. Hiranyaka said, “My teeth are not
powerful enough to cut all the net. I will release you from the net and
you can further help. Chitragreeva replied, “In that case, do release as
many as possible from the group. In case you have energy left, you can
release me. I am old and I have lived my life. Let these young ones be
released first”. Hiranyaka appreciated Chitragreeva for his sacrifice. It
so happenned that Hiranyaka could release all of them. They all thanked
Hiranyaka and flew away happily.
This is an old Hitopadesa story. This tells a lot about leadership:
It is the duty of a leader to warn the team about risks they are taking.
But at the same time, when a group decision is made, the leader has to go
with it.
When the team gets into trouble, there is no point in blame games. The
leader has to divert the attention of the team from blaming each other and
constructively direct their energies towards retrieving the situation.
The leader has to use the wisdom to come up with ways of solving the
problem.
Leader should get the team additional help when required.
The leader never blames the team – when the young sparrow was blamed by
others, Chitragreeva said “It is due to OUR greed” and to Hiranyaka, he
said “we have been duped by a hunter”. A leader never lets down his team.
When the resources are scarce (Hiranyaka’s inability to free the whole
team), the leader comes last in using them – the team gets the first
preference.
