Art of decision making

The meetings and discussions with team-mates may not always be fruitful. Many a time, team members may standby what appears to be logical, overlooking the nuances and subtleties of the case. At such times a leader is generally thrown into a quandary. If the person in charge takes the appropriate decision independently he is likely to be termed as a totalitarian and will receive half-hearted support of his group. On the other hand if he is coerced to take a stand against his better judgment guided by the terror of antagonizing his team he is likely to lose out on the project.

Leaders can do well to take a leaf out of the Ramayana and follow the footsteps of lord Rama when he was faced with a similar situation. The prince of Ayodhya had camped at the outskirts of Lanka along with his brother Lakshmana and his army ready to fight Ravana. At that time, Vibheeshana the brother of the demon king approached Rama and requested the former to accept him into his camp. Even before he could articulate his thoughts on the matter, just about everyone in his camp vetoed the idea quite garrulously.

They warned their commander Rama not to be deceived or mislead by the Rakshasa. Though Rama found Vibheeshana guileless and rather sincere, he did not want to take a unilateral decision in accepting the new entrant to his army who happened to be from the enemy camp. He allowed everyone to air his views and then turned to Hanuman who was sitting quietly and asked the wise one to pitch in his thoughts. At his behest, Bajrang Bali expressed his thoughts aloud and endorsed the application of Vibheeshana in a syllogistic manner. The scion of the Raghu race welcomed the well explained suggestion which seemed to go down well with his army and implemented it.

Rama could have been his own counsel, yet he chose to allow everyone to have his say and then evinced Hanuman’s elucidation on the subject to convince the army of his will. Thereby, he ensured that there would be no bad blood or dissent in his army in accepting Vibheeshana.

Leaders in similar situations with better insight should work out a plausible ploy to convince their fellow members of their ideas by reaching out to them in the best possible manner for the smooth and successful execution of the venture.