Nuggets of Leadership 1 - Lessons from Sugreeva

I find the first meeting between Rama and Sugreeva to be filled with lessons for forging, setting expectations, assessing the capabilities and intent of the involved actors, that should be inculcated in our activities in everyday life, be it personal or professional.

Background: Sita has been kidnapped by Ravana and in search of Sita, Rama and Lakshmana travelled across the danadakaranya forest, they were then advised first by Jatayau to head south, then by a sage to visit Kishkinda and meet a person by name Sugreeva and he will help them in their mission to find and bring back Sita. Meanwhile, Sugreeva is banished from his family and kingdom and is taking shelter near kishkinda. He is scared of his brother Vali, fearing for his life. He is surrounded and protected by his friends and well-wishers, who patrol the place at all times.

On being informed of the arrival two Kshatriya princes in the attire of forest dwellers, Sugreeva becomes suspicious and infers that these two princes must be Vali’s associates and they must have been sent here to kill him. The percieved danger to his life makes the former monkey king anxious and starts behaving like a coward and runs towards his safe-hiding to save his life. Looking at this coward behaviour, his friend and well-wisher admonishes him and calms his nerves, by suggesting that without enquiring it is not right to judge them to be Vali’s friends.

Lesson 1: Find out the identity, purpose and ability of the opposite party before labelling them as friend or enemy.

Lesson 2: As a leader, it’s your duty to remain calm and focussed in the middle of the storm. your sub-ordinates notice every little detail of your actions, If you are scared, your sub-ordinates lose confidence and the morale of the team will be low, which can be dangerous.

Lesson 3: Build a team that has leadership attributes of Hanuman, Jambavant in the team. People who can guide you, critic your foolish actions with intent of making you and team better.

Sugreeva then suggests Hanuman to go and meet the two kshatriya princes, talk to them to ascertain their identity and their purpose of coming into this forest. Hanuman goes on a fact-finding mission on the request of his friend. He changes his form to be that of brahamana and comes to the place where Rama and Lakshmana are staying. The conversation between Hanuman, Rama and Lakshmana is a masterclass in communication, I would encourage you to read the original from Valmiki Ramayana. The gist of it is as follows: Hanuman in the guise of brahmana, asks about the purpose of two brothers coming into this forest in a way that impresses Rama about the knowledge and communication ability.Lakshmana, then tells Hanuman about their identity, circumstances that led them to their current state and they have come to this place to meet Sugreeva to seek his help in their quest of finding Sita. On hearing this, Hanuman presents his original self and discloses his identity. He then takes them to the place where Sugreeva resides. Sugreeva is still hiding in his safe-house. Hanuman sends note to Sugreeva that everything is safe here and he can come over.

Lesson 4: On a fact-finding mission, never disclose your identity and purpose.

Lesson 5: Communicate like Hanuman

Sugreeva arrives and meets the brothers. He disclose his identity and the circumstances that lead to his present state. Just like Rama, Sugreeva is separated from wife who is forcibly abducted by Vali. Since both are in similar state, they agree to forge friendship and help each other out.

Lesson 6: As Acharya Chanakya says, friendship can only exist between two equals. In this case, both are from royal families, who were banished from their kingdoms, their wives were kidnapped. An alliance between them to acheive their goals was a natural consequence.

The alliance has been forged, but Rama wants to know the background between Vali and Sugreeva that resulted in Sugreeva’s banishment, in order to ascertain the proper course of action. sugreeva narrates the episode ending with abduction of his wife. Rama then promises Sugreeva that he will kill Vali and help him regain his wife and kingdom.

Lesson 7: Get all the facts in front of you, before you plan the next course of action

Sugreeva is happy that Rama has agreed to help him, but he is not aware of Rama’s ability. So he narrates ro Rama about Vali’s abilities(with Dundhubi’s story) and puts a small test to Rama to cut the seven Sala trees with his archery. Rama humbly accepts the challenge, he not only cuts the Sala trees with just one arrow, before doing that he throws up the Dundhubhi’s skeleton through his toe a Yojana away. Sugreeva is convinced by this.

Lesson 8: Test the abilities of your team or associates before you give them major goals. The tenet “Actions speak louder than words” always holds true.

Jai Shree Ram