The Triumvirate of Leadership

At different points in time a company will call upon its leaders to perform the role of Brahma, Vishnu or Siva. For those not familiar with this powerful triumvirate in Hindu religious scriptures let me take you through a quick introduction and explain further.

Brahma is the God of creation, all knowing, all seeing and giver of life to all that we believe is our world out there. He is an Idea guy and his vision of what your life should be is the reality you see and live. As with all creative pursuits, somethings click and somethings go bang! This never stopped him from dreaming more and more reality into existence.

Vishnu is the Sustainer or Preserver, a benevolent soul in supine repose; keeping a watchful eye on the lives of mortals and demi-gods that look up to him to maintain order in this complex world Brahma created. He will be called on to help each of his subjects in their mundane quest for health, wealth and prosperity. A generous being, he is quick to grant wishes and boons to the faithful ones.

Then there is Siva, the ascetic god who, in his divine abode in Mount Kailash, leads a fairly chilled out life in deep meditation, unconcerned and unperturbed by the goings-on of quotidian existence. Until of course he is woken from his trance because something somewhere has hit the fan. Then he becomes the Destroyer! Harsh, uncaring and aggressive in his ways, irritated at being disturbed from his peaceful trance, he works with a single-minded goal to bring down whatever it is that is causing the nuisance. Using all manner of weapons, munitions and name-calling his untiring effort is focussed on bringing back a semblance of calm and order quickly, so he can hand the reins to Vishnu and go right back to doing nothing with style.

The timeline of every organization requires that its leaders play the role of any, several or all of the above gods. In the inception stages Brahma steps in, with a dream to create something from nothing. The building blocks for the vision of the future are put together painstakingly, with a blind belief that the world will come around to believing in this new form of reality. Once this reality is accepted by a quorum then the role changes – Vishnu steps in and keeps the multitude happy and growing and invested in this current reality. Many favours are granted and returned, ensuring the needs of one-and-all are placated. Right or wrong is based on the existing reality and none will question the status quo for fear of foregoing the munificence that comes their way. And when this reality is unable to sustain itself and stands on weak legs, Siva begins afresh, altering or tweaking the current circumstances, while bringing stability to the quivering foundation, whatever the means utilized.

The fables that are written about each of these gods reflect the life-lessons our ancestors thought prudent to pass onto future generations. We learn from their strengths and their weaknesses and inculcate these into our own lives. There are situations where they even teach each other lessons! No one is above learning. Self-awareness of what role we play, be it Brahma, Vishnu or Siva, drives our attitude and actions in any given situation. 

So the next time you find yourself answering the question, “Who do you think you are, a god?”, your answer should be, “Yes.”