What ancient wisdom can teach us about managing talent  

While Brahma creates the Cosmos and Shiva destroys it, Vishnu takes us through the cycle between creation to destruction whilst ensuring Cosmic order.

In this picture, Vishnu can be seen lying on his serpent Ananta on his coiled bed. His wife Lakshmi is at his feet. On the face of it, this does not make any sense. How can someone who ensures cosmic order become so laid back? Does this not reflect badly on a deity?

Vishnu’s posture symbolises calm. The calmness stems from his faith in his Saptarishis – the seven best people, each with their unique expertise, delegated to carry out their jobs. They are:

👉 Ananta (the snake) as his personal advisor;
👉 Kubera as the accounts manager;
👉 Saraswati for producing knowledge;
👉 Yama to ensure justice and law;
👉 Chitragupta for audit and quality control;
👉 Narada as his external affairs minister;
👉 and the deity’s own wife Lakshmi as the finance manager.

Having appointed the best people in his team, Vishnu now sits relaxed and calm in a deep meditative state. In Hinduism, this is referred to as the Anantashayi Vishnu (sleeping Vishnu) and this ancient wisdom has profound lessons for modern leadership.

Many so-called leaders today are buried deep into busy-ness. They run amok like headless chickens. They hire the best people, but they cannot give up control. They cannot trust themselves so how can they trust the others. They call themselves leaders, but they cannot relinquish control. They talk about vision but listen to their language and all that you will hear is measurement and micro-management. Is it really possible to be a visionary and a micromanager at the same time?

If you are a leader, learn to stay calm like Vishnu. There is no need to over-react to every single problem. If you do that, you will be fixing one problem after the other thus leaving an entire team of qualified and motivated people useless and frustrated.

Vishnu teaches us to slow down and remain calm. When we slow down, we can listen more and observe better. We can observe patterns. We know when to step in and when to let go.

You have hired the best people. Not let them do their jobs.

Source: Management & Mahabharata by R Narayanan and Swami Bodhananda gifted by my new friend Hyuma Mahadevia.