Most Indians would be familiar with Hanuman, the monkey God as he is called. He had an important role to play in Ramayana in finding Seeta and during the war, reviving Lakshman by bringing the entire Sanjivani hill. He is considered “chiranjeevi” or the deathless one. He also played a part in Mahabharata by sitting on top of Arjuna’s chariot. His father is supposed to be the wind God, Vayu and he is related to Bheema, one of the Pandava brothers because Bheema’s father is Vayu too. Mothers are different and they are several thousand years apart in age. Fascinating.
Well, there is an interesting anecdote in Ramayana about Hanuman and Jambavan. Jambavan is varyingly thought of as a sloth bear and as a monkey, but everyone agrees that he is a God, extremely wise and another one of the chiranjeevis, who just lives on. When Rama asks for help to locate Seeta, Jambavan takes Hanuman aside and tells him that he is the only one who has the ability to fly to Lanka and confirm if Seeta indeed is there, a prisoner of the evil rakshasa King Ravana. Calling Ravana evil was difficult for me, because I quite like his character… Just feel he was a more interesting character than Rama. Anyway, this conversation between Jambavan and Hanuman is very interesting.
The great Hanuman had to be told about his potential ability to fly !!! And we work with much lesser mortals and as their managers we do little to identify their potential :):). The thought struck me while walking with my mom today as she was narrating some things from a TV discourse on Hanuman. She and her entire family are Hanuman followers and infact many of my colleagues call her Hanuman BG (business group) at work. As a manager Jambavan did really well, in identifying Hanuman’s potential and unleashing it. Just applying the mechanics at our workplace would change many people’s careers and improve engagement significantly.
Jambavan knew more about Hanuman than Hanuman did of himself. Jambavan was able to find the right resource to help Rama and in the process of fulfilling his potential Hanuman became God. Tremendous growth for Hanuman as an individual. So as you become a manager and get a team to manage, fashion yourselves after Jambavan, understand your team members well and help each one of them reach their potential.
Jai Hanuman !:)
after well over 3 score years and ten, honestly, one has come to the conclusion
that most managers would be uneasy with grooming a team-member with the adorable simian god’s abilities !
Hahahahaha 🙂