The Bhagavad-gita appears in the context of a much larger work, the Mahabharata , which provides the back story for the conversation between Krishna and Arjuna, soon to be related by Sanjaya to Dhrtarastra. Readers wishing to gain a greater appreciation for the wider context of Bhagavad-gita are advised to read Mahabharata by Krishna Dharma.
Sanjaya was the charioteer of Dhrtarastra, who was a King. There are four primary
leadership roles:
1. Strategic Leadership
2. Directive Leadership
3. Team-building Leadership
4. Operational Leadership
You have a unique character, with particular strengths and weaknesses. When you
understand and play to your strengths you can develop your natural leadership ability, and you'll find that you are suited to a particular leadership role.
Effective leadership necessitates a leadership team with the right mix of aptitudes.
One is too small a number for greatness, as the saying goes. Getting the right mix of
people on the leadership team is crucial. Too many of one aptitude and there will be
dysfunction of the organization or of the leadership team itself. Wrong mixes may
manifest as a harmonious but ineffective leadership team, or a volatile leadership team characterized by internal strife. All of the four roles are necessary for a complete leadership team – in areas where one person is weak, another person is strong.
It is not ordinarily possible for one person to embody all types, and especially not to be good at all of them, because they have contradictory psychological characteristics.
Such a personality is exceedingly rare. A person is generally strong in a primary
leadership role, accompanied by a weaker predominant secondary role. Very rarely
will a person by strong in three. Wherever there are strengths there are corresponding weaknesses. These weaknesses can become strengths when they are acknowledged and understood, and a team is built around them. "Know Yourself", and your area of contribution, is the beginning of individual effectiveness, leading to team effectiveness.
Persons who are suited to Strategic Leadership are thinkers. They lead out of a
strategic strength. Their primary concern is why to do things. They love the challenge of understanding and planning. They value knowing over doing. This gives them a detachment which enables them to more accurately and objectively analyze the situation. They value knowledge and wisdom , and admire perceptive and wise people.
To assess your strength in this leadership role score one point for each of the
following characteristics of the Strategic Leader that you possess:
1. Analyst of reality
2. Create practical ways of converting vision into action
3. View emotions and sensitivity as detrimental to the cause
4. Do not hesitate to ask the hard questions
5. Do not mind creating controversy
6. Content to remain in the background
7. More loyal to the vision than to the people
8. Take great pride in being knowledgable in their area of focus
The corresponding weaknesses of this type are the following:
1. Useful but generally not popular
2. Usually portrayed as insensitive and robotic
3. Usually happier working with ideas than people
4. Often take a long time to arrive at decisions
5. Lean toward perfectionism
The extreme archetype of this leader is Spock from Star Trek. Persons who are suited to Directive Leadership, also known as Executive Leadership,are initiators. In the hazy smoke of battle (literal or metaphorical), while others are stumbling around in shock and confusion, looking for guidance, the Directive Leader is the one whose response is to charge forward boldly, and inspire others to follow them.
They love to direct, and ar e able to initiate action, and to sustain action. They value doing over knowing. A person with a reduced strength in this area may be able to intiate, but unable to sustain action. In terms of Myers-Briggs or Keirsey personality typing, this per son is often an NT. They value competence and effectiveness, and admire competent and effective people.
In order to get an idea of how strong in this leadership role you are, score one point for each of the following characteristics that apply:
The Directive Leader:
1. Casts a compelling vision
2. Does not spend time or energy in the details of the process
3. High motivational capacity
4. Effective speaker
5. Good listener
6. Make people feel important
7. Intuitive decision maker
8. Air of confidence
9. Makes tough calls
10.Seldom compromises
The corollary weaknesses of this type are the following:
1. Disinterest in the minutiae of the process
2. Little patience in discussion about detail
3. Great with large groups but not especially warm with individuals
4. Restless
5. Have short attention span
6. Favour action over reflection
7. May ignore financial limitations and realities
8. Have a high interest in making good things happen now
In the language of Stephen Covey, the Directive Leader is all about efficiency –getting people moving up the hill. The Strategic Leader is all about effectiveness , making sure that the team is moving up the right hill.
The Directive Leader is about engagement – engaging himself or herself, and
engaging others in the task at hand. The Visionary Leader is about detachment –
stepping back and looking at the bigger picture. The two are generally complementary
roles, and a person is generally better at one or the other.
The Strategic Leader enables the Directive Leader by providing him or her with
strategic vision and direction. This is very valuable to the Directive leader as it
ultimately makes him or her more effective. In classical terms a Directive Leader is known as a ksatriya , and a Visionary Leader is known as a brahmana. Ksatriyas would act as Kings, and they would maintain an advisory staff of one or more brahmanas who would act as strategic input to their decision-making process.
Dhrtarastra is a ksatriya, a Directive Leader.
The Team Building Leader is all about people. They are natural people persons, and
generate cohesion in any group that they are part of.
Their characteristics are as follows:
1. Enjoy organising people around a common cause
2. Rely heavily on their relational network
3. Charismatic
4. Generate high morale
5. Place high value on people
6. Ability to interact with a high variety of people
7. Receives loyalty and respect from the team
Their weaknesses are:
1. Hate paperwork
2. Waffle on detail
3. Tendency to ignore agendas, action plans, and budgets
4. Allow relationships to hinder progress
5. Get hurt by people
The Operational Leader is the final leadership role. This is a ver y practical, on-the-ground leadership role.
The characteristics of an Operational Leader are as follows:
1. Provide stability to the organisation
2. Devise systems to make things run smoothly
3. They act as a hub through which people go in the organization
4. Often reports bad news, but is seldom responsible
5. Create new solutions to old problems
6. Often complement the other three aptitudes
Their weaknesses:
1. Easily slips from leader to manager
2. Dislike conflict
3. Fail to see the big picture
4. Lack motivational skills
5. Can be viewed as a hindrance to progress
6. Often lack the influence of the other three aptitudes
Sanjaya is part of Dhrtarastra's leadership team, and his formal position is that of an operational leader, in charge of the King's transport. However, his actual role is
revealed in this verse. The King has approached him for guidance and for vision.
Formal roles are one thing, but the real substance of leadership is influence, and as we have seen here, this depends on the personal qualities of a person.
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