Angad under Pygmalion effect

Angad was the child of monkey king Bali and his spouse Tara. He was the nephew and also stepson of Sugriv. Angad was a fantastic Vanar who assisted Ram to find his wife Sita along with other monkeys.When Vanar activity was established for the hunt of Sita, he was allocated the post of assistant to Nila, among the senior most deputies. Sugriv instructed him to approach the senior monkeys with his command. Once the youngster Angad learnt the intricate details of his job he was given the duty to search out Sita in every feasible areas of South India, as it was noted that Sita has been hidden in some place of South, either in mainland or in the island. Angad searched each and every area of South up to the seaside, Rameshwaram, to fulfill his duty. When the battalion was organized to proceed further south, he was basically made the head of the team.

As soon as Sita was discovered within Lanka, Ram wished to learn some peaceful alternative of rescuing Sita and avoiding the war. The messengers sent to Ravan were again led by Angad. Angad described Ravan what was Ram`s wish and revealed that if he released Sita the battle could possibly be prevented. He tried by every method to influence Ravan, but Ravan was firm at his decision to encounter a war rather than returning Sita calmly.

In the conversation he positioned his foot strongly on the ground and threw a challenge that if any person in the Ravan`s court managed to uproot his foot Ram would lose the battle and return back without Sita. Each and every Rakshasa courtier of Ravan`s army and even his son Indrajit attempted to raise Angad`s left foot but no one succeeded. Ravan was angered because he was feeling embarrassed. Angad was so furious that he strikes the ground with enormous power utilizing both his hands. Each and every courtier was scared and flew away. Ravan fell down from his throne and his crowns rolled off from his heads. Before he could put them again on his heads Angad captured of those and threw them towards the direction where Ram was waiting with his brother Lakshman. Ram recognized that those were crowns of Ravan. Hanuman grabbed the flying crowns and put them in front of Ram.

Angad was quite young to perform these major activities but he did well. He performed as per his bosses "positive expectations". The Pygmalion effect is the phenomenon in which people, often children or students and employees, tend to perform according to the expectations placed upon them. It is a form of self-fulfilling prophecy, and, in this respect, people will internalize their positive labels, and those with positive labels succeed accordingly.  In other words, once an expectation is set, even if it isn’t accurate, we tend to act in ways that are consistent with that expectation. Surprisingly often, the result is that the expectation, as if by magic, comes true.

Copyright © 2013 Prashant Pathak. All rights reserved.

More Avatars for Better Association

When I referred to Wikipedia for description of Avatar, its termed as a deliberate descent of a deity to earth, or a descent of the “Supreme Being”. In more generalize form it is mostly translated as “incarnation” or “appearance” or “manifestation”. The concept of avatar within Hinduism typically descends for a very specific purpose. The deity leaves extra-terrestrial heaven and takes different appearances on earth to bring dharma or value back to its correct place in society.

The most popular known god for his avatars is Lord Vishnu. According to scriptures there are ten incarnation (Dasavatara) of Vishnu. Among them Ram, Krishna and Buddha are the three mostly worshiped and devoted avatars of Vishnu. They just had not avatar very particular to finishing the evil and returning to his place but are more associated with real people on earth.  Ram have bonding of regards with his brother, wife and congregations like hanuman, shabri, ahilya etc. Even after slaying Ravana, he had not left the earth, he himself established the Ram-Rajya(Rule of Ram) for people of Ajodhya. Krishna spent many years with people of gokul and Mathura by teaching and learning many valuable lessons. Even after killing Kansa he stayed back on earth for positioning the dharma & values in the society. He participated in Great War of Mahabharata in Kurukshetra. Krishna transfers the knowledge of Bhagvad Gita mankind which is a one of the best self-help book for human beings. Similarly Buddha left his kingdom and luxuries in search of knowledge. He meets real peoples and their realities before enlightenment. He spent his whole life by learning & educating people on spiritual life. For 45 years, Buddha spread His message of spiritual life to not only His disciples but the common people as well.

Why these three avatars are most worshiped & valued apart from rest of Vishnu avatars like Varah, Vaman or Parshuram. Ram, Krishna and Buddha had spent more time with peoples and masses. Each one not only rescues them with evils but also given path to enlightenment and salvation. The connectivity to general humans makes them more worthy and more purposeful. Vishnu left heaven and takes birth in many form to connect to human being. He is considered as protector of world which cannot be fulfilled completely without proper association with real human being.

In current social & corporate scenario peoples are linked by electronic media like emails, facebook, twitter and skype etc. In offices & society peoples are updated with others status but not attached. They need to invest significant time with real people in world. Life is visceral so require some attachments and attentions. Here I say investing the time means it will not be in vain. So let us have a resolution in year 2013 to connect to real peoples and reality of real world.

Copyright © 2012 Prashant Pathak. All rights reserved.

Motivate But Don't Demotivate

It is believed that the success of a project largely depends on the two most important factors: 1) People 2) Process. A group of people linked in a common purpose strives for the accomplishment of purpose which resides in contribution from individuals and individual’s integrated contribution depends to its ability and willingness to use ability. If a team member is not performing, there could be possible two types of reasons. First, he/she is facing technical problems which can be the lack of knowledge, skills, education etc. and second, could be the attitudinal reason like unwillingness to work. The technical problems can be solved by proper set training on methods and tools. For example if an accountant cannot prepare reports in time because of lack of spreadsheet knowledge then the solution could be a training of office tools etc.  But the most importantly the existence   attitudinal problem acts above all the problem and it intensifies the other small issues also. 

Company generally uses employee motivational strategies to convert the negative energy into positive and finally working attitude. There are ways to motivate the employees including appreciation, rewards, victory celebration and fun environment etc. There is a saying in Hindu methodology “sarvajan hitay sarvajan sukhay” this could be the thumb rule while implementing the motivational strategy in any organization. 

One most important way of motivating any employee is benchmarking them against their peers or sometimes superiors also. It's often assumed that employees who are benchmarked against each other work harder, to either hang onto a high ranking or raise a low ranking. "Many managers think that giving workers feedback about their performance relative to their peers inspires them to become more competitive -- to work harder to catch up, or excel even more. But in fact, the opposite happens;" says Barankay, management professor "Workers can become complacent and de-motivated. People who rank highly think, 'I am already number one, so why try harder?' And people who are far behind can become depressed about their work and give up."

The key to implement the motivation mechanism is critical not from motivating point of view but NOT to demotivating a single employee. The important lesson for employers is to consider how each employee will respond to motivational activity. Everyone should get something positive which increases the enthusiasm and courage to do the work. "A good employer knows its employees very well and should have a good idea how they will respond to the prospect of being ranked," he says. "The key is to devote more time to thinking about whether to give feedback, and how each individual will respond to it. If, as the employer, you think a worker will respond positively to a ranking and feel inspired to work harder, then by all means do it. But it's imperative to think about it on an individual level."