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It is a common scene in most corporate that the employees always attempt to protect their position, function/department, their knowledge etc., because of the fear that if they do not protect the above, they might loose them to others.

If the managers do not try to maintain the status quo, someone else might occupy the position and their role becomes redundant. So is the knowledge. Always they believe that they need to protect and prove their knowledge. If they ever accept newer knowledge from others means, they often believe, their knowledge is not adequate or compete. So, in most instances, they refuse both to accept their knowledge is insufficient and welcome & receive the same from others.

In the above drive, they tend to protect ‘what is’ as ‘what is’ or the status quo. The question is whether such an approach is right or not? One needs to understand that such approaches are right and wrong and the end result is based not on the mere approach but based on such approaches, its relevance and its necessity to the given situation.

Nature has the best example for the corporate man to learn in this regard. The animals that live in high altitude region do grow dense fur during severe winter season. With the onset of summer, they loose such fur coat.

During extreme winter, these animals are likely to loose their body temperature and once that happens, the life of these animals will be in jeopardy. In order to prevent the same, nature has favoured these animals to have dense fur cover during extreme winter. The dense fur offers protection to these animals by two ways viz.,

1. Prevent the body temperature from getting lost
2. Prevent the body from receive the cold weather from outside

The message is that only when the ‘status quo’ is maintained, survival is possible. This is a necessity due to the situation and not the way of life. When summer returns, all these animals tend to loose the fur as the ‘to and fro’ heat exchange is inevitable for survival during summer.

The corporate leaders must decode the right management message from the above. Attempt to protect the ‘status qua’ when there is necessity and must, but never practice and follow the same as part of your leadership. In simple sense, never cover attempts to use thick blanket and walk around in summer.

The reason why many corporate employees never like to leave the organization and search more rewarding career elsewhere is only because of the above fear. If they join a new organization, they fear that they may not able to protect their status quo as it has not been established over there.

Look at the management intelligence of nature. The ‘inevitability’ must be seen and always it should be limited to the ‘situation’ and the same should not be taken as a ‘gold standard’ or ‘gospel’ to follow for ever in life.

Understand all your leadership postures, gesture & acts and their larger implications to your career and then act wisely.

Dr S Ranganathan, ClinRise Derma Pvt., Ltd., Chennai

Learn more from the following management books

1. Jungle wisdom for corporate management – lessons from the university of nature by Swami Sukhabodhananda and Dr S Ranganathan
2. Nature – The Entrepreneur by Dr S Ranganathan