Lessons in management by a leopard-1.

15ThursdayMay 2014

Posted by dharmendrabhanj in Management.

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"The Leopard That Wasn't – A True Tale of Brave Leadership (and a Cow)"

Hi Friends!

Thanks a lot for reading my blogs and giving your valuable feedback. It’s storytime once again and today I shall tell you the story of my encounter with the leopard.

It was a beautiful monsoon morning and there was a light drizzle and it was work for me as usual in the Tea Plantation.

Today my task was to be a true leader and lead by example , there had been a leopard sighting and the workers had refused to pluck tea leaves from a particular portion of the plantation and all that I could see was crop which would be wasted .

So like a big game hunter , I set about tracking the pug marks and walked alone bravely to show that I was afraid of nothing. I was expecting the leopard to show up anytime but was suddenly startled when the Supervisor shouted from behind that the leopard had attacked one of the  workers.So we rushed to the hospital inside the Plantation and found that the workers shoulder was badly damaged as the leopard had jumped on him to escape the group of workers who had surrounded the leopard- thinking it was a wild boar.

The news of the Leopard’s attack had left a deep impact on the plantations productivity as very few workers had turned up in the factory for the night shift to process the tea leaves that were plucked in the morning.

So it was a lot of driving around in the good old Jeep to collect workers from their villages to operate the factory. Finally after starting the work and being fully satisfied with all arrangements , I decided to walk back home to my mansion which was around two kilometers or twenty minutes walking distance from the factory.

The workers asked me to take the Jeep since it was dangerous to walk alone in the night; but I had to lead by example and so I walked alone with an umbrella in one hand and a torch light in the other hand, after rebuking the workers for being afraid of a leopard and allowing work to suffer.

I was thinking about the tough life in the Tea Plantation for the workers and was happy that I could lead by example and was somehow feeling proud of my ideological approach of leading by example when I suddenly heard a errie rattle and just about avoided stepping on a poisionous banded krait snake.

As I stood there frozen in fear , all my ideology seemed to melt away and I regretted not getting the Jeep to drop me home. The six feet long snake soon went into the bush and I shone the torch in the path in front of me to check if there were any snakes down the road, when suddenly , I noticed a pair of shining eyes in the dark staring at me.

My throat was suddenly feeling dry and though I wanted to scream for help , the voice failed to come out. Here I was standing in front of the leopard and as I shivered with fear and thought of running back to the factory as I could see the lights of the factory at a distance. However the lights of my mansion seemed much nearer and it was against the rules to turn your back to any wild animal.

I stood there for a long time getting drenched in the rain as I was now holding the umbrella as a weapon to fight the leopard but nothing happened as the animal did not move from its position and I continued seeing a pair of fierce eyes in the darkness.

So after deciding that I could not wait the whole night waiting for the leopard to attack me, I boldly walked towards the leopard. The strategy was clear in my mind, I would fight the leopard and then somehow rush towards my mansion and ask the night watchmen to take me to the hospital in case of any injury.

There was hardly any movement as I ran towards the leopard shouting a shrill  war cry to scare it away, the leopard did not move and before it could spring on me , I jumped towards it with the umbrella pointed towards it as a spear and torch to scare it away.

What happened next was entirely puzzling as the leopard turned out to be a cow standing in the rain which looked at me with amusement.

So my brave adventure was finally over and I walked towards the mansion thanking God.

Well my friends , the lesson that life taught me was to always face all fears in life and they may not be as fearsome as they look or as you think and running away will never help and the irony of the situation is that when a group of workers surrounded the leopard bravely thinking it was a wild boar for their dinner  – they were taken by surprise- so never be overconfident also or underestimate any situation.

Thanks once again for reading my blog and please feel free to share your views and comments below.