A Learning Angle from Baahubali

Most of us have seen and enjoyed the film Baahubali, principally the last 45 minutes of war sequence is really interesting and inspiring. We can also learn certain leadership and managerial qualities from the character of Baahubali that help us at work place or day to day life.

On biased distribution of Arms: When Bijjaladeva the father of Ballaladeva distributed arms to Baahubali and Ballaladeva, he has shown bias to his son in giving effective arms like sword Chariot and Arrow Launcher to Ballaladeva and ineffective weapon like Catapult used to break huge walls practically which is ineffective weapon in defending war strategy.

• Optimistic in Nature: Baahubali is so optimistic in nature that he didn’t get de-motivated with biased distribution of weapons. That is one of the important qualities of a leader that one should not get de-motivated so quickly seeing the off-putting side of the project without which he cannot work effectively.
• Effective utilization of resources: Baahubali effectively utilized the resource of Catapult/Stone thrower in adding oiled huge cloth to it and thrown on enemies firing it which helped in killing many people in one shot and disturb the sequence of enemy’s army. This quality is most important for a leader in present corporate scenario that one should give apt deliverable without complaining of unavailability of resource and also show the management that the deliverable is given cost effectively, without which job is at risk in the long run.
• Believe in Human Resource: As Baahubali believed that his army is so brave and can win the war hence could he could face the battle without fear. This is again one more quality that is important in present corporate that helps one to emerge as a leader in group, treating all members of team as resourceful and believing in your team is very important. If we say TEAM it mean Totally Everybody Achieve More

When army gets de-motivated: When the Katappa’s Iron shield supported by army is broken and enemy enters the dead line arena, armies’ gets de-motivated and call for retreat. Here Baahubali show is Orator and Motivational skills.

• Great Orator/Inspirer: Baahubali deliver the on time effective speech at the right time and inspire the team to fight back and keep up the morale. This again is significant quality especially when working with team. A leader has to constantly watch his team and inspire them when ever required.

When civilian’s life is at stake: When Kalakeya uses Mahismathi civilians as shield for his army, Baahubali uses a spontaneous and no life loss strategy of throwing weighted ropes at the feet of civilians which will make them forcefully to fall down and Baahubali army will start killing enemy’s army behind.

• Empathy/Self belongingness: Baahubali saved the life of civilians because of empathical thinking and realize the value of life. Losing a life of your people is losing oneself as Baahubali have that Self belonging, he saved those many lives’s and win the hearts of the people. This again is the quality of a Leader, one should have the quality of thinking emphatically while resolving conflicts or at the time of decision making with respect to groups, without which one can’t win the hearts of people and be a leader.

When Sivagami set the Goal: Sivagami set goal to both Baahubali and Ballaladeva that not to kill Kalakeya and ask them to bring him to her feet making Kalakeya disabled.

• Intra-personal communication: Baahubali communicates within self and make his mind clear not to kill Kalakeya but to disable him so goal set to him will be fulfilled. That’s the important quality of any professional that individual interests with respect to work will be lined with organizational interests, when proper communication happens within self. This is called effective Intra-personal communication that every individual should have.

When Balladeva kills Kalakeya: When Baahubali defeats Kalakeya on fight and about to disable him as per the goal, Kalakeya will be killed by Ballaladeva hitting on his head with his mace from behind.

• Face should not be the index of mind: When Kalakeya is killed; Baabubali might me disappointed or frustrated as his goal is disturbed but be never shown his feelings in this face which is a very significant and difficult thing to follow without great level of balance of mind. This is very important quality in present competitive world for every individual particularly when working in teams/groups. The more your face is indexing your mind, more you are a failure in groups and as a person.
• Being sportive: When Kalakeya was killed by his contender Ballaladeva, Baahubali took it so sportive and appreciated him with his non verbal gesture. This is another significant quality that one should have when working with groups/teams without which individuals are unfit to work in corporate.

 P.S: Any Fiction or Non-Fiction stories under the Sun, particularly when related to political drama are inspired from great Indian epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana. We can find more number of Leadership/Managerial principles reading them. So let’s start grabbing the wealth first. For some food for thought can start with the book Business Sutra: A Very Indian Approach to Management by Devdutt Pattanaik