Anybody who has read the famous short story by the influential writer Flannery O Cooner named ‘’ A Good Man is hard to find’’ may recollect the tragic travel of a family to Florida with their Grandmother. The family meet with an accident and encounters a murderer named misfit who kills the entire family and in the pleading conversations of the grandmother with misfit, the context of human life, morals and sin are interpreted. The main protagonists of the story are the grandmother and misfit. Both had their moral codes which made them live .While the Grandmother a self centered individual and misfit the life negating murderer converse on the concept of grace and the conflict of good and evil, and the importance of faith, the author brings in the concept of anagogical meaning of life from the Christian theology.
This story harps on the sinful nature of humans- as per Christian beliefs- gives the subtle message of not finding a good man in the world. On the other side the sinful nature of human existence through Adharma and the balancing resurging of dharma through a divine birth as an avathar is also explained in chapter 4 of the Gita.
Human mind which is infringed in the duality of right and wrong or good and bad needs a faculty called intellect which distinguish both and guides the soul to creates a life of righteousness . In the context of Management Psychology this faculty is essential for leadership. A leaders ability to have an anagogical vision of seeing multiple realities in the decision making process is essential in maintaining a mentally healthy ecosystem. Toxicity in working atmospheres created by bad leaders leads to wasteful dissipation of mental and creative energies of individuals leading them into the stress anxiety depression cycle.
Indian corporate systems lacks such dynamic leaderships in its hierarchy which indeed is the reason for the high prevalence of stress in an average Indian’s working life. As councillors and trainers we have now a responsibility of training the leadership in looking beyond the self and synergising the aspirational realities of people into the organisational objective and thereby minimising the stress content in the working atmosphere. This training which involves making the leadership develop core value systems is the need of the hour .
As Like in Flanncry O cooner’s story good men are hard to find also goes in concluding that Good leaders are also hard to find.
