Live for you first – HR message from animal world

‘Be in the team, but live for you first’. This statement may read absurd and meaningless at the top glance. It is true not only in the corporate world but also in the animal kingdom whether it is the cohort of a predator or prey.

Those who regularly watch the behavior of the prey and predator in the deep jungle would understand how true the above statement is. When a pride of lion attempts to hunt a buffalo or its calf, the herd of buffalo would move together to drive away the lions.

Lions will be extremely careful when they strategize to hunt a buffalo. They take such risks mainly because a single buffalo is sufficient to provide adequate meat to the entire pride. The payoff justifies the pay.

Although being in the heart may offer protection to every individual buffalo, but when a buffalo is caught by lions, generally other buffaloes in the herd would slowly move away. They pay the least attention to the victim, may be due to the acceptance of the fate or because of the fear. Imagine, if they fight together, no predatory animal would ever get any food to eat.

Even if the victim were the calf, the mother animal would fight for some time and then accept the fate, moves away. The story is true even for all predators.

The animals when are in a herd or pack or pride, fight collectively in the beginning, but later leave the victim either to concede, endure, feed or escape.

In corporate, the phenomena of ‘be in the team, but live for you first’ is more evolved. When an employee faces some problem at the hands of their bosses, the people around him or her, mostly the ‘peer group’, would seek to know the details of the problem, its cause etc. They do shower their sympathy, tears, and prayers initially. When the problem grows further all those people who were so sympathetic in the beginning, move away from the victim and behave like the ‘victim’ is either unknown to them or is excommunicated. Spontaneously they declare ‘anathema’ towards the victim.

This behavior of people in corporate should not be seen as strange or bizarre. The employees in the corporate primarily live for themselves. They are in the team only for the above purpose and not to protect and safeguard others.

Many employees do stupidly believe that their teammates or fellow colleagues will take care of them when there is a crisis. People in the corporate must realize the fact that their ‘existence in the team’ is not for the ‘existence’ of the team but for ‘own existence’.

This sacred management message every life form in nature knows and so are many ‘smart’ employees in most corporate. The naïve and innocent employees must learn this and must position accordingly in the team.

Dr S Ranganathan