In boardrooms across the globe, executives grapple with complex decisions that demand not just analytical thinking but deep self-awareness and psychological insight. While modern leadership development often focuses on external skills—strategic planning, communication, team building—an ancient Saṃskṛta text offers profound insights into the internal architecture that determines leadership effectiveness.
The Kāmandaka Nītisāra, a classical treatise on governance and statecraft, presents two verses that provide a sophisticated framework for understanding the psychological foundations of leadership. These insights, when translated into contemporary leadership psychology, offer transformative perspectives on executive decision-making, self-awareness, and organizational influence.
The Nine Pillars of Leadership Self-Awareness
Verse 31 presents what modern psychology might recognize as a comprehensive model of leadership consciousness:
"Dharma and adharma, pleasure and pain, desire and aversion, effort, knowledge, and impressions—these are described as indicators of the existence of the self."
- Dharma
- Adharma
- Pleasure
- Pain
- Desire
- Aversion
- Effort
- Knowledge
- Impressions
.png)
