The chook is knocking on the door

One more Quarantine tale, may be the wisdom is overflowing.

I’m on my study table, actually, my sister-in-law’s study, because I’m self-isolating in their house for 14 days. Yes, I dared to cross the state border during last few days and I have to be distanced now. New Normal.

Anyway, one afternoon, I was home alone and someone was scratching on the glass door. I thought it must be their cat, but she never did that. So I kept pondering, but being pre-occupied with my work, I ignored it. I had an important presentation, which I self nominated to create and present to my team, share my learnings, so I ignored the curiosity. After a few moments, feeling satisfied with my work,  I could not ignore the inkling and came out to see if the cat was alright. She was hiding somewhere. So, I decided to check up on the chooks in the backyard. They are focused on survival and all they know is to consume food and water & lay eggs because that is the job description and natural phenomenon for their species.  But the rogue one jumps out of the their fenced area some times, showing off its acquired skill. 

As soon as I stepped out, there it was, the rogue one. Trying to peck me on my foot. Euww. I did not like this. Now, I know the trick, so I lured it back to the yard and fed them all some scraps from kitchen left overs. But they just kept looking at me. I wondered what was wrong, so went in to see, their feeder was empty. So basically, the chook escaped the yard to find food for itself, explore some fresh grass.

Chook after knocking on the door

But I think it was not happy, its friends were hungry for their feed and it wanted to make sure that Humans in the house get the message. So self nominated itself to be their Leader and needed to knock on the door and tell us that we have forgotten to feed them. It took responsibility to work for the group, because it had figured out how to escape the fence, that is my pure assumption, I’m not Dr. Doolittle. 

I named the chickens Chik, Pik, Rik and Mik, when my brother got them as a gift on house warming - yes, they are country people. Yes, they give chooks for house warming, and they get fresh eggs for as long as they take care of their chicken. I never though Mik will explain to me the essence of Situational Leadership and also that sometimes we choose to be LEADERS for survival.

Chik, Pik, Rik and Mik

No one taught Mik that it had a career path to become a leader. It could have just eaten the plants and grass and chilled out in the lawn and waited for the humans to do their duty. But Mik decided to take on the lead, get food for the team and be a HERO, well not really, but I enjoyed saying that.

So a superbusy and super cold day of work from home and 4 chooks taught me why some people become self nominated leaders in any given scenario:

1. You want to be a Leader, because you like being in the front and mentoring and making sure that your team is able to get through the challenge.

2. You don’t need a title to define you. World, both professional and personal, is full of new challenges everyday and you need to carve out a path, look for opportunities and work about your pack’s sustenance. 

3. When adversity strikes, you just take the leap, cross your boundaries and venture into a new territory, someone will always be there to look out for you. Ask for help and you’ll get it. There are lot of people with common goals, you just don’t know them, yet.

4. Share what you have. There is enough for everyone in this world and you will get what you deserve. There are others who might not be as strong (physically or mentally) as you are in a few traits (like jumping off the hedge) but they can definitely motivate you enough to take this step. They can be your coach, supporter or just a reason to utilise your strengths.

All of us are brilliant professionals. But leadership is an intrinsic trait. Leadership does not come with designation, it comes from within. The underlying reason is that you care- for your team, your company, your brand, your people, your family and so on. Keep the pathos ON and keep leading.