The moment that decides your faith

On July 17, 2010, in Hr - Human resources, by Neculai Fantanaru

Show your trust in the science of taking action without allowing your convictions to align to a false reality.

After more than three years of study in Paris, during which he learned everything a skilled doctor must know, young Zaleukos decided to find his way in the world. Every city he arrived in, he used to send word to everybody through a written paper that he is a doctor and he cured many diseases – and indeed, his balms and remedies were effective and brought him lots of money. But he didn't make money only from medicine, but from trade, as well.

Eventually, he arrived in the city of Florence, Italy. Being tired of so much walking, he decided to stay there longer. He opened a shop in the part of the city called Santa Croce and soon announced people about the naturopath services ne provided. Even from the first days, he gained his fame as a doctor and a good medicines' seller.

Destined to play an important role in a bizarre business

But one night, before closing the shop, he found a note which announced him to come at midnight on the bridge called Ponte Vecchio. Believing that someone wants to call him in secret to some sick man's home, which often happened to him before, Zaleukos went without suspecting anything doubtful. There, he met a mysterious gentleman, who really needed his help as a doctor, but not for a man who was alive, but for one who was dead.

In return for four hundred sequins (a lot of gold at that time), Zaleukos accepted the totally strange proposal of the mysterious gentleman with a red robe. According to him, his sister suddenly died because of an incurable disease and, according to the custom in his country, he had to leave her body to her relatives, but he had to send her head to her daughter, so she could see her one more time.

Although this custom of cutting the heads of the loved ones who died seemed awful to him, Zaleukos accepted his proposal, particularly because he was good at embalming the dead.

A painful caress

A lamp hanging by the ceiling was burning slowly in the room where the body was laying. The person showed him towards her bed, asked him to quickly make his work and went out the door in order not to attend the surgery. Zaleukos took his knives out, tools that, as a doctor, always carried with himself, and watched the girl, whose face was indescribably beautiful. Then, in order to finish faster this tough task, he cut off her neck at once, using his sharpest knife.

But what a terror! The dead girl opened her eyes and then immediately closed them with a deep sigh. It was then that Zaleukos realized his act, that he was her murderer. Because there was no doubt that the girl had died just then, because of the wound he caused her.

If you read “The Severed Hand”, written by Wilhelm Hauff, you surely remember the rest of the story. Zelaukos was found guilty, was cut off his left hand and was relegated forever. He lived the rest of his life full of bitterness, with the memory of the atrocious act committed engraved on his soul.

Are you calibrating your attitude and convictions with an alarm that cannot be heard?

Here's an action unworthy of a doctor. If Zaleukos had been a real doctor and hadn't left himself lured by huge rewards, things would have been different. He ought to carefully examine the girl's symptoms, but he didn't show the slightest concern about them. The girl, although she was asleep, wasn't breathing at all? Wasn't her heart beating? Wasn't she warm when touched? Yes, definitely, but, not making any thorough examinations, as it was normal for him to proceed, he passed indifferently over these vital clues. It was just when the girl, torn with pain, gave her last breath, that his bell rang, but it was already too late.

The difference between a good doctor and a bad one is that the first does never confide in appearances, and he always carefully examines everything, while the second, convinced he knows everything, is superficial. Both professionally and by instinct, the doctor must be the most curious man in the world and must be capable to penetrate with his mind and soul into the physical and mental condition of the patient.

Disconnect yourself from autopilot

Instead of coming into play, assuming his quality of doctor, so that of a man who ought to be as curious as it gets, who thinks twice before drawing a conclusion, who doesn't limit to what he knows or what he finds out, Zaleukos acted as if he were on autopilot, as if someone else had taken the decision for him. Which, as we saw, was a big mistake.

If he had disconnected himself in time, if he had released himself from the enchainment of that material impulse and of the preconceived ideas by clicking the “stop” button, things would have been completely different.

Everything is fastened on leadership

As a leader, your actions always have consequences. Just like a single moment of carelessness decided the fate of doctor Zaleukos, destroying his entire future, it could happen to you, too, a single moment that darkens your mind and your judgment can seriously endanger your career.

The higher you are in the hierarchy, the more people depend on you. And if you're not always able to connect yourself to the real reality, but you let yourself carried away or you don't constantly realize your limits, and especially if you don't ward yourself of any temptation, you will pay a high price.

Conclusion: We must take decisions during our entire life. Consequences show us if those decisions were good or not. It's important, especially for a leader, not to take hasty decisions without a prior thorough research, because consequences can be so damaging that they can reverberate throughout his life.

Show your trust in the science of taking action without allowing your convictions to align to a false reality.