Number Fifty Nine Learning To Lead
59
the king takes off his crown
picks up the jester’s rod
and is finally free
Lesson # 59
Over time, you will learn
to practice restraint
over your verbal expressions.
Over time, you will learn to be
moderate in your actions.
Over time, you will learn to be frugal
about how you expend
your energy.
Over time, you will learn how to come
at the world from your center,
rather than from your reactivity.
From: 81 Lessons from the Tao Te Ching
Number 59 Learning to lead
The first task in true leadership
is to let go
of your pre-conceived ideas about things
This takes years of practice time maturity
and the experience of
failing getting up failing again getting up again
Over time
you learn to practice restraint on your verbal expressions
Over time
you learn to be moderate in your actions
Over time
you learn to be frugal about how you expend your energy
Over time
you learn how to come at the world from your center rather than from your reactivity
When you have a deep authentic base
you can accomplish great things
beyond what anyone expected
You treat everyone and especially those who trust you to lead them
with the firm wise compassion that a mother has for their child
and you inspire them with a vision
that arises from your deeply rooted foundation in the Ways of the Tao
NUMBER FIFTY NINE
To govern men and to serve heaven nothing is better than to have a reserve.
The Master indeed has a reserve; it is called brilliant foresight.
Brilliant foresight is called the increasing abundance of Teh.
If you have an ever-increasing abundance of Teh , then your Inner Life is unconquerable.
If you Inner Life in unconquerable, then its limits cannot be known.
If you cannot gauge the limits of your Inner Life,
then you shall surely possess the kingdom.
If you possess the Mother of the kingdom,
You shall endure forever.
This is to be deep rooted and to have a firm foundation.
The possessor of Tao shall have enduring life and infinite vision.
Isabella Mears, The Tao Teh King, A Tentative Translation from the Chinese, William McLellan, Glascow, 1916.
Number 59 (commentary) How do you become a great leader?
I hate to disappoint those twenty-four-year-old tech wonder-boys who picked up this book for a lark, but it takes years of practice, years of patiently building up your capacities for self-observation and correction to become a great leader. It takes years of fighting that part of yourself that just wants to resist or minimize negative feedback. Over time and with maturity you learn how deeply take in and honor feedback (especially hard, critical honest feedback). You learn how to let go of yourself and let go of all those cherished, little truths you believed about your greatness.
Let yourself fail.
Let yourself not know.
Let yourself ask for help.
Develop the capacity to listen to yourself. Develop the capacity to listen to others.
Listen to the space around you and listen to the roots you have planted in the Tao.
Learn from everything.
Stop tapdancing. Stop efforting. Stop being an expert. Just let it all in before opening your mouth.
When you do speak, and when you do take action, speak slowly and be wise and kind.
Tangent and Tool #59, Deconstructing the myth of spiritual attainment A q question and a reflection: “Am I just supposed to be super mellow?” There is an idea that spiritual adherents meditate, serve others and rise above their angry or fearful animal emotions and needs. Through deep devotion they achieve higher and more holy states of consciousness, far above us ordinary people. You can find them in a cave somewhere, high on a mountain top, with crossed legs, in a state of perpetual peacefulness. That is not Lao Tsu’s vision. He is trying to teach his work to emperors and kings, people who need to take powerful, impactful actions during every day that they reign. His methodology is to help these influencers craft their impact on those they lead, over time. He knows that grounding your work in authenticity and compassion (rather than in expertise and authority) ultimately wins out. He wants his followers to be in the world, impacting it, all the while remembering that they are not only that. A Taoist inspired leader finds a way to kick ass in a way that empowers everyone.