Number Fifty Seven The Skill of Leadership
57
the deer and the fawn
stroll past the No Trespassing sign
that stops me
Lesson # 57
The sharper and more dangerous
your weapons,
the more violence you incur.
The more laws you try to enforce,
the smarter criminals get.
The faster you solve complex problems
the more that chaotic, unintended
consequences occur.
Stop rushing to fix things.
Come back to your own center.
Be judicious with
your ideas and emotions.
Do that and everyone can relax.
From: 81 Lessons from the Tao Te Ching
Number 57 The skill of leadership
In peaceful times
lead in a way that the people expect
In dangerous times
lead in a way that your adversaries could never expect
But the greatest leader leads
by letting natural forces evolve
How do I know this
Through experience and self-exploration
The more you try to impose restrictions
the more impoverished is the life of those you lead
The sharper riskier and more dangerous your weapons and strategies
the more the world violently erupts around you
The more you try to quickly and cleverly solve your problems
the more bizarre are the unintended consequences of your solutions
The more laws you lay down
the more lawless people become
When I stop rushing in to fix things people become empowered
When I return to my own still center people don’t rip off my energy
When I come back to myself everyone around me relaxes
When I control my desires other people begin to control theirs
NUMBER FIFTY SEVEN
To govern a kingdom, use righteousness.
To conduct a war, use strategy.
To be a true world-ruler, be occupied with Inner Life.
How do I know this is so?
By this:
The more restrictive the laws, the poorer the people.
The more machinery used, the more trouble in the kingdom.
The more clever and skillful the people,
the more do they make artificial things.
The more the laws are in evidence, the more do thieves and robbers abound.
That is why the self-controlled man says:
If I act from Inner Life the people will become transformed in themselves.
If I love stillness the people will become righteous in themselves.
If I am occupied with Inner Life
the people will become enriched in themselves.
If I love the Inner Life the people will become pure in themselves.
Isabella Mears, The Tao Teh King, A Tentative Translation from the Chinese, William McLellan, Glascow, 1916.
Number 57 (commentary) What makes a great leader?
A great leader is content with being just adequate, just good enough, just doing what people expect from them, if that is all that is needed in the situation. They are also content with leading in a brilliant, spontaneous manner if that is what is needed of them.
But their default should be to step back and empower those they lead into their own greatness.
A great leader knows that the more they try to fix and control things, the faster things fly out of control.
A great leader knows that the most ruthless path to short-term profits leads to the greatest suffering to those who trusted the leader to lead.
A great leader knows full well that any solution to a problem will inevitably spawn many more problems, so they are not taken by surprise when this happens.
They empower rather than repair.
They believe in their workforce rather than distrusting them.
They lead by example, rather than trying to impress others with pompous dictums.
And they always return to their own center.
Tangent and Tool #57, On leadership A question and a reflection: “What is great leadership?” It is easy to make the mistake of only thinking of the leader as the person who is out in front, marching ahead, leading the way. Even the dictionary defines a leader as “The person who commands.” But that is just one form of leadership. Lao Tsu writes, “The greatest leader leads by letting natural forces evolve.” What does that mean? Sure, sometimes it means grabbing the flag and leading troops into battle. But there is also the co-leader, who leads by sharing the control and command functions with another leader, or even shares leadership with those they lead. And there is the leader who sits back and says nothing and does nothing, because they see the situation is unfolding just fine without their intervention.