My wife gave me a book to read called the Tao of Leadership. It’s all about how surrendering the ego and being selfless is the path to effective leadership. Hmm… I wonder what she’s trying to tell me?
The book is by John Heider who has adapted Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching and applied it to the problems facing people in today’s leadership roles. The book is full of nuggets like;
“Enlightened leadership is service, not selfishness. The leader grows more and lasts longer by placing the well-being of all above the well-being of self alone.”
“Also, stay in the present. The present is more available than either memories of the past or fantasies of the future. So attend to what is happening now.”
“Selflessness gives one center.
Center creates order.
When there is order, there is little to do.”
And then there’s the section with my name all over it called ‘Don’t Stir Things Up’;
“Resist any temptation to instigate issues or elicit emotions which have not appeared on their own.”
“If you stir things up, you will release forces before their time and under unwarranted pressure.”
“When hidden issues and emotions emerge naturally, they resolve themselves naturally.”
I’ve always been attracted to Lao Tzu, as well as other Eastern thinkers. Maybe getting into the correct mindset is the key, perhaps I’ll shave my head and start wearing a saffron robe to Council Chambers just like the ‘Dolly’ Lama.
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If you have room for a measure of modern Western thought, how about blending in a few words from Andre Comte-Sponville with the thoughts of Lao Tzu?
“For every man there are things he can and things he cannot endure; whether or not he will encounter before he dies the thing that will break him depends as much on chance as on merit. Heroes know this, when they are lucid; it makes them humble with regard to themselves and merciful toward others. All the virtues are interdependent, and they all depend on courage.”
That’s Comte-Sponville’s closing thoughts on the virtue of courage in “A Small Treatise on the Great Virtues.”
Thanks for that André,
I’m not familiar with that author, will have to look him up.
[I just ordered a copy of 'A Small Treatise on the Great Virtues: The Uses of Philosophy in Everyday Life' from abebooks. Will report when received.]
JS