The Tao Te Ching is a very short book written more than 2500 years ago, purportedly by a mysterious character that went by the name of Lao Tzu. This book is a great read. It is frequently obtuse, but it also provides some really unusual perspectives on life, success, and leadership.
One of the verses that I come back to frequently and try to hold in my mind as a business leader and school teacher is verse 17 where it says:
When the Master governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists. Next best is a leader who is loved. Next, one that is feared. The worst is one who is despised.
If you don't trust the people, you make them untrustworthy.
The Master doesn't talk, he acts. When his work is done, the people say "Amazing: we did it, all by ourselves."
This is incredible insight. So often we try to be either the kind of leader who is loved, or feared.
When we go out of our way to the kind of leader who is feared, we are hoping to inspire our charges to do exactly what we say. We use negative consequences to keep our people "in line." I have even met this kind of leader who I believe had the best interests of their people in mind. Unfortunately, the result of this is people who are afraid to do anything outside of the specific things that they are told. Who are uncreative, tentative, and uncommitted. At worst, the very people that we count on to build our business become our enemies and look for chances to leave, or thwart our efforts to build and grow.
One of the verses that I come back to frequently and try to hold in my mind as a business leader and school teacher is verse 17 where it says:
When the Master governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists. Next best is a leader who is loved. Next, one that is feared. The worst is one who is despised.
If you don't trust the people, you make them untrustworthy.
The Master doesn't talk, he acts. When his work is done, the people say "Amazing: we did it, all by ourselves."
This is incredible insight. So often we try to be either the kind of leader who is loved, or feared.
When we go out of our way to the kind of leader who is feared, we are hoping to inspire our charges to do exactly what we say. We use negative consequences to keep our people "in line." I have even met this kind of leader who I believe had the best interests of their people in mind. Unfortunately, the result of this is people who are afraid to do anything outside of the specific things that they are told. Who are uncreative, tentative, and uncommitted. At worst, the very people that we count on to build our business become our enemies and look for chances to leave, or thwart our efforts to build and grow.
The leader who desires to be loved is better than the leader who inspires fear, but they are limited in some very serious ways. First, they are often driven by a sick need for approval and regard and that can often make it impossible to difficult things like give clear and effective advice. Second, this person is often so eager to be loved, that they make bad decisions. Third, this kind of leader often becomes the single most important thing in the experience of the teams that they lead. They always speak, they always are the center of attention. The whole team revolves around them. And what happens when the leader gets sick, or reveals their human side, or leaves? The whole organization falls apart. The organization has no capacity to grow and succeed without the personality of the leader. We see this all the time in Network Marketing groups and in traditional businesses, as well. The result of the leader who needs to be loved is often an absence of leadership and creativity in the whole group.
Lao Tzu suggests that the best leader is the kind that is not noticed, but one who builds and supports and sustains their organization. He is not saying that they should go unnoticed, but that they don't draw all the attention to themselves. This kind of leader builds capacity in their organization, loyalty to a cause greater than an individual and in the end, has tremendous commitment to the organization and joy in the results of their efforts. It is a rare leader that can sit back and find real delight when their people say "Amazing: We did it all by ourselves."
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