Jan 1, 2021
The Art of Leadership: What is Enough?
Sections 44–49
What is leadership? Why is this important? How do you lead successfully? The Art of Leadership provides timeless answers to these eternal questions. It is a modern reading of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching — a guide for leaders in ancient China. “Purpose is a surer path to productivity than pressure. Pressure keeps knocking you off the path. Purpose keeps bringing you back onto the path” Kent Beck “Invite over inflict.” Jonathan Smart (All Parts; Other reading and viewing formats).
44. Knowing What is Enough
Lao Tzu
Reputation or person: which is closer?
Person or possessions: which is dearer?
Gain or loss: which is worse?
Thrift comes at great cost.
Hoarding leads to heavy losses.
Know what is enough —
avoid disgrace.
Know when to stop —
avoid harm.
This is how to endure.
Ames & Hall
Wealth and reputation are familiar preoccupations, and are frequently sought at the expense of one’s own personal well-being.
Satisfaction with what you have is neither the attainment of some subjective state of mind nor the acquisition of some objective standard of property, but rather an ongoing attunement of the relationships that locate one within one’s natural, social, and cultural environments.
45. Flawed Perfection
Lao Tzu
The most perfect seems flawed
yet its use is continuous.
The most full seems empty
yet in use is inexhaustible.
The most straight seems crooked;
the most skilful seems clumsy;
the most eloquent seems mute.
Movement overcomes cold;
stillness overcomes heat.
With pure stillness you can lead the world.
Ames & Hall
The provisional nature of experience gives the quite appropriate impression that nothing is perfect or complete. That is, something is missing and has yet to come.
46. Knowing That Enough is Enough
Lao Tzu
With purpose
stray horses fertilise the fields.
Without purpose
warhorses are bred at the frontier.
The greatest evil: greed.
The greatest fault: discontent.
Therefore,
knowing that enough is enough
is always
satisfying.
Ames & Hall
Not only are we unable to find satisfaction in what we have gotten, but in direct proportion to our increase in getting our satisfaction becomes increasingly elusive.
Perhaps what is most satisfying is getting the most out of what we already have.
47. Succeeding Without Pressure and Control
Lao Tzu
Without going out the door,
know the world.
Without looking out the window,
understand purpose.
The further you go,
the less you know.
This is why skilled leaders
know without moving;
understand without looking;
succeed without pressure and control.
Le Guin
A Roman poet remarked that travellers change their sky but not their soul. Other poets, untraveled and inexperienced, Emily Brontë and Emily Dickinson, prove Lao Tzu’s point: it’s the inner eye that really sees the world.
Sun Tzu
Skilled leaders prepare by cultivating purpose and doctrine;
this governs success or failure.
Jullien
If one restrains oneself from taking coercive action, it is so as to allow things to happen and to allow the world to “change” of its own accord; an implicit transformation takes the place of direct action. This rejection of planned action is a valuable ploy, particularly in politics. The more rules and prescriptions proliferate, the worse the state of the world becomes, precisely because they constitute an exacerbated expression of political “doing”.
48. Unlearning
Lao Tzu
Pursue knowledge,
gain daily.
Pursue purpose,
lose daily.
Lose and again lose,
arrive at doing without pressure and control.
Doing without pressure and control — and everything gets done.
When leading the world,
always avoid interfering,
since when interfering the world escapes you.
Yuen
As far as Lao Tzu is concerned, “learning” is unable to lead an individual closer to the purpose (tao) because it involves learning and employing simplified forms and models (usually in the form of experience and knowledge) in order to grasp reality, thereby preventing reality from being grasped as it actually is. In order to avoid using these mental constructs, Lao Tzu suggests that individuals should actively try to “lose” them each day, which is the way to pursue purpose (tao) vis-a-vis “learning”. “Direct observation” (i.e. without the interference of mental constructs/models) can then be used to arrive at the true face of reality.
Ames & Hall
The most productive activities are a function of optimally productive relations. And since coercion as either aggressor or victim diminishes the creative possibilities of a situation, optimally productive relations are the outcome of deferential dispositions in which all members of a social and natural nexus are able to express themselves fully in their relationships. It is under such conditions that a thriving community can accomplish the most, where “the most” is defined as the unique and productively diverse character of the community itself.
Jullien
Acting without coercion is promoted solely in the expectation of tangible benefits purely on the grounds of its effectiveness; it is by refraining from action that we can best bring about what we want to accomplish.
49. Integrity is Compassion and Trust
Lao Tzu
Skilled leaders think and feel immediately
They make people’s thoughts and feelings
their own.
People doing good
they treat well.
People doing evil
they also treat well.
Integrity is compassion.
Trustworthy people
they trust.
Untrustworthy people
they also trust.
Integrity is trust.
Skilled leaders create harmony in the world
blending their hearts with the world.
People fix their eyes and ears on them,
and leaders become the world’s children.
Duyvendak
Taoists have no fixed views. They admit both Good and Evil equally, and maintain the same conduct towards all people. Their hearts and minds are completely free from prejudice.
Le Guin
The truly wise are looked after (or looked upon) like children because they’re trusting, unprejudiced, and don’t hold themselves above or apart from ordinary life.
The Art of Leadership: All Parts
Contents: A very short summary of all parts
Introduction: How to make a difference
- Sections 1–6: Purpose
- Sections 7–13: Attending to needs
- Sections 14–19: We did it ourselves
- Sections 20–23: Grasping the whole
- Sections 24–30: Self-organisation
- Sections 31–37: Knowing yourself
- Sections 38–43: Effectiveness
- Sections 44–49: What is enough?
- Sections 50–55: Integrity
- Sections 56–61: Living with change
- Sections 62–66: Serving without interference
- Sections 67–73: Effectiveness without contending
- Sections 74–81: Balancing
Glossary: Explanation of key terms
Acknowledgements: Standing on the shoulders of giants
Sources: Where to learn more
Other reading and viewing formats
This is provided as Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International by the author, Erik Schön.
