What the Tao Te Ching Teaches Us About Leadership
We work with being, but non-being is what we use
When I read Stephen Mitchell’s beautiful translation of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, poem №11 singles itself out to me as I view it from an orchestra conductor’s perspective and causes me to think about leadership in a new way.
Is leadership about what we create ourselves — the tangible things that we accomplish and build — the energy and guidance that we outwardly project to other people and situations?
Or is it found in the space that we open up for others — enabling connections and ideas to conspire together to create something special in a unique, (albeit perhaps a guided and curated), space?
№11 of the Tao Te Ching reads:
We join spokes together in a wheel,
but it is the centre hole
that makes the wagon move.
We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want.
We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the inner space
that makes it livable.
We work with being,
but non-being is what we use.
