The leader's main job is to make themselves obsolete.
Interpretation
A true leader empowers others, making their own role unnecessary.
This quote by Laozi emphasizes the idea that effective leadership is about cultivating and empowering others to take charge. A great leader focuses on building a strong team, fostering individual growth, and creating an environment where their guidance is no longer needed, ultimately leading to a self-sufficient and empowered organization.
In practice
In a leadership workshop, you might say this quote to encourage managers to develop their team's skills.
If you understand others you are smart._x000D_ If you understand yourself you are illuminated._x000D_ If you overcome others you are powerful._x000D_ If you overcome yourself you have strength._x000D_ If you know how to be satisfied you are rich._x000D_ If you can act with vigor, you have a will._x000D_ If you don't lose your objectives you can be long-lasting._x000D_ If you die without loss, you are eternal.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.
A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.
In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.
Rule your mind with serenity rather than with force and manipulation.
The worst mistake a leader can make is to mentor no one, choose no successor and leave no legacy.
Leadership is not a license to do less. Leadership is a responsibility to do more
To be an enduring, great company, you have to build a mechanism for preventing or solving problems that will long outlast any one individual leader.
It would be counterproductive to tell people exactly what they are supposed to do and exactly how they are supposed to do it to a point where they become more concerned about your expectations than about completing their work in a quality way.
Only when women wield power in significant numbers will we create a society that genuinely works for all women β¦ that will be a society that works for everyone.
Teamwork remains a sustainable competitive advantage that has been largely untapped because it is hard to measure (teamwork impacts the outcome of an organization in such comprehensive and invasive ways that it's virtually impossible to isolate it as a single variable) and because it is extremely hard to achieve (it requires levels of courage and discipline that few executives possess) - ironically, building a strong team is very simple (it doesn't require masterful insights or tactics).
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