?A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.? ~Lao Tzu
?A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.? ~Lao Tzu
Comments
30 responses to “awesome leadership quote”
love it…that is the person who has struck the balance between control and abdication
WOW!! That sums up leadership in a nutshell. I hadn’t heard that quote before.
I’ve heard Maxwell talk about Leaders vs. Managers. A manager is a person who tries to get you to do something for him while a leader makes you feel like you’re doing it with him.
Yes, Yes, Yes!
man, that quote is right on!
Yeah, but that leader won’t get good references when applying for a new job ;-)
Lao Tzu also wrote, “Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish – too much handling will spoil it.”
Lori
Great quote!
I don’t agree with this quote, specifically if it concerns leadership in the church or by a Christian. Now if it said…..
?A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say look what our Jesus has done !!!! ?
I’m on board.
What concerns me about the church more than most anything else today are #1) the “cult of personality” I tend to see from church to church and #2) The obsession with “leadership” by even the leaders themselves.
What is our leadership source? The Holy Spirit. In this case we are looking for wisdom from the central figure of TAOISM. The book of Acts lays out the foundation of how the Body of Christ shall function and ancillary passages (1 Corinthians 13; Romans 12) show VERY CLEARLY that the Church will function far differently than any other organization on the earth. Unfortunately I’m afraid many of our leaders look to Jack Welch, Steve Jobs and Marcus Buckingham among others to the same extent or more than they do the Holy Spirit for leadership resources.
Don’t agree with me ? Lay out Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 13 and place those next to your churches organizational flow chart. Churches today, more often than not, look much more like the Fortune 500 protocol than they do the book of Acts. And we think this maximizes our effectiveness?
Who said this quote was for just churches?
I know a guy that can do that and it is amazing to watch.
I also know what Jud aka Judas is driving at (yeah BUSTED)
Our leadership styles are like our personalities. They are the filters through which God grace and mercy and leadership are displayed.
i hate that you are two hours ahead of me … i was going to post a leadership quote today. dang it. :)
Sorry Anne, allow me to clarify, this quote, while thought provoking, would be fine for corporations and I’m sure that some of the most successful corporations apply this and other similar logic. I was thinking of that quote applied to Christian leadership where it really couldn’t be supported by scripture. Jesus Christ is our leader and the only one worthy of any net glory/ credit.
Harold, sorry to disappoint you but I’m not Judas, not really sure what you are talking about. My actual name is Jud.
also, Harold, there has to be room for disagreement, even strong disagreements, to be voiced among the church body. You are free to “shout me down” if you must but I’m not sure if calling someone “Judas” is fair game. To your credit Anne, you seem to allow contrarian voices on your blog and I appreciate that quality.
contrarian voices? really?
yes, she does – cause she’s not afraid to hear it – but that don’t mean she’ll buy it!
btw – that’s my awesome leadership quote of the day
can i get that published?
Hey Jud,
And any time you feel the pain, hey, Jud, refrain
Don’t carry the world upon your shoulders
Well don’t you know that its a fool who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder.
If you noticed my good friend I said I knew what you were driving at. I understood what you were trying to say. I was catching your drift. In tune with your frequency. At one with your diatribe.
I am the KING of disagreement. I am always looking for the other side of the conversation because I believe too many are disenfranchised from the dialogue.
The reason so many are left out of the prevalent conversations are their approach to the conversation.
I read a great little post this morning on a blog you may have seen http://www.withoutwax.tv . It talks about leading with love. That idea of leading with love is a subset of living with love. That is where we all need to be. My concerns for you outweigh or are equal with my concerns for me. Matt 22:39
Jud,
What is it in particular that you find offensive or disconcerting about the Lao Tzu quote from a Christian perspective?
At what point do you feel it falls outside of the umbrella of Christian wisdom?
Because Lao Tzu is the founder of Taoism and said it does not by itself make it suspect. What is it about this statement that strikes you negatively or anti-christian?
My take on it would be that if a leader is able to lead without lording it over his followers, enabling them to accomplish his will seemingly on their own that that is a pretty good attempt at servant leadership.
I’m asking for clarification b/c I did not and do not initially see anything wrong with the quote from a Christian perspective.
P.S. Harold thought you were a guy whose screen name is “Judas” who is sort of a regular that would appear to have a contrary voice for the sake of being contrary. So he thought he outed you trying to be sneaky.
and he still thinks he did…
Jud…I don’t think the purpose of the post was to get anyone to convert to something else…it was just a post…a post about good leadership.
If you follow your thought, then no other quote, from anyone but Jesus would be worthy to share…or to learn from.
If that’s your thought, I disagree with you…in peace and humility…You can quote me on that, on second thought, I’m far from being Jesus!
This succinctly describes the woman, Julie, who has been the leader or our Worship and Creative Arts department at church. She has been an exquisite leader.
That is the only way I can lead. Awesome quote.
Jeff,
Here is why I have a problem with that quote from a Christian perspective. Jesus Christ gets the glory period. If we believe something gets done because of ourselves or a leader amongst us the we have too high a view of man and too low a view of God. To bring it down to sidewalk level… how many times when you share your faith with others are you met with the response “Oh, well, I go to Jim’s (pastor) church, or Bill’s church or Rick’s church” This is where the problem manifests itself on a base level and I have a big problem with that. I am NOT being a contrary voice for the sake of being a contrary voice.
The problem is that we have so followed after the glitter and sparkle of the world… the starbucks way, the apple way the whoever is on top of the heap way that the church a has become something it never was intended to be. Far too often it emerges as a “cult of personality”. We have picked and chosen what fits outr personalities and “styles” fron Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 13. What happens is that a few gifts, administration and the role of pastor or teacher have become the crown jewels. Not saying at all that this can not work to great effect… often it does. BUT STILL it’s not being built on the same cornerstone we find in Acts.
Just because we can dredge some kind of truth from a quote does not make it TRUTH. Just sayin’.
So Jud…where do you go to church? You go to Jesus’ church? Isn’t that going to get confusing when you try to invite someone to go with you? Which of Jesus’ church do you attend?
By following your theory, you can’t refer to the church by pastor’s name or even by church name…unless it is named Jesus…
OK, I’ll walk into the fire with this one. Somebody please help me since sometimes I cannot articulate what I have in my mind properly.
Why is it that even a simple post like the one Anne did can spark intense conversations like this? I don’t want to sound that I’m slamming anybody, but this is the thing that can get mentally exhausting after a while. I’m not saying people shouldn’t disagree since that would be impossible, but this is the thing I’ve noticed from various blogs discussions that rather than finding the common ground or finding the positive thing in certain ‘non-christian’ things or topics, people would start putting that into a Christian magnifying glass and start nitpicking on it…then other people start to challenge, then before you know it a few posts later some people may offend others, etc..
Anybody uuh…agree with me? Can’t we all just bond a bit better (while some can still disagree), maybe have a couple pints, relax and enjoy each other’s post?
yonas my man,
i was going to jump in to the argument, but i ain’t now! i’m stil mad at anne for moving my cheese and actully making me find where the links are and black instead of red font, and man i’ve got a huge list of complaints about her new blog and by golly i have the right to tell her and by golly she better listen and change it back because i ain’t happy ’bout it one bit!!!!!
now, what was your queston?
lol Tony.
Bottom line: Since you mentioned cheese…I was sayin’…can’t we just enjoy a sip of wine (no not to get drunk that would be unbiblical), relax, talks among ourselves, not over-discuss things and get along?
Woman, this thread got hijacked!
I have no idea who this Lao Tzu is, but he is a genius. I really want to hug people who can take a complex, gargantuan, ominous, ugly encyclopedia of wisdom – and reshape into a simple, clear, graceful, beautiful statement.
The greatest form of leadeship (in my humble opinion) is the invisible kind.
There was a quote hanging in Reagan’s oval office that read something like:
“So much more good could be accomplished in this world, if the people doing the work didn’t care who got the credit for it”.
I enjoy your one line blogs!
Lol, this blog is rolling on the controversy. I too, think God gets credit, but he does give us gifts and want to act as a body, being his hands, feet, etc. So, I think it really works both ways! ;)
Also, like your RR quote as well D Rho. How true!!
by the way Tony…
You may want to jump in on this
http://brentinworship.com/blog/2008/07/pastors-should-not-be-paidor-should-they/
I’m sure badguy would LOVE to banter with you! :)
The leaders of the Mofia would definitely agree with this! Who? What? When? Where? What time and era? Who does this apply to..?