Tao Te Ching and Wuwei Management

Chapter 18 "Nothing is Useful": The matter of "no" respecting relatives is not whether you can, but whether you want to

Zhuge Liang can be said to be a hero of a generation. The Battle of Chibi and others are widely recited by the world, showing his superhuman wisdom and courage.However, he took care of all kinds of affairs, doing everything by himself, and even "self-educated books", and finally died young due to overwork, leaving a lot of emotion for future generations.In modern society, the work of leadership is extremely complicated. If managers do everything by themselves, even if they have three heads and six arms, they will be overwhelmed, and things will inevitably backfire.Therefore, leaders should properly authorize and achieve "do nothing but do everything", so as to achieve excellent leadership and management.

Doing everything by yourself is an outdated leadership style, and managers need to change their perspective.

Thirty spokes, a total of one hub, when there is no one, it is used as a car.It is considered as a tool, and when it is not there, it is used as a tool.Digging out households is considered a room, and if there is no room, it is used as a room.Therefore, what is there is for profit, and what is not for use.

—— "Tao Te Ching" Chapter 11

Thirty spokes gather in the holes in a hub, and only when the hub is hollow can it function as a car.Knead and knead pottery clay to make utensils. Only when the utensils are hollow can they function as utensils.Excavating doors and windows to build a house, only the hollow parts inside the walls of the doors and windows can function as a house.Therefore, "yes" is convenient for people, and "nothing" plays its role.

"I go to work 3 days a week, 2 hours a day, and drink coffee and chat with friends when I have free time..." This is Wei Naihong's real life in the past 6 years, but Wei Naihong is not a SOHO group in the general population (freelance) By).He is the founder and general manager of Siji Boutique Department Store, which has 8 chain stores and an annual revenue of nearly 12 billion yuan. He is well-known in the daily-use department store industry in central Taiwan.

As a small and medium-sized business owner, Wei Naihong's working hours are more flexible and free than those in SOHO clusters. I don't know how many business owners are envious.Wei Naihong said with a smile that business owners don't have to envy his life, as long as the business owners are willing to let go and strictly abide by the saying "the boss should not stand in front of the line of fire", in fact, the boss can also be very easy.

In an enterprise, the leader must be willing to act as the "nothing" side, because only when the "nothing" side is done well and the role of "nothing" is fully utilized, can the value of employees' "something" be brought into play.Therefore, business managers who really understand the Tao can realize that they do not necessarily have much ability. The key is to mobilize collective power to serve themselves and make the entire enterprise run well.

The so-called delegation means that the leader delegates a part of the authority and the corresponding responsibility to the subordinates.According to the Tao, reasonable authorization can improve the service level of enterprises, enhance market competitiveness, continuously innovate and enhance the flexibility of enterprises, and enhance the efficiency and level of organizational decision-making; at the same time, it can also enable employees to obtain corresponding trust and incentives, Give full play to enthusiasm and creativity to make greater contributions to the enterprise; it can relieve the pressure on the management of the enterprise and gain more time to consider major issues such as enterprise strategy and market adjustment.

How a leader treats power reflects whether his management philosophy is progressing or lagging.A leader's energy is limited, and it is impossible and unnecessary to do everything personally.Think more, see more, talk less, do less, these are the principles that a good manager must master.Don't have to "do everything yourself" for everything big and small.Only by standing on the sidelines and watching can you really "be clear to the bystanders" and avoid "bewilderment by the authorities", judge right and wrong more fairly and effectively, and truly see which things the company should insist on and which things need to be improved.On the contrary, if a leader does not know how to authorize and decides and executes everything by himself, then the result of doing everything by himself will inevitably lead to nothing.The reason why many of our leaders fall into the vicious circle of "the busier they are, the more blind they become" is because they have to do everything themselves and dare not delegate power.Therefore, it is by no means alarmist to say that a leader who does not delegate power cannot be a good leader and loses the greatest capital of being a leader.

Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan was an excellent authorizer.He only focuses on the most important things and leaves other things to his capable people, so he can often go to play and take vacations, but this does not prevent him from becoming one of the most outstanding presidents in American history.From this point of view, effective delegation has long-term benefits for leaders themselves, employees and organizations.

The practice of Mr. Zhang Ruimin, the president of Haier Group, is also worthy of our reference.Zhang Ruimin likes authorization management, and is used to only coming up with ideas, and the specific details are done by the people below.Haier's various departments operate independently, and the group only manages the leaders of each department.The group first appoints a top leader, and after the top leader nominates and forms a leadership team, the group then appoints deputies and ministerial committee members.After all the equipment is completed, only major issues such as fund allocation, quality demonstration, project investment, and technological transformation are planned by the group, and the rest of the departments are managed by each department.

Ministers are very used to authorized management.Since the group already has management "modules", all aspects of management regulations are complete and detailed. As long as they are carefully understood and then combined with their own actual conditions, all business departments can easily master them.Zhang Ruimin is very relieved of the young bosses of several major companies under him, and the funds of hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars a year are in their hands.

Haier's decentralization is a complete decentralization. Managers and employees all have their own rights and responsibilities, which greatly mobilizes the enthusiasm of employees and cadres, and also reduces the burden on leaders. This effect of "managing people invisible" It is achieved through decentralization.It seems that the leader manages fewer people and things, but has received better results, achieving the goal of "regarding nothing but managing".

During the Second World War, Montgomery, the commander-in-chief of the British Army, pointed out that as a senior commander, he must not be personally involved in the formulation of details.His own style was to "pace around" in a quiet atmosphere, killing long hours in deliberation on important issues.Montgomery believes that a commander in a fierce battle must always think calmly about how to defeat the enemy.Turning a blind eye to the important matters that are really related to the battle situation, and doing everything personally for trivial matters that have little impact on the battle situation.Of course, such a leader will not win the support of his subordinates.

Even if a leader has three heads and six arms, it is impossible to do everything by himself and control everything.A brilliant leader lies in the fact that after clarifying the various responsibilities that the subordinates must undertake, he grants them corresponding powers, so that personnel at every level can perform their duties and fulfill their responsibilities.In addition to making necessary demonstrations, leaders generally do not need to intervene too much with their subordinates, and it is not appropriate to intervene in all matters regardless of their size.Leaders who do this can stimulate the enthusiasm of their subordinates and win the trust and support of their subordinates.Managers have to do everything themselves, which will not only exhaust themselves physically and mentally, but also dampen the enthusiasm of employees.Managers should learn to delegate power and stimulate the potential of employees.This will not only reduce their own burden, but also enhance the participation of employees, which is conducive to the long-term development of the enterprise.For a really good manager, the less management the better, at least it shouldn't be left alone.

(End of this chapter)