Tao Te Ching and Wuwei Management

Chapter 20 3 "Its Precious Words": Don't Delegate Power, Don't Interfere in the Work of Subordinates

To trust your subordinates, you must give them power.

You Xi, its precious words. ——Chapter No.17 of "Tao Te Ching"

How leisurely is the best ruler, who seldom calls the shots.In an enterprise, managers should also retreat to the background after authorization to minimize interference.Only in this way can we give full play to the abilities of our employees and expand our business.

A general manager who has worked in a supermarket for 20 years summed up how he managed thousands of employees with high efficiency and said: "What is management? Management is to use the hands of others to complete tasks. If managers want to improve work efficiency, they must You must learn to hand over daily affairs to your subordinates. If a leader is always skeptical of the abilities of his subordinates, and he is reluctant to hand over tasks to them, then he will never be able to prove his ability to work.”

In reality, we often see many busy leaders, just like ants on a hot pot, busy around every day, but with no results.In fact, they have fallen into a whirlpool that they cannot extricate themselves from: the more they do, the more work they need to do by themselves; the more busy they are, the busier they feel.Because they are always worried that their subordinates will not be able to do their jobs well, they are always worried about losing control of their subordinates, and they always think that only they know how to do it, so they have to do it themselves again and again.On the contrary, if you can give your subordinates enough trust, give them the tasks to complete, and provide them with free space, you can free yourself from those tedious daily affairs.

"Lushi Chunqiu" records that Ziqi, a disciple of Confucius, was ordered by the monarch of Lu to go to his father to be a magistrate. However, Ziqi was worried that Lu Jun would listen to the villain's slander and intervene from above, making it difficult for him to let go of his work. , fully exercise their powers and exert their talents.Therefore, before leaving, he took the initiative to ask Lu Jun to send two close ministers to accompany him to Danfu to take office.

After arriving in office, Ziqi ordered the two close officials to write the report, but he himself shook the elbows of the two from time to time to make them mess up, making the whole handwriting not neat.So Ziqi got angry with them, and the two, annoyed and frightened, begged to go back.

After the two returned, they complained to Lord Lu that they could not do anything for Ziqi.Lu Jun asked why, and the two said: "He told us to write, and kept shaking our arms. The writing was broken, but he blamed us and became furious. We couldn't do it anymore, so we had to come back."

After hearing this, Jun Lu sighed and said, "This is Ziqi admonishing me not to disturb his normal work, so that he cannot display his talents." So, Jun Lu sent his most trusted person to convey his message to Qin's father to Ziqi. Purpose: "From now on, you can decide on your own for everything that is beneficial to your father. After five years, report to me the main points."

Ziqi was solemnly ordered, and since then he has been able to exercise his powers and talents normally, and his father has been well governed.

This is the famous allusion of "restriction".

Later, when Confucius heard about it, he praised him and said, "This Lu Jun is a wise man."

The truth is the same in ancient and modern times.When employing people, the leader should ensure that since the subordinates are given positions, they should also be given the power commensurate with their positions. give power.

Carlsson, chairman of Scandinavian Airlines, drastically reformed the stereotypes and bad habits of the Scandinavian aviation system, relying on full decentralization and giving his subordinates full trust and freedom of movement.From the start, his goal was to turn SAS into the most punctual airline in Europe.But he couldn't figure out how to do it.Carlson searched everywhere to see who was in charge of the matter, and finally he found the right person.So he went to visit him: "How can we be the most punctual airline in Europe? Can you find out for me? Come see me in a few weeks and see if we can get there." A few weeks later, they When we met by appointment, Carlsson asked him: "How? Can it be done?" He replied: "Yes, but it will take about six months and may cost you $150 million." Carlsson interjected: " Great, go on." Because he had estimated it would cost more than five times that amount.The man was taken aback and continued, "Wait a minute, I've brought someone here to report to you, and we can tell you exactly what we want to do." Carlsson said, "It's okay, there's no need to report, you go!" It's done." About four and a half months later, the man invited Karlsson to go and show him the performance report for several months, which of course made the Nordic company number one in Europe.But that's not the only reason he invited Carlsson. More importantly, he also saved $150 of the $50 million in funding, for a total of only $100 million.

Carlson said afterwards: "If I just said to him: 'Okay, now I give you a task, I want you to make our company the most punctual airline in Europe, now I give you 200 million US dollars, you want to do this Do it.' You can definitely predict the result. He will come back to me in six months and say: 'We have done what you said, and we have made some progress, but there is still a long way to go. , it may take about 90 days to complete, and it will cost 100 million US dollars.' But this time, this procrastination did not happen. He asked for this amount, and I gave him what he wanted, and he went Get the job done smoothly."

Whether it is Lu Jun or Carlsson of Scandinavian Airlines, their words and deeds have confirmed such a truth: leaders only give positions but not powers, and they set the tone and make decisions on everything, which is actually to subordinates. No respect, no trust.In this way, not only will the subordinates lose their sense of responsibility to be independent and responsible, but it will also seriously dampen their enthusiasm, making it difficult for them to do their best.Therefore, let your subordinates display their talents, and only when he really violates the purpose of your work, you will intervene to lead him on the right track.Only in this way can you fully mobilize the enthusiasm of your subordinates and improve their work performance, and you will eventually win the sincere support of your subordinates.

Smart leaders always provide subordinates with a free working environment and a broad space for display.Smart leaders, after handing over tasks to their subordinates, stop interfering with them.Although they also discuss with their subordinates at the appropriate time the best solution to the problem and the best way to do the job well, they let the subordinates decide how to deal with the things entrusted to them.

(End of this chapter)