A Buddhist View of Leadership
TweetAccording to Buddhism, there are three kinds of leaders. Which one are you?
The first is the King. A King leads the charge; heads up the expedition, project, or creation. The King crosses the finish line first, making it possible for his team to also cross. He has the vision, makes decisions, and then telegraphs his instructions to the team backing him up. What they work on today, he attended to yesterday. What they will do tomorrow, he is figuring out today.
The second kind of leader is called the Ferryman, who brings all on board before attempting to make a crossing. He makes sure everyone has a position, knows the positions of others, and how what each does impacts the whole. He leads through creating relationships while always keeping an eye on the other shore. What they accomplish is a result of collaboration. The process is everything and when they win, all cross the finish line together.
The third kind of leader is the Shepherd, who makes sure all on his team cross the finish line first. The Shepherd crosses last. Only when each team member has scored a personal win is a collective win declared. The Shepherd can lead from the front or hustle from the sidelines when needed, but knows that ultimately his position is to be the unseen presence that invisibly creates forward motion for all.
Although the Shepherd is considered the ultimate leader, at different times, on different projects, and with different kinds of people, a different style of leadership is called for.
Each one can get his team across the finish line and each one has merits.
Each one has vision about the goal and insight about the process.
Most meritorious of all is to know which style to employ when, and to encourage others to embrace their style rather than your own.
Meditation teaches you to identify and dissolve your own projections onto self and others, which in turn creates the circumstances by which to see with such clarity. Without clear-seeing, there is no leadership. Thus, meditation is the leaders’ secret (non-aggressive) weapon.
For those who would like to learn the practice, check out this video.
2 comments
Any one of them, separately or in some combination, sounds idyllic. Any words of wisdom for those of us in the workplace who feel as though we have none, or very few of these qualities in our leaders? Do we share our feelings with them though we are not encouraged to do so, and may even suffer consequences for our honesty, or do we just keep our noses to the grindstone and try to let go of the need to have any of the three types? What can we do as team members to inspire great leadership?
I know, right? We’re lucky if our bosses can be one of these types! That would be something to be grateful for, certainly. In the meantime, we each lead someone or something in the workplace and the best thing to do is to embody one or all of these styles ourselves and hope that it wears off…