Mencius: Good Leaders Promote Good People

Mencius has many good lessons on leadership. Here is one, in Book 3, Part A.4 [1],

"To share one's wealth with others is generosity; to teach others to be good is conscientiousness; to find the right man for the Empire is benevolence. Hence, it is easier to give the Empire away than to find the right man for it."

When the President of the USA has to choose between commuting the sentence or pardoning entirely the Vice President's Chief of Staff because of his crimes, there obviously a problem in the White House when selecting staff.

Leaders who cannot pick honest men to work for them would seem to have a problem themselves with honesty.

Mengzi and Kongzi gave us lessons to teach leadership. We can use these lessons also to judge our leaders.

Robert
[1] Mencius, translated by D.C. Lau, Penguin Books, 1970, page 103.

Paul Yingling, Lynn Turner, and Confucian Leadership

I have written previously about Lt. Col. Paul Yingling. He is an excellent example of Confucian leadership. Col. Yingling wrote an article, A Failure in Generalship, that discusses deeply entrenched problems within the American General staff. Both Confucius (Kongzi) and Mencius (Mengzi) encouraged leaders to listen to criticism and taught that it was, at times, a minister's duty to criticize his lord.

The sage Chu Hsi (Zhu Xi) said, "...we would not dare criticize our elders recklessly, but what harm is there in discussing the rights and wrongs of what they did?" [1]

The Wall Street Journal, Friday June 29, 2007, ran an article on the front page: "Critiques of Iraq War Reveal Rifts Among Army Officers" by Greg Jaffe. The article said Maj. Gen. Jeff Hammond, the commanding officer of Fort Hood, assembled 200 Army captains to tell them Lt. Col. Yingling was not competent to judge generals because he was not a general: "He has never worn the shoes of a general."

General Hammond's comment flies in the face of the all the great sages: Kongzi, Mengzi, and Zhu Xi. Every organization, including the U.S. military, should study the leadership principles of the ancient sages in the Analects and the Mencius.

Another Confucian leadership principle is that you dismiss a subordinate who does wrong or you resign if your superior insists on doing wrong. The Wall Street Journal, July 7, 2007, article "Riding the Tiger" by James T. Areddy and David Reilly mentioned that on May 17 Lynn Turner, the former chief accountant of the SEC, resigned from Glass, Lewis & Co. when it was purchased by Xinhua Finance. Furthermore, he said in his resignation letter that he was resigning because of the purchase by Xinhua Finance. He was explicit when others go silently. The new Chief Financial Officer of Kendall Square Research, a supercomputer company, took one look at the books and promptly resigned. Within a year the company was caught cooking their books and went into bankruptcy.

When leaders do not take action, events run them over. The May 17, 2007 Wall Street Journal article on page 1, "How a Bid to Boost Profits Led to a Law Firm's Demise" by Nathan Koppel, describes how the leadership at Jenkins & Gilchrist knew they had a problem with their Chicago office. They discussed the problem. Five of six directors voted in 2001 to ask a Mr. Daugerdas to leave the firm, but they never did take that step. Eventually, their lack of action drove their law firm into bankruptcy.

Contemporary America can learn leadership principles from the ancient Chinese sages.

Robert
reference [1] Learning to be a Sage, translated by Daniel Gardner, 5.46, page 154

Wen and a Texas Renaissance

Wen, culture, is very important in Confucianism. An example of relating Wen to America is when we encourage Texas to broaden its expectation of good education beyond skilled workers to better leaders and better culture.

Click here to read more about a Texas Renaissance. Confucianism has the power to transform society.

Robert