John Adair examines Confucius’ ideas on real leadership It is said that the senate of ancient Rome had auctoritas but not potestas.
In other words, their directives had more than the force of a request but less than the force of a command. Most leadership demands fall within this broad spectrum.
There are three forms of authority in human affairs which should intertwine like three strands in a rope: the authority of position or office (the Roman potestas), the authority of knowledge and the authority of personality, (sometimes called charisma).
In order to get free and equal people to cooperate and to achieve great things together, it is necessary today to draw upon the second and third forms of authority and not just upon the first. Positional authority is still important, but it is only one strand of the three-stranded rope.
And it is unwise when climbing a mountain to entrust your life to a one-stranded rope.
The art of leadership is using this blended authority to get things done without having to issue too many direct commands. The Master said, “If a man is correct in his own person, then there will be obedience without orders being given; but if he is not correct in his own person, there will not be obedience even though orders are given.”
Confucius’ phrase of being “correct in his own person” may be interpreted today as signifying that he possesses the generic skills and qualities of leadership, such as integrity, fairness and being a good example. Shakespeare, who, like Confucius, largely discusses leadership in terms of the office of a king, offers us a list of twelve such qualities:
The king-becoming graces, As justice, verity (integrity), temperance, stableness, bounty (generosity), perseverance, mercy, lowliness (humility), devotion, patience, courage, fortitude.
Such qualities contribute to a leader’s personal authority. To this kind of authority, however, we should add the authority of knowledge — for, as the modern adage goes: Authority flows to the one who knows. A leader who knows his business is much more likely to be obeyed willingly than one who doesn’t.
Those who occupy positions or offices of leadership who are not actually leaders — who lack both the forms of authority I have just outlined — can get things done only by exercising the authority of their office. Without the respect that a three-stranded rope of authority invariably brings, obedience will be tardy, to say the least. Shakespeare’s king Macbeth is certainly not ‘correct in his own person’. Angus observes of Macbeth to a companion: ‘Those he commands move only in command, Nothing in love.’
Excerpted with permission of Pan Macmillan India from Confucius on leadership