{"id":1600,"date":"2008-04-05T11:09:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-05T11:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/04\/the-only-leadership-lesson-youll-ever-need\/"},"modified":"2011-11-01T15:13:20","modified_gmt":"2011-11-01T19:13:20","slug":"the-only-leadership-lesson-youll-ever-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/04\/the-only-leadership-lesson-youll-ever-need.html","title":{"rendered":"The Only Leadership Lesson You&#8217;ll Ever Need"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_niPwTW3rBbU\/R_eZ6kKtsXI\/AAAAAAAAA1I\/cDL0qYRg4UY\/s1600-h\/laotzu.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px;float: right;cursor: pointer\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_niPwTW3rBbU\/R_eZ6kKtsXI\/AAAAAAAAA1I\/cDL0qYRg4UY\/s320\/laotzu.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\"><\/a><br><span style=\"font-style: italic\">I\u2019ve been exchanging a few notes about our upcoming pulpit changes with my old and dear friend Gail Geisenhainer. Those who follow this blog know I\u2019m the candidate at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.firstunitarianprov.org\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">First Unitarian Church of Providence<\/a>. Gail is candidate at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uuaa.org\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I consider Gail one of the wise ones.<\/p>\n<p>And she demonstrated it once again when she mentioned in passing how one simple text was her \u201cpartner in ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I suggest it\u2019s the only leadership lesson anyone will ever need.<br><br>Fill your bowl to the brim<br>and it will spill.<br>Keep sharpening your knife<br>and it will blunt.<br>Chase after money and security<br>and your heart will never unclench.<br>Care about people\u2019s approval<br>and you will be their prisoner.<\/p>\n<p>Do your work, then step back.<br>The only path to serenity.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: italic\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Tao-Te-Ching-Stephen-Mitchell\/dp\/0060812451\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Tao Te Ching<\/a> <\/span>chapter 9<\/p>\n<p>(If you need a graduate course on true leadership, you might read the whole book. My favorite translation isn\u2019t actually a translation but rather the \u201cversion\u201d put together by poet, old Zen hand and all around wise person, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Stephen_Mitchell\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Stephen Mitchell<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: italic\"><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/33904114-8948580565940249132?l=monkeymindonline.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve been exchanging a few notes about our upcoming pulpit changes with my old and dear friend Gail Geisenhainer. Those who follow this blog know I\u2019m the candidate at the First Unitarian Church of Providence. Gail is candidate at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor. I consider Gail one of the wise ones. And [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Only Leadership Lesson You&#039;ll Ever Need<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I&#039;ve been exchanging a few notes about our upcoming pulpit changes with my old and dear friend Gail Geisenhainer. 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