Legend has it that as the sage Lao-Tzu was leaving the country of Chou at the end of his life in the sixth century B.C.E., a frontier guard asked him to write something that would teach the art of living. The result was a text called the Tao Te Ching. It is the world’s oldest leadership manual, written to help everyone is in position of power to turn that position into an opportunity for creating both inner and outer harmony. Widely considered the wisest book ever written, the Tao Te Ching shows leaders how to guide their communities to peaceful productivity and happiness. Autry and Mitchell have now brought this wisdom to bear on the most significant arena of life outside family: work. They make clear the paradoxes of winning at work: that only when we learn to let go of the illusion of control can we empower others and ourselves; that conventional displays of power are the least effective ways to get things done; that helping our competition can bring us the greatest benefit; that employees already have power in their skills, their commitment to their job, and their passion for their work. Real empowerment is not about taking power from the top and spreading it through the company. To the contrary, it is about you as a manager recognizing that your employees already have power. It is the power of their skills, heir commitment to the job, and their passion for the work. This is not your power to give. Real power is power that you can recognize and honour by creating an environment in which that power can be expressed for the good of all. It is power with your people, not power over your people. In the same way, your own power comes not from your authority but from your abilities, experience, and commitment. The real job of empowerment is to bring the power of your employees together with your own power in order to produce the best results for everyone.
-- James A. Autry & Stephen Mitchell (Riverhead Books)