Leadership Lessons from Confucius: achieve the greatest impact
Fan Chi asked to learn about farming. Confucius said: “You would be better off asking an old farmer.” Fan Chi asked to learn about gardening. Confucius said: “You would be better off asking an old gardener.” After Fan Chi left, Confucius said: “What a small-minded man! If a ruler loves ritual, the people will not dare to be disrespectful. If a ruler loves rightness, the people will not dare to be disobedient. If a ruler loves trustworthiness, the people will not dare to be deceitful. If such a ruler existed, people would flock to him from everywhere with their children strapped to their backs. Why bother to learn about farming?”
樊遲請學稼，子曰：「吾不如老農。」請學為圃，曰：「吾不如老圃。」樊遲出，子曰：「小人哉，樊須也！上好禮，則民莫敢不敬；上好義，則民莫敢不服；上好信，則民莫敢不用情。夫如是，則四方之民，襁負其子而至矣；焉用稼！」
Your time and talent are precious. Focus them on where you’ll achieve the greatest impact. If you manage a team concentrate on making sure that you have the right people, culture, and processes in place to make sure it operates successfully. Leave the technical and operational questions for the appropriate experts.
Notes
This article features a translation of Chapter 4 of Book 13 of the Analects of Confucius. You can read my full translation of Book 13 here.
(1) Some modern critics have seized on these comments as proof that Confucius held back the technological development of China with his alleged disdain for practical subjects such as agriculture. While there is certainly a grain (sorry) of truth to this, it’s important to note that Confucius recognizes that he isn’t qualified to respond to the questions and directs his rather dim-witted follower to consult with agricultural experts. More fundamentally, Confucius is arguing that members of the ruling elite should focus on their number one responsibility of creating the right moral climate for society to operate under rather than engage in manual tasks that should be left for the common people to carry out. As he points in this passage, if they did this, “people would flock to them from everywhere with their children strapped to their back” and willingly till the land.
(2) It’s possible that Fan Chi may have asked these questions to find out Confucius’s opinions about the so-called primitivist or proto-Daoist “back to the land” movement that was gaining increasing popularity among disillusioned members of the elite at the time. Arguing that society had become too corrupt and chaotic to reform, leaders of this movement encouraged officials and intellectuals to drop out and lead the life of a recluse in the countryside. Confucius naturally condemned such behavior, seeing it as a betrayal of the responsibilities of the elite. You can find descriptions of encounters with figures from this movement in 18.6 and 18.7.
