Leadership Lessons from Confucius: conventional wisdom

Zigong said: “Zhouxin cannot have been as evil as people say. That is why an exemplary person hates to dwell downstream. All the world’s effluent finds its way to them.”
子貢曰：「紂之不善，不如是之甚也。是以君子惡居下流，天下之惡皆歸焉。」

Beware of conventional wisdom. Just because everyone around you seems to accept something as a fact, that does not necessarily mean it is. Dig deeper to find out the truth. You may very well find out that the slacker who hides away behind their desk has outstanding technical skills that are vital to the smooth functioning of the team but prefers to stay out of the limelight due to a lack of confidence. Or that the superstar salesperson only stays ahead of the pack by cherry picking the most lucrative accounts and passing on the more difficult customers to others.

Nobody is quite who they seem. It is only by taking time to look past the smoke and mirrors that surround them that you will find out who they truly are and how they can maximize their potential.

Notes

This article features a translation of Chapter 20 of Book 19 of the Analects of Confucius. You can read my full translation of Book 19 here.

(1) Zigong is not the only observer to question whether Zhouxin, the last king of the Yin or Shang Dynasty, was quite the monster he was portrayed as following his downfall. There is a very good chance that his Zhou dynasty conquerors exaggerated his depravity in order to justify the overthrow of his regime.

(2) Zigong is warning people to stay on the high ground (i.e., maintain a good reputation by behaving in a proper fashion) to avoid the same fate. As he concludes, once a person dwells downstream (i.e., has earned a bad reputation) “all the world’s effluent finds its way to him.”

(3) Zhouxin was first mentioned in 18.1.

I shot this image in a hillside temple on the Four Beasts near to Taipei.