"Be like water"

The world in which we live in today can perhaps best be described by the acronym VUCA, where V=Volatile, U=Uncertain, C=Complex, and A=Ambiguous.  I would absolutely agree and perhaps add the letter "T" for Turbulent.  It's often been said, with good reason in my opinion, that the most successful leaders are the ones who can adapt and modify their "leadership style" to the situation at hand.  Leaders today require a special blend of resilience, flexibility, and grit.  With that in mind, I'd like to briefly talk about Stoic philosophy, which I've found particularly suited to leadership in a VUCAT world.

Ryan Holiday, from "The Daily Stoic" recently blogged about this exact topic with his post "You Can't Be Fragile Like This".  Cato was a Roman Senator during the last days of the Roman Republic (he is often referred to as "Cato the Younger" to differentiate him from his great-grandfather, "Cato the Elder" who was also a Roman Senator).  He was also a follower of Stoic philosophy and a symbol of liberty and justice for America's Founding Fathers.  Cato: A Tragedy of Five Acts by Joseph Addison was reportedly George Washington's favorite play.  Apparently he was also known to be rigid and inflexible.  He held tightly to his moral code, but Ryan Holiday suggests that perhaps his inability compromise, even a little, hastened the demise of the Roman Republic.  When Pompey, one of ancient Rome's greatest military leaders suggested forming an alliance with Cato through marriage to one of his relatives, Cato refused.  Pompey allied with Julius Caesar instead.  This alliance significantly altered Roman politics and likely hastened the fall of the Republic.

Ryan Holiday uses this story to further illustrate one of Robert Greene's concepts from his The 48 Laws of Power, in this case Law #48 "Assume Formlessness: Accept the fact that nothing is certain and no law is fixed."  Greene further writes, "The best way to protect yourself is to be as fluid and formless as water."  There is a famous interview (I've posted about this in the past too, see "HRO: Commitment to Resilience" and "Enter the Dragon") with the martial artist Bruce Lee, whose own philosophy blended concepts both Asian and Western philosophy.  Lee was greatly influenced by Taoism and Buddhism.  The Indian philosopher and writer, Jiddu Krishnamurti was a major influence as well.  His martial arts were largely a metaphor for his philosophical beliefs and teachings. 

In the interview, Lee tells us:

"You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend."

In order to survive and thrive as a leader in today's VUCAT world, we need to learn to compromise, adapt, and shift our leadership style to the times.  We should not compromise our own morals, values, and ethics, but there are times when we should compromise in order to come up with the best solution to a problem or disagreement.  The author and politician Edi Rama said, "Compromise in colors is gray."  I like that.  Our world is neither black nor white - it's gray.  It's often formless and shapeless, like water.  We should be like water too.