Head of School Christopher Nikoloff began his annual four part lecture series on January 16 with a talk on leadership and the “release” aspect of Taoism, based on the book Tao Te Ching.

The one-hour talk was broken into four parts, each of which was posed as a question to encourage participation from the students and faculty who attended. The main questions in his lecture included: “What is Tao?” “What do I control?” and “What are the two types of leadership?”

“The fact that he stopped a lot and asked for feedback really solidified my understanding and made me think more,” Carlos Cruz-Johnson (12) said.

The “What is Tao?” section examined Taoism, a religion based on the teaching of Lao Zi. Although Tao Te Ching was written 2500 years ago, Nikoloff tied it into today’s idea of leadership. According to Nikoloff, Taoism means following the path and relinquishing some level of control. Taoist beliefs dictate that there is no set path to follow and that by attempting to understand Tao, one is already breaking it.

Next, he moved onto the idea of control and if a lack of control is optimal in certain situations. Using a case study about a business company, he pointed out that some factors may be out of our control and Taoism teaches people to embrace the level of uncertainty.

“We end up creating more problems by trying to fix things than the actual original problem,” Nikoloff said. “That doesn’t mean go back and do nothing. However, think about whether the solution is worse than the problem.”

The bulk of his lecture analyzed the two types of leadership, sparking discussion among the group of attendees. The characteristics of the Napoleonic style of leadership, knowledge, charisma, and authority, are typically what come to most people’s minds when thinking of a leader. The Tao style of leadership is more hands-off, aligning with the aspect of relinquishing some level of control. This style of leadership is portrayed by passages from Tao Te Ching such as “the more weapons you have, the less secure people will be”, a seemingly oxymoronic statement.

Nikoloff concluded with an examination of the exceptions to this style of leadership and encouraged the listeners to challenge the ideas he had presented.

According to Nikoloff, the lecture was not meant to advocate Tao beliefs or a certain style of leadership but rather to explore the multiple facets of leadership.

Freshman Alyssa Crawford thought that the lecture was thought provoking and tied back into her own life.

“I am the type of person who tries to micro-manage and I’ve found that all that leads to is frustration,” she said. “If the leader does nothing, then they are not a leader.”

The next lecture series focuses on selflessness in leadership and will take place during a future long lunch, the date of which is yet to be determined.