Phil Jackson, 11-time coach who won the NBA championship, tells the story of a young prince who was sent by his father to learn how to be a good ruler with a great Chinese master.
The first assignment the master gave him was to spend a year alone in the forest.
When the prince returned, the master asked him to describe what he had heard. He replied, "I could hear the cuckoos singing, the leaves rustling, the hummingbirds buzzing, the grass blowing, the bees buzzing, the crickets chirping and the wind whispering and roaring."
After the prince finished, the master told him to return to the forest to hear what more could be heard.
So the prince went back and sat alone in the forest for several days and nights and wondered what the master was talking about. Then one morning he heard faint noises that he had never heard before.
On his return the prince said to the master: “When I listened most carefully, I could hear the unheard. The sound of flowers opening, the sound of the sun warming the earth, and the sound of grass drinking the morning dew. "
The master smiled and nodded. “Hearing the unheard,” he said, “is a necessary discipline to be a good ruler. For only when a ruler has learned to listen carefully to people's hearts, to hear their feelings without communication, unspoken pain and discomfort that is not spoken of, can he hope to create trust in people, to understand, when something is wrong, and the real needs of the people to satisfy its citizens. "
If you are a leader, I encourage you to develop the intuitive empathy required to hear the unheard.
This is how you will meet the real needs of your people.
So:
Laden …
