The Leader Who Is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition

by Steven Simpson

"This book is a commentary on the many commonalities and the occasional differences between Tao philosophy and experiential education theory and practice."-- The Leader Who is Hardly Known

Taoist philosophy and text can have deep meaning for experiential educators because of its focus on natural spontaneity and unself-conscious learning and teaching. The Leader Who is Hardly Known compiles a series of essays that begin with a brief story focusing on the experiences and lessons of a teacher called the Leader Who is Hardly Known. Following the story, the essay shares Taoist quotes and the author s thought that relate back to the story.

Written in an order that emphasizes personality traits that affect leadership, commonalities to experiential education programs, then the necessity of connection to the natural world; the essays contained are intentionally short and can stand alone for reference and guidance. The conclusion summarizes how the principles contained form a foundational philosophy for experiential education.

Paperback

Published September 22, 2003

Reviews

[Noelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

“take the world lightly and your spirit will not be burdened…”
-lightness is the calm which a steady leader portrays. take your own opinions and thoughts lightly and you will not be disappointed if they are proven wrong

“the alert mind seeks the mentor, lesson, or book when the time is right…”
-you can’t force lessons that students aren’t ready to learn. the leader/teacher is only meant to open a student to learning and understanding herself, not to transform the student with a chosen lesson

have humility. encourage learning. grant people responsibility for their engagement. be flexible and open minded.

not sure i agree entirely with the authors interpretations of Laozi. if only i could read classical chinese myself…

[Eli Midthun · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book puts into words some things that I have felt have been unspoken to me about experiential education for some time. I struggled a lot early on with the lack of concrete steps to take away from it, but by the conclusion Simpson asks the reader to make a few small concrete changes in their leadership approach and it makes sense.

[Constantine Dhonau · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a wilderness therapy guide, this revolutionized my guiding and blew Daoism wide open for me.

[Emma Cole]

read for school but enjoyed for personal reasons

[Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I was initially skeptical of this, I actually came to really enjoy the exploration of the similarities between Experiential Education and Taoist philosophy. While The Leader Who is Hardly Known, himself, comes off as kind of a douche at times, the lessons behind the stories are still good reminders for outdoor educators who have been in the game a while.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I happened across this book through my partner, who is an outdoor educator. I have no experience or burning desire to work in the field of outdoor or experiential education myself, but I still found this book to be captivating in a lot of ways. It has served as my intro to Taoist philosophy, and without question the tenets explored in this short book are relevant and applicable far beyond the confines of education. If you're interested in leadership of any sort you're likely to find a lot of the discussion to be thought-provoking, challenging, and inspiring. It may well leave less of an impression on readers already familiar with Taoism, but for me it definitely had an impact on how I think about leadership and development and I reflect often on how to integrate its teachings into my own work.

The book succinctly explores several key principles, such as humility, tolerance, and the less familiar Wu-Wei; offers direct teaching/leadership tips; and finally explores the role of nature in teaching and learning, a reflective section that I found interesting too. The book is full of illustrative and instructive examples, which do focus entirely on teaching and at times left me uneasy in their tone. However, they were mostly useful and at times entertaining.

Overall I'd recommend the book for anyone interested in a different and valuable perspective on leadership. There are a lot of good ideas in here, many of them (constructively) at odds with the prevailing views on leadership and teaching in the Western world.