Ten Leadership Disciplines: Lessons on Responsibility, Reflection, and Growth

These are my notes from a two-day leadership training course taught by Professor Liu Lan. The course was highly structured, blending theory with real-world case studies that directly apply to workplace scenarios. Below is a summary of the ten leadership disciplines — a practical framework for anyone stepping into (or growing within) a leadership role.

What Is Leadership?

Leadership is the responsibility to solve collective problems — and the responsibility to bear failure. It is not about titles or positions. A leadership title gives you resources, but you can exercise leadership without any title at all.

Charisma is not a prerequisite for leadership. It’s a byproduct — often amplified and mythologized after the fact. In practice, charisma can actually hinder leadership:

• Followers stop offering critical feedback out of admiration
• Followers seek approval rather than speaking up
• The team develops an illusion that the leader is infallible
• The leader becomes overconfident and blind to risks
• The organization fails to develop capable successors

1. “I’ll Take This On”

Step up and take responsibility, especially for collective challenges. To peers and superiors, say “Let me handle this.” To your team, say “Follow me.”

Building a sense of responsibility comes from three dimensions:

• Purpose: “This matters” — I want to do it
• Obligation: “I’m part of this team” — I should do it
• Confidence: “I’m capable” — I can do it

2. “I Don’t Know”

There is a fundamental difference between management and leadership. Management maintains the status quo and solves routine problems, often relying on authority. Leadership confronts adaptive challenges where old answers may not work.

When to say “I don’t know”:

• Technical problems where you genuinely lack the answer
• Adaptive challenges where past solutions don’t apply
• When you want to mobilize the team to discover their own answers
• Even when you know the answer — to empower others to own the solution

3. “What Do You Think?”

Stay close to your people. Practice management by walking around. When asking questions, aim for questions that are:

• Intellectually stimulating: Provoke thinking
• Emotionally motivating: Inspire positive energy
• Relationship-building: Bring people closer
• Action-oriented: Drive concrete next steps

The Gallup Q12 and GROW coaching model are useful frameworks here. Ask more reflective questions and let people arrive at their own insights — they’ll execute their own ideas with far more commitment.

4. “Let Me Tell You a Story”

Stories move people more than logic alone. Four essential leadership stories:

• Who I am — your personal origin story
• Who we are — the team’s shared identity
• Where we’re going — the vision
• Why we must change — the case for transformation

Action is driven by both reason and emotion. The two keys to emotional impact are vividness (concrete images) and proximity (personal relevance).

Ways to tell stories:

• Through props: Physical objects create tangible connections
• Through rituals: Onboarding ceremonies, promotions, team pledges
• Through actions: Like the famous Haier story where the CEO smashed defective refrigerators to demonstrate quality commitment

5. “Let Me Teach You”

A leader plays three roles: architect, teacher, and servant. Teaching operates at five levels:

1. “Do as I say”
2. “Let me explain why”
3. “Let me show you how”
4. “Tell me how you’d do it”
5. “Why did you choose that approach?”

Use appreciative coaching — affirm capability and progress. To sustain intrinsic motivation, provide:

• Purpose: Meaningful, clear, challenging goals
• Autonomy: Delegate real authority
• Mastery: Offer guidance and skill development
• Progress: Give regular feedback and support

6. “Why?” (Find the Root Cause)

Decisions solve individual problems temporarily. Strategic decisions solve entire categories of problems systemically. A leader’s job is not to make many decisions, but to make a few critical strategic decisions well.

Peter Senge’s three levels of reality:

1. Events: What happened?
2. Patterns: Is this part of a recurring behavior pattern? How does it happen?
3. System structure: Does the system itself cause these patterns? Why does it happen?

Analyzing only at the event level produces quick fixes (symptom-level solutions). Analyzing at the pattern and structural levels produces real strategy.

Systems thinking uses three building blocks:

• Reinforcing loops: Amplifying cycles
• Balancing loops: Stabilizing cycles
• Delays: Time gaps that obscure cause-and-effect (explaining why people skip exercise or continue smoking)

Quick fixes create dependency, consume resources, and can cause real harm. Always look for the structural root cause.

7. “You Failed? Congratulations!”

The dividing line between mediocrity and greatness is how you handle failure.

Organizational principles for dealing with failure:

• Detect early: Every major failure grows from small, overlooked failures
• Encourage reporting: Unreported failures accumulate into systemic crises
• Analyze deeply: Don’t start with “Who did this?” — ask “Why did this happen?”
• Experiment intentionally: Innovate boldly through small-scale pilots and learn from the results

Seven types of failure (from worst to best):

• a. Ignoring rules
• b. Carelessness
• c. Lack of competence
• d. Process gaps
• e. Known risks
• f. Unforeseen risks
• g. Exploratory risks

Good failure (g): Actively pursued through experimentation — the source of learning. Neutral failure (e, f): Unavoidable — failure is normal. Bad failure (a-d): Preventable — should be minimized.

Reframe all failure as: a warning, part of the process, a development opportunity, a stroke of luck, a learning moment, or an alternative path.

8. “What Should I (or You) Change?”

Most people think of reflection as looking back. Great leaders also reflect before and during action.

Reflection = Think + Rethink

Four elements of effective reflection:

• Step back: Write down your initial thinking so you don’t lose it
• Release emotion: We’re biased toward our own ideas and resistant to admitting error
• Shift perspective: Put yourself in someone else’s position
• Guide practice: Reflection must produce actionable insights

Three levels of reflection:

• Actions (How?): Minor reflection — assumes the goal is correct
• Goals (What?): Medium reflection — questions the objective itself
• Beliefs (Why?): Deep reflection — examines fundamental assumptions

Great leaders continuously elevate their reflection from actions to beliefs. And they apply this not only to themselves but to their teams: “What should you change?”

9. “Who Am I (Who Are We)?”

Understanding yourself means examining three layers:

• Personality: Nature + nurture
• Cultural identity: Shaped by environment
• Human nature: Innate tendencies

Leadership demands behaviors that run against common human tendencies:

Six levels of self-knowledge (mirrored in organizational culture):

The deeper layers are the most stable. Changes at the top cascade downward, but not the reverse. Leaders must regularly ask: “Who am I? Who are we?”

10. “Who Should I Become?”

The core question of personal development: Define your identity and personal vision.

The Three-Circle Framework:

• What you love (deep needs, not surface interests)
• What you’re good at (high-level capabilities, not just technical skills)
• Where the opportunity lies (long-term trends, not short-term gains)

The intersection of all three circles is your life’s calling. The circles are dynamic and mutually reinforcing. To achieve something meaningful, lead with passion.