Leaders would do well to consider the properties of water and attempt to imbue themselves with some of these qualities.

Water can take many forms, depending on the circumstances it finds itself in. It cannot be destroyed: it merely changes from one state to another.

If it gets too cold, water contracts and becomes ice, getting harder as the temperature drops. It gathers its molecules together and compacts, interlocking and resistant.

As the conditions become more favourable, it is ready to expand again and flows once more when the temperature has risen sufficiently.

When it gets too hot, water evaporates into steam and becomes so light it can rise above the furnace and drift away.

River Parrett, Somerset, England

When it reaches cooler air, it brings itself back together again and condenses into droplets, which can then fall back down to earth.

The droplets join together and form streams, then rivers which finally flow back into the sea (which is the source).

Lao Tzu said of water:

“Nothing in the world

is as soft and yielding as water.

Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible

nothing can surpass it”

Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu

For me, this speaks to the very heart of what it is to be a great leader. Being adaptable, soft and yielding is not a sign of weakness.

It is a measure of great strength and power.