---
title: "The Ten Iron Rules for Leading a Team: Rule #1 'If He's a Chick, You Must Be a Turkey!' The Other 9 Are Even More Explosive"
description: "If you're a boss, you probably want to be authoritative in the eyes of your subordinates. Some say the key to gaining their trust is your character, but in reality, subordinates admire bosses who are more capable than themselves. In other words, you need to have some real skills. You might think you're better than your subordinates, but they may overestimate themselves and lack self-awareness, so they don't accept your authority—this is normal. Human nature often overestimates oneself and underestimates others. If you're only slightly better, they think you're about the same, and they feel entitled to challenge you. Even if they admit you're a bit better, if it's just a little, they still think you're not qualified to be their leader, that you're on the same level as them."
author: "New Distribution"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2016-05-04"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/the-ten-iron-rules-for-leading-a-team-rule-1-if-he-s-a-chick-you-must-be-9f249656/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/the-ten-iron-rules-for-leading-a-team-rule-1-if-he-s-a-chick-you-must-be-9f249656.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/OJUbX-mS7QFipvSxebPg_Q"
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---

# The Ten Iron Rules for Leading a Team: Rule #1 'If He's a Chick, You Must Be a Turkey!' The Other 9 Are Even More Explosive

> If you're a boss, you probably want to be authoritative in the eyes of your subordinates. Some say the key to gaining their trust is your character, but in reality, subordinates admire bosses who are more capable than themselves. In other words, you need to have some real skills. You might think you're better than your subordinates, but they may overestimate themselves and lack self-awareness, so they don't accept your authority—this is normal. Human nature often overestimates oneself and underestimates others. If you're only slightly better, they think you're about the same, and they feel entitled to challenge you. Even if they admit you're a bit better, if it's just a little, they still think you're not qualified to be their leader, that you're on the same level as them.

If you're a boss, you probably want to be authoritative in the eyes of your subordinates!
Some say the key to gaining their trust is your character, but in reality, subordinates admire bosses who are more capable than themselves. In other words, you need to have some real skills.
You might think you're better than your subordinates, but they may overestimate themselves and lack self-awareness, so they don't accept your authority—this is normal. Human nature often overestimates oneself and underestimates others.
If you're only slightly better, they think you're about the same. They feel entitled to challenge you and compete with you. Even if they admit you're a bit better, if it's just a little, they still think you're not qualified to be their leader, that you're on the same level as them.
If he's a chick, being a big chicken is far from enough. Only when you're a turkey—so far ahead that he can never catch up—will he give up comparing himself to you. If you're Einstein, no matter how smart he is, he won't try to compete because he can never surpass you; he can only admire you.
So, to earn your subordinates' admiration, you need to cultivate yourself into a turkey.
Cultivating yourself into a turkey means enhancing your abilities or qualities. There are many areas where you can deliberately train and accumulate based on your strengths, such as mastering complex problem planning and organization, precise and efficient expression, sharp summarization that sees through appearances, keen talent identification, and comprehensive professional knowledge in certain areas—all of these can make you a turkey in your subordinates' eyes.
**2. Self-disciplined people are powerful**
Human nature has weaknesses; everyone has them. The difference is that some have self-control, while others lack self-discipline.
If you want to lead a team well, you should try to present a positive image in front of your subordinates, set a good example, and control your behavior, both at work and in life.
There was a leader who drank with team members and, after getting drunk, made inappropriate advances toward a female colleague, exposing his lecherous side to his subordinates. They discovered that their usually upright leader was actually a complete pervert. The leader regretted it afterward, but it was too late.
Wang Shi is a highly self-disciplined person, and his strict self-discipline in life and work is widely known. No one has heard of Wang Shi being an expert in any field, but his self-control is even more admirable.
As a team leader, you don't need to put on airs or be mysterious, but you must control your words and actions. If you feel you're about to lose control or act inappropriately, it's best to stay away from temptation or temporarily leave the scene.
Those who understand self-discipline are truly powerful.
**3. Be prepared to pay a price**
For team leaders, some values and principles must be upheld, but you will inevitably face challenges.
When someone challenges your principles or bottom line, you have no choice but to accept the challenge and be prepared to pay a price.
We once had a consulting project where, to change the company's casual and rough work habits, the project team decided to implement process management. A senior planning supervisor objected to the new process, complaining it was too troublesome. After multiple patient communications failed, the supervisor knew that only he could handle production and procurement planning. If he didn't do it, no one could immediately take over, and without a plan, shipments would be delayed, which would prompt the boss to intervene.
So he told the project teacher, "If you insist on the new requirements, I'll resign." The project leader realized the supervisor was playing a game. If they didn't uphold the principle of following the process, the rest of the work would be impossible because others were watching how they handled it. So when the supervisor said he'd resign if forced to comply, the project teacher immediately agreed and decided to take over his work personally, prepared to lose this experienced talent. After making this decision, the supervisor went back to his dormitory, rested for a day, and returned to work the next day.
As a team leader, if there are things you must change or implement, you need to be prepared for a game of chess and be ready to pay a price.
Games are everywhere; the key is to withstand pressure and be prepared to pay the price.
**4. Don't over-rely on self-discipline**
Some people are highly self-disciplined, while others are not. The same applies in companies and teams.
If only a few in your team are highly self-disciplined and proactive, you're not alone.
Human weaknesses and immaturity mean that work behavior cannot rely solely on self-discipline. Management mechanisms are not optional; they are necessary.
There are two types of management mechanisms: interest-based and constraint-based.
People are primarily driven by self-interest, so interest mechanisms are crucial. The most important interest mechanism in team management is how to evaluate and distribute rewards. In a clothing brand, each product has an operation team that decides how to operate. The team shares profits with the company based on sales, so the more they do, the more they earn. Employees are very proactive because of this interest mechanism.
Another fact about people is that it's hard to manage oneself. Even if something is clearly right, people often can't do it or stick with it. Reading every day is important for growth—how long can you keep it up? Running every day is important for health—how many days can you persist? It's not that they don't understand the reasoning, but their minds are unstable; any external disturbance can change their thoughts and behavior.
So relying on understanding and self-discipline is unreliable.
Therefore, adding external constraints is necessary. For example, a team manager asked members to read a book each month and share once a month, but they couldn't stick with it. My advice was to distribute responsibilities: one person organizes the sharing session on time, each person takes turns giving a themed presentation, one person tracks the presenter, and one person oversees the entire execution. All responsibilities have penalties, and as long as the mechanism runs, the activity can continue.
When your people are not yet mature, don't over-rely on self-discipline. Self-discipline needs to be cultivated, and the key is to establish external constraints.
**5. Don't compete with employees for benefits**
As a team leader, if you can't secure benefits for your employees, at least don't compete with them for benefits.
There was an employee who completed a project and received a bonus. The project manager said, "I put a lot of effort into this project too. Don't you want to show some appreciation?" The employee was shocked but gave the manager 2,000 yuan. From then on, the manager's character was ruined in the employee's eyes.
The most important thing for a team leader is to see benefits clearly and balance various interests. If you want employees to follow you, you need to know how to secure benefits for them, give them a share, and not compete with them.
If you haggle over benefits with subordinates, they won't identify with you or follow you; instead, they'll remember you for it.
**6. Keep employees on their toes**
Many companies suffer from low morale, weak belonging, and high turnover because employees have too little work.
Too little work means the business isn't doing well; poor business means the company's prospects are bleak. Employees will make this direct logical deduction.
There's also a saying: "Idleness breeds mischief." When people have nothing to do, they feel bored, then start daydreaming, and even create conflicts.
In one company, during the off-season, male employees had little to do and played cards, while female employees gathered to gossip. Eventually, card games turned into fights, and gossip turned into arguments—all because they were too idle.
People shouldn't be too idle; they should have some sense of urgency.
Under moderate pressure, people are more likely to unleash their potential, grow, and progress, while also feeling a sense of fulfillment and achievement. Teams are most energetic and have high morale when work is intense and even a bit crisis-like.
If you're a team leader, you should keep your subordinates appropriately tense: give them tasks to keep them busy, set higher requirements to make work challenging, and introduce evaluations with penalties for the lowest performers to create a sense of crisis.
**7. Use time to gain space**
People tend to seek perfection and completeness. But if you're a team leader, the following wisdom is necessary: don't try to solve all problems, and don't try to solve problems immediately.
There will always be problems that you can't solve at the moment, such as insufficient ability, lack of prestige, or limited resources.
Suppose a relative of a leader is forced into your team—someone who is incompetent, arrogant, and unmanageable. You can't change him, and you can't do anything about him. What you can do is minimize his negative impact and use time to gain space. As time changes, everything may change: maybe the leader changes, the company changes, your resources change, or the employee changes. In short, old problems may no longer be problems over time.
The world is impermanent, and for that reason alone, we should believe that everything has a solution and a way out. You need to learn to coexist with difficulties and not let your heart be disturbed.
8. Set rules for dilemmas...
9. Build a stage for employees...
10. Push yourself to the limit...
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