Leadership Lessons from the Thirukkural: 7 Practices for Managers

What is the Thirukkural, and why do leaders read it?

The Tirukkural (also spelled Thirukkural, and often simply called the Kural) is a work of 1,330 two-line couplets in Tamil, arranged in 133 chapters of ten. It is traditionally attributed to the poet Tiruvalluvar, about whom little is reliably known. Its date is debated: Britannica places Tiruvalluvar around the sixth century CE and notes that some scholars propose the first century BCE.

The couplets fall into three books: virtue (38 chapters), wealth or polity (70 chapters) and love (25 chapters). The middle book is the one leaders return to. It covers the qualities of a ruler, learning and listening, advisers, deliberation, timing, choosing and employing people, fair and cruel use of power, effort, speech, conduct towards those above you, and friendship and enmity.

Two things make it unusually useful for managers. First, each couplet is short enough to remember in a hard moment. Second, the advice is about judgement rather than technique, and judgement travels across centuries better than technique does. In the English quotations below we use G. U. Pope's public-domain translation, published in London in 1886; Pope wrote in rhyming Victorian verse, so we add a plain-English line after each.

What qualities does the Kural say a leader needs?

Chapter 39 opens the Book of Wealth with a portrait of whoever holds authority. In Pope's words: "Courage, a liberal hand, wisdom, and energy: these four Are qualities a king adorn for evermore." In plain English: courage, generosity, sound judgement and drive, kept up every day.

Two couplets later the chapter adds what modern managers might call approachability: "Where king is easy of access, where no harsh word repels, That land's high praises every subject swells." And then the hardest test: "The king of worth, who can words bitter to his ear endure, Beneath the shadow of his power the world abides secure." A leader who can hear words that sting, without punishing the speaker, keeps the warnings coming.

A practical way to use this is a weekly self-score. Each Friday rate yourself from 1 to 5 on the four qualities, with one piece of evidence for each, and make the lowest next week's focus. Then audit how bad news reaches you: how many steps does it take for a junior colleague to tell you something unwelcome?

How should a leader choose and trust people?

Chapters 51 and 52, which Pope titles Selection and Confidence and Selection and Employment, are the heart of the Kural's advice on people. They ask leaders to weigh strengths against failings, judge by deeds rather than words, match each person to suitable work, and then trust fully. One couplet names both classic mistakes: "Trust where you have not tried, doubt of a friend to feel, Once trusted, wounds inflict that nought can heal." Trusting someone untested and doubting someone you have tested both do lasting damage.

Another warns against the commonest bias in selection, fondness: "By fond affection led who trusts in men of unwise soul, Yields all his being up to folly's blind control." And another sets the order of thinking: decide who should do the work, what exactly it is, and whether the timing suits both, before you begin.

• Define what the role or task needs before you think about any person.
• Score each person on evidence of what they have done, from at least two separate sources.
• Weigh strengths against gaps; any serious gap means a smaller task first.
• Name your own fondness for a candidate and ask a colleague to check your ranking.
• Hand over with a clear outcome, decision rights and agreed check-ins.
• Then leave the work in their hands, and notice when you hover.

What does the Kural say about advisers and feedback?

Chapter 45, Seeking the Aid of Great Men, is about keeping wise counsel. "What power can work his fall, who faithful ministers Employs, that thunder out reproaches when he errs." Its companion couplet is sharper: "The king with none to censure him, bereft of safeguards all, Though none his ruin work, shall surely ruined fall." A leader nobody corrects needs no enemy.

The duty runs both ways. Chapter 64, on the adviser, says: "'Tis duty of the man in place aloud to say The very truth, though unwise king may cast his words away." In modern terms, leaders need a counsel circle that includes a critical friend, someone close to the front line, someone from outside their function and someone more experienced; advisers need the courage to say the true thing once, clearly, with evidence.

The same standard applies to allies. Chapter 79, on friendship, says real friendship is "Not for laughter only friendship all the pleasant day, But for strokes of sharp reproving, when from right you stray." At work, the colleagues worth keeping close are the ones who tell you when you have gone wrong. For rivals, chapter 86 is strikingly modern: "Though men disunion plan, and do thee much despite, 'Tis best no enmity to plan, nor evil deeds requite." When a peer blames your team in public, lower the temperature in the channel and propose fixing the cause together in private.

How does the Kural define fair use of power?

Pope titles chapter 55 The Right Sceptre and chapter 56 The Cruel Sceptre. The rule for a just decision is one couplet: "Search out, to no one favour show, with heart that justice loves Consult, then act; this is the rule that right approves." In plain English: look into it, favour nobody, consult, then act. The next idea is that authority rests on fairness, not force: "Not lance gives kings the victory, But sceptre swayed with equity."

Chapter 57 adds a rule for correction that many managers would do well to tape to their screens: "Should raise the rod with brow severe, but let it gently fall." Hold the standard firmly, and let the correction land gently.

When should a leader act, and when should they wait?

Chapters 47 to 50 read like a short strategy course. First the arithmetic: "Expenditure, return, and profit of the deed In time to come: weigh these... then to the act proceed." Then the forces: the task's demands, your strength, the strength against you and your allies. Then a warning about overload that every stretched team will recognise: "With peacock feathers light you load the wain; Yet, heaped too high, the axle snaps in twain."

Timing gets its own chapter, with an image of patience followed by speed: "As heron stands with folded wing, so wait in waiting hour; As heron snaps its prey, when fortune smiles, put forth your power." The practical lesson is to name the signal you are waiting for. Patience with a named signal is a plan; patience without one is drift. And choose the ground: the meeting, medium and order that give a proposal its fairest hearing.

How should leaders speak to their teams and their boards?

Chapter 65, Power in Speech, values precision: "Who have not skill ten faultless words to utter plain, Their tongues will itch with thousand words men's ears to pain." Write the ten-word version of any update before the long one. Fit the words to the hearer, too; a board, a peer committee and your own team need different words for the same truth.

For dealing with those above you, chapter 70 offers a lasting image: "Who warm them at the fire draw not too near, nor keep too much aloof; Thus let them act who dwell beneath of warlike kings the palace-roof." Not so close you get burned, not so far you get cold. And chapter 73 names a familiar weakness: "Many encountering death in face of foe will hold their ground; Who speak undaunted in the council hall are rarely found." Preparation is the cure: know the room, name one outcome, rehearse the hard questions, and test it on a critical friend first.

What does the Thirukkural not mean for modern workplaces?

Read carefully, the couplets on power repeatedly set limits on it; the Kural is no licence for leaders to behave like kings. Some passages reflect the attitudes of their own time, including chapters on women and couplets approving harsh punishments, and they have no place in a modern workplace. Chapter 59 recommends spies; the only defensible modern reading is to confirm information from several open sources, never covert surveillance of employees.

The Kural is also revered in Tamil culture and claimed by readers of several religious traditions. Treat it as ethical literature and heritage, quote it respectfully and accurately, and avoid using it to make religious claims at work. Finally, nothing in it replaces employment law or company policy: for hiring, promotion and discipline, follow your HR process and local law.

How can you start practising this week?

Start with two habits. Each morning, read one couplet and pick one moment to apply it, then ask one question about one delegated task: have I tested this person on this work, and if so, am I really leaving it with them? Each Friday, spend twenty minutes on who you consulted, who disagreed and what you did with it. Add a monthly fairness review in week four.

If you want a baseline, an assessment such as AssessAll's Delegation & Empowerment can help you compare before and after. To turn the practice into goals with review dates, a structured development plan, such as the one Jobulary offers, keeps it going. And if you want the whole system ready to use, the Thirukkural for Leaders kit from Bodhih Training includes the e-book, the Test Then Trust Selector, fillable forms, a 52-card deck and a 12-week programme calendar.