Hear every voice, judge calmly, protect the least powerful: the Circle of Justice for leaders
Saadi's tales of kings and viziers and the old Persian advice books for rulers, turned into a morning voice check, a weekly open-door hour, a cool-before-you-judge rule and a monthly fairness audit across four stakeholder groups.
- A 10-chapter e-book with 46 verbatim lines from public-domain translations (1823 to 1893) and Bodhih's own plain-words renderings
- The Circle of Justice Audit: fairness signals for four stakeholder groups, a complaint register with days to resolve, and an adviser review that flags who has stopped telling you the truth
- A 9-sheet practice workbook, 5 fillable forms and 7 Word files, including 44 scripts, 52 team emails, 20 tales retold and 30 AI prompts
- A 52-card practice deck, a Start Here map, a 65-event calendar and a 31-task board import
The Circle of Justice: Saadi and the Persian Mirrors · Bodhih Pro Kits · 158 by Bodhih Training, trainers to 2,000+ companies since 2008.
What does Saadi teach about leadership?
Saadi's Gulistan and Bustan, written in the 1250s, tell rulers to hear complaints, keep honest advisers, protect the weak, cool anger before punishing and remember that power passes. Bodhih Training's Circle of Justice kit turns these, with the Persian mirrors for princes, into daily practices, a fairness audit and a 12-week programme.
Want the full free guide first? Read Saadi's Gulistan Leadership Lessons: 7 Practices for Fair Leaders.
You already feel the problem. Here is what it is costing you.
Problems reach you last
Everyone below you knew about the unpaid contractor, the faulty hoist or the bribe. The complaint was raised; it just never reached the person who could fix it.
A door that is open but never used
'My door is always open' sounds generous. In practice nobody from the night shift, the outsourced team or the contractor pool ever walks through it.
A room full of agreement
Your leaders say 'ambitious but doable' in the meeting and 'I never thought we were ready' in the retrospective. Agreement has become safer than advice.
The least powerful carry the cost
Savings, late payments, bad shifts and short-notice changes land on the people least able to object, and the damage travels quietly back to results.
Decisions made in anger
One bad afternoon, one public correction, one warning issued before the facts arrived. The warning can be withdrawn; what the team saw cannot.
Ancient wisdom as posters
Lines from Saadi quoted in speeches rarely become habits. Without a routine, a register and team tools, the ideas stay on the wall.
Picture the next few weeks with the kit open beside you.
Picture tomorrow at 07:45. You draw the week's card, read one line from Saadi in a Victorian translation and our plain words, and ask yourself one question: whose voice is not reaching me? You name the night desk, and by lunchtime you have heard something nobody had escalated.
Now it is Thursday afternoon, your open-door hour. A contractor joins on video and tells you, politely, that three invoices are seven weeks late. As you log it in the Grievance Register, the workbook starts counting the days, and on Monday finance has paid.
Imagine the moment someone's mistake makes you angry. Instead of the glass meeting room, you send the interim words, open the Cool Before You Judge sheet and sleep on it. By morning the facts are kinder than the screenshot.
And picture the last Friday of the month. You open the Circle Summary: four groups, their fairness scores, every complaint and how long it took, the adviser who has quietly stopped disagreeing. Whether you begin with the e-book tonight or the first card tomorrow, the practice is already in your calendar.
22 files that do the work for you
The e-book shows you how. The tools make it happen. Here is exactly what you download.
The Circle of Justice: Saadi and the Persian Mirrors (e-book, PDF)
The guide: methods, worked examples, scripts and exercises
Start here map
The daily, weekly and monthly rhythm on one page, which file to open for each leadership moment, your first hour and a 30/60/90 day use plan.
Circle of Justice Practice Workbook
Nine-sheet master workbook: settings, a 26-principle library, daily log with voice check, cool-rule record and streak counter, weekly review with open-door hours, situations log by stakeholder group, monthly team pulse, 12-week programme tracker and a dashboard with a weekly trend chart.
Circle of Justice Audit workbook
The kit's signature diagnostic: fairness indicators with evidence for four stakeholder groups (team, customers, the least powerful contributors, the wider organisation), a complaint and grievance register with days to acknowledge and resolve and outcomes, an adviser review that flags who has stopped telling you the truth, a circle summary and a dashboard with a chart.
Whose voice is not reaching me? and the open-door hour log
Four fillable pages: your three rings of distance, the morning voice check for one week on one page, the open-door hour log, and a monthly check that your door is really open.
Cool before you judge: discipline decision sheet
Three fillable pages for any moment when someone's mistake or conduct makes you angry: stop and take only the minimum interim step, hear both sides, check proportion, then decide, correct privately and record.
Adviser and flatterer review
Two fillable pages: score each adviser on candour, accuracy, independence and how often they simply agree, then plan the anti-flattery habits for your meetings and decisions.
Justice to the weak: duty-of-care check
Two fillable pages for a monthly check on the least powerful people and suppliers in your area: pay, notice, allocation, safety and facilities, and voice, with one fix that costs them less time or money.
Circle of justice: monthly review
Two fillable pages for the 45-minute monthly circle review: the four stakeholder groups, the complaint register, your advisers, three decisions and what you will tell people.
Leadership scripts and messages
44 exact-words scripts and messages for hearing missing voices, open doors and complaints, honest advice, justice to the least powerful, cooling off before judging, recognition, choosing and checking fairly, and the humility of power.
Team workshop facilitator guide
Facilitator guide for a 90-minute session and a half-day workshop on the Circle of Justice: timed agendas, slide outline, exercises, debrief questions and follow-up.
Circle of justice leadership code: team charter
One-page team charter to adopt in the workshop: how we hear each other, keep the door open, advise honestly, treat the least powerful, correct, recognise and check ourselves.
Principle of the week: 52 team emails
52 short team emails or chat posts (one per card), each with a subject line, one principle, one question and one action, ready to send every Monday.
Twenty tales of kings and viziers, retold
20 tales from the Gulistan, the Bustan, the Siyasatnama and the Qabus-nama retold in our own words, each with what we take, what we leave and three leadership questions.
AI prompt pack for Circle of Justice leaders
30 tool-agnostic prompts grouped by leadership moment, each with what to paste in and what to check before using the output.
Worked example pack: Nomvula's 12 weeks
The kit's main forms completely filled in for one composite leader: rings and a week of voice checks, an open-door hour log, a cool-before-you-judge decision, an adviser review, a duty-of-care check, a monthly circle review and her week-12 dashboard.
All principles on one page, and about the sources
All 26 principles with source references and plain words, the circle of justice in our words, and a card on the texts, the translations used and how to read them.
Situation finder decision card
If this happens, use this: 18 leadership moments with the principle, the file to open and the first move.
Misreadings and mistakes card
Eight harmful misreadings of the Persian mirrors at work, ten practice mistakes and a Friday self-check.
Circle of Justice practice card deck
52 printable practice cards in four suits, one principle per card with a verbatim line from a public-domain translation of Saadi or an In plain words line, a question and a one-line action, plus a how-to page.
12-week programme calendar
65 calendar events: set-up, a Monday card-and-chapter reminder, each programme action, a weekly open-door hour and a Friday review for all 12 weeks, with monthly circle reviews in weeks 4, 8 and 12, each naming the file to open.
12-week programme task board import
31 programme actions as a CSV for Trello, Asana, Notion, Planner or Jira, with week, focus, file to open and due date.
Chapter by chapter
Each chapter opens with a real situation, gives you a method and ends with something to do today, using the tools in your kit.
- Format
- PDF e-book + XLSX + fillable PDF + DOCX + printable PDF + ICS + CSV
- Files
- 22 files plus a one-click ZIP
- E-book
- 69 pages
- Workbooks
- 9 and 7 sheets with sample data, formulas and dashboards
- Works with
- Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice, Word, Google Docs, Acrobat Reader, GoodNotes, Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar, Trello, Asana, Notion, Planner, Jira
- Best for
- Managers and leaders who hold authority over staff, contractors, partners or suppliers
The Complaint That Never Arrived
Contract assessors unpaid for seven weeks, the texts behind the kit, the 1823 to 1893 translations used and the daily engine that runs it.
The Circle of Justice
The circle of justice as a four-link management loop, and how to map and score your four stakeholder groups.
Whose Voice Is Not Reaching Me?
Why voices go missing through distance, and the three-minute morning voice check that brings them back.
Open Doors
From 'always open' to a scheduled open-door hour: hear, acknowledge, check both sides, decide, tell back and log.
Honest Advisers and Flatterers
Saadi's two viziers, the adviser who always agreed, the anti-flattery habits and a monthly adviser review.
Justice to the Weak
Duty of care to contractors, temps, juniors and small suppliers: the five-area check on pay, notice, allocation, facilities and voice.
Cool Before You Judge
The cool-before-you-judge rule: no decision while angry, both sides heard, proportion checked, correction in private.
Generosity and Recognition
Owed first, then thanks: specific, fair recognition and never opening a door of expectation you will slam.
Choosing Officials and Checking Fairly
Choosing people by merit, removing conflicts of interest and checking authority openly, never covertly.
The Humility of Power
Why power cuts leaders off, and four habits that keep the information flowing.
Running the Circle with Your Team
The 45-minute monthly circle review, the team workshop, the pulse and the team's own leadership code.
The Twelve Weeks and After
How the twelve weeks run, what to do when you miss days and the three habits to keep for good.
Reading the Persian Mirrors Responsibly
What we take from the mirrors and what we leave: absolute rule, spies, cruel punishments, sectarian passages; legal boundaries and when to get support.
The Texts, the Translators and How to Read Them
The four texts, the six translators, how we cite and how to read Victorian English and nineteenth-century French.
Not just reading. Tools you will actually open again.
E-book
- The Circle of Justice: Saadi and the Persian Mirrors: 10 chapters, introduction, conclusion, 2 appendices and 6 hand-drawn figures, about 10,500 words (PDF)
Start here
- 00-Start-Here-Map: the daily, weekly and monthly rhythm, which file to open for each leadership moment, your first hour and a 30/60/90 day plan
Spreadsheets
- Circle of Justice Practice Workbook (9 sheets): Start here, Settings, Principles library of 26, Daily Log with voice check, cool-rule record and streak counter, Weekly Review, Situations Log, Team Pulse, Programme Tracker and a Dashboard with a weekly trend chart
- Circle of Justice Audit (7 sheets): fairness indicators for four stakeholder groups, a complaint and grievance register with days to acknowledge and resolve, an adviser review, a circle summary and a dashboard with a chart
Fillable PDF forms
- Whose voice is not reaching me? A week per page, with your three rings and the open-door hour log
- Cool before you judge: discipline decision sheet
- Adviser and flatterer review
- Justice to the weak: duty-of-care check
- Circle of justice: monthly review
Word templates
- Leadership scripts and messages: 44 scripts
- Team workshop facilitator guide: 90-minute and half-day versions
- Circle of justice leadership code: one-page team charter
- Principle of the week: 52 team emails
- Twenty tales of kings and viziers, retold: 20 tales with leadership questions
- AI prompt pack for Circle of Justice leaders: 30 prompts
- Worked example pack: Nomvula's 12 weeks, the main forms filled in
Cheat sheets
- All 26 principles on one page, and about the sources: the texts, the translations and how to read them
- Situation finder decision card: 18 moments, if this happens, use this
- Misreadings and mistakes card
- Circle of Justice practice card deck: 52 cards in four suits plus a how-to page (14 printable pages)
Calendar and import
- 12-week programme calendar (ICS): 65 events for Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar
- 12-week programme task board (CSV): 31 tasks for Trello, Asana, Notion, Planner or Jira
When you have worked through it, you will be able to…
Every outcome is practised with a worked example and a tool, not just described.
- Run a three-minute morning check on whose voice is not reaching you, and hear one missing group each day
- Hold a weekly open-door hour that contractors and remote teams can actually reach, and close every complaint loop
- Map your circle in four stakeholder groups and score fairness with evidence every month
- Spot advisers who have stopped telling you the truth, and build red teams and pre-mortems into decisions
- Check pay, notice, allocation, facilities and voice for the least powerful people in your area
- Keep a cooling-off rule before any decision about a person, and correct in private
- Recognise people specifically, after settling what they are owed
- Choose people with authority on evidence and check them openly, never covertly
Know your starting point. Prove your progress.
People who measure before and after improve faster and can show it. AssessAll, our sister assessment platform, has AI-graded assessments that pair with this kit. Take one now, work through the kit, then re-take it.
Ethical Leadership & Judgment
Take the assessment →AssessAll assessmentPerformance Management & Accountability
Take the assessment →AssessAll assessmentSpeak-Up: Raising a Concern and Hearing One
Take the assessment →JobularyA development plan that survives week six (Jobulary)
Make it a growth plan →A taste of Chapter 6
Karim is sales director for a building-products distributor in Dubai. At 4 pm on a Thursday, hours after the CFO had criticised his margins, he learned that his best account manager, Faisal, had given a large customer a discount above his approval limit. Karim called Faisal into a glass-walled room, called his conduct "completely unacceptable" in a voice the open-plan office could hear, took him off the account and asked HR for a final written warning by Sunday. On Sunday the facts arrived: Faisal's regional manager had approved the discount by voice note, and it had never reached the system. The warning could be withdrawn. What the team had seen could not.
The honest comparison
| Free templates and typical advice | This kit | |
|---|---|---|
| The ideas | Saadi quoted in speeches | 46 verbatim lines, each turned into a method with steps and a worked example |
| The source | Unattributed lines, often from modern copyrighted translations | Word for word from public-domain translations by Ross, Eastwick, Rehatsek, Clarke, Schefer and Querry, cited by chapter and story |
| Listening | "My door is always open" | A scheduled open-door hour, a two-day acknowledgement rule and a register that counts the days |
| Advisers | "Surround yourself with good people" | A monthly adviser review that flags who has stopped disagreeing, plus red teams and pre-mortems |
| Fairness | "Treat people fairly" | Evidence-based fairness signals for four stakeholder groups, including contractors and suppliers |
| Discipline | Decide and move on | A cooling-off rule and a decision sheet: both sides heard, proportion checked, correction in private |
| Cautions | Old texts applied literally | A 'What this does not mean' box in every chapter and an appendix on the passages we reject |
Made for you if…
- Managers and team leads who want complaints to reach them before they become crises
- Heads of operations and function leads who rely on contractors, agency staff, outsourced teams and small suppliers
- Founders whose leadership rooms have become too agreeable
- HR and L&D leaders looking for a structured programme on fair treatment, speak-up and proportionate discipline
- Senior professionals who love Saadi, or are curious about him, and want a practical system rather than quotations
- Leaders of any faith or none: the kit treats the texts as literature and heritage, not religious instruction
Probably not for you if…
- Readers wanting academic scholarship on Persian literature: the history is brief and the focus is practice
- Anyone looking for legal or HR advice on grievances, investigations or discipline: the kit teaches good practice and points you to HR and local law
- People wanting a Persian-language edition: quotations are from nineteenth-century English and French translations
Built by trainers, tested in real rooms.
Bodhih Training has designed and delivered corporate programmes since 2008. Bodhih Pro Kits package what works in those workshops into a guide plus the exact tools we use, so you can apply it the same day without a facilitator in the room.
From here to using it in three steps
- STEP 1
Tap Get the kit
Name, email and country. UPI, card or netbanking in India; international cards everywhere else. No account to create.
- STEP 2
Download instantly
Your download page opens at once, with every file and a one-click ZIP. A permanent link lands in your inbox too.
- STEP 3
Open the first tool
Start with the quick-start chapter, then the main spreadsheet or planner. Most buyers use something from the kit the same day.
Somewhere in your circle, a voice is not reaching you. Find it tomorrow morning.
Open the Start Here map, type your start date into the Settings sheet and log every complaint you know is still open. Whether you begin with the e-book tonight or the first card tomorrow morning, the practice starts the same day.
Personal licence for the buyer's own use (and use with your own team or clients where the kit says so). Please don't share or resell the files. Team and company licences: solutions@bodhih.com.
What buyers say
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The Circle of Justice: Saadi and the Persian Mirrors: FAQs
Read the free guideAlready bought? Resend my linkIs this a religious book?
No. Saadi's works and the Persian mirrors come from a Persian and Islamic heritage that many readers hold dear, and the kit treats them with respect. It presents them as literature, ethics and heritage applied to leadership, with no religious claims or devotional practice. It is written for leaders of any faith or none.
Which translations do you use and why?
Every quotation is copied word for word from public-domain translations: the Gulistan by James Ross (1823), E. B. Eastwick (1880) and Edward Rehatsek (1888), the Bustan by H. Wilberforce Clarke (1879), and the Siyasatnama and Qabus-nama in the French of Charles Schefer (1893) and A. Querry (1886). French lines are followed by our own short English rendering. No modern translation is quoted or echoed.
Who was Saadi and when did he write?
Saadi was a Persian poet from Shiraz. Britannica gives his life as about 1213 to 1291, and other sources differ by a few years. He wrote the Bustan (The Orchard) in 1257 and the Gulistan (The Rose Garden) in 1258; the first chapter of each is about kingship and justice.
What is the circle of justice?
An idea found in several formulations across Persian and later Islamic advice literature: in our own words, no authority without people, no people without prosperity, no prosperity without justice. The kit turns it into a monthly fairness audit of four stakeholder groups: your team, your customers, the least powerful contributors and the wider organisation.
Does the kit recommend monitoring or spying on staff?
Never. The old books recommend spies and informers, and we reject that explicitly. Every check in the kit is open: you publish what is checked, how and why, use fair evidence and share findings with the person first, within your company policy and local law.
Is this legal or HR advice?
No. The kit teaches good practice for hearing complaints, cooling off before discipline and treating contractors fairly. Grievances, investigations, discipline and contractor terms are governed by law and company procedure that differ by country, so check your HR team, company policy and local law before any formal step.
How long does the daily practice take?
About five minutes a day: three in the morning for the card and the voice check, two in the evening for one line. The open-door hour is one hour a week and the monthly circle review about forty-five minutes.
Can I use it with my team?
Yes. The workshop guide has 90-minute and half-day versions, the leadership code is a one-page team charter, and the 52 principle-of-the-week emails match the card deck. Your personal licence covers use with your own team; company licences are available.
How do I measure my starting point?
AssessAll offers three assessments that fit this kit: Ethical Leadership & Judgment, Performance Management & Accountability, Speak-Up: Raising a Concern and Hearing One. Take one in week one and again after week twelve to compare. They are separate products, not included; links are on the Start Here map.
How do I turn this into a development plan?
Jobulary's guide, A development plan that survives week six, linked on the Start Here map, helps you turn what you learn in the twelve weeks into goals with review dates.
How is this different from Old Wisdom for Modern Days?
Old Wisdom for Modern Days covers ten traditions as a personal philosophy. The Circle of Justice goes deep on Saadi and the Persian mirrors for people who hold authority, with a fairness audit, a complaint register, an adviser review and a 12-week programme.
How much does The Circle of Justice: Saadi and the Persian Mirrors cost?
₹1,299 including 18% GST for buyers in India, or $34 for buyers outside India. One-time payment, no subscription, with an automatic invoice.
How do I get the files after paying?
Instantly. Your download page opens the moment payment succeeds, and a permanent download link is emailed to you. Download each file separately or everything in one ZIP.
What software do I need?
Any of the usual tools: Excel or Google Sheets for spreadsheets, Word or Google Docs for templates, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Preview, Xodo or GoodNotes for the fillable PDFs, and Google, Outlook or Apple Calendar for the calendar plan.
Can I get a refund?
Because it is a digital download, kits are not refundable once downloaded. We always refund a duplicate charge or a failed delivery, and if a file is corrupted and we cannot fix it within 3 working days. Full terms: bodhih.org/refunds.
Can my company buy this for a team?
Yes. Team and company licences, and workshops on this topic run by Bodhih Training, are available. Write to solutions@bodhih.com or call +91 99000 11601.
