Xiao Xu Hexagram Nine in Fifth: Why Your Team Works Harder But Gets No Results

If you’re a boss or manager, you’ve probably had this kind of confusion before.

You leave early and come home late every day, working harder than anyone else. You’re capable, have sharp judgment, and get things done fast and well. But what about your team? They never seem to keep up with your pace. You’re so anxious you’re running in circles, but the people below are still half a beat behind.

You can’t say they don’t work hard—they stay late every day. But can you say they’re effective? It doesn’t really seem like it. Mistakes still happen, and tasks still get delayed. You feel like you’re pulling a heavy cart, with everyone else pushing from behind—but they’re all pushing in slightly different directions.

Tired. So tired.

Being exhausted on your own is one thing, but the worst part is—all that tiredness leads to nothing. Team performance won’t improve, and you think it’s all a people problem, so you want to replace the whole team. But after you bring in a new batch, things still feel about the same.

Where exactly is the problem?

The fifth line of the Hexagram The Taming Power of the Small (風天小畜) in the I Ching (Book of Changes) talks about exactly this. It says: "有孚挛如，富以其邻。" (With sincerity and trust, bind all together; share prosperity with those around you.)

有孚挛如——You have to earn people’s trust before they’ll follow you

What does "有孚挛如" mean? Fu (孚) means sincerity, trustworthiness. Luan (挛) means holding hands, being connected, pulling together as one.

Put together, it means—bind everyone together with sincerity, and move forward hand in hand.

The Nine in the Fifth Place (九五) is the fifth line of The Taming Power of the Small. It is a Yang Line in a yang position, both central and correct, making it the main line of the entire hexagram. When you reach the position of the Nine in the Fifth Place, you’re no longer fighting alone—you’re the leader, guiding a team, leading projects, and taking a group of people forward.

But the problem for many people is: they’re incredibly capable themselves, but they can’t motivate their team.

Why can’t they motivate them? Because they think, "I’m good at what I do, so you all just listen to me." But the truth is, no one wants to follow someone who only barks orders forever. No matter how strong you are, if people only obey you outwardly but not inwardly, they’ll go through the motions on the surface but do their own thing behind your back.

That’s what it means to lack "有孚" (sincerity and trust). What is you fu (有孚)? It means you’re trustworthy, you keep your word, and you look out for everyone. When you have sincerity and trust, people will be willing to "挛如"—to hold hands with you, share one heart, and work together.

Wen Laoshi often says: Leadership isn’t "I’m better than you"—it’s "you’ll become better by following me." No matter how great you are, if it doesn’t benefit other people, why would they work for you? When you’re great and you can make the people around you better too, that’s when people will want to follow you.

The word "挛如" is really interesting—it’s not you ordering people to follow you, it’s everyone voluntarily holding hands and connecting as one. It doesn’t rely on power, but on trust and attraction.

富以其邻——How far you go depends on how many people you help improve

What does "富以其邻" mean? Fu (富) means wealthy, abundant, growing stronger. Yi qi lin (以其邻) means together with your neighbors, together with the people around you.

Put together, it means—don’t just get rich yourself; bring the people around you along to get rich too. Don’t just grow strong yourself; help the people beside you grow strong too.

A lot of people have the wrong idea about "accumulation." They think accumulation means saving things for themselves, getting better on their own, making money just for themselves. The Nine in the Fifth Place tells you—that’s not right. At a certain stage, your accumulation isn’t measured by how much you have yourself, but by how many people you can lift up.

Why? Because one person’s ability is limited. No matter how great you are, you only have 24 hours in a day, and there’s only so much you can do. But if you can motivate ten people, a hundred people, then your ability is amplified tenfold, a hundredfold.

That’s the core logic of "富以其邻"—achieve a greater version of yourself by helping others succeed.

For example: a top salesperson who closes a million in业绩 (revenue) a month is already really impressive. But if they teach their methods to ten other salespeople, and each of those ten closes 500,000 a month, the whole team brings in five million a month. Even though their personal numbers might drop, the overall pie is much bigger.

That’s the shift from "individual contributor" to "team leader." A lot of people can’t wrap their heads around this change—they always think they can do the work faster and better themselves, and letting others do it is too slow and too much hassle, so they’d rather just do it alone.

But if you do everything yourself, you’ll always just be a top salesperson. If you lead everyone to work together, you’re a manager. Different mindsets, different ceilings.

Wen Laoshi once said: Small wealth comes from your own effort; great wealth comes from the collective. How much you achieve depends on how many people you help become better.

Why your team works harder and harder but gets nowhere

Going back to the question at the start—why is everyone on the team working so hard, but there’s no result?

Most likely, it’s because all that "hard work" isn’t pulling in the same direction.

You have your direction, they have their ideas; you push east, they push west. It looks like everyone’s busy, but the combined force is tiny—or even negative, because everyone’s wasting energy on internal friction.

That’s what happens when there’s no "挛如" (binding together as one).

A good team isn’t one where everyone is super talented—it’s one where everyone’s effort goes toward the same goal. Like a car: if all four wheels turn in the same direction, it moves fast. If each wheel turns on its own, the car won’t go anywhere, and it might even fall apart.

So why can’t everyone pull together?

The root of the problem is with the leader.

As the leader, have you made the direction clear? Have you made sure everyone knows where we’re going, why we’re going there, and what’s in it for them?

Have you built trust? Does the team believe what you say, believe that following you will lead to results, believe that you won’t shortchange them?

Do you have the mindset of "富以其邻" (sharing prosperity with those around you)? Are you only thinking about your own promotion and payday, or do you genuinely want to bring everyone along to get better?

Once you think through these questions, the team’s effort will naturally align. If you can’t figure them out, no amount of rushing, micromanaging, or replacing people will help.

Three team leadership lessons from the Nine in the Fifth Place

The wisdom of the Nine in the Fifth Place of The Taming Power of the Small boils down to one question: Are you just great yourself, or can you make others great right alongside you?

How do you level up from "being great on your own" to "leading everyone to be great"? Here are three directions to consider.

First direction: Put "有孚" (sincerity and trust) first.

When leading a team, build trust first.

How do you build trust? Not with slogans, not with empty promises—with keeping your word. What you say, you mean. What you promise, you deliver. The rules you set, you follow first yourself.

When you’re reliable, your team will trust you. When your team trusts you, they’ll be willing to follow you. Trust takes a long time to build, but it can be destroyed in an instant. One broken promise, and all the trust you’ve built up before will be diminished.

So don’t make promises lightly. If you make a promise, you have to keep it. It’s better to promise less and deliver more, than to promise more and deliver less.

Second direction: Learn the mindset of "富以其邻" (sharing prosperity with those around you).

Don’t only fixate on your own performance, your own growth, your own benefits. Think more about: how can I help every person on the team grow? How can I make sure everyone makes money and has opportunities to develop?

You might worry—if they get better, will they surpass me? Will they leave?

That’s a possibility. But you have to know: how high you can go is determined by how many talented people you can培养 (develop). If the people you train are all mediocre, that means you’re mediocre too. If the people you train are all outstanding, that means you’re even more outstanding.

Besides, you can’t hold onto truly talented people forever. All you can do is help them become better during the time they’re with you. When they thrive, your team thrives. If they leave, they’ll still remember how you helped them. It’s a win-win.

Third direction: Strive for the state of "挛如" (binding together as one).

What makes a good team? It’s when everyone thinks the same way and pulls in the same direction, like a single person.

How do you get there? It doesn’t rely on rules or KPIs—it relies on shared共识 (consensus). Everyone shares consensus on the goal, on values, on how to get work done. With consensus, you don’t have to push people—they’ll charge forward on their own.

Building consensus doesn’t happen overnight. It requires you to say it again and again, live it again and again, reinforce it again and again. But once it’s built, its power is endless.

By the time you reach the Nine in the Fifth Place in The Taming Power of the Small, you’ve already achieved small success. But the wisdom of this line tells you—that’s not enough.

Being great yourself is just the starting point. Being able to bring the people around you up to be great too—that’s true accumulation.

One person’s wealth is small wealth. A whole group’s wealth is great wealth.

One person’s strength is small strength. A whole group’s strength is true strength.

Just as the Nine in the Fifth Place says—"有孚挛如，富以其邻。"

Bind people together with trust. Lift people up with mutual benefit.

How far you go depends on how many people you light up along the way.